There are a lot of mods (or “custom maps”) available for Starcraft 2, and a lot of them can be quite fun. But most of them have a feeling of amateurism and a lack of polish that fails to allow them to take full advantage of the mechanics they put into play – however innovative those mechanics may be.

Smashcraft is a mod that gained popularity the other day, when popular Starcraft 2 caster TotalBiscuit put up a 42-minute video of him being introduced to the game by one of it’s programmers. The “Smashcraft” chat channel in Starcraft skyrocketed in popularity over night as more and more users discovered TotalBiscuit’s video, and it has now reached quite a wide audience.
I started playing it two days ago, and let me tell you… It is by far the best custom map for Starcraft 2 that I’ve played yet. I’ve not played any arena fighting-style games before this, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it has a wonderful presentation and awesome gameplay that make it feel like a game of it’s own, rather than a mod.

The idea is this — you’re on one of two teams, each comprised of up to three people. (Believe me, it’s much more balanced if you have a 3v3 match, so hop on the “Smashcraft” chat channel and gather a team.) When you load the map, you have to choose a character out of the sixteen available. There are four character classes –

Guardians, which are high-damage characters who have a large amount of health. They’re your brute-force characters, able to deal a good bit of damage to the opposing team while staying alive long enough to inflict even more.

Assault characters, which are primarily used to put pressure on the other team while dealing a good bit of damage. They can’t take as much damage as the Guardian characters, but they’re very powerful.

Psions, which have the lowest HP, but can deal unbelievable amounts of damage if used correctly. More finesse is required to use a Psion character, due to their inability to take a lot of damage, but in the right hands they can turn the tide of the battle in an instant, dealing out immense damage before retreating or repositioning in order to stay alive.

And Support characters, which are designed primarily to help your team, rather than to inflict great deals of damage upon the other team. A good Support character is always great to have on your side, especially if you have a Guardian character such as a Pyro, who can deal a lot of damage, but has to get close in order to do so. Because of this, a healer is very good to have by your side.

Inside of each of these classes are four characters, making, as I said, 16 total. Each of these characters have unique attacks and abilities, allowing for an insane amount of strategy when it comes to team composition. Some characters use guns, others use melee attacks or magic attacks… And while these are the general classifications for the means of attacking, they are broad terms, in that no two characters have the exact same attack. One character could have a shotgun, while the other has a rifle — both very useful in very different situations.
There are both hit-scan attacks and “wave” attacks. An example of a hit-scan attack is gunfire. While attacking, you have to keep your mouse cursor pointed in the direction that your opponent is in… It won’t automatically find them for you, and you can’t just click on them once at the beginning of the attack. Depending on the gun, the game’s engine draws lines for the trajectory of the bullets. If your opponent is directly within this line of sight, they will be damaged accordingly. A pistol or a rifle has a single line drawn directly from the barrel of the gun to the direction your mouse is pointing, whereas a shotgun has several different scattering lines, each with their own potential for damage. A physical object, such as a pillar or a tree, can stop a hit-scan attack, so it’s always smart to make good use of your environments. The height of your target can also be a factor… If you’re far back from the edge of a cliff and attempt to shoot somebody down below it, you won’t hit them. However, if your’e close to the edge and can conceivably see that person, your chances are much higher.
A wave attack is kind of hard to describe in text… It’s a magic attack that affects enemies in front of you, and as such, you must aim at them, as with a hit-scan attack. However, a direct line of sight isn’t as necessary. Where a hit-scan attack would fail from atop a cliff, a wave attack will still hit your enemy, as long as your aim is accurate. They still cannot penetrate trees or pillars, however.

Each character has some common abilities that are shared throughout, such as the ability to quickly dash in one direction in order to avoid an attack, or to slowly heal yourself if your HP is low and there’s no healer on your team. (This should, however, be used very sparingly, as it takes forever to recharge. Because of this, in many games, you’ll only have the opportunity to use it once.)

Each character also has a “Fury” attack. If you’ve ever played mostly any fighting game, you’re probably familiar with this idea… You have a Fury meter, which fills up a little bit whenever you deal or take damage. In some situations (such as when you successfully block an attack), you’ll gain extra Fury. Once your meter is full, you’re able to unleash a devastating attack on your opponents. Each character has a different Fury attack, and all of them have to be performed just right in order to be very effective, but it can be the deciding factor in a match.

