Pros:

• Continued story from previous title. 
• Makes you think with the physics based mechanics
• Playing around with water jets

Cons:

• Having to turn the 3DS completely upside down for some of the levels.
• Fairly straight forward and not as open world as implied
• Goop not being sinister enough

Since this is a continuation of a previous title, one of which I never had the pleasure to enjoy, its niche of fluid based and gravity driven mechanics were a little lost to me. Albeit the game is very well designed, I had no hiccups or bugs while playing. The game was a little simplified for my tastes. Maybe that is why I was so persistent in my attempts to collect everything and get a 100% clear. For those that enjoy puzzlers, color stage design, and a great story to wrap it all up in, this game is worthy of a look-see. 

Final Score: 7.5 out of 10.

 Do you remember a Wii Ware game from back in December of 2010 by the name of Fluidity? Well, if you’re one of the lucky people who actually played this great title, you might want to take a look at its successor, Fluidity: Spin Cycle. 

 Nintendo decided to go with the flow of the game market and take the small title and give it a good ‘ol spit shine and put it on the 3DS system. This title is a physics-based puzzler that’s jumped from twisting and turning the Wii Remote to move the fluid and turned that mechanic on its own head. Now to transgress the levels you must turn the handheld console changing the direction of the gravity in the level. Sounds pretty simple right? Oh how naive was I to think that. Being a self-advocated “pro puzzle solver” amongst my friends, even I was stumped a few times as how to collect everything in the levels. 

 Now that might not be something you’re interested in. To me it was more of a challenge than the core of the game. Being a fairly straight forward game I didn’t get much of a feel that it was as open a world as advertised. 

 That being said, the world and the story were very well put together. They kept with the motif of the game, the doings of a wizard. This title being the same as that of a story book that the wizard liked and wanted it to come to life. He used some rainbow spirits to almost literally bring the book to life. However, there were some evil spirits or Goop that the wizard also had on a shelf above the book, which were jealous of the rainbow spirits. They managed to tip the container they were in and invaded the book holding the rainbow spirits hostage. You play as Eddy, the cheerful water sprite, trying to rescue the rainbow sprites. That right there is something that as a child would have driven me wild with excitement. 

 So being a water sprite in a physic based puzzler, what can you do? What can any blob of water do? To travel around the levels and solve the levels conundrums you gain abilities as you progress increasing the depth of the puzzles. There’s switches you have to flip to flood cogs that you must wash down to the appropriate socket. In later levels you can even turn into a gaseous vapor! Not only that, but turning into a block of ice can help you plow through certain obstacles. 

 Now, as you solved each level being a fluid you’re bound to get some of your body trapped behind a door right? That’s where they have you collecting water droplets throughout the level to use as reserve, should you get spread a little too thin. They even give you the ability early on to accumulate yourself; don’t be too hasty in using that button though. Be cautious. Using that ability too much can cause you to boil away some of your own fluid. This was done to counter the player just holding down the button to not lose any droplets for a higher score. On top of that as part of the physics system you can tilt the 3DS system left and right to affect gravity. There are some spots in levels where you’ll even have to tilt the unit completely upside down. Well, not as much as 100% upside down. I was able to manage those parts just tilting it quite a bit. Now if I had a 3DS system with a recording cable attached it would be a bit more cumbersome to actually do that. Thankfully they didn’t force the mechanic on you a lot. Same could be said for most of the other gimmicks of the game. It is pretty well balanced and doesn’t feel like you’re doing the same things over, and over again.

Fluidity can be found on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for 10.99 USD

Pros:
+ Nearly endless way to mod/customize your weapons & Armor.
+ Combat is very fluid, and rewarding once mastered.
+ Environments are beautifully detailed.
+ Branching story options, and good replayability 

Cons:
– Companion AI is absolutely useless.
– Voice acting, for the most part, is terrible at best.
– Steep learning curve, especially on the higher difficulties.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

 As we now reach the six month marker of our next generation consoles being on the market, we still have a lack of games. For the most part that is. Ever since launch, I’ve been looking for a next-gen game for me to sink some actual time into. Granted we’ve had a few amazing ones so far. AC:4, Tomb Raider HD, *cough* the Lego games *cough*. However majority of titles released had been your run of the mill shooters that, in all honesty, we have grown bored with at this point. 

