Why do you play games? If you said for fun then you can pin that gamer lanyard on to your chest and wear it with pride. There were only a handful of games last year I would have counted as fun and Rayman Origins is right at the top of my big list of Games That Did Gaming Right.

Rayman Origins drags us kicking and laughing right back to the bare roots of platforming. There is a screen and it scrolls to the side as you jump around avoiding enemies or happily punching them in the face with your giant white fists. Why? Because Rayman and his pals were attacked by a mean witch-lady and her shadow minions. They were making too much noise with their snoring. What more do you need? Worlds include underwater caves, floating sky castles made from musical instruments and even see you flying through red hot kitchens on the back of a mosquito.

The art and sound direction of Rayman Origins is one of its main attractions. Beautiful cartoon graphics blend seamlessly with a soundtrack that sounds almost as frivolous. Every world has its own feel beyond the unique enemies or powers you gain from the rather well endowed maidens in distress you save. Often I revisited a level just to hear the music again.

Along with the straightforward reach-the-finish style of gameplay you expect from the humble side-scroller you have a horde of extras including unlockable characters earned by collecting the respective number of lums, medals and trophies for collecting high number of lums or beating time challenges. For the super-hardcore among you there is even a set of bonus levels that sees the difficulty skyrocket if you can find the required items to open the way. What’s that? It also has multiplayer, so now you can have fun with your friends. The wonders of gaming technology today.

Rayman Origins is pure, simple, unadulterated, brightly coloured fun. The type of fun that tickles you instead of punching you in the face with your own fist and telling you to stop hitting yourself. Unless of course you hate FUN or COLOR, reading this and all its mentions of FUN and COLOR must have been painful, I hope you hate yourself, you tyrant. The best part is, if my ramblings haven’t convinced you then go download the demo on XBL and try it for yourself.

The US title, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, and even Japan’s Kirby of the Stars, sounds far better. Return to Dream Land in particular would resonate with gamers around the world, as the original Kirby’s Dream Land is a classic.

So, terrible title aside, is Kirby’s Adventure Wii *shudder* any good?

The gameplay returns us to the familiar formula of the original Kirby’s Dream Land on Game Boy, but with some additions. The platforming is standard left-to-right stuff, and uses the Wii remote, with the shaking motion the only Wii motion control on offer. The controls are really simple and take seconds to pick up, leaving you to plough on with the fun stuff: copying abilities.

This wasn’t present in the original Kirby’s Dream Land, but has been a key component in Kirby games since and is certainly the best feature of this game. Not only can the rotund, pink puffball suck or swallow almost everything and everyone, some enemies of the game will pass their abilities on to Kirby. There are also ability stars throughout the game, which provide the same abilities, and are usually an indication they are required for an upcoming boss.

Some of the abilities are excellent fun; ‘sword’ in particular pays homage to Link from the Zelda series, with Kirby donning a Link hat and sword, or the ‘fighter’ ability, where Kirby instead wears a red bandana and can perform mid-air dragon punch uppercuts to enemies. Copying abilities is a fundamental part of the gameplay of Return to Dream Land Wii Adventure. Tou will spend more time with an ability than without and some areas are inaccessible without them.

The story is driven with small cut-scenes and on-screen text and wasn’t bad at all, with a strong finish. At its most basic, the story mode clocks in at around 9-10 hours. However, I struggled to stay interested beyond an hour at a time, due to the repetitive nature of the levels and gameplay. This isn’t a bad thing as such. It makes for an enjoyable hour.

Easily the best areas of the game are the ones which are different; hidden warps found in some levels take Kirby to areas which are black and white, except for Kirby, any enemies, or the purple, jelly-like barrier chasing you. The aim here is to make your way through obstacles without being caught by the barrier, which will flatten Kirby between surfaces. Each of the areas is harder than the last and these sections are vital for anyone willing to obtain the full quota of 120 energy spheres.

