Wii Hidden Gems #7 - Sam & Max: Season One

This time I'm taking a look at the Wii version of Sam & Max Season One.  The titular duo are freelance police, with Sam being a dog and Max being a "hyperkinetic rabbity thing" as the game often describes him.  They were created by Steve Purcell and originated as a comic book form in 1986, where they developed a cult following.  After Purcell became employed at LucasArts and worked on the graphics for titles such as Monkey Island 1 and 2, he was given the chance to make his own Sam & Max graphic adventure, which was subtitled Hit the Road and was released in 1993.  The game became hugely popular and ranks up there with the true classics of the genre, securing Sam & Max a much bigger audience.  In 1997 there was a fairly short lived TV series starring the duo, but then things went silent for quite some time.

Fast forward to around 2002, and there was word that a new Sam & Max game was in development, a true sequel to Hit the Road.  Unfortunately LucasArts decided to pull the plug on the project in March of 2004, which was the impetus for Dan Connors, Kevin Bruner and Troy Molander to leave and start their own company, Telltale Games.  After moderate success with early titles like Telltale Texas Hold 'Em, Bone, and some licensed CSI games, they manage to secure the rights for new Sam & Max games directly from Steve Purcell.  The six episode first season was originally made available from October 2006 to April 2007 on the PC, with the Wii version appearing on the Wii Shop in 2008.  A physical version containing all six episodes and some fairly inconsequential bonus materials was published by The Adventure Company in 2008.  The game was hugely successful for Telltale, and led to two further seasons for Sam & Max, as well as future series like Tales of Monkey Island, Back to the Future: The Game and The Walking Dead.  Nowadays Telltale Games are a really big deal in the industry, securing the rights to huge properties like Game of Thrones, Minecraft and Batman.  I intend review each of their series eventually, but I am starting here with Sam & Max: Season One, aka Save the World. 

Plot and Character: 8 out of 10
As each episode of Sam & Max: Season One introduces new characters and develops old ones, I am going to break them down into their own mini segments with my thoughts on each. Overall though the characters are very strong and entertainingly written.  One or two of them are on the verge of being extremely irritating but that is deliberate.  While there is an overarching plot that connects each episode to the one after it, the thread is pretty thin in this season to be honest, and Telltale definitely get much better at this by the time we get to Season Three.

The season premiere sees our crime fighting duo investigating an outbreak of hypnotism.  This episode introduces us to The Soda Poppers, former child stars who used to appear on an old sitcom called "Soda Jerks".  Each of them have their own characteristics and catchphrase - we have Whizzer, whose overactive bladder can cause him to rush off to the bathroom every few minutes ("Time out for number one!"), Peepers, whose over sized eyeballs give him fantastic vision ("I can see you!", and Specs, a super obsessive control freak who absolutely hates it when others ruin his plans ("You made me mess up!").  We also meet recurring characters Jimmy Two Teeth, who is a shady rat who lives in a hole in Sam and Max's office.  In this first episode, the duo have to negotiate getting their phone back from Jimmy by supplying him with Swiss cheese.  Then we have Bosco, the owner of the local "inconvenience" store and paranoid conspiracy theorist.  He is constantly trying to convince you that the government is out to get him (which to be fair, sometimes they are.  There's also Sybil Pandemik, who is working as a Psychotherapist when we meet her here, and finally Brady Culture, the villain of the piece, who is trying to spread his "Eye-Bo Ocular Exercises" program throughout the neighbourhood with the help of the hypnotised Soda Poppers.  It is up to Sam & Max to return Whizzer, Specs and Peepers back to normal and then stop the nefarious plans of Culture Once and for all.   7 out of 10

The second episode sees Sam & Max tasked with freeing the audience of a chat show, who have been taken hostage by the host, Myra Stump.  Myra herself appears to be based on Oprah Winfrey, at least partly, because of her penchant for giving away gifts to the entire audience.  As the villain of this episode, I think she is the weakest of all of them, having only a brief appearance right at the end.  The bulk of this episode is spent helping the studio director produce various TV shows, from a sitcom called "Midtown Cowboys", a cooking show, a parody of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and Embarrassing Idol.  You will encounter the Soda Poppers again while attempting to win Embarrassing Idol, and you will also meet new characters like Philo Pennyworth, a highly trained chicken thespian who stars as the landlord in Midtown Cowboys, where every episode sees the main characters attempting to hide the fact that they are keeping a cow in their living room.  You'll also meet Hugh Bliss for the first time, the father of Prismatology (a parody of Scientology), standing in as a game show host.  Bosco and Sybil are also back, with Bosco putting on a hilarious British accent, and Sybil changing professions to tabloid journalist for the "Alien Love Triangle Times". 7 out of 10