 So learning of the release of a RPG onto next-gen truly peaked my interest. Granted, I knew going in this wasn’t going to be a tipple-A title like Dragon Age, or the FF series. Something different was what I have been begging for, and it looks like my wish may just come true.

 Spiders Studios have a few titles under their belt, most noteworthy in my opinion is their sci-fi title “Mars” released digitally on last gen consoles. So how does their new entry fair? Are you going to burn right through it, or is it just blowing a bunch of smoke?

 The game revolves around a band of mercenaries for hire called The Freeborn Blades, and their latest contract it to escort The Order of the Red Scholars to an ancient temple where they are set to preform a sacred right in hopes of awakening an unknown power to help combat The Ice Lords. These evil doers are Necromancers who have risen a undead army to do their biding, and are slowly but surly taking over all the lands, and ushering in a snowy apocalypse.

 You take control of Vulcan, the newest member of the Freeborn Blades that has a sharp tongue, and even sharper blades. While the Red Scribes are attempting to summon this great power, The Ice Lords undead army shows up and breaks through you ranks, and in to the interior of the temple. It is there that humanities last chance at survival is born.

 While attempting to save one of the Scribes lives, the rite is completed, and a powerful demonic spirit is summoned. It quickly latches itself onto the most powerful creature in the room, which just so happens to be you. Standing in your way is not only the legions of undead, but also your own inner demons. 

 Will you use this new found power of yours to strike fear into the hearts of the masses, and rule with an iron fist? Or will you learn to master your own demons, and channel this power to save the lands? The choice is yours alone, and with a branching story it is fully welcomed, and encouraged to playthrough the way you’d want to.

 Don’t fret however, even though you are the last hope of this dying world. You are joined by other fearless warriors in hopes of saving the world from this evil, each however has their own private agenda. Some would see you become the most noble knight in the land, other would like to see the demon take full hold of your body.

These allies of yours spans all job classes from Mage, Warrior, to Archer. So to be truly successful you will be needing to select the correct companion for the encounters ahead. Now one thing about these companions, is no matter which one you select they will just stand there during battle being completely useless for the most part.

For most of the game, my AI teammates were either unconscious, and playing dead on the ground somewhere. Or they had gotten lost along the way, and left me to due battle by myself. Every now and then they do prove to have their uses. Sybal will heal you even while beating beaten to death, and Edwen will occasionally be able to interrupt an enemies combo.

For the most part you will have to be relying on your own skills to pull you through these sometimes unbalanced battles. I have to admit that the battle system in this game is some of the most fun I’ve had in a third person RPG in quite sometime. It’s fast, fluid, and unrelenting combat makes it quite the “Edge of your seat” experience that makes sure I’ll be revisiting this title down the road.

Another thing that adds additional depth to the combat of this game is the immense customization of not only your weapons, but also your armor. Changing the hilt, or blade of your weapon not only changes the overall appearance of your death machine, but also the damage value, poison effects, or overall speed of your weapon. I spent far to long building the perfect set of weapons, and armor. In the end it defiantly changed the course of battle, and made me feel stronger with each upgrade I made

Besides that, your weapons also governs your primary class. which means that if you are using a brute of a two handed weapon, you will be using your Warrior class. If you decide to change weapons, which can be done in battle by pressing a button, you will switch to your daggers which is quite the bit more nimble all the while switching into your Rouge class and perks. The final class can be accessed by ether of the classes, and that would be the demonic fire power of a Pyromancer.

 Probably the biggest bone I have to pick with this game is it’s god awful voice acting. I felt like I was playing back through one of the earlier Resident Evil titles. Almost every character sounds as if they are speaking in monotone, all while reading off of a cue card. The lack of motivation these supposedly actors had while delivering their lines is mind numbing. 

 The one voice in the game that seems the actress actually tried with is Edwen. Seeing that her characters personality is a smart-mouthed sorceress, combining that with a British actress that reminds one of Christie from DOA, and you have an awesome character.

 Gratefully, to distract you from the less than good voice acting that this game has. The environments are defiantly a treat for the eyes, and looks like they belong on a next-gen platform. Your journeys will take you from deserts, to swamps, into icy barren wastelands. All of which are extremely pleasing to the eyes do to the gorges detail they put into it.