There are minor issues, however. Cosmetic differences aside, the levels can get very repetitive, as can the gameplay. The platforming itself is sound but never really difficult. This was a game with the younger/less experienced gamer in mind. Bosses, as frequent as they are, are nearly all identical, and most can be beaten with the sword or spear abilities in seconds, just by button bashing.

Another issue with Kirby is the TV display. I cannot believe, in this day and age, there is a video game with widescreen borders. They take up a THIRD of the screen! Street Fighter II on the SNES springs to mind. For all its charm, it looks like a disproportioned DVD ratio.

This leads me to the multiplayer. Much like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, up to 4-player multiplayer is available at any time during the story mode. Unlike NSMBW, the horrendous borders mean it’s just too narrow for more than one player and, as both lives and power ups are shared, there is more falling out than teamwork. You can however jump in/drop out at any time. There are also unlockable game modes such as Scope Shot, or Ninja Dojo that offer additional single and competitive play outside the main quest. Between that and collecting the energy spheres that unlock them, there is good replay value to Kirby.

Title aside, Kirby’s Adventure Wii is a very fun game. It may not appeal to more hardcore platform gamers, but will more than please younger, maybe less experienced gamers, or those just looking for something a simple. The main quest is a good length, collecting all the Energy Spheres will keep many coming back and some are quite challenging to find/obtain. Whoever picks this up will certainly get their money’s worth, and you will want to consume it all.

Kirby’s Adventure Wii is available now.

As a child of the late 70’s I grew up with Tintin – not in English mind you, but in French – so I was looking forward to the movie but dreading the video game. Why? It’s rare to find a video game that’s a movie tie-in and multi-platform that’s any good. Unfortunately, they tend to look like they were developed for the lowest common platform (yes, I’m looking at you Mr Wii).

Showing its movie credentials, the game starts off by throwing you straight into a flying plane before giving you the title sequence. There doesn’t seem to be any real warm-up to the story but this appears to be a classic children or young teens game, so jumping straight in to the action works well.

Now, being a children’s game, Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn been designed to appeal to the largest possible audience. It’s not a first-person shooter thank god, there are too many of them around these days. The game has a mixture of play types; the old school 2D sideways-scrolling platformer, 3D driving and flying, and a few areas that are 3D third person.

The thing is, the 3D sections are very much on rails and you can’t control the camera. They do feel a little out of place since the majority of the game is spent doing the platform levels. Especially annoying was the flying sequences – it’s easy to get lost and try to fly out of the route that’s on rails. In a canyon for example, you can’t just fly out into the sky. Instead you are forced for no real reason to fly through a maze. Another area has you hunting down planes but I’d used boost and had no idea where the planes were once I’d shot past. Took ages of flying around to finally track them down.

Now there are some fun features in the game that really seem if they just jumped out of the comics. While doing the side-scroller parts of the game you have to take out the bad guys. Instead of just straightforward punching, the game has some amusing alternatives. You can use a beach ball to take down a butler by bouncing it off the walls or even just hitting them with it.

Another great move is to hide in a barrel. Tintin will sneak around inside the barrel, approach a bad guy and hit him with the lid. All the different ways to take out the bad guys are pretty cool – you can even stealth attack one guy and use him to take out another if they are standing nearby. Of course being Tintin, no one actually dies. Instead they get knocked out, as shown by the classic burst of stars circling their head.

One of the biggest let-downs of the game had to be the cut scenes. The first time one appeared I thought “Wow, did they even look at this?” The cut scenes showed heavy artifacting on the PS3, probably due to either heavy compression or low resolution rending in the first place (hence my previous dig at Mr Wii). In-game graphics are fine. Although the graphics are basic they do work for the game, and had a hint of the styling from the graphic novels. It’s just a bit of a let-down when you compare them against games from even just a year ago, let alone the graphical masterpieces being released today.

There are some other little bits to nitpick on. Tintin says “We’re completely out of gas” yet Tintin is from Belgium. Surely it should be “fuel” rather than an Americanism? Later in the game when I was driving for some reason Tintin told Hadock to “hurry up and drive” (sic) yet he was sitting in the side car shooting at the bad guys. Sure they are minor, but they were so glaringly obvious that I had to mention them.