This time Sam & Max are investigating Ted E. Bear's Mafia Free Playland and Casino and trying to track down a mole who is working for the cops in secret, by using the phrase "Does the carpet match the drapes".  This is definitely the funniest episode so far, as it was hugely entertaining going around trying out the code phrase on everyone you meet, and the musical number that the creepy animatronic bear heads on the wall sing was great as well.  New characters this time around include Leonard Steakcharmer, a shady gambler to attempt to cheat Sam out of his tokens while playing Indian Poker, Chuckles, the second in command at the casino, and Ted E. Bear himself.  This time Sybil is a professional witness, preparing to testify against the Toy Mafia, who put a hit out on her.  Bosco is once again attempting to disguise himself by wearing a beret and affecting a bad French accent.  This was the briefest episode so far for me but also the best written.  8 out of 10

 

This was another great episode with another entertaining musical number part way through. This time, apparently the president of the United States has become a victim of hypnotism, but after further investigation, it is discovered he was a robot all along that was actually the one doing the hypnotising.  After the heroic duo have dealt with him, the chief of staff activates the Lincoln memorial, who it turns out is a huge stone robot.  An emergency election is called where Max stands as presidential candidate in opposition of robo-Lincoln, and it's your job to ensure he gets elected.  New characters this time around include Agent Superball, a member of the secret service who is always trying to deny you access from where you need to go, and the animatronic Abe Lincoln himself.  The Soda Poppers return, with Whizzer trying to start a campaign for the victims of Soda Abuse, and Specs and Peepers on the opposing sides of a civil war between North and South Dakota.  This time Sybil is running a dating agency, and Bosco has turned Russian.  8 out of 10

For me this was the best episode out of all of the first season.  It sees Sam & ; Max taking a trip into Reality 2.0 after acquiring some high tech goggles, and then attempting to prevent The Internet from enslaving the entire human race.  In this episode you will meet the C.O.P.S (Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society) who are a bunch of ageing machines attempting to preserve their usefulness.  They include an telephone, an classic 80's arcade machine that strongly resembles Sinistar (especially when he says "I hunger!"), an old timey computer, an Atari VCS and a printer / scanner.  Hugh Bliss reappears in virtual form as the Internet Wizard, who gives Sam & Max an important item for their quest.  Sybil is now a beta tester (at least until you come along and break her goggles, which incidentally how you obtain them in the first place), and Bosco has decided to be a half elf - for the shire!  This is definitely Telltale at its best.  9 out of 10

 

The final episode of the first season sees you visiting the moon as the title would suggest, in an attempt to stop the big bad's plan once and for all.  In case you haven't played the game yet and would like to, I am not going to reveal too much information about this one or I would spoil for you.  Overall I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the previous three episodes, but I would say it's on par with episodes one and two.  Pretty much all of the characters you've met over the course of the previous episodes come back in one way or another, and it all leads to a fairly satisfying climax. 7 out of 10
 

You will revisit certain locations, such as the office, multiple times throughout the season.

Graphics: 7 out of 10
The visuals of Sam & Max on the Wii are OK but definitely not the best I've ever seen by quite some margin.  There's also some really bad performance issues which I believe could have been sorted out if a bit more time was spent optimising the code.  With the Wii proving itself more than capable of running impressive software like the Super Mario Galaxy games or Xenoblade Chronicles, it should be able to run something as simple as a graphic adventure game without any difficulty, yet there are times where I encountered chronic slowdown with an absolutely abysmal frame rate.  Most episodes feature a rather ill advised and poorly implemented chase sequence in the Desoto, which is where the poor performance is most noticeable, although there were also a few moments in regular game play where the action slowed to a crawl and looked as if the game was about to crash at any moment.  It actually did lock up completely on me once.  The ugly looking background textures were a side effect of the episodes starting life as downloadable content on the Wii Shop, where they had to come in under a certain size.  If you play game on PC, it will look and perform a lot better.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
The voice work is really strong with a relatively small group of actors playing a whole bunch of different characters.  Bosco was definitely the highlight for me, with his British and Half Elven voices being extremely funny.  Hugh Bliss and the Soda Poppers could get irritating, though this is intentional.  Jared Emerson-Johnson has composed some great music for this series as well, from the main theme, the various background tunes and the musical numbers like the ones from The Mole, the Mob and the Meatball and Abe Lincoln Must Die!

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Setting the technical performance of the game aside, graphic adventures like this actually work really well on the Wii thanks to the simple point and click interface.  You navigate around the different areas of the world, converse with the different characters to try and glean what you're supposed to be doing, pick up any objects you find and use them to progress through the story.  The episodic nature of the game means that there are never too many options available to you at once and though some puzzles will require a certain degree of thought with a bit of effort it should be possible for even genre newcomers to make progress.  These episodes are definitely on the easier end of the graphic adventure scale, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  They are meant to entertaining and completable within a few hours, not super challenging. 

 

On the set of Midtown Cowboys during Episode Two - Situation: Comedy.

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out of 10
Telltale Games were the pioneers of the episodic adventure game, which have since become hugely popular and have seen other companies bring their own take on the genre into the market (such as Life is Strange and Blues & Bullets).  The Wii controller is also a perfect fit for this type of game, and Telltale were fairly big supporters of the system in the early days.  It's a shame that the third season of Sam & Max never came out for the Wii, but that's another review for a later time.