 One thing that sadly did not meet up to par, is the character models. Overall the faces are mid-grade PS3/360 grade visuals, and the you can almost see the polygons on some of the characters body models. Now granted this is for the most part avoided by the well detailed armor that you equip onto your character, but when it comes to Edwen showing a little skin, you almost want to ask the poor girl to cover up.

 Musically, this game has a very interesting original soundtrack that fits it quite nicely, in the sense of a classical sound. One track that sticks out in memory, is the really cool track they use in they last boss battle. Instead of going the normal route of having an epic score kick in right off the bat, they wait until the boss unveils it’s true form, and then proceeds with a silent vocal piece that truly set the desperation of the situation.

 
 While Bound by Flame has a lot of cool, and unique ideas inside of it’s packaging. It is brought down by a number of issues that bring a dim light, to a other wise gym. I think that with a little bit more tweaking, this game could have been something truly memorable.

With its unique “Feat” tree, it challenges the user to overcome in game goals to unlock special perks for their character, or the lengthy crafting system that allows one to dive deep to create the ultimate warrior. This game offers a true RPG experience, mixed with a level of difficulty that will punish your every mistake.

If you can overlook it’s flaws, you will find a fun experience that worthy of a run through, and with the possibility of some of these issues being patched down the road. We could be looking at a game that is worth revisiting a few times.

Bound by Flame is Developed by Spiders and is out on all platforms.

Pros:

• Simple controls that are easy to get used to, in and out of combat.
• A variety of mini-games available from the main menu and towns within the game itself.
• A soundtrack fitting to the setting of the game.
• Precision Points can be used to obtain gold, challenging you to reach an even higher amount to get massive amounts of money.

Cons:

• The game is fairly short, easily completed in just a few hours.
• Limited amount of enemy types encountered throughout the game.
• Precision points are easily lost during combat.
• Limited amount of support items available for purchase.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword, is absolutely a charming game. While it may be difficult at first when you are just learning the basic controls, you easily get adjusted to the basics and are on your way from a tutorial level. While enemies only have a few attacks as the game progresses they have a habit of faking you out to try and make you slip up, allowing them to land a hit.

Starting with just three hearts, or in this case cherry blossom petals, you obtain more life by clearing stages. Every stage you clear gives you half a petal. Upon completion of two stages and forming a whole petal, you get another point of life. In the beginning each enemy attack will only do one heart of damage to you per attack, this quickly changes though as you reach the second area. As you progress through the game enemies will do larger amounts of damage, bosses always doing the most damage per area. This however can be avoided by paying attention to the way an enemy moves.

Certain enemies, such as the basic swordsman, will charge you from a long range and may his rush immediately in front of you making you test your reflex speed when he starts moving again. Archers may fire off a single arrow, or fire several successive arrows to keep you at bay. With the introduction of each enemy, and progression into each stage, you are forced to relearn enemy attack patterns. While projectiles can be slashed it’s also possible to weave between them and progress towards an enemy. Movement in combat is largely limited to strafing and inching forward very slowly, unless you use the dodge function to cover more ground. Successfully dodging an enemy attack and landing a blow on your enemy will add a slight charge to your special attack meter, when it’s full you press Y to unleash a devastating attack on enemies.

Weapon upkeep is important in this game. As demonstrated in the tutorial, when you block too many attacks, or clash with an enemy’s weapon too many times, your sword will break. As your weapon’s condition deteriorates it will do less damage. Fortunately the weapon doesn’t ever truly break, but only goes down to red which indicates it is doing the absolute minimum damage. Using a whetstone, from either of the damaged states of the sword, brings it back up to full damage again. For a fee you can also have a blacksmith in town sharpen your weapon for you, resulting in a dramatic attack and durability boost. The blacksmith is also important as you progress into a new area, where enemies become stronger and require more hits to slay. At each town you visit, the local blacksmith can upgrade your sword increasing its maximum damage.

Visiting towns becomes a necessity, as they are the only places to fully restore your health at an inn. Also present in towns is a shop called Frogs Plus, where you sell your accumulated precision points and can get large amounts of gold to then purchase various helpful items such as whetstones for sharpening your sword, kunai to throw at your enemies and even frogs to gross out an opponent and get them to drop their guard.

