Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
Mar 11th
This is my holiday game, but I’ve started it early. Sue me.
I’d forgotten how fantastic the opening section is – it’s been over ten years, after all – but it really throws you into the game and generates a real sense of urgency.
It’s a shame that the game’s very much of its time in other areas. The reliance on save points is pretty horrible by modern standards – though the PSP’s standby helps alleviate some of the problems that causes – but it’s the time it takes to get back into the game once you die that’s the real problem, and it’s not helped by having to go through cut scenes and dialogue again.
It’s also a mark of the game’s age that I’ve had to restart – enemies fifteen minutes in don’t often kill you in modern RPGs.
Street Fighter IV (iPhone)
Mar 11th
Giving Ryu a rest, I’ve taken to using Blanka. Haven’t managed to complete Tournament mode without using a continue yet and I’m stuck on a Special Move mission in the Dojo. I’m meant to use my rolling attack to fly through the air and kill Ryu, but as soon as his health gets low he just throws infinite ultras at me and I can’t hit him. No idea what I’m doing wrong. All a bit frustrating.
Take that, you lanky bastard!
Main problem with the game, though, is that there’s no way to save tournament progress. Hit the Home button or get a call and you lose everything. Please update, Capcom.
Tilt To Live (iPhone)
Mar 11th
No less fantastic than the last time I blogged about it, when sitting up in the correct position, this is pretty much perfect.
I'm too busy to take screenshots when things get more interesting.
I really like the way achievements are used to unlock new power ups. That gives the achievements a real point and makes me want to get more of them. Even the one for dying within five seconds. I felt bad about it, but I did it.
Raging Thunder 2 Lite (iPhone)
Mar 11th
You build boost by drafting... I think.
Fun arcade racer, judging by this one-track demo. Very hard, though I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. I did manage to scrape first place after some practice. The fact that I wanted to keep playing until I’d managed that is a good sign.
N.O.V.A. – Near Orbital Vanguard Alliance FREE (iPhone)
Mar 11th
A green-tinged, seeping wound on the arse of a man too scared to go and see his doctor.
A dead one-eyed dog floating through a sewer.
A rat-infested hovel where a man lies dying, wheezing out his last breaths, staring at piles of mildewed newspapers and the beady, hungry eyes of rodents that surround him.
A pox-ridden, gin-soaked, toothless Victorian prostitute remembering her childhood in the country as yet another drunkard rogers her against the damp bricks of Whitechapel.
A baby struggles to cry out in hunger, but her starving mother is too weak to lift herself up to her crib.
A man clutching a bailiff’s letter stands calmly on a railway station platform, waiting for the express train so he can throw himself in front of it.
Horrible, horrible things, for sure, but none really compare to releasing an FPS that doesn’t include the option to invert the y-axis, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Staring at the floor. Again.
Gameloft, I hate you and your Halo-stealing, uncontrollable game.
Street Fighter IV (iPhone)
Mar 10th
Spent lunchtime in the Dojo, a collection of short “missions”, designed to teach how to fight well. It starts off very easy – a couple of Basic Training missions only require you to hold back to block to win – but it gets harder.
You get graded when you complete a training mission.
I had a devil of a time with the Hurricane Kick mission – only Hurricane Kicks do damage and your opponent is a fireball-happy, blocking bastard – but I got there in the end.
I’m not sure how useful this training will be in real fights, but it’s nice little collection of mini missions.
Eco Punk (Web/iPhone)
Mar 10th
So, right, you’re a punk rabbit on a skateboard, collecting rubbish and – when powered-up – destroying horrible, polluting cars. (And, er, Segways.)
It’s all a bit “MTV cares about the environment, yeah” for my liking, in a self-consciously “cool… but with a message” type way.
But I’m an old fart who had to be bullied by the local council into finally, grudgingly doing some recycling, so I doubt I’m the target audience.
It looks nice, but seems to be trying a bit too hard to my thirty-six year old eyes.
Anyway, the game itself is all kinds of fun. Well, no, it’s one kind of fun. The collect-stuff-while-avoiding-enemies kind of fun. So, er, yeah, I guess it’s the third avoid-em-up of the day.
Anyway, it may be very simple, but it’s responsive, fast and has an excellent combo system that encourages risk-taking and speed.
It controls better on the web version – my high score is five times my iPhone high score – but the iPhone version isn’t bad after a bit of practice. Would feel absolutely fine without the web version to compare it to, I think.
Anyway, you can play it for free online HERE or grab the iPhone version for a mere 59p. They’re exactly the same, as far as I can tell, apart from the controls and the iPhone version having OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards.
Not essential either way, but a good way to waste a few minutes. Six months ago I’d probably have been singing its praises from the rooftops and demanding you purchase it forthwith, but we’re absolutely spoiled for choice these days.
Just Cause 2 Demo (360)
Mar 10th
I’m still playing this when I’ve got an odd half hour spare.
It’s still absolutely wonderful.
Every time I think I might be getting a little tired of it, I fire it up again and find myself running and flying around with a huge grin on my face.
Last night I had an excellent time in helicopters and now I’ve worked out how to use my parachute and grapple to fly across flat ground I’ve been enjoying just floating along.
If you haven’t yet, get a helicopter with rockets and blow stuff up. Oh, and grab a mounted gun and walk around with it. Huge amounts of carnage await you.
Utterly, absolutely fantastic. Shame the full game comes out when I’m in the US for three weeks. I’m tempted to buy the PS3 version while I’m over there, just so I can play it on my brother-in-laws PS3 while I’m on holiday.
That would be silly, though. Much better plan to order a copy to be waiting for me when I get home, to help with the post-holiday blues.
Bit Pilot (iPhone)
Mar 10th
Bit Pilot is another avoid-em-up. It’s not as good as Tilt To Live, but it has two advantages.
1) It’s half the price. (Though 59p versus £1.19 isn’t a huge difference.)
2) It uses touch controls, so you can play it in bed.
Least exciting screenshot I've ever taken? Sorry.
And very interesting thumb controls they are. You use your thumb to move around, but if you use two thumbs in the same direction you can move faster. Seems odd at first – and the pixel art thumb in the tutorial video is inexplicably terrifying – but works really, really well.
It’s a shame it came out at the same time as Tilt To Live, because it’s likely to be overshadowed, but it’s a lovely, lovely little game and deserves better.
Tilt To Live (iPhone)
Mar 10th
Insanely addictive avoid-em-up, featuring lovely graphics, great controls and power ups to help you kill the all red dots that are bent on your destruction.
It’s very, very hard to put down once you’ve started playing and is completely worthy of all the acclaim it’s getting from people who have played it.
Avoid the red dots, use power ups to destroy them.
The only problem is that you need to be sat up to play. You’re meant to be able to play lying down, but I can’t get my ship/arrow/thing to move left and right when doing that, even if I calibrate it with a custom setting. I’m not sure if it’s a problem with the iPhone accelerometer or whether it’s something that can be fixed in an update, but it’s a little annoying.
When sat up at the right angle, though, this is one of those perfectly-polished small iPhone gems.