So what would Georges Rémi think of the game? That’s a tough one. It’s stayed true to Tintin in storyline, but I felt the developers tried to please too many people and mixed in too many different types of play style. All said though, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I really did enjoy the game and actually played it straight through in two sittings. That’s not to say it’s short. The main story line is not taxing but there’s plenty extra to do afterwards. I’ve yet to convince someone to come over and help with the co-op modes however you can also play these by yourself. I won’t spoil the extra game play by saying what takes place. It’s still a platformer and gets a bit whacked out.

Would I recommend it? Yes if you are a massive Tintin fan, and liked the movie, or you are buying a game for one of the younger generation. It also really works for casual gamers since there’s no real difficulty and it’s an enjoyable experience. On the other hand, if you are gamer it’s a lot harder to recommend when faced with the current release of games, and even more so at the retail price. In my opinion they should remove the non-platform parts, improve the cutscene graphics and re-release as a PSN/XBLA downloadable game.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn is out now for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC and 3DS.

Meet Hardboiled

The basic gameplay in Rocketbirds centres around Hardboiled Chicken and his guns. Starting off with just a pistol, you find alternate weapons as you progress through the game. Hardboiled certainly knows how these things work, and he can take out a gaggle of penguins quite easily from across the screen. The gunplay and movement reminded me of vintage side scrollers such as Rolling Thunder, and I liked the way you could duck in and out of cover at certain points, giving the game the air of a Naked Gun shootout, at times.

As you progress through the first few levels, Rocketbirds begins to introduce various puzzle elements, which initially just involve shifting crates around, but soon gain a new dimension with the introduction of brain bugs. These little critters can be thrown around the environment, and will instantly take control of any enemies that they pop nearby, producing a lovely green glow as they do so. This is one of the cleverest aspects of the game, as you can then use the soldier to your advantage, either to open new paths, or to take out his compatriots, clearing the way for Hardboiled to progress.

Viva la Revolution

Moving through the game, more enemies are introduced, and your revolutionary fight sees you teaming up with other birds, in order to take down the penguin oppressors. Shooting penguins initially seems quite poor sport, especially considering the mess they make as their feathery corpses are juggled in the air, in a low rent Devil May Cry style. However, thanks to the beautifully rendered cut scenes, and accompanying music, which tell the background story of Hardboiled Chicken and the rise of Il Putski, I soon learned to hate the penguins as much as my avian brothers did.

Mixing it up

The combination of puzzles, music and combat in Rocketbirds works very well together, and a change of pace is also on offer with a number of flying levels, which play out a little like Mini Squadron.

Whilst some shooting sections did prove to be a sticking point for a while, as I struggled to do battle with the limited movements on offer, I found that there were enough checkpoints on offer  to prevent frustration setting in.

Single player and co-op

As well as the single player campaign, which clocks in at around four to five hours, there is also a local co-op (or coop) mode, that allows two players to tackle ten chapters as the Budgie commandos. This co-op campaign take place across the same levels as the single player mode, but the puzzles are reworked to ensure that the budgies must work together in order to progress. Having completed the game, I feel that special credit must be given to Ratloop Asia for offering one of the best closing credit sequences in recent memory. It is really nice to see a developer doing something simple, but effective, that continues to engage the player right to the end of the game.

In summary

Whilst not overly long, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken still strikes me as good value for money, given the five hour single player campaign and additional co-op adventure. Heck, some of the big budget ‘games of the year’ won’t clock in at much longer than that. Some of the puzzles are very neatly worked, and it is nearly impossible to get tired of mind controlling penguin soldiers. Whilst the combat system is not perfect, and the puzzles are sometimes a little easier than they could be, the whole game is presented with such style and panache that these small flaws are easy to overlook. Given that the music is so integral to the game experience though, I wonder if the soundtrack could have perhaps been bundled with the game? To my mind this would have made what is already a decent package into something that extra bit special. Oh well, I can always like to NWR on YouTube, I suppose…..

