In part 1 of this review I talked about the plot exposition and death. Here, I’m going to talk about controls and movement.

Movement and Environment

I have to admit, when I first saw the visual style of this game, I thought it looked absolutely bollocks. The characters appear to be 2D cartoon models against 3D backgrounds (okay, yes, just like one of my favourite films, Titan A.E.). It looks so jarring in the screenshots. Surprisingly enough, it actually works well in-game. Great job by the art and animation teams.

The 3D environment itself is, frankly, amazing. Click on the screenshots to see bigger versions. The stuff in the background isn’t background matte-painting-style art. It’s the actual gameworld in the distance and you can run right up to it, for the most part. The only time you’ll see load load screens is during map travel, which isn’t really necessary if you plan where you’re going. The world is technically free-reign but really it follows the standard platformer design with the slight twist of “power plates” that let you fly or run from A to B. Along with Elika’s ability to point you in the right direction it’s pretty much impossible to get lost. All good by my standards.

Game controls are absolutely brilliant. Everything has been carefully designed to streamline the experience. Where moving Altair in Assassins Creed is can be painful, jumping from pole to pole is a joy in this game. The Prince is intelligent enough to automatically swing round to the other side of the pole on landing. You don’t have to jump, rotate 90 degrees, rotate another 90 degrees, jump, rotate, rotate just to proceed in a straight line. It’s jump, jump, jump all the way.

The camera does a nice job of following and if it ever moves when you’re in the middle of lining up a jump, I didn’t notice. You get a good locus of control over it and can look pretty much everywhere that is reasonable for the Prince to see. In other words, when he’s clinging to a rock face, no you can’t see what’s behind him even though it would sometimes be really, really useful. His running speed is suited to the world size as well, which is a nice and unusual touch. I even managed to get all the Time Trial achievements.

Challenge

The one thing that really affected my view of this game was the thinking. It’s wild! There are like, actual puzzles that you have to like, solve… all by yourself and everything. Nothing too mind-boggling – they’re mostly about pulling combinations of levers in the correct order to manipulate some machinery. Still, the sheer novelty of not being able to just open a locker and get a combination was impressive in a console game. Even better, Elika doesn’t nag you if you haven’t solved it within 30 seconds.

The other requirement for thinking was collecting the light seeds. (When you clear an area, glowing balls of light appear in both obvious and almost-inaccessible places. It’s apparently good to collect them, though I’m not really sure why.) Not all the light seeds were near the beaten path and some of them were postively evil to track down. I got all 1001 in the end without any help from the interweb or game guides :) See?

You can unlock the Altair costume by signing up to Ubisoft’s website and linking your account to your gamertag.

The Downside

My only real complaint is that the wall-running routes are too blatantly signposted, which takes most of the early challenge out of working out the route. There are bloody obvious scratch marks across the wall of every major path and a lot of the less-travelled ones as well. This aren’t as much help when you’re collecting light seds later in the game, but I do think they detract more from the game than they add to it.

In Summary

I love this game. You have to think a little and the penalty for failure isn’t the rage-inducing annoyance that it is in so many other games. Prince of Persia is just relaxing and fun. Everyone should buy it.

I love Ubisoft’s new Prince of Persia game. It’s not perfect, but it’s as damn near close as I’ve ever seen.

Story

There’s an actual plot with actual personalities and natural sounding dialogue. It’s like they hired a real writer and everything! Elika is a great female character with her own motivations and while yes, she is the obligatory hourglass shape, she wears clothes and has more purpose in the story than just looking pretty and supporting the hero.

Plot exposition is very well handled. Cut scenes are kept short to give you the bare minimum of information that you need to get on with the game. They haven’t let that destroy the story however – those of us who actually enjoy narrative can continue the conversation whenever we want by pulling the left trigger. Plot points are nicely interspersed with character and relationship-building dialogue. They’ve hired some talented voice actors, too. I love it.

Death

The death cutscene is barely a second long – no frustrated bashing the button to try and speed up the same slow-mo death-panning shot you’ve seen a hundred times before, a la Mass Effect. It’s quick and simple and you’re back on your feet, ready to go again. Best of all, the resume point is the last flat surface you were on which is rarely more than 30 seconds back.

Some people might complain that this makes the game too easy but I completely disagree. I think it opens up the world for experimentation that much more. In the recent Tomb Raider demo I spent more time clinging onto vines being afraid to jump because I knew I’d have to do the whole tedious climb-jump-traverse-jump-climb again and again if I was wrong. Even worse, if the camera popped over to a weird angle just as I was about to jump, it wouldn’t even be my failure but I’d still have to pay the price. In Prince of Persia, you’re not afraid to try risky moves in order to reach that light seed that seems just out of reach because the penalty isn’t so bad after all.