Value & Replayability: 6 out of 10
Copies of Sam & Max: Season One can be fairly easily obtained for about a fiver, and the game should take you about 12 hours to complete if you spend 2 hours on average on each episode.  I would say that's pretty decent value for money.  Whether you will ever replay the game again after the first time is questionable though.  I could potentially see myself playing through the episodes again in a few years time, although the plot is not in the same league as classics like The Secret of Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle.

Overall: 7 out of 10
Sam & Max: Season One is definitely worth playing.  If you have access to a PC though, I would definitely play it on there rather than the Wii as it will look nicer and not suffer the same embarrassing technical issues that are present on the Wii.  Having said that, for me personally it's still a nice game to have in my physical Wii collection as it is part of the diverse range of games that are available for the system.  Many people cannot look past the shovelware and see the quality titles underneath - whilst Sam & Max is not as polished as it could have been it is most definitely not shovelware and is still very entertaining despite its problems.  Hopefully Season Two will have ironed out the flaws - we will find out when I get around to playing it in a month or two!

Wii Hidden Gems #6 - Deadly Creatures

Deadly Creatures sees you take control of a Tarantula and a Scorpion as they navigate their way through various treacherous environments within the Sonoran desert. Throughout the game they will cross paths with each other, as well as rattlesnakes, gila monsters and two humans voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper who are on the hunt for some buried gold.

The game was published by the now defunct THQ and developed by Rainbow Studios, probably most well known for their work on racing franchises such as ATV Off Road Fury and Splashdown. It was released in 2009, and has gained a small fan base over the year, but remains overlooked by many.  Hopefully this review will persuade you to check it out!

Graphics: 8 out of 10
First of all the animation of the two lead arachnids is superb, with your spider and scorpion skittering around the environments in an incredibly realistic fashion.  This also extends to the other creatures that you will face throughout the course of the game.  The scorpion has access to a range of finishing moves too, some of which are extremely brutal to watch (I am thinking of the one for the rat in particular, which ends with the scorpions stinger embedded right in the poor rats brain).

I do have a minor issue with the graphics in some of the stages, in that things can get extremely dark, making them hard to navigate.  This is even with the gamma settings properly adjusted for my TV. There's also a bit of a problem where things look like you'd be able to walk on them, but in fact there are invisible walls blocking your path.  This is mitigated somewhat by a guide arrow that can be displayed by pressing the 2 button on your Wii remote.

Sound and Music: 7 out of 10
The music in Deadly Creatures is mainly in the background and there to help maintain the menacing atmosphere.  In this game, pretty much everything is out to kill you and the score is oppressive and dark.  Backing this up is a variety of snarls, barks and squeaks that the various other insects, arachnids, lizards and mammals make.  The spiders sound suitably disgusting and just playing this game makes my skin crawl - the presentation is that realistic.

Capping off the sound is the voice performance of Billy Bob Thornton as Wade and Dennis Hopper as Struggs.  They aren't in the game a huge amount - you get to see their story at the beginning and end of the game, and cross paths with them several times throughout the game.  They do a solid job of portraying a couple of very nasty individuals, and their presence elevates the game overall as well as adding a bit of mystery to the whole thing.  You will want to keep playing to find out what they're up to and what fate has in store for them.

A creature, looking pretty deadly.

Gameplay Mechanics: 7 out of 10
I've already mentioned the issues I had with the dark levels and getting lost from time to time.  Well, this is more of an issue with the spider than with the scorpion, because the spider levels are typically much harder to navigate around to begin with.  A few stages into the game, your spider friend will gain the ability to jump to webs that are handily positioned around the level.  Finding them can be a bit of a chore sometimes, and once you jump from one to another it can be easy to get turned around.  The guide arrow does help a lot with this though.

Sadly, the scorpion is not without its own gameplay issues.  The early levels are fine really, but as you progress you will first get the ability to dig up dirt, and then the ability to chop down foliage with your pincers. Combined with the finishing moves that I've already mentioned, what this adds up to is a whole lot of wagging, which gets pretty tiresome after a while.  Generally the motion controls are actually very cleverly thought out and implemented - there's just a bit too much of it during the later scorpion stages.  Luckily you alternate between the spider and the scorpion throughout the game, giving your poor old elbows the chance for a rest.

Innovation and Cleverness: 8 out of 10
Deadly Creatures deserves a pretty high score here - firstly for the rather novel idea of letting you take control of a pair of killer bugs, then for the way that it brings in the story of Wade and Struggs with their celebrity voice overs, and then finally with the clever motion controls.  Swinging the remote and nunchuk to deal out death to poor rodents is extremely satisfying (if a little tiring).  The final level is also very clever if a little infuriating to beat. I'm not going to spoil exactly what it entails here though.

Value and Replayability: 6 out of 10
If I were reviewing a brand new, full priced game then I would have awarded a much lower score here.  Deadly Creatures can easily be found for around the £5 mark though, which a good price for a game that takes around 10 hours in total to beat.  The replay value is questionable - there are over 400 optional grubs to find hidden throughout the levels, but all that they unlock are art galleries so I don't feel the need to go back and play the game again.   This is a "one and done" experience really.