A game is a best three out of five battle, and in order to win, you have to kill the entire opposing team. However, I’ve had rounds that have lasted an hour or two with the same group of complete strangers, as we just kept rematching. (My team kept losing, but it was a good time with good people, so we kept playing.) This is a game that can certainly be picked up for short amounts of time, if you only want to play a match or two, but it can easily be entertaining for long periods, especially if you’re playing with a fun bunch.

Speaking of the players, the community, or what I’ve seen of it so far anyway, is fantastic. Everybody is generally very nice. I’ve yet to see any bad-mannered players. At this point in the game, a lot of the players are new to it, so there is a very high tolerance for beginners. As such, I don’t think that your inexperience with Smashcraft should prevent you in any way from dipping your toe in it. The community has been incredibly helpful to me in learning how to properly play, and how to construct a team with the best strategy in mind.
The complexity of this mod is outstanding, and I very much look forward to playing it a lot more. For more information, watch TotalBiscuit’s video, and visit the Smashcraft forums. It can be intimidating at first, but it doesn’t take long to learn the basics, and from there you’ll likely be hooked.

Related posts:

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3. Super Meat Boy PC Released – Problematic, With Potential

Super Meat Boy is quite a ride. Let me lay this out for you — It’s a fast-paced platformer where you play as a chunk of meat trying to save Bandage Girl (your girlfriend) from a fetus (with a doctorate) named Dr. Fetus who, already at his age, has a very negative disposition on the world and just seems to be pissed all the time. He walks around in a robot suit… thing.
Along the way, you are met with many different obstacles, ranging from flying sawblades to meaty enemies and quite precarious heights. It’s… Silly. And awesome.
Let me explain why.

The gameplay in Super Meat Boy is freakin’ fantastic. It’s a platformer with an emphasis on speed and precision in movements, making you rely on skill to get the job done. The learning curve isn’t too steep, in that you don’t have to learn a whole lot at once, but you are constantly figuring out new tactics and just little bits of information about gameplay that will help you out along the way. (You figure these out on your own, through exploration and experimentation — the only levels with tutorials are the first few.)

Once you get past the tutorials, the gameplay will get progressively harder, and beating levels gets progressively more and more satisfying. Completionists will have a blast with this game, as there’s a ridiculous amount of content! First, you’ve got the basic levels. No big deal there, not incredibly difficult on their own. Now add bandages, and the difficulty has shot through the roof. Some of the bandages are just found through exploration of unnecessary bits of the levels, but a lot of them are intentionally placed in locations that make them near impossible to get. I’ve spent upwards of an hour on one level just trying to get the bandage — the level itself I could beat in about ten / fifteen minutes. (But, if you’re a completionist, you have to get the bandages. Bandages unlock characters! We’ll get more into the characters later…) Then there’s also a speed aspect to it, where you’ll get a grade of A+ if you beat the level in a short amount of time, which is less and less and the levels fly by. Once you get A+ in a level, you unlock the “Dark World” counterparts to that level. There are 20 levels in each world, and the Dark World versions are essentially all of the levels with the same layout, but with lots and lots of traps added in there to make it a much more difficult experience. You’ll want to tear your hair out at some of these, but that’ll pass.
There are also “Warp Zones,” which show up every now and then and bring Super Meat Boy to a different dimension. Sometimes the art style is even different. In these Warp Zones, you’ll have the opportunity to collect bandages or unlock characters, but the levels are quite difficult. Hell, even spotting the Warp Zones is sometimes a challenge. Keep an eye out for ‘em.

Unlocking characters is an amazing feeling in this game. Not only does it give you something new to look at as you play, but each character has unique abilities that can help you overcome specific situations. It’s incredibly helpful to be able to play a level with a character better suited for getting that almost impossible-to-get bandage, rather than spend hours trying to get it with Meat Boy. Each character is fully capable of completing each level and grabbing each floating bandage, but some of them will make your life that much easier.

Now, before we proceed, let’s take a general look at Super Meat Boy. It’s a platformer with awesome physics and a heavy focus on speed and wall-jumps (which are executed brilliantly here). It’s got an unbelievable amount of content, and will take a completionist quite a while to fully experience everything that it holds. The development of such a game was, in my opinion, a very bold endeavour — it was undertaken by only two people, and it’s a very unique idea, gameplay-wise. They put a lot on the line, and it’s surely paid off, as it was one of the most popular games of 2010, winning several awards on different websites, including IGN’s “Most Challenging Game” category of their Best of 2010 awards. And not without good reason, this game is hard as hell! But it’s not, for me anyway, the kind of game that will make you ragequit and never return. Every time I died (and believe me, there were plenty), I realized that it was due to my own ineptitude. The game never feels unfair. You just have to focus and not suck, and when you finally get that bandage and you finally reach the end of the level, you will sometimes want to celebrate. That’s a milestone in your life right there.