The 3DS is not forgiving of shufflers. As you may or may not know by now, it works by off-setting the 3D screens ever so slightly, so that each eye receives a different image. As a player, you have control over the level of off-set with an analogue slider, so you can adjust the level based on how far away from your eyes you’re holding the device. As long as you make sure you hold the 3DS at a fixed distance and don’t tilt your head much, it’s fiiiiiine. Shift position, left your arms drift or maybe stretch your neck a bit and it’s all over. So yeah, I turn it off.

But the one thing I noticed about Super Mario 3D land? Sneaky buggers have put in challenge levels where you have to use the 3D. I spent a good 10 minutes bouncing around gormlessly in a room stacked with boxes wondering if there was some sort of graphical glitch that meant Mario was falling behind a box instead of jumping ON it. Eventually, in a desperate bid to not have to ask the nice PR lady if I had broken their test console, I jumped up and down in frustration on conspicuous yellow tile at the front of the screen.

Yup, when I stood still on the tile then the perspective of the entire room changed, revealing that the block was, in fact, not at all in the perfect alignment that it appeared to be. It was… *gasp* a bit to right and in front! But ever-so-carefully sized and positioned to seem like it fit the pattern of the blocks stacked against the wall. Obvious with the 3D on, yet almost impossible to see with it off.

In another level, high up in the sky, I happily jumped from cloud to cloud. “Whee!” I thought as I hopped along to my destination. “I’m trundled along on my fluffy white platforms” *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* *splat* Buh? “Oh, I probably got the jump angle slightly wrong. Never mind, I’ll just restart from the last checkpoint.” *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* *splat* Yup, another platform perfectly positioned to appear in one place with the 3D setting off and clearly elsewhere with it on.

I say again, sneaky buggers.

But come on, Nintendo, really? I (theroetically) already spent over £150 on your fancy pants handheld console. I (theoretically) bought your game for £30 of my hard-earned dollars. And you’re telling me that I’m playing it wrong?

In fairness, the cloud section is flagged with a floating [3D] box in the corner. Had I been thinking, I might have treated that as a clue to turn my 3D on but you know what? I turned it off for a reason. Looking at 3D on the 3DS is tiring and it gives me a headache.

Despite this minor setback – and to be clear, I only encountered it twice in the 5 worlds that I played – Super Mario 3D Land is a fun game, even for people like me who have never seriously played a Super Mario game before in their life. (Shut up, I’ve been playing PC games since before you were born, young whippersnapper.)

The game’s levels are laid out along similar lines to the Super Mario Galaxy games, albeit with less shooting through the air from planet to planet. Basically, you collect enough giant coins in earlier worlds to unlock the later levels. I managed to get through 5 entire worlds in a single session without trying very hard, only to find I needed 50 giant coins to unlock the castle at the end of World 5 and only had 30. Back to level grinding for me.

The lands themselves are nicely varied. You’ll find yourself scaling mountains, running along pirate ships, crawling through dungeons and bouncing around on clouds. There are brightly coloured exteriors, biscuit-themed exteriors, mushrooms stacked up like totem poles, disappearing-reappearing platforms. All sorts of madness goes on and the whole thing is just so happy it’s impossible not to be cheerful, even as you die again and again on those stupid flippy platforms that swap in and out as you jump. Super Mario Galaxy veterans will know the ones I mean.

In a nice touch for us impatient noobs to the series, you can store one power-up when you pick up another, so on certain levels when you need to shoot fireballs to progress, for example, you don’t need to stress quite so much about losing your abilities as you would in the classic games. The Tanooki suit is great fun for smashing blocks with your tail and the propeller box hat provides a metaphorical safety net for those of us who aren’t so confident with precision jumps. You can also have a boomerang suit (bit boring) and various other tricksy abilities.