The final attraction in towns are street games. Participating in Street Games, challenges issued by specific NPCs in one of the towns located throughout the map, will result in the player obtaining gold or stamps upon successfully completing the mini-game. While gold is used to purchase the necessities of the game, and a few extras, stamps have a single function. Stamps are redeemed for various attack gems, special stones that give your Samurai new special attacks.

The music within this game is truly fitting of the setting, an era of Japan where samurai wander the countryside with sword in hand. While there are only a few tunes to the soundtrack, they are all pleasant to the ear. From the menu to the credits not a single moment of the game is without some accompaniment.

Oddly enough, sometimes dying in this game can be of a benefit to you. When you die a kappa will appear at a random zone of the map. This signifies that the enemies located within the zone will drop abnormal amounts of gold. However, there is a downside to this. Entering any zones besides this one, even a town to recover, results in the kappa disappearing. Leaving you with a choice, do you risk dying again and having the kappa go to an even more difficult area, or do you recover and allow him to vanish. The amount of gold obtained in this manner varies by enemies.

Even with as short as this game is, it’s still fun to go back and see just how high you can get your precision points. Constantly challenging yourself to do better, creating a mini-game in and of itself. The last features of this game are Thug Challenges, mini-games accessed from the main menu in which you try to survive an onslaught of enemies. Then there’s the Rock Garden, utilizing the pedometer located within the 3DS itself, you can dedicate the steps you’ve taken in a day to make cherry blossoms bloom on empty trees in this garden, while it serves no function it is enjoyable to see all your movement in a day rewarded with a beautifully blossoming cherry tree.

• Amazing use of tower defense and stylus based brawler
• Multiple enemy types that provide a fun time period
• Interesting use of the hand-held touchpad for controls
• The 3D depth is well detailed and really shows the 3DS’ graphical capability
• Stages can be revisited to try and power up for later levels

• Difficulty will be too high for most players
• Lack of Difficulty option selector
• Controls for beginners may be complicated
• Lack of in-game currency when starting makes the difficulty for kids too high

Pros:
+ Legitimately freaky.
+ No two games are the same.

Cons:
– Major framerate issues.
– Extremely long load times.
– Very short game.
– Ghosts can be easily fooled/avoided.

(Overview)

We live in an age where smart phones are an extension of our being. You have an app for finding food, love, hotels, movies, etc. You name it it’s always at your fingertips. So what if you where stuck in an abandoned hospital that’s haunted, and all you had with you was your smart phone?

That’s the core mechanic of Daylight, and it is an interesting enough primness to catch my attention, and keep a keen eye out for it’s release. So now that that day has finally come, how does it fare in a market that’s over saturated with survival horror titles?

(Gameplay/Story)

 Something you will notice about this game as soon as it boots up for the first time is the insanely long load times. Now granted, part of this is due to a system that they have in place where each time you start your game, it is a different unique world. (How unique I am not sure of, I only did one run through of this title) Still it is extremely painful to sit through a three minute load screen in today’s next gen world.

As the game opens, you awake on the floor of a abandoned hospital to a mans voice that is calling out to you through your cell phone. He speaks in short cryptic, nonsensical sentences. The message he is trying to relay to you quickly become clear. You are trapped, and there are malevolent spirits all around you that wants nothing more than to kill you.

Your only tool is your smart phone which you use as your flashlight, map, and connection to the outside world. One question I did have while I was playing through this title is why during any point of this game, did Sarah not try calling the cops… Or a priest for that matter. Besides this information, the rest of the story, or back story in all reality is told through notes found throughout the levels. This for the most part, makes it very difficult to follow the story seeing that unless you explore every inch of every level, you’ll never know the full story. Because there are some fairly large parts of the story that is touched on very little, or not at all. Also, even though this voice is directing, not at one point in the game does Sarah try to speak back to him, nor does he reveal any real information until the very end of this game.

Much like other very popular survival horror titles, Daylight features a system where you have no weapons, your only way to defend thy self if via flares that you find along your journey. These flares when activated will burn any spirit that is chasing after you, and will provide an extra amount of light to help you find your way through the maze. You can only hold four at a time, and they can be quite tricky to find for the most part so you do have to make sure that you use them only in situations where there is no way out.