Let me break this down for all the completionists reading this review… In Super Meat Boy, there is a total of about 350 levels. Within those levels, you will find 101 bandages, and 20 warp zones, which will help you unlock the 25 unlockable characters. There are also dark world counterparts to each of the levels, which you have to score A+ on said levels to unlock. In order to reach 100% completion in Super Meat Boy, you will have to dedicate a hell of a lot of time to playing, and you’ll have to muster up more patience with yourself than most other games require. This game is chock-full of content, and there’s even more to come.

In an upcoming update for the PC version of Super Meat Boy (which will also be compatible with Mac OS X soon), there will be a fully-featured level editor put into the game. This means that players will be able to create and upload their own near-impossible levels that anybody else can then download and enjoy, thus making Super Meat Boy a game that theoretically never ends, as long as the community picks up, which I’m sure it will. A stipulation to upload a level you create will be that you have to beat that level at least once, to prove that it’s not impossible, which is definitely a fantastic idea from Team Meat.

In conclusion, this is one of the best games I have ever played. It’s inventive, incredibly long, has awesome unlockables, and has just the right amount of frustration. I wholeheartedly recommend this game, especially for PC users who will soon be able to utilize the level editor, making the experience that much more amazing.
The story isn’t much, but it doesn’t have to be. The characters themselves are great, and the nonstop action keeps the fun going. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a game with this much content for the price of $15.
Super Meat Boy is available for PC through Steam, and on the Xbox 360. It’ll be coming to the Mac sometime in the first half of this year, but we unfortunately won’t be seeing it on the PS3 or Wii (which they had planned, but canceled).

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Yesterday, Super Meat Boy was released on Steam. It’s going for $15, but if you preordered, it was only $10. There was a whole lot of hype surrounding this release… It’s one of the most loved downloadable console games of the year.

Unfortunately, upon release, many problems were found. Problems ranged from crashes, to bosses not appearing, and some display issues. There was also some complaint about control issues — this is because the game clearly states in the beginning that it should be played with a gamepad, but currently only supports the Xbox 360 controller. Luckily, Team Meat said they’re going to add more support soon. (And from what I’ve heard, the keyboard support isn’t bad at all.)

As for all of the bugs that have been found, Team Meat is on the ball. They made a blog post earlier, laying out the issues that people had been having with the game, and saying that a patch to fix them would be released today. (I’m not quite sure if it’s hit yet, but if not, it should pretty soon.) I’m truly impressed at how quickly they’re reacting and getting rid of all these problems. Team Meat is comprised of only two people, and they’re getting stuff done really quickly.

With all the bugs aside, this game’s pretty awesome. I haven’t picked it up on PC yet (plan to really soon), but I’ve played on a friend’s Xbox 360. The music is great, the graphics are awesome, and the gameplay is freaking amazing. I can see why it’s got so much love.
The PC version has several characters that the console version doesn’t. They’re all from PC games… Seems Team Meat’s trying to centralize some of the character choices to give you a better experience depending on the platform you’re playing on.
The PC-specific characters are…

Steve (also known as Mr. Minecraft) (Minecraft)
Captain Viridian (also known as The Captain) (VVVVVV)
Josef (Machinarium)
Headcrab (Half-Life)(Steam version)
Goo Ball (World Of Goo)(Non-Steam version and Steam version via code)
RunMan (RunMan: Race Around the World)
Naija (Aquaria)

I’m most excited about Steve, Captain Viridian, and the Headcrab. All awesome choices from great games. (Except RunMan. Well, I mean, it’s probably a good game, but I’ve never heard of it. So I can’t really say that it is.)

There are, however, some characters that shall remain exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of Super Meat Boy. These characters are…

Alien Hominid – Can shoot downwards to increase jump height or slow descent
Gish – Can stick to walls and slide across ceilings
Tim (Braid) – Can rewind time three seconds
The Spelunker (Spelunky) – Has an explosive jump
Ninja (N/N+) Can sprint fast
Pink Knight (Castle Crashers) – Can perform a flutter jump

It’s a shame, really. All of those characters are awesome. I would very much like to play as Ninja, or The Spelunker. But, you win some, you lose some.