When you die often enough in a world, you get rewarded with the numpty suit for a while. This is a white version of the Tanooki suit that renders you invincible. Pretty handy for barging through enemies when you just want to get off this damn level. Yes, I used it on a number of occasions – notably the few levels that featured a camera moving relentlessly onward, regardless of where I was or what I was doing.

These levels in particular annoyed the crap out of me. I’m trying to enjoy your scenery, goddamnit. Why are you forcing me to rush through the level? If I were, say, rushing from burning lava or an incoming tidal wave, I wouldn’t have been so annoyed but when the entire difficulty of a level relies upon the on speed of a camera moving along a virtual dolly? That’s just silly.

Sure, I’ve had a bit of a whinge about certain features but overall, Super Mario 3D Land is great fun. If you have a 3DS I would very much urge you to buy it.

Super Mario 3D Land will be out on the 3DS from 18th November.

OIO is a puzzle platformer. The aim of the game is to guide OIO through 12 levels, with various obstacles in his way, such as moving platforms, spikes, the usual drill. However, after the first level the game distinguishes itself by giving OIO a unique power: The ability to grow ‘branches’ out of clearly-marked, green, fertile patches. Simply executed by aiming the mouse in the desired direction to fire in and left-clicking, OIO will launch a seed and a solid branch will grow to a set length out of the ground or wall. This is restricted to the direction the fertile patch is facing but from that first branch, other fertile patches are attached also, allowing for further growth from that branch using the same method.

But, there is a limit to this growth; once a third branch is erected, it will turn the ‘tree’ brown and will no longer have fertile patches to use. Once another patch is activated, the previous ones will dissolve. The branches are colour coded; the first branch is always a fresh green, the next has brown stripes, and the third is all brown and cracked. Made a mistake? Then aim a seed in the same way but instead right click to dissolve the desired branch. This also reverts all other branches in a created tree back a step, unless you dissolve the ‘master’ branch, of course. It’s a delightful feature and gets you thinking, to the degree of picturing the tree structure you need in an area before proceeding to create it.

As the levels progress, there is predictably more reliance on this branch method just to continue through the game, such as growing a branch to keep a switch held down, knock over objects, and so on. That, coupled with the requirement of precise timing of positioning and jumps, and you have yourself a little gem; it’s fairly challenging, but never too taxing or frustrating.

I enjoyed the look of the game; OIO is animated very capably, he and his kinfolk look quite cute, too. The levels themselves tell the story in their appearance; the first levels take place with a more organic feel, such as tree roots, plants, etc, but these soon develop into mechanical and industrial surroundings with a much darker tone and feel. This highlights the evolution of OIO’s race through to the game’s conclusion. There is also a great learning curve to OIO. The ‘branch’ methods described above are introduced early on, but get more complex as you progress. Later, the game makes the safe assumption that you have mastered this technique and goes on to then introduce more hazards, such as moving platforms combined with more difficult fertile patches to aim at. You’ll need pinpoint timing, and so on. None of these various hazards are too repetitive, either.

There is very little in the way of sound in OIO, but is quite atmospheric, its marriage to the visuals is apparent, and achieved very well. There is background music for each level and the soundtrack adjusts from ambient to fast drum beats, the more perilous your task. There is no speech of any kind, nor is there any narration. As detailed above, everything about the adventure is from the visuals and soundtrack. They take you on the journey.

The only drawback to OIO is its length. Each level takes around the 30 minute mark (give or take for deaths) to complete, and is priced around £6.50, which is roughly £1.10 a level. In comparison with, say, Limbo, which is a slightly similar game type, it’s actually twice the value. However, both have very little or no replay value to speak of; OIO does have collectibles in the game, in the form of orbs and book pages, but these are only for achievements, which are localised within the game menus, and thus, for hardcore completists only.