Something I noticed however is that the spirits in this game are almost to easy to avoid, once you learn how too. I remembered from watching a trailer for this game, that it stated “Don’t look back or they’ll get you” now under a hypothetical, crazy, half brained idea. I decided to stop running from said ghosts, or using flares, but instead looking away from whichever way they were coming from, and attempting to pay them no mind. Turns out my plan works; nearly every time from that point out, unless I had to turn around or if one popped in front of me, I was able to avoid them altogether, and not die once.

Now granted, before I found this out I did have a few run in’s, nearly died, a yelped out loud a few times. This game does build quite the tense atmosphere for the most part, and if you do get jumped by ghosts, they are quite the hideous mothers. One of the things admittedly that built more tension for me is the fact that Sarah has a tendency to speak to these entity’s, which is breaking the number one rule of anything horror related. Never acknowledge the prescience of whatever is after you. However she thinks it’s a great idea to entertain this thing by speaking to it every few minutes, which leaves me sitting over hear screaming at my tv to shut up.

The overall goal of the game though feel stolen straight from Slenderman. Gather (x) amount of notes, which each note the spirits will more frequently pop up. You are gathering these notes however to unlock the sypher, which is a item associated with the past of the building, once you get said item you then proceed to the exit. Rinse, wash, repeat. For about three hours that is.

This game, even though entertaining is extremely short clocking in right around the three hour marker on normal difficultly. Gratefully this game is only $15, but still I do feel a little let down. With only four primary zones, (Hospital, sewer, forest, lobby) it feels like the game was very quickly thrown together.

The game is presented in one seamless fashion though which does make it feel more like one long level, or a movie for that fact. When you do move to different zones, it is very clear that the game is loading due to the amount of framerate lag there is. Overall this game runs around 50 frames at all points, but when you get into a new section get ready for it to drop down to the 20’s or less.

(Graphics/Design/Sound)

One of the things that is a real bummer about this game is how the levels are just so bland. They are you standard dark rooms that you would expect out of any survival horror game, not just in the aspect of rooms, but also every environment. Forest are a bland dark green, with creepy leafless trees. Hospital has a bunch of equipment thrown around, as well as flashing lights. Which really just gives you a feeling of, “been there, done that”

I can’t say to much for the characters animations, or how they look as they rarely spend anytime on the screen due to you either running, or burning them with flares. The little glimpses you do get of them is your average, Grudge esq scary lady with long black hair, and blacked eyes. The character themselves though are modeled nicely enough to be pleasant to the eyes, no matter how mortifying they look As for your character… Sarah does have some very manly, man hands; that much can be said

For the environments, as I noted before not only are they very run of the mill in design, but they tend to be very low resolution in animation. This is most notable in the forest level, as the trucks of the trees are extremely jagged, as the ground underneath is a very flat black and green. How this is designed to be a run on a PS4, and not a PS3, or even my Vita for that point is beyond me.

Lastly, something they did do right for the most, sound design. The oppressing prescience that is relayed throughout the levels is perfectly complimented by the heavy breathing of Sarah, as well of the whispers of the deceased constantly throughout the world. When you finally find the Sypher, the noises that it emits make you stop momentarily and question if this item is really here to save you, or bid you more harm.

(Final verdict)

Not going to lie. I was looking forward to this game, and once I got my hands on the finished product I was disappointed. Even before the game even truly started I was running into issues that made me question my purchase.

What could have been an interesting adventure falls short into the land of mediocrity. The inclusion of a mobile device like a cell phone could have brought a whole new way to make players interact with the environments they are in, yet they decided to play it safe and use it as a flashlight.

Even though this game does a good job at painting a brutal picture where it becomes exceedingly easy to become unnerved at, the faults in this game quickly catch up to it making it where the ghosts which at one point seemed to be the girl from The Ring, now seem like nothing else than Slimer from Ghostbusters.

For every one positive this game did like sound design, or atmosphere, there are double the negatives to be found.

I give Daylight for the PS4… A 5.5 out of 10.