You unlock these characters by collecting bandages throughout the levels. They’re sometimes quite hard to get to, but they’re incredibly satisfying to collect. (Especially if you’re a hardcore completionist — this game will take you forever to beat.) You can also unlock them by finding “Warp Zones” in the levels, which make it look like you’re playing Super Meat Boy on an SNES. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome. The different characters not only change what you look like, but also how you perform. Many of them have special powers that affect gameplay, and give you different ways to beat levels. The good part about this is that it feels like every single level was built with every character in mind — it never feels like you’re at too much of an advantage or a disadvantage, or that you’re out of place. It always just feels “right,” with different styles of playing.

This game is freakin’ packed with content. There are “about 350 levels,” according to Wikipedia. As I mentioned earlier, if you’re a completionist, this will take you forever, with all the warp zones and bandages you have to collect. But even non-completionists will be more than pleased by the longevity of this title — Super Meat Boy is incredibly difficult at times, and it takes a good while to get through some levels. That said, it never really gets too frustrating… It remains charming and fun no matter how many times you’re turned into ground beef. But the difficulty does its part to lengthen the playthrough time, and makes everything much more interesting. If this was an easy game, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

To further extend how much content there is to an unreal degree, there will soon be a level editor available for PC gamers. Level editors lead to limitless gameplay options — take a look at N! It’s one of the most popular indie PC games of all time for a reason, which is the fact that its level editor really took off, and now there are thousands of user-made levels. I’m, personally, really looking forward to the level editor. I love stuff like that. Creating levels is loads of fun, and adds lots of play time. And then, I can hop online to download other people’s masterpieces to extend play time even further! It’s a fantastic cycle that results in me (or you) being perpetuously entertained with the cost of a single (cheap) PC game. In essence, you get a whole lot more “bang” than you give up “buck.” (This seems to be very common when it comes to indie games, which is why indie developers deserve our support. The games may not be as popular, but you get much more fun for your money, and in the end, that’s what really matters.)

There’s not much to the story, but it’s just enough to remain interesting. You play as the title character, Meat Boy. Your girlfriend, Bandage Girl, is kidnapped by the crudely evil Dr. Fetus. Dr. Fetus shows up after every level to snatch up Bandage Girl just as you reach her. Then every now and then he battles you. It’s just kind of a back-and-forth kind of thing, much like… *Gasp!* Super Mario Brothers! Super Mario Br… Super Meat B… SMB! Coincidence? Pretty sure I read somewhere that it’s not. For now we’ll be unsure, together.

I personally think the soundtrack alone is worth the asking price for this game. It’s got fantastic music. It all does a great job at replicating the retro gaming feel that Super Meat Boy goes for. Some of the music from Super Meat Boy will be released for Rock Band 3 in January, which is pretty sweet.

The gameplay in Super Meat Boy is better than most platforming games I’ve ever played. Meat Boy controls fantastically, the wall jumps add a lot to the gameplay, and the different character choices do wonders for the variety in this game. You can choose how you want to play. It’s pretty awesome. I feel that this game is one of the best that has come out this year. My friend was having trouble tearing me from his Xbox after he handed me the controller. It’s a game where the saying “easy to pick up, hard to put down” is very much true. You’re started off with a few tutorial levels and gently eased into the core meat of the gameplay. The learning curve isn’t very steep, but it is definitely hard to master, especially when it comes to getting everything out of this game that there is to offer (including all of the bandages. Believe me, some of them seem impossible. It’s like Vini Vidi Vici in VVVVVV all over again), and once you get accustomed to it, you likely won’t play much else until you beat it.

If you picked it up pre-launch on Steam, awesome, you got a discount. Otherwise, this game is well worth the $15 that it’s selling for. It’s actually worth a hell of a lot more than that, with how much game time you’ll get out of it, and with the impending release of the level editor, you’ll get an insane amount of user-made levels. Well, most likely, anyway — this game’s fairly successful for an indie game, and lots of people love level editors. Let’s just hope that level creation catches on. A lot of the time, community-made levels can be much better than any levels that the developers themselves made. It’s amazing what gamers can do with the proper tools.

You can go and pick it up on Steam now for $15. It’s also available on the Xbox 360 for the same price, and will soon be available on the Wii (via WiiWare) and Mac OS X (via Steam), as well as Linux. Release dates for those versions have yet to be announced. I’m hoping that they make Tux a playable character on the Linux version. (Unfortunately, they’ve even come out and said that there will, beyond any doubt, not be a Playstation 3 version.)