In spite of these minor niggles, the game is a pleasure to play through. It never pushes you too hard, nor does it drag you back. It knows that what it has taught you will remain in your mind, so you are ready for the next challenge. As mentioned above, some may question its price (due to its length), but it’s comparable with today’s prices. On a final note, this is an indie game, and they need all possible support to continue developing fun, engaging titles such as OIO. Check it out.

OIO is available for the PC and Mac through the official OIO website. You can also try the demo yourself for free.

Chibi-Sausage

Probably sounds like I’m making this up, right? I’m not.

The narrative doesn’t really get any clearer and its incongruity isn’t a selling point. It’s not the right kind of nonsensical where you can enjoy the ride regardless – and almost because – of the poor storytelling and weirdness. It doesn’t make a lick of sense and makes no effort to engage the player on an emotional or even mental note. Things often happen that aren’t explained: some boss fights immediately end after you’re hit once and the story will continue on regardless; you’ll have a cutscene dedicated to one character’s appreciation of an umbrella; the previously-mentioned sausages will hang out in a 2D level and play with some balloons.

I’m still not joking, by the way.

Suffice to say, the story isn’t enough of a draw. When you play character action the combat should be the most important part, except El Shaddai doesn’t excel there either. It has some novel ideas but they don’t end up working out. The control system is incredibly minimal, so much so that I’m left wondering if the game was initially developed for the PSP. The developers have neglected both trigger buttons and the right control stick. Not only this, jump and attack are both mapped to an extra button rather than being used for an alternative move. This means that attacking is limited to hammering at one button and occasionally holding it down to charge.

El Shaddai tries an interesting approach to carrying weapons where you’ll steal them from enemies depending on which would be better suited to the current situation, except that’s hampered by two things: First, finding out what to use is incredibly reliant on trial and error with no clear on-screen indication that your attacks are more effective; second, the weapon you’re holding is directly related to how easily you can traverse through later platforming stages.

I actually had to reload a save because I needed to jump onto moving ground and I wasn’t holding the weapon that makes your character able to fall at a smoother rate. This made me reluctant to change gear from then on as it could mean I might have to waste time again.

It’s unfortunate that the development was so clearly focused on the art style. El Shaddai is genuinely gorgeous and every level is an incredible vista, but because of everything else I was uninterested in paying that much attention. There’s a lot of wasted potential here and it’s sad that this is the result.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is available now on PS3 and Xbox 360

Screenshots

The game is set in a world seemingly ruled over by BIG Science, an aptly named science corporation with seemingly bad luck when it comes to keeping experiments restrained. Ms Splosion Man is one such experiment. Created deep in the labs of BIG Science Ms. Splosion Man escapes during a celebratory mishap and rampages through BIG Science like a woman on a mission.

If you think of platform games as long boring treks through levels with scarce checkpoints and more frustration than fun then you would be half right thinking the same of Ms Splosion Man. Whilst all the platform staples are there – spacious checkpoints, moving platforms, rising lava in the form of various gels and a horde of obstacles – Ms. Splosion Man adds a touch of… well, ‘splosion to the menu.

Mr and Ms. Splosion Man are, despite being different experiments, highly explosive. You need to ‘splode off a surface in place of a traditional jump. In turn, this allows you fling yourself from wall to wall until you reach your destination. Of course the ability to ‘splode infinitely would be too kind to the noble gamer attempting to master this title. Twisted Pixel has imposed a limit on ‘splodes; 3 in succession is all you get. After that you are forced to wait out a 3 second recharge or run through one of the many boost points scattered around.

This is where my thumbs come in. ‘Sploding is initiated by pressing any of the 4 face buttons (X,A,B,Y) and after a few levels your thumbs will be feeling the pain as you are ‘sploding constantly! Levels gradually get more difficult as you would expect and are generally a nice mix between twitch reactions, puzzles and perfect timing. Boss fights lie in wait at the end of each world so as not to miss out on the fun. Strangely Boss fights can be skipped using the cheat option that becomes available if you die too often. Skipping is great but do you really want to risk the Curse?

Don’t worry there isn’t really a major Curse for skipping boss fights. From what I have seen it just alters your final times and adds the word CHEAT in dominating red letters across the end level screen.

