Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition Review
The Wii U-specific additions put a few chinks in the Caped Crusader's costume, but Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition is still a great action adventure game.
In last year's Batman: Arkham