If you’d like to, you can check out the original Meat Boy flash game on Newgrounds. It was the beginning of Super Meat Boy, but don’t use it as a sole source with which to judge SMB — it’s a good bit different. Although it is still a fantastic flash game. (And a pretty big hit on Newgrounds, apparently. They even have a t-shirt.)

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The Internet froze in complete and utter shock earlier today when Valve issued a press release, officially pushing the Portal 2 release to April 2011.

Okay, not really. Well, it really is delayed again, but it wasn’t at all a surprise. Valve’s been kinda well known to pull this stuff, and boy do they know it. Here’s their statement…

Valve today announced that Portal 2 — the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date — will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date.

The title of the email was “VALVE ANNOUNCES SHORTEST DELAY IN VALVE HISTORY”. See, this is why I love Valve… They make great games, and they’ve got character to boot. They’re well aware of what we say about them, and they do nothing but confirm our accusations and just play along with it.

That said, Portal 2 is definitely one of my most anticipated titles of 2011. The original Portal is tied with Diablo II as my favourite game of all time, so the next year should be pretty sweet.

They’ve altered the release date. Pray they don’t alter it any further, again.

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I haven’t played enough of Bloody Good Time yet to write a full-fledged review, but I’ve played enough of it to tell you that the title doesn’t lie. If anything, it undersells itself; I’ve had a pretty great time with it so far.

Bloody Good Time is the sequel to a game called The Ship. I’d never heard of it before this, so I can’t really compare the two. But the basic concept is this — In the main game mode, you’re an assassin. But you’re also a target.
You’re on a map with several other players online, and you’re given a name. You have to kill the person whose name you receive. Everybody else also gets a name. In essence, the hunter becomes the hunted, whilst remaining the hunter.

You’re not told who is after you, so you have to keep a keen eye out. You also must be careful not to expose yourself to your target… Keep your weapon and intent concealed until you get close. If you kill your hunter, you get extra points, but if you kill somebody unrelated to your mission, you lose points.

Points also vary with what weapon you use to do the deed. Weapons get more and less popular as the match progresses, so keep up and make sure you’re using some high-point-wielding kill tools. There’s a wide variety of said tools to choose from… There are flamethrowers, knives, rocket launchers, and even remote-detonating rodents. There are also traps set up around all the maps that allow you to dispose of your target with an environmental kill, not getting your own hands dirty.

You’ll also want to keep your actions hidden because of the guards… Guards are scattered around maps, and you’ll gain a “Wanted” status if they see you holding a weapon for too long (you get warned when they first spot you), or if they see you trying to kill somebody. Guards will then chase you down and taze you, resulting in lost points.

But this game isn’t just about killing and avoiding death — there are also special needs, human needs, that your character has. You’ll occasionally need to sit down and rest, grab a snack, or use the restroom. The facilities to please your needs are located around the maps, but you’re very vulnerable while you fulfill them. You’ll just be sitting there for several seconds, and you’re not able to stop mid-process… Once you start, you have to allow the character to finish. This spells trouble if you don’t time it right.

One thing you won’t want to buy this game for is the story — it’s pretty stupid. But it’s hard to say that’s unintentional. The story and characters seem purposely cheesy in a way that gives it a certain charm. In fact, right in the Steam description, it describes the characters as being “stereotypical B-movie characters.”

Bloody Good Time is only $5 on Steam, and is well worth it. It’s built on the Source engine, and has fairly low system requirements.

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Spelunky caught my attention initially for two reasons — for one, it was the first game selected for the Indie Gaming Club on Reddit. Plus, it’s a game about mining, and Minecraft has pretty much run my life since I discovered it, so this wouldn’t be going too far out of my recently established comfort zone.

Plus, it’s free. So I decided to give it a download, and was up and running very shortly.

When I first began, things were a bit confusing. Lacking any previous knowledge of this indie title, I was a bit thrown off by the structure of the game. I didn’t know what to expect.
Once I got that sorted out and got the hang of things, I never looked back.

The tutorial level does a pretty good job of showing you the basics. You can pick stuff up, open chests, jump, run, throw bombs, and so forth. However, once I got into the game itself, one thing kept throwing me off. I’ll save you the possible confusion (unless it’s just me) — Each time you play, the levels are randomly generated. I feel like that’s one of the things that gives this game its true beauty. Keeps it fresh, and keeps you playing for incredibly extended periods of time.

