This Week’s Games

Batman: Arkham Asylum, then. Not only is it the best Batman game ever, but also one of the best games ever. The only bad word I’ve heard about it is that the boss battles are a bit dull. Will it be #1 next week? I would have thought so seeing there hasn’t been any big releases for ages.

Batman is the only PlayStation 3 release this week, but on Xbox 360 this week there’s Fallout 3 Add on Pack 2 (containing Broken Steel and Point Lookout) and also Infernal: Hells Vengeance which is apparently awful. So don’t be tempted by the cheap price tag. Another one to avoid is ancient light-gun shooter Mad Dog McCree on Wii. It wasn’t much cop back in the early 90s.

Game claims that there are 7 new DS games out as well, but the only ones that are worth mentioning seem to be Namco’s Go Go Cosmo Cops! and Puzzle Bobble Galaxy.

Next week: Metroid Prime Trilogy, Cursed Mountain, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Section 8, IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and the two year old Guilty Gear II: Overture.

For no real reason, a Californian grocery store worker stacked up a load of fizzy drink boxes to make a display featuring 8-bit Mario. It’s quite impressive, and you can see it over at Kotaku.

UK supermarket workers never do things like this. They just stand around between the check outs moaning about the other staff members.

If you see yourself as an inspirational artist then you might be interested to know that there’s a competition running to design a t-shirt for Travis to wear in No More Heroes 2. Producer Suda 51 will pick his favourite, which will then be included in the game.

Going by Suda 51’s personal tastes, something perverse should do the trick.

Copyright law is an interesting one. More specifically, seeing what public domain characters publishers / developers are allowed to use without paying anybody any licensing fees. What caused me to scour the internet for such information? Listings for games based on Popeye, Betty Boop, Tom and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and Superman appearing on the Phoenix Games website.

There shouldn’t be any lawyers getting in a tizzy over Popeye – he became a public domain character in Europe earlier this year, meaning anybody can release products with his well-known mug on. I’d quite happily play a scrolling beat’em up featuring Popeye, although maybe not one developed by Phoenix Games as it would doubtfully be rubbish.

Superman though is a bit different – he was created in 1938, and although UK copyright law claims that after 70 years copyrights for films and artistic works expire the character Superman still copyrighted. So they might get a cease and detest order from DC Comics if they try and go ahead with that one. Likewise, the earliest Tom and Jerry cartoons were first shown in the 40s, but with a new Tom and Jerry movie on the way whoever owns the rights for them might get the arse with Phoenix.

But then again, what do I know?

UK Charts

England won the Ashes yesterday, but Codemaster’s Ashes Cricket 2009 in no longer #1 having been shoved back to #3 by Wolfenstien – which enters at #2 – and Wii Sports Resort, which goes back to the top of the chart. Madden NFL 10 has left the top 10 already, dropping from #8 to #20.

The current summer sales that are taking place at Game and GameStation have caused a few older games to re-enter. Specifically, Assassin’s Creed at #24, Guitar Hero: On Tour at #28, Dead Space at #35 and Saints Row 2 at #40. I picked up Bully on Wii for £4.99 and Exit on DS for £2.99 in Game’s sale, which I was quite pleased with.

This Week’s Games

If we forget the rubbish like Sudoku Ball Detective on Wii and DS and Music Maker Rockstar on PlayStation 2 there is only one real game of note out this week – Wolfenstein on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The average review score on the ever helpful GameRankings is 79%. IGN said it’s pretty engaging but forgettable, noting that the multi-player mode lacks depth.

Game also say that there’s a Limited Edition Numbered Resident Evil 5 Watch out this week. The price? A painful £119.99. Doesn’t Capcom know there’s a recession going on?

Next week: Batman Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3 Add on Pack 2, Infernal: Hells Vengeance, King of Fighters XII, Puzzle Bobble Galaxy and Roogoo: Twisted Towers.

UK Charts

Codemaster’s Ashes Cricket 2009 remains #1 for the second week running. There’s something comforting about seeing a Codemaster’s game at #1. It’s like 1985 all over again.

There’s just one new entry in the top 10 – Madden NFL 10 at a surprisingly high #8 – but EA’s own Fight Night Round 4 has taken a tumble from #5 to #12.

Too Human is back in the chart at #32 due to only being a fiver at Game at the moment. Also notable is the absence of GI Joe from the top 40. This is a good thing though – it’s apparently pretty pap.