Overall: 7 out of 10
Deadly Creatures is a flawed game, there's no doubt about it, but it's clever enough and cheap enough for me to recommend it everyone.  There aren't very many games out there that are like it, and the fans are hoping that one day we will see a Deadly Creatures 2.  That may not happen, but at least we have the original - just one of many such unique and clever games on the way if you can be bothered to look hard enough.

Wii Hidden Gems #5 - Geometry Wars: Galaxies

In the very early days of the Xbox 360, there was one game that kept gamers coming back for more thanks to its simple yet highly addictive gameplay.  Sure, Project Gotham Racing 3 was a fine launch title, but eventually you would come to the end of it.  Not so with Geometry Wars, however, as you could always go back and try and beat your high score.  It was essentially an update to the classic twin stick shooters of old such as Robotron 2084, spruced up with some funky graphical tricks yet still traceable in its lineage to classic vector games.  Imagine if MB were still making new Vectrex consoles today, just perhaps this is what they would look like.

I remember reading at the time that the fancy warping of the background grid and the particle effects flying everywhere were only possible thanks to the power of the Xbox 360 and the game couldn’t be replicated elsewhere.  Yet along came British development studio Kuju and proved everyone wrong with today’s Hidden Gem -  Geometry Wars: Galaxies.  Not only does the Wii version do everything that the downloadable 360 title did, it also does a whole lot more besides.  They even released a version for the DS, though that one is a tad compromised due to some unfortunate slowdown.   What exactly makes this spin off game better than  the original though? Let’s take a look…

Graphics: 9 out of 10
As I alluded to in my intro, the visuals in Geometry Wars: Galaxies are very true to the original version, yet Kuju have expanded on the original premise with new enemy types, and many different level layouts instead of just the simple oblong arena of the first game.  The game may look simple in screen shots, yet it can be quite spectacular at times when seen in action, due to the crazy amounts of enemies, bullets, and “Geoms” flying around the screen.  Throw a few black holes into the mix, and things really start to get crazy.  These troublesome enemies suck everything towards them as you might expect, and once they’ve reached critical mass, they explode in a deadly hail of play seeking bullets.  Expert players will actually allow this to occur though, as these bullets can be shot down for a lot of points.  Then there are the snakes – I really hate these bastards.  They typically turn up at the worst possible moment in a large swarm and kill me.  Argh!

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
The music in the Geometry Wars series consists of some nice techno beats, which get the blood pumping nicely.  It’s not spectacularly good stuff, but not particularly offensive on the ears.  The sound design is where things get rather clever though.  Each enemy has its own unique sound, so expert players could probably shut their eyes and be able to tell what’s just appeared on screen.  This can be helpful in some of the new, larger stages that have to be scrolled.  It’s not just the enemies that have smart sound design though, this extends to the whole game, so you will know when you’ve earned an extra life, or achieved a medal for example, without having to glance up at the top of the screen to verify.  Very handy.  Too many games overlook things like this, so Geometry Wars: Galaxies is to be commended.

A typically explosion filled scene from Geometry Wars: Galaxies.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
The game design of Geometry Wars was pretty much perfect back when it was based on one single, simple level.  Kuju have essentially just expanded upon this winning formula and added a few new wrinkles to spice thing up a bit, and keep you coming back for the long haul.  Firstly, there’s the multiplier.  Now, as you collect the little while diamonds dropped by slain enemies called Geoms, you will gradually increase you multiplier all the way up to X150.  Should you die, it’s reset all the way back to X1.  Seeing as some of the gold levels can be ridiculously high on the tougher planets, getting your multiplier up to the max and then staying there for as long as possible is vital to your success.

Connected to this are the new Drones, little friendly AI controlled doobries that fly around your ship and perform various tasks, such as enhancing your own firepower, actively trying to protect your ship from harm , or my favourite – zipping around and picking up loose Geoms for you.  As you collect more and more Geoms while playing the game, your active Drone will become more effective and level up.  You will also unlock more Drone types in this manner.  There’s quite a range of different types, which gives players a variety of different tactics to try while going for that all important high score and the ever elusive gold medals.

Geoms are also used as currency, to unlock more advanced galaxies.   You start off with a basic tutorial galaxy unlocked, and another slightly more difficult one, but there are many more after this, made up of multiple planets.  Each planet offers up its own unique spin on the Geometry Wars formula, be it a constricted arena in which to fight off the hordes of killer shapes, or indestructible objects in the middle of the play space.  Each level has multiple medals for you to earn, with the early levels having tricky yet achievable targets, and the more advanced planets having mind bogglingly high medal thresholds. I’ve played both the DS version and the Wii version quite a bit, and where a lot of the medals were just a question of being patient in the DS version because there are less enemies on screen and the slowdown actually makes things easier, this is not the case on the Wii.

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out of 10
I can’t be too generous here because this is essentially a sequel to an already established formula, though the new aspects of the gameplay do add a lot of depth.  There’s not really a whole lot more to say here!