But you’ll figure that last part out yourself. Let’s move onto talking about what makes this game so great…

For one, the gameplay is relentlessly difficult and unforgiving. For some, this may be a turnoff, but I love a challenge. It takes inspiration from roguelike games in this respect, and if you die, that’s it — you’ve gotta start over. (Luckily, the randomly generated world makes it feel new each time.) It can get frustrating at times, but I feel that it makes even the smallest accomplishments feel much more monumental, and I get tons of satisfaction from completing much of anything, let alone beating my previous high score.

The basic objective of this game is to rack up as much money as you can. You’ll go around the mine, collecting gems and gold coins, each worth different amounts of money. You can change the terrain by use of timed explosives, to allow easy passage to other parts of the mine, or to access riches previously blocked off. If you find yourself needing to get to higher ground and there’s no ladder nearby, you can even toss a rope up in the air that will connect itself to the walls of the cave several feet above you and fall back down for you to climb.

The money serves little purpose other than acting as a score. Oh, except that you can buy stuff. And gamble.
There are shops set up in some levels (or all levels, maybe I just don’t see it sometimes) that allow you to buy things like extra bombs + rope, glasses that let you see hidden gems, parachutes so you can survive long falls, weapons, and so forth. Most prices are reasonable, and the items are definitely good to have. If you try to walk out of the shop holding an item you haven’t paid for, the shopkeep instantly jumps down and fires at you with a shotgun. It’s possible to escape, but not the easiest thing in the world, and you’ll spend the rest of the game looking over your shoulder. (I won’t give away too much — discovery is half the fun in this game.)
As I mentioned, you can also gamble. You’ll find areas that are set up like shops, but with two large six-sided dice. You can put up some of your money to win it back plus some, win an item, or lose everything. I normally take the chance. I’ve got a problem with videogame gambling. (Pokemon started it all…)

While the golden coins and the gems and so forth are your main sources of cash, you can also go Indiana Jones style and steal a golden artifact. However, like Indy, there is the ever-present threat of being crushed by a boulder shortly after picking up your treasure. Watch out for that.

Speaking of Indiana Jones-style traps, there are also some blocks with heads carved in them. If they see any motion in front of them, they let out a high-speed arrow that can take away two of your precious hearts. There are ways to avoid this (note: any motion), but they still get me sometimes by surprise.

And they’re not the only threat — there are different kinds of monsters for each area. In the first area alone, you’ll face snakes, neanderthals, bats, spiders, and g… Wait, no, I’ll let you figure that one out yourself.
However, keep in mind that anything you pick up is a weapon. A rock, an arrow discharged from a trap, a treasure chest… Worse comes to worst, you can just jump on them, Italian plumber style. (But that gets pretty scary once you realize the consequences of a screw-up…)
However, if you get injured, there’s still hope! You can find a helpless girl throughout the levels that requires your help. If you bring her to the end of the cave, she will grant you one kiss — which equates to one heart. Plus, she’s fun to use as a weapon.

As you progress, you’ll notice things get much, much harder. Especially once you change areas — I’ve only made it to the second area twice. It gets real tough.

But anyway, I think I’ve covered the gameplay enough… Let’s move onto audio. The sound effects in this game are charming. Very much similar in feel to the retro graphics that the game presents. The same can be said for the music. However, that unfortunately gets pretty repetitive after a few hours. It’s not that it’s bad music, it’s just that you’ll spend a lot of time in the first area, and the song for each area is always the same. It’s very well-made, but it gets to me sometimes to the point of me just muting it.

The graphics in this game are also quite nice. As I said, they’re retro graphics — very simplistic, not a huge amount of colours, and so forth. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. (Just look at Minecraft!) It fits the gameplay style very well, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

All in all, this game is amazing. It’s incredibly addictive, while maintaining a ruthlessly evil approach. You’re rewarded for experimenting, but harshly punished for the smallest of mistakes. Everything is incredibly well thought-out and executed, and the amount of polish in the gameplay is outstanding, especially for a free game.

This game tortures the hell out of you, and forces you to enjoy every second.
I’ve a good bit of the secrets up to you to find out. Whether you decide to acquire knowledge of them from another source is beyond my control, but allow me to advise against it — What I’ve provided here has been, by my discretion, required for the review. However, allow the game to surprise you. Half the fun is not knowing how the game will react, and whether or not you’ll end up dead. (Nine times out of ten, you will. Trust me.)
Due to the randomized levels and awesome feelings of accomplishment, the replay value on this one is also quite high. I’ve played for hours on end, and I haven’t gotten bored of it yet.