Check out the launch video here for a peek at what I’m talking about:

Of course no platformer would be complete without collectibles. Each level houses a fiendishly evasive pair of shoes to add to your collection. Throw in the multiple level exits and goal times for level completion and you have a recipe for addictive re-playability. As usual Twisted Pixel have pulled off some excellent sound design with a great soundtrack available to download (head to downloads to nab your gooodies) and a gem of a pause menu which leaves you hungry for doughnuts. Just trust me on this.

I really can’t fault a game like this. Twisted Pixel have taken the hyper-simple platform base of Splosion Man and made it smoother, faster and even more fun. If you like fast-paced and considerably vexing platform games then Ms. Splosion Man is definitely worth a purchase and if it doesn’t burn your thumbs off first, it will keep you coming back for more.

Splosion Man and Ms. Splosion Man are both available now on XBLA for 800 Microsoft point (about £5.70 if you buy 2100 points from Play.com)

Screenshots:

The game starts further on in Alice’s life, having been released from the asylum into the care of Doctor Angus Bumby. The good Doctor has been working with Alice, trying to get her through the repressed memories of the fatal house fire that killed her family. The introduction really does draw you into the game explaining what’s happened in the missing years between the games. It makes it so the game stands on its own, meaning you don’t need to play the original (although who doesn’t know the story of Alice in Wonderland?).

The initial area is set in the real world, showing parts of Victorian London. There are a few niggles here such as a woman at the butchers talking about fish. The lip syncing seemed to be non-existent, however these are only minor points and don’t spoil the start to the game.

Shortly, a white cat dashes out and off you go following it, eventually leading you to a cut scene about Nurse Witless. Alice is slowly starting to fall into the nightmare, and ends up back in Wonderland.

The areas Alice has to run through are well thought out, fitting into the story perfectly. Of course the Cheshire cat features in the game, turning up all over the place to help Alice out. You can ignore him, but listening does add to the game’s story-telling.

It wouldn’t be Alice without the ability to shrink. Being a platform game, there are the obligatory hidden areas to try and find, so you get the ability to shrink very soon in the game. Shrink mode also shows scribbles on the walls, giving you tips about what is coming up. Pay attention to these if you are into collecting things, as various items are hidden all over the game. The main (and most interesting) set is Alice’s memories. While not required for the game, they help Alice (and you) figure out the mystery behind who murdered her parents.

Let’s talk weapons, all of which are a take on what you’d expect in a modern game. At the start you get the vorpal blade and pepper grinder. The blade is clearly a close area weapon, very good when surrounded. It’s fast, and can be used to cleave your way through lots of enemies. For heavy hitting there is the hobby horse, basically a dual-handled mace. It is used by Alice to hammer things to death. In addition, the pepper grinder is an interesting take on the ranged weapon allowing you to lock onto enemies and fire pepper at them. Hidden around are snouts. You fire pepper at them until they sneeze, causing a secret area to appear. This isn’t the only ranged weapon. There is the Teapot Cannon, which is pretty cool – it launches watches that then explode into steaming hot tea. Then there’s a clockwork bomb. As you can guess, it’s a bomb on a timer. Alice also has an umbrella which gives her the ability to defect the enemy’s attacks.

Alice introduces you to enemies slowly and with the weapons in mind. There’s quite a broad spectrum of creatures you have to kill so to help with this, Alice can dodge just like in most games. In regards to enemies there are over 20, as well as the main “evil” guys. The Eyepots are the bane of my life. For some reason I find them the hardest to kill. They look like giant tea pots, with a big eye. You only need to shoot them with the pepper grinder, and then finish them off with the blade. The trick is to hit the eye, and that’s where I seem to fail. All the others enemies fit into the story very well and have their own tactics, like the Ice Snarks ability to freeze Alice in place.