Value and Replayability: 9 out of 10
The original Geometry Wars was already endlessly replayable in theory as it was an old school arcade style high score chasing game.  The vast range of new levels and deeper gameplay ensure that you won’t get bored with Galaxies for a long time.  While I might not spend hour upon hour at a time playing the game, it’s one that I’m constantly coming back to for a quick fix.

Overall: 9 out of 10
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is one of my favourite titles for the Wii, and a must for those looking for a simple yet addictive blast of retro style gameplay.  All the new additions go a long way to enhancing the overall appeal of the game and give you ample reasons to keep coming back.  It will take you a long, long time to earn all of those medals.  Here’s a tip though: make sure you have a classic controller, you’ll need one!

Wii Hidden Gems #4 - Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles

There have been quite a few attempts to adapt the Resident Evil franchise into an on rails light fun game over the years.  I actually quite liked Survivor at the time of its release on the PS1, though it has dated really badly now.  Having heard bad things about the sequel (that was based on Code Veronica) I gave it a miss, but then I did pick up Dead Aim for the PlayStation 2.  It was OK, though the controls were somewhat clunky.

Nintendo's Wii seems like the perfect fit for a new Resi shooter, as it has already proven it can handle the genre extremely well through titles like Link's Crossbow Training, Ghost Squad, and the downloadable Wild West Guns.  So in 2007 Capcom released The Umbrella Chronicles, which features various scenarios taken from earlier games in the series: namely 0, 1, and 3.  Fan favourite Resi Evil 2 has been skipped over for now, though it's included in the sequel Darkside Chronicles that I will also be covering soon.

Interspersed with the stages based on the stories we know and love are side missions where you get to take control of characters like Wesker, Rebecca Chambers, Ada Wong and Hunk.  Poor old Barry Burton gets somewhat left in the cold, unfortunately!  With three missions for each of the three games, and another twelve besides those, Umbrella Chronicles has plenty to offer fans of the series.  How about the execution though, does it finally get right what the previous games have managed to get wrong?

Graphics: 8 out of 10

The Umbrella Chronicles takes its visual style from Resident Evil 0 and the remake of the first game, so it looks just like those two titles.  Capcom have really done an excellent job of ensuring that the geography of the locations visited in the game matches that of the games that levels are based on, which is a real treat for fans of the series who have completed these games multiple times and know their way around the Spencer mansion off by heart, for instance.  Enemies look like they did also, and there's a nice variety of zombie designs so you're not being attacked by clones the whole time.  Some of them are even wearing hard hats or body armour, which means you have to change your tactics as a result.

As good looking as the Resi 0 and Remake levels look, it's really the ones based on Resi 3 that will have the most impact, as this is the first time they've been given a visual overhaul since the now slightly crusty looking PlayStation original was released. Seeing how great the decimated streets of Raccoon City and the Nemesis looks, it makes me feel that it's a shame that Capcom never got around to giving the much loved second and third games in the series the same remake treatment they gave the original.  But I digress - this game really does look great on the Wii, and enemies even react to being shot in different places.  You would hope that this would be the case, but it hasn't always been so in the previous on rails Resi games.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
The menu music is quite memorable and suitably creepy and Resident Evil esque. The music that plays during the game itself is also fine for the most part, but tends to blend into the background a bit amongst all the gun shots.  It's good to hear that they've got the little details right like the same noises as you click through your inventory - you wouldn't think that things like this would be all that important, but it helps make the game feel like it is genuinely part of the Resident Evil "brand".

This consistency carries over to the voice acting as well, as the voice of Wesker will be familiar to those who have played more recent entries in the series (though if memory serves me right he's not the original actor who played him).  I didn't really recognise anyone else as being from other games in the Resi series, though that doesn't mean they weren't!

Umm, Rebecca? You've got red on you.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The game play in The Umbrella Chronicles is fairly solid and satisfying for the most part, but there are a few minor irritations.  Some of the bosses (in particular the big Leech monster at the end of the Resi 0 section) can be a nuisance to kill.  Of course with a bit of patience and some practise you will win the day eventually, but the first few times you will probably suffer a frustrating death.

It is good that you can go back to missions you've already cleared and earn more stars, though.  You can spend these stars on upgrading the weapons that you've found so far (and therefore unlocked).  The upgrades include total ammo capacity, clip capacity and fire power, and the weapons comprise the usual types that you find in these games: sub machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers and more.  You will always have a pistol on hand that has infinite ammo, and that's pretty effective at taking out most fodder enemies, but you will definitely be needing the better weaponry when faced with lickers, hunters, and bosses like the Tyrant.

As the levels proceed, you can destroy certain items in the background to uncover hidden documents, more ammo for the special weapons, green herbs which heal you instantly, and first aid sprays that effectively give you a continue.  Each level typically lasts 10 - 15 minutes and is split up into smaller sections with at least one checkpoint in the middle.  If you reach a checkpoint, or the boss of the stage, you can restart from that point should you die.  You probably will, too - as the game can be fairly challenging even on the earliest difficulty.   The optional scenarios feel noticeably harder than the main ones, too - especially as you have to play these alone (at least to begin with).