Perfect score.

10/10

Go download it.

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2. Indie Mini-Review: Windosill
3. Super Meat Boy Review

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post about Sonic 4, but I’ve been incredibly excited about it this entire time.

Well, to my incredible schoolgirl-like surprise, Sonic 4 was officially released for iPhone and iPod touch just earlier today! I didn’t even know it was supposed to, as far as I knew the release date was still “2010,” so when I saw it on the App Store, it absolutely made my day. (And was, of course, an instant purchase.)

Unfortunately, it won’t be coming out for consoles until next week — I’m assuming so, anyway. The Playstation Network updates every Tuesday, and the Xbox Live Marketplace updates every Wednesday, so that’s probably when you’ll see Sonic 4 for those consoles. (Not quite sure what the Wii’s updates are like…) But if you’ve got an iDevice, you’re in luck — You can get it now for for $9.99 USD (App Store link).

I’ve played a good bit of it today… I hooked my speaker-less first-generation iPod touch into my 5.1 speakers for the occasion. And I’m, personally, not disappointed at all. It’s met every expectation I held, and has completely blown me away, and reinvigorated the essence of my childhood in this game series that has been frowned upon so frequently and so vehemently in these years past.

To start with, the gameplay is very familiar. With slight alterations and some added features, it’s identical to old-school Sonic games — and I welcome all of the alterations and features. I see this as nothing but the continuation of the Genesis Sonic games, not a simple rehash, and all sequels are expected to have additions.

Audio-wise, I was also very much blown away. The music helps capture the essence of the series much in the way it used to, and many of the original sound effects were kept on-board, much to my delight (as well as, I’m sure, other fans). I can very easily say that I don’t just love this game for the nostalgia — that is most definitely a fantastic aspect, and my memories are very much kept intact with this great addition to the series — but even as a standalone game, it’s absolutely fantastic. It focuses just as much, if not even more, on speed than previous iterations, and now puts a large focus on score with the easy ability to play and replay levels, looking to beat your high scores. This could potentially be a very fun pass-and-play game with friends and family, even more so once it hits TV screens.

The one thing, and believe me when I say that it’s minor, that I dislike about Sonic 4 is… Eggman. Not the character. He’s great as ever, coming up with these ridiculous contraptions to kill a hedgehog when he could easily just invent a gun. No, the name is what I find issue with… This is the one thing that does not quite help my nostalgia. I remember him as Dr. Robotnik. This is how I will always refer to him… I don’t understand the renaming here, and it just bothers me a bit that they cater to old-school gamers in every way but this.

However, as I said, that’s very minor. Doesn’t affect much, it just… Irks me, is all.

This game is very much worth buying, especially, but not only, if you’re a big fan of the old Sonic games.

Related posts:

1. Sonic 4: Returning To The Second Dimension
2. Plants vs Zombies On The iPhone Makes Devs Rich
3. Sonic Unleashed Coming This Christmas

Skylands for Minecraft is a custom-built Minecraft world that is comprised of islands floating in the sky. It has been carefully crafted, and is more of an “explore and complete things” than a “build stuff” kind of world.

You start off in front of a wooden house. Upon entering, you’ll be confronted with a sign that says “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take these!” above a wooden chest. Inside said chest, you will find a steel pickaxe, shovel, sword, and axe, as well as a compass, torches, lava bucket, redstone, flint & steel, and for some reason, a painting.
There is also a furnace and a crafting table in this room, for your convenience.

You can then go about exploring the world. I found a sign in one area that said “I have no use for these lame-ass rocks!” Inside the chest below the sign were eight diamonds and a stack of coal. I loved this, because it makes it feel like the world is, or once was, alive. Somebody was here before you. It feels somewhat post-apocalyptic; as if a civilization existed here before, but just left remnants of themselves behind. It’s always fun to come up with a backstory for your world and character in a regular Minecraft level, but it’s even better here, as there are things already present that you can plug into your story.

There are also biomes, which is a widely-requested feature of Minecraft that developer Notch has mentioned implementing in the past. Since this is a custom-built world (probably using a tool like the Omen map editor), the creator has the ability to place any blocks anywhere, so you’ll find deserts, forests, snowy areas, and so forth. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find any dungeons, but taking a peek at the map of the world, it is clear that they’re present.