Moving house has forced me to choose a new broadband provider, which in turn has lead to having three whole weeks without internet due to various cock-ups. This hasn’t been an entirely bad thing though – I’ve managed to whittle down my “unplayed games pile” and also rediscovered Teletext’s GameCentral.

I used to read GameCentral after it took over the reigns from Digitiser, but for the last two years or so I’d pretty much forgotten about it. Teletext could have easily instructed the writers to aim for the casual market, keeping videogame jargon and nerdy videogame in-jokes to a bare minimum but no – GameCentral is pleasingly hardcore and surprisingly honest. The news is up to date and reviews appear no later than they do on the internet. It’s a shame, then, that it’s probably going to go down the pan when Teletext switches off in January 2010. There’s a petition that you can sign here. Will it work? Who knows.

So, those previously unplayed games. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the first in my 360, and just six hours later it was out of the console and back in the case. Not the most pleasure able six hours I’ve spent with a game, but not the worst either. Plus my Gamerscore was 410 points healthier.

I then moved onto Sonic Unleashed. It’s a real “love it / hate it” thing – Sonic’s sections are great; that ruddy warehog’s levels are rubbish. Since when has Sonic been about pushing crates, flicking switches and shimming along ledges? Since never. Three hours is all I could take and my Gamescore was only 35 points better off.

Next: Golden Axe: Beast Rider. I like hack and slashers and have a soft spot for Golden Axe so I picked this one up cheap (£9.99 in Game, if I recall) a few months ago. First impressions were favourable, but after just an hour or so of play I realised something – I wasn’t having fun. The levels are way too long, the combat system doesn’t really work when up against more than one enemy and there aren’t enough set-pieces or cut-scenes. Sometimes you need a beast or magic to progress but if your beast has snuffed it or are all out of potions then you have to backtrack to a recharge spot. I stuck with it for three hours, but with Achievements neigh on impossible to get playing it was almost joyless.

Eventually though I found solace by playing a couple of games that I’m possibly too old to be seen owning – Kung Fu Panda and Thrillville. Even though it’s aimed at the younger 360 gamers Kung Fu Panda doesn’t undermine the player and the levels are nicely designed and significantly different from one another. I’d even say that the combat system is better than the one found in Golden Axe.

Thrillville on the other hand is just fun and rewarding to play. Unlike Rollercoaster Tycoon – from the same developers – you have direct control over the park manager from a third person perspective and the parks are already built. Simply step into an empty space and you can place a ride or stall. You can make mini-golf courses and then play them and – amazingly – the mini-games that occur when trying some of the rides are actually very good. I’m talking good enough to be released on XBLA for 400, possibly 800, points a pop. There’s a platform game a bit like Flicky on the Mega Drive, a scrolling beat’em up with a hint of Castle Crashers about it, a shoot’em up not unlike Cannon Fodder and a physics based motorbike game that’s stupidly addictive. The only real problem with Thrillville is that it doesn’t look much nicer that the Wii or PS2 versions. That’s not going to stop me from trying to finish it though.

Just think, instead of playing that little lot I could have got quarter of the way through my still sealed copy of Fallout 3…

Sometimes it’s a good idea to let somebody else give their perspective on something. The first Transformers game was by Traveller’s Tales and ending up being the gaming equivalent of a rusty old banger. For this globe-trotting sequel Activision have let Luxoflux have a stab at the Transformers license, which makes perfect sense considering that they developed the car-combat series Vigilante 8 and also the admittedly quite good Kung Fu Panda tie-in.

The good news is that it’s a better game than the first. Not greatly so, but there’s a definite improvement. Combat has a lot more depth with each robot having their own skill (helicopter Grindor can drop automated gun turrets; Bumblebee can emit an EMP blast to stun foes, etc) and each kill is scored depending on style. Missions objectives are generally more interesting – there’s a couple of escort and protect missions, a battle against the colossal Devastator and some against the clock checkpoint races. There are still a few too many mindless “go and find some Decepticons and bash ‘em up” missions though. Each mission has bonus objectives too, like having to kill 10 enemies in a certain way. Completing these will give you bonus points to upgrade weapons and the like and also unlock full cartoons from the 80s TV series.

It’s summer. They don’t make so many games. Mojitos anyone?