Innovation and Cleverness: 6
Making a sort of "Greatest Hits" package out of the Resident Evil series is a great idea, and a real treat for fans, and Capcom really nailed the whole atmosphere.  That being said, it doesn't really bring anything radically new to the light gun genre.  That's OK though, where the game is lacking in innovation it makes up in polish - something which has been a bit lacking in the previous light gun games based on the franchise.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
Light gun shooters are traditionally fairly brief experiences, but there are a lot of missions in The Umbrella Chronicles.  Throw in multiple difficulty levels, branching routes in some of the stages, and a two player co op mode, and you have a decent amount of content for you to sink your teeth into.

Basing the value on the current price that you can find the game for (which is around £5 used and £15 new), I can say that you definitely get your money's worth.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is a great offering for fans of the series, and is enhanced greatly by the option to play along with a friend. Everything feels authentic and handled with care, which is sadly not always the case with this franchise! Although the game leaves out the best games in the series in number 2 and number four, what is on offer is still good and the fact that it fills in gaps in the story is great.  I will be back with another review of the sequel once I have time to play through it all, in the meantime you should seriously think about adding The Umbrella Chronicles to your collection!

Wii Hidden Gems #3: Kororinpa

When I was a wee lad, children still played with physical toys (as opposed to electronic) on a regular basis. On school trips I would often bring along my mercury maze, slide puzzle, Rubiks cube or whatever else was in vogue, and it was common to swap these amongst my fellow classmates for the duration of the journey.  One of my favourites was a maze carved out of wood, with a small indentation at the end for the goal, and many holes along the way to lose your ball down.  What made this even cooler is that it was actually hand made by my own grandfather. I am not sure what became of it in the end, but I do know that the rise in popularity of first the Nintendo Game & Watch and later their Game Boy led to this sort of old fashioned entertainment declining in popularity.  However, in 2006 Hudson released the subject of today's Hidden Gems - Kororinpa, which is directly inspired by old marble mazes.  I don't think this game ever gained that much popularity, probably because of the title which means very little to the average person (but apparently is a Japanese onomatopoeic word for the sound a rolling marble makes).  However for fans of puzzle games, it is well worth the trouble of seeking it out. Let's get the ball rolling...

Publisher: Hudson
Developer: Hudson
Expect to pay: £15 - £20

Graphics: 6 out of 10
The actual in game assets are mostly fine, albeit starting to show their age a bit.  The main problem I have with this game (at least the version that was released in PAL territories) are the horrifically large borders and the squashed looking aspect ratio.  I find this really off putting.  If you TV has some kind of zoom mode you can circumvent this to a certain degree, but it is a shame Hudson didn't take the time to optimise the game.

Other than that issue, the game features some nice colourful graphics in a range of settings, including a world where which is entirely made of cakes, biscuits and chocolate, as well as one set in a garden.  Think Micro Machines, but with marbles.  As for the ball, it is an accurate representation of a small glass sphere - but this is not your only option.  As you progress through the levels, you will unlock a whole slew of alternative balls, including a panda head, a pig and a frog.  All of these have an effect on the physics and the way the ball behaves - some making what is already a fairly challenging game even tougher, and others slowing the pace down a little. Don't expect Kororinpa to really blow you away with its visuals, they are functional at best.

Sound and Music: 7 out of 10

Music in Kororinpa consists of tunes of a whimsical, cheerful nature.  They are, I have to say, somewhat on the cheesy side, but mostly suit the overall tone of the game.  Besides this, if you choose one of the alternative balls - the frog for example - you can expect comedy ribbits as you collide with obstacles.  This will probably raise a few smiles, especially from younger players.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10

This is the best thing about the game. It is entirely controlled by tilting the maze using the Wii remote.  This takes some getting used to at first as it doesn't take much movement of your wrist to send the ball flying off into the stratosphere, but with a bit of patience and prudence you will start to get the hang of things.  The overall object of the game is to collect a certain number of of orange crystals from around the maze, then get to the goal.  There isn't really a fail state - falling off just sends you back to the start.  There is the fun addition of a two player split screen mode, where you race each other to be the first to get to the end - again this suffers from the stupidly large black borders that encroach on the real estate of the game. A real shame.

Levels start off fairly easy to deal with but increase in complexity and challenge as you move through the various worlds.  By the second world you will have to deal with moving lifts, obstacles that either just get in the way or actively try and push your ball off the stage, and maze layouts that see you having to flip the whole level 90 degrees.  It is great fun, and the lack of a game over screen prevents things from getting too frustrating.

 

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
Marble maze based video games have been done before - most famously with Marble Madness - but Kororinpa successfully implements the tilt controls of the Wii remote and contains many cleverly designed stages.