There’s a really cool system here, where you can relocate your spawn point. Unfortunately, you can’t place it wherever you want, but there are certain areas around the world that have signs indicating that they are spawn points. There is another sign, giving you the spawn point password. You launch an application that comes with Skylands for this specific purpose, enter the password, and your spawn point is relocated. Be aware, though; if you don’t place your items into the readily available chest at spawn points, you will lose them. Keeping your inventory intact whilst changing spawn points is apparently not possible at this time, unfortunately.

There are some awesome sights to see in this world. It’s all crafted beautifully, with what seems like close attention to detail with every placement of every block. This project gives me hope for more like it in the future… While I love playing a regular, randomly-generated world, this is a freaking awesome change of pace that gives it a feel of depth and it’s fun to jump in and adventure around for a while.
The existence of already-standing structures get rid of my need to build up, and this gets rid of my attachment to my creations. This allows me to explore much more without remorse.

The creator of Skylands is fine with people using it on a multiplayer server, but I can’t say I really see the point. This seems like more of a solo kind of thing to me, if not with just one or two friends. I certainly would not enjoy this on a packed public server… Exploration is a pretty big thing in this world, and it would get old if everything had already been explored.

I’ve got a lot more to explore in this world, but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s free anyway, so why not give it a shot?

[Skylands for Minecraft]

Related posts:

1. Today’s Minecraft Update – Multiplayer Improved (So Much)
2. Minecraft Video Review
3. Minecraft – What It Is, And Why You Need It

Here’s our video review for the very much loved Minecraft. This is something that’s much easier to present as a video rather than text, so I’ll leave the review at that. If you want to read an overview of it that I typed last week, you can do that, too, but that wasn’t written with reviewing it in mind, and it’s not as detailed.

Now, between the time I recorded the audio for this and the time I finalized the editing, there was an update to the game. Near the end of the video, I mention that the multiplayer still has some bugs, such as chests not working. Well, they do now, as do furnaces, and your inventory does save. (Don’t think I mentioned that one in the video, but it’s worth knowing.)

Other than that, everything’s accurate. Take a look, and show it to your friends whom you wish to turn onto this game. Hopefully it’s informative enough. This is my first attempt at a video review, so any constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Related posts:

1. Today’s Minecraft Update – Multiplayer Improved (So Much)
2. Skylands for Minecraft – A Custom-Built World Filled With Adventure
3. Indie Game Review – Spelunky

Being a huge Star Wars fan myself, stuff like this makes my ears perk right on up. This week on Steam, every day we’ll see a new LucasArts game go on sale. (Today, Monday, it’s The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition. It’s only $7.50. Sweet.)
While I wholeheartedly recommend you pick up The Force Unleashed, as it is one of my favourite Star Wars games of all time (such a great story), make sure your computer can run it first. It’s pretty demanding, which is why I have the console version.

Also, throughout the whole week, the Star Wars Collection will be 50% off, bringing it to only $50. That’s less than one new game for 13 awesome games, with an individual price of $145.38. Huge savings there. Not to mention the fact that I’ve played almost all of those games, and they’re all pretty awesome, especially if you’re a fan of the Wars.

Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR), one of the most popular Star Wars games ever created, is in the Star Wars collection. It sells for $10 individually, but packaged with these other 12 Star Wars games, it’s $50. Also included is one of my personal favourites, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. I would pay $50 for just these two games alone, but with them you get a plethora of other titles, for only $50. Bound to keep you entertained for a good bit. Check out the Collection here.

If you’re only looking to buy one or two of these games individually, HOLD OFF! You could spend $50 to get all of them now, but if you wait, the specific title(s) you want to buy might go on sale by themselves, as The Force Unleashed is today. I would personally hold off until next Sunday (when the deal ends) to buy any of them. Unless, of course, you MUST have them now. In which case, I understand, but you’ll kick yourself in the leg later on when that one game you HAD to get early is super cheap.

I’m personally hoping for sales on KOTOR (so my brother can get it), Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and Battlefront II. (I played Battlefront II on my brother’s PS2 a while ago, and it’s a blast. I’d much rather have it for my computer, and it would be awesome if it was even cheaper than its current price of $20.)

Related posts:

1. Star Wars MMORPG enters beta stages
2. The Next Year in Gaming
3. GridWars 2 – Cross-Platform Geometry Wars Clone