Combat

Battles are… interesting. Well, they were interesting for a while. I was very proud of spending an hour or so working out how to break each of the special defences used by the bosses. Then I flipped through the manual and it was right there on page 14 :| After that, the battles got a bit tedious but then, combat isn’t really the point of this game at all. Prince of Persia is all about exploring the environments, and they are beautiful indeed.

That it for part 1. Come back in a few days to read more about the environment and the sheer joy of moving around in this world.

Age rating:

3+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A Mario game – 3D-platformer.

Is it fun?

Yes.

Is it worth the money? £32.99

Yes.

Why?

I’ve always been rather indifferent when it comes to Mario games until I played Super Mario 64, which was brilliant. Unfortunately the GameCube’s Mario extravaganza (Super Mario Sunshine) was well, total poo to be honest. However, I’m pleased to say that Super Mario Galaxy tops even the great Mario 64 for sheer enjoyment. I can’t even complain of the total lack of imagination shown by Nintendo when it churns out the same games for each generation of Nintendo console when this incarnation of Mario is just so much fun.

The graphics look great (by Wii standards) and complement the game wonderfully. Sure there are some iffy looking textures and a few jaggies, but I didn’t care as the whole game is amazing. The sound is a perfect mix of chirpyness and classic Mario sounds and themes. It also has a brilliant, brilliant music track for the Battlerock galaxy that I challenge anyone to play this galaxy and not have a giant smile on their face.

I loved the whole playfulness of Mario’s new galaxy environment. Flying, flipping, gliding, jumping and catapulting between all the planets on each of the levels is just awesome. The attention to detail that the designers have lavished on every planet, however small, is a joy to behold. I loved the way that seemingly simple puzzles were brought to life by splitting them over lots of mini planets and great use of the Wii controller. This is probably the first game after Wii Sports where the control method just feels right. From rolling around on top a giant ball, to flying through the air as a little bumble bee, the Wiimote and nunchuk make controlling Mario something to be enjoyed.

Bad points. Well, swimming underwater takes a bit of getting used to. The camera has a habit of choosing the worst time to change its viewpoint, which usually happens when you’re negotiating a really nasty sequence of platforms.

It took me just over 14 hours to get to the end of the game and finally beat Bowser, but that still leaves me with another 55 power stars to collect. Then I will have finally completed the game. So Lord knows how long that’s going to take with some fiendish and very dexterous puzzles lying in wait.

In summary:

A wonderful game in every way. Mario is the easily the best game on the Wii.

Screenshots:

Age Rating:

7+ (PEGI)

What is it?

A platformer starring Daxter a wise cracking orange ottsel.

Is it fun?

Yep.

Is it worth the money?

Yes, and since its been out for a while you can pick it up cheapy-cheap second hand (e.g. £14 from Computer Exchange)

Why?

In a nut shell, it’s fun, looks totally stunning, is well scripted and has lots of variety between levels. By variety I’m referring to the difference in graphics, layout and game play between levels. Interested? Well, let me tell you a little bit more…. Continue Reading

Age rating: 7+ (PEGI)

What is it?
Update of the “classic” side-scrolling, platformer starring Arthur the Knight.

Is it fun?
No. Annoying and frustrating, yes.

Is it worth the money? £24.99
No.

Why?
To be honest I never really liked the original Ghosts n’ Goblins game when it was released in the arcades during the mid-80s. It was an incredibly difficult and unforgiving game, which although was the norm at the time (e.g. R-Type or Gauntlet), Ghost n’ Goblins made it as hard as possible for the player. Heck, you even had to the complete the game twice in the same go to see the real ending! This resulted in most of the game remaining hidden to all but the most obsessive player. That’s me out then.

Until now that is, or that’s what all the reviews of this all singing, all dancing PSP version would lead you to believe. Rubbish. Yes, they have made the game slightly easier (you have more lives and your armour lasts a lot longer) but it is still bloody hard. Annoyingly hard, just like the original. Mmm, great. Well at least you can complete level 1 now. Woohoo.

There are so many ways to die and so many monsters to help you die that eventually I just get bored by the whole thing. I didn’t enjoy playing this game, instead I battled through it and for me that’s not my idea of having fun. The only good point of this game is its shortness so the whole painful experience of playing is over quickly.

Sure the graphics are impressive, even rivalling Killzone Liberation for the prettiest PSP graphics title, but all this graphical gloss can’t hide what is a basic and unappealing game. Avoid.

Screenshots:

Age Rating: 3+

What is it?

Lego Star Wars 2 – the original Star Wars trilogy, enacted with Lego people.

Is it fun?

Yes, if you intend to play most of it with other people. Otherwise, no.

Is it worth the money? £29.99

Yes.

Why?

It’s cute. It’s as adorable, quirky and funny as the original game. Travellers Tales have created all the little filler bits that you don’t see in the films and stamped each one with their own brand of humour. It’s a delight to explore the levels and find all the little hidden sections.

BUT…

Not by yourself. Continue Reading