Value and Replayability: 7 out of 10

Kororinpa won't take you all that long to finish if you are persistant, but the addition of the two player mode adds some life to the game.  The game can actually fetch prices of up to £20 on eBay, which does show that it is in demand by those who are aware of what it is.  A sequel with the title of Marbles! Balance Challenge was released in 2009, and is even pricier - frequently selling for £25 - £30.  I haven't played the sequel as of yet, mainly because of the price, though I would like to pick it up one day.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Kororinpa is still a game that occasionally gets dusted off and booted up when I visit my brother, as he is also a fan of this sort of game and the multi player mode is a lot of fun.  If you are in the mood for a fun and colourful puzzle game, or you were a fan of marble mazes, then you should definitely think about adding it to your Wii collection!

Wii Hidden Gems #2 - Little King's Story

It has been way, way too long since I wrote the first entry in my Wii Hidden Gems series, and seeing as the article is one of the top five most popular posts on the blog I thought it was time to highlight another title from the consoles back catalogue that I feel doesn't get quite as much love as it deserves.  This time I will be covering Little King's Story, a strategy game that was published in 2009 by Rising Star Games in Europe and XSeed Games in the US.

Publisher: Rising Star Games
Developer: Cing
Expect to pay: £5 - £10

Graphics: 8 out of 10
Little King's Story features extremely colourful graphics that are very whimsical in nature.  They are quite cartoony yet quite stylised and detailed, and they suit the host platform very well.  There can be quite a lot going on at the same time yet the game doesn't slow down, even when you have dozens of your loyal follows trailing along behind you.  There are quite a few boss battles throughout the course of the game, both optional and obligatory, and they are usually quite large in size.  It can be quite a challenge to keep all of your little soldiers alive when you are being charged by a giant bull, squashed by a huge toad or attacked by the Oni King and his many minions, to name just three examples.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10
This is where Little King's Story really gets a lot of its charm.  Despite the music consisting almost entirely of classical music that has been out of copyright for centuries, the soundtrack still manages to amaze due to the way the various compositions have been remixed and implemented into the game.  You will most likely recognise a good deal of the music from the moment it starts up. Speech consists of a gibberish language that the characters speak that sounds vaguely foreign but in actually fact is just a bunch of random noises.  Depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing it could get quite annoying after a while.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10

As for the gameplay, well... it's Pikmin, isn't it? Except in a fantasy setting and a few more RPG overtones.  If you have never played a Pikmin game, you control one character - in this case the eponymous Little King, and then roam around the game world with minions of different types trailing around behind you.  Each type of minion serves a purpose - use soldiers to take out monsters, carpenters to build bridges, etc.  You have to be careful not to let your non combative minions too close to monsters because they will not be able to defend themselves very effectively.

So armed with your different types of followers, you slowly explore further and further into the game world, uncovering loot and slaying bosses as you go.  You can bring back the stuff you have found to your kingdom where you can either sell it to help fund the further development of your kingdom (which is required to progress) or sometimes keep items for yourself to equip.  The game can actually be quite tough in places but it does allow for a certain amount of grinding because smaller monsters do reappear over time.

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out of 10
While the game does undoubtedly steal a lot of the design from Pikmin it does bring it's share of new ideas to the table and overall is a better (not to mention longer) experience in my opinion.  As the Wii never got it's own new Pikmin game (the re releases don't count), this makes for a very good substitute.

Value and Replayability: 7 out of 10
Quite some time ago I happened to spot Little King's Story in the bargain games rack of my local Morrison's supermarket for a fiver.  That my friends is an absolute bargain and if you see while stocking up on groceries you should really chuck it in your basket or trolley without a moments hesitation.  There are quite a lot of stages in the game so it will take you quite some time to finish, but I'm not too sure whether you'd come back and do it a second time.  Luckily though the game is getting a sequel for the PS Vita - hopefully it will sell more copies this time, but maybe not if handhelds are as dead as most video game journalists would like you to believe.

Overall: 8 out of 10
This is a true shining gem amongst the collection of titles that have been released for the Wii over the years, and an affordable one at that.  So if my ramblings here have whetted your appetite at all, go seek it out and enjoy it!

Wii Hidden Gems #1 - The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces

So here I am with the first of my new Wii Hidden Gems series - which incidentally will be full blown reviews rather than using the format of my older Hidden Gems articles. The Sky Crawlers game is based on a series of novels by Japanese author Hiroshi Mori. His books have been adapted into an anime film, the game which I'm covering here and a manga series. The basic premise is somewhat strange - although the world is actually at peace, in order to prevent a full blown war from breaking out amongst the aggressive human population, several corporations stage battles for show. Both the film and the game make reference to "Kildren" - genetically engineered children that are immortal unless shot down in battle, when they are simply cloned and the copy is sent out again with a new identity. The game is a combat flight sim developed by Project Aces - the same team that have worked on most of the Ace Combat series, and it shares many similarities with those titles. Now that I've filled you in on what the game is about, let me try and explain why you should give it a try.

Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Project Aces
Expect to pay: £10 (source: Amazon Marketplace)

Graphics: 7 out of 10
Sky Crawlers is by no means an ugly came unless you happen to get fairly close to the ground whereupon the textures and general lack of detail leave you in no doubt that you’re playing on a machine that has less power under the hood than Xbox 360 or PS3. There are a nice variety of different skyboxes throughout the missions creating the atmosphere that you are flying against a sunset or during a thunderstorm for example. The various different planes (more of which can be unlocked) all look good and like they could feasibly be real machines, and importantly there is no trace of slowdown when there are a lot of bogies in the sky. Aside from the in game graphics another major visual component of this game are the anime style cut scenes, which have been given the same level of polish as the feature film. You don’t get to watch one of these after every mission but there is over 30 minutes of animation spread between the games 17 missions. All in all Sky Crawlers is a decent looking Wii game but obviously if you put it up against its fully HD counterpart on the other current generation consoles then it is going to suffer.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
I’m going to mention the voice acting first because surprisingly I feel that it is a good deal better than the voice work in the English dub of the film. Whereas a lot of the acting felt stilted and lacking emotion in the movie the VA’s tend to do a much better job. I definitely recognised the acting talents of Heather Hogan as Lt. Orishina (probably most well known for playing Collette Brunel in the Tales of Symphonia games).

The music is also nicely composed and features Celtic influences which helps gives the Sky Crawlers universe its own unique feel. The music was also a strong component of the animated film so its good to see this carry across from one medium to another.

Neeooooowwwww... dugga-dugga-dugga-dugga!

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
As mentioned previously, The Sky Crawlers takes place over 17 separate missions, some of which have multiple sections. These predominantly involve shooting down other planes, but there are a few missions which diverge from this pattern to involve taking reconnaissance photos, destroying generators before shields can be activated, or protecting a downed sea plane from both naval and aerial attack.

I have to praise Project Aces/Namco now for being considerate enough to provide multiple controller options for the game. The default controls sees you using the nunchuk in your dominant hand as the joystick of your plane, and the Wii remote as your throttle control. You can also perform various evasive maneuvers by carrying out motions with the remote, and these can be very important in some of the trickier missions as they allow you to position yourself directly behind an enemy plane and take them out efficiently. These can sometimes make the missions rather too easy though and reduce the amount of actual dogfighting skill necessary to take down the opposition. You can also use either a Gamecube controller or a Classic controller, which is typically something that only Nintendo is thoughtful enough to offer. I have played many Wii games which are hampered by there insistence that you must use the motion controls and nothing else (Tiger Woods 2010 comes to mind).

Innovation and Cleverness: 6 out 10
Though I have said that the Classic controller is my preferred control method for playing Sky Crawlers, the motion controls are in fact very well implemented and do a good job of making you feel that you are in control of a plane. There is also the small but very useful addition of a zoomed in targeting reticule that appears one you are in a certain range of your target, which makes lining up shots in the the middle of a hectic dogfight much easier.

Value and Replayability: 7 out of 10
It will probably take you in the region of 10 hours to play through the main story mode on the default difficulty setting. Then you have the option of either playing individual missions again in free play, or playing through the whole story again a second time on the hard setting. Though the amount of play time you will glean from this game is by no means huge, it is quite possible to find a new, sealed copy of the game for £10 which means that I still recommend that you pick it up, especially if you're already a fan of the film. The game and film are best experienced as part of a package, as both of them fill in missing details of the others storyline and are more understandable (not to mention enjoyable) once you are aware of all the back story.

Overall: 7 out of 10
Sky Crawlers is a game that is likely to fly under the radar of many, especially in the west where there original series of novels haven't been translated. Fans of anime and aerial combat games should definitely take the time to check this cross media project out, as there's a lot to enjoy.

Wii will rock you.

Please forgive the rather tired and obvious pun - it's been a long week and we're only at the halfway stage! Today I would like to announce some plans that I have, although I'm not going to do anything rash like commit my self to a schedule or anything like that as that is a surefire way to guarantee that it won't actually happen! Anyway, I've been thinking for a little while that it would be nice to shift the focus away from Xbox 360 for a little bit and onto other platforms - beginning with the Nintendo Wii. The Wii has been very under represented on this blog and also gets a fair bit of stick from both hardcore gamers and journalists alike - with even the best games the system can offer often receiving the dreaded "It looks good, for a Wii game" comment.

I would like to readdress the balance a bit by introducing two new series of articles - Wii Essentials, and Wii Hidden Gems. The first will include games that should be in anybodies Wii collection and will cover some of the more obvious titles that I have been meaning to talk about but never have for one reason or another - such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and others. The second will try and unearth some of the Wii's less well known but no less deserving titles. Games like Little King's Story, A Boy and His Blob, and Sky Crawlers. The first of each of these will hopefully appear fairly soon but like I said I'm not going to doom this enterprise to failure by promising exactly when they will appear. Once I get into my stride and get a few of these up I may well follow up will something similar for some of the other platforms that I haven't given much coverage - the Nintendo DS, or more retro coverage for example. I'm quite excited to get working on this at the moment, so maybe I will strike while the iron is hot and start working on the first one now! I've even created logo's for them, look:



In future, clicking on these banners will take you to all of the articles within each series - for now they will only bring up this one though!