Pros:
+ Truly gorgeous artwork
+ Addictive gameplay
+ Perfect party game

Cons:
– No real depth to the game
– Only certain weapons are really worth using
– No online multiplayer

(Overview)

 Cel Damage… What can I say? This one caught me by surprise when it got released. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t even know it was in development, let alone coming out for next-gen consoles. So imagine my surprise when I log into the Sony store and find a heaping wad of nostalgia available for only $8.99 (USD) I don’t think I could have honestly purchased this game any faster, and before you knew it I was reliving one of my favorite games from two generations ago.

 Cel Damage was originally developed by Pseudo Interactive back in 2001 for the PS2, Xbox, and Game cube. Even though the game never hit the level of mainstream success that it’s darker brother did, (Twisted metal & Vigilante 8) it did amass a cult following as well as being one of the first games to truly you it’s art style in a proper way. So seeing that we are smack dab in the middle of the age of re-releases, it’s only fitting that a game that gained marginal success be given the HD treatment over a decade later and have a second chance of capturing a new audiences attention.

(Gameplay/Graphics)

 Cel Damage has a roster of ten different racers, each racer has their own signature weapon, and if that doesn’t cut it for you; you have around thirty different zany weapons to pick up throughout your battle. Anything from grenades, to chainsaws. Mortars, to baseball bats. You name it, you can use it here to bring death and destruction upon your enemies.

 Granted with any destruction game, there are certain weapons that you’ll develop a tendency to gravitate towards. However, part of this reason is due to some weapons being extremely overpowered, making the game feel more like a race to see who can get the best weapon first. Granted this is counterbalanced by each weapon having it’s own unique timer built in, and after (x) amount of time the weapon is forfeit. 

 There are four primary zones that your carnage will take place within. Desert, jungle, graveyard, space. Each level if uniquely designed, and has four sub levels within it. All levels have their own specialty weapons to unlock, as well as level traps for you to take advantage of.  The only draw back with these level, is that they’re kind of small. You’ll quickly be able to cross from one side of the map, to the other before you even realize what’s happened. Granted; part of the reason it was designed in this way, is because of the different game modes, but it still feels surprisingly claustrophobic at some points.

 Speaking of Game modes, this game had three different offerings for you to run through. “Smack Attack” which is it’s destruction derby mode, “Gate Relay” Which is a point-to-point race mode, and “Flag Rally” which is your point capture game type. Each mode does bring something unique to the table, and does keep you entertained. Over time however, you’ll begin to realize how little depth this game really has, and how it feel more like something you’d be playing more at your local arcade, then on your local console.

 Part of the reason this also feels this way, is that there is no online multiplayer what-so-ever. Now don’t get me wrong here. I’m not an advocate for every game needing online multiplayer, but when your game is designed to be played with fiends, or as a party game. Which this game is, on both counts mind you. I would expect a little online interaction to increase the longevity of the title, as well as it being indicative of the product that is being sold. I understand from trailers of the game that the developers wanted to purposely not include online multiplayer, but it does beg to question their motivation behind this move. Was it truly an attempt to re capture localized multiplayer, or was it a way just to cut cost?

 One thing that can said about this game, is that this is one of the best looking cel shaded games on the market, only to be rivaled by Wind Waker. Everything in this game is not only eye popping, but also eye catching. Anything from beautifully animated levels, to just the details that they put into the racers cars is truly a treat for the eyes.

(Final Verdict)

Seeing as Cel Damage didn’t really hit it big the first time around, I was very surprised to see an HD remake.  Pleasantly surprised, but none the less shocked to see it. It seems like so far this next generation of gaming in nothing more then a walk down memory lane, which even though is entertaining, is not quite original or needed.

 The one major thing Cel Damage had always suffered from, even in it’s original release, was the lack of depth to it. While there is a wide assortment of levels, they feel almost put to waste seeing that the primary game mode is not to explore, but to destroy. Keeping you extremely close to one another, and not allowing you a chance to explore. While there is 36 weapons to chose from, only a handful will ever truly be used seeing that this game has some serious balancing issues.

 Sadly, the one thing that could have very well saved this title and made it more than just a mediocre re-hash would have been the one thing they purposely avoided. Online multiplayer. As stated before, not all games need an online portion, but if you game is meant to be a “party esq” title then yes, you need online. It adds a whole extra level of re-playability that otherwise is missing altogether.

Cel Damage HD get’s a… 7.5 out of 10