The platform game works quite well. It’s pretty standard though, with nothing amazingly new. You do definitely need to get the hang of the double jumps though, timing them is very important if you want to collect all of Alice’s memories. There is the odd place where you lose control of the view point which can make timing the jumps tricky and has lead to frequent death on my part. Jumping around on invisible platforms that are moving may lead to edge-of-your-seat moments and possibly screaming NO if you miss and die.

Overall the game looks very dark, quirky and sometimes creepy, giving it a Tim Burton feel. Alice splitting into butterflies to dodge is done very well as you can see all the little butterflies individually. However, don’t expect the graphics to make you go “wow” but they really do work. There’s a twisted feeling to the whole game. The enemies are all warped versions of their Wonderland counterparts. Cut scenes are pretty neat, having been done been done with stylish artwork showing the story and helping set the atmosphere.

I was really looking forward to this game, but it fell slightly short of my expectations. That’s not to say it’s a bad game. I feel it’s actually a very good game. The bit that annoyed me was the 2D side scrolling levels as they get stuck and it can be challenging. Altering the difficulty only assists you getting past some tough enemies, not the actual puzzles. OF course, this is true in all platform games, so nothing unique here.

Longevity of the game is also a problem. There’s only so much you can do and repeating it to get the achievements can be boring. Would I recommend it? Definitely if you like platform games and really enjoy darker takes on modern classics, however it might be worth holding off till the price drops. Interestingly enough, the game does include a download code for the original American McGee’s Alice. This helps make up for the shortfalls, because basically you’re getting two games for the price of one. Bargain!

Enoch. Down, ladies.

You play Enoch, who is apparently on a mission from God to run around and hit things. You dress in snazzy jeans and are blond with white armour plates and white weapons, therefore you are good. What’s not apparent in the game is that you also have a rather large package. Make of that what you will, boys and girls.

There’s a guy that you’ll occasionally run into – he has black hair and a black shirt and therefore I have instantly presumed that he is evil. Looking at his snazzy jeans, it’s probably not his fault. He just feels inadequate next to Enoch. Also, his name is Lucifel. Not LuciFER, you understand. LuciFEL. This guy stands around looking effortlessly cool and talking on his mobile to God.

The game is very stylish with… nah, I’ll let the screenshots speak for themselves. Scroll down the bottom where you’ll see that each section has a different art style. Your job is to travel along an invisible corridor through a range of minimalist environments, leaping from platform to platform and occasionally running across ocean waves that let you plunge to your death with no warning whatsoever. Platforming is trickier than it should be due to the combination of camera angles and aesthetic choices. See 3:15 in the video, with the water puddles and then the holes in the floor immediately following. It’s not complicated – you have pretty good control over Enoch, both on the ground and in the air – but the number of times I ran straight into holes like that… aaaargh!

Lucifel. He's probably just misunderstood.

When it comes to battle complexity you’ll need to use a few tactics, like getting in close to a ranged enemy and staying far away from a melee enemy or… Oh, that’s right. You need to use two tactics.

What I found particularly frustrating was that you don’t even have the freedom to use these two tactics when you want. There are three weapon types in the game, a big Bat’leth-style melee weapon, some swirling arrow things (called Gale) for range and something else that I couldn’t really figure out because I didn’t get it until after clearing most of the enemy. The annoying combat restriction is that you can’t choose what weapon to use on demand. You change weapons by stunning an enemy who uses the type you want and then stealing it from him. Enoch only carries one weapon at a time, so woe betide the gamer who carries the wrong weapon for an upcoming platform or enemy.

I appreciate the game’s aesthetic and the effort that’s gone into keeping El Shaddai accessible to longtime and new gamers. I want to say that I’m curious to see more. Problem is, I’m not. The single-button attack method is nice and simple but even with the striking attack animations for each of the weapon styles, the game bored me very quickly. As with many Japanese-designed games, I find the whole thing technically very pleasing yet a little too soulless.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron will be released in the UK on 9th September 2011, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Watch Gamespot’s video of the demo from March and check out the June screenshots below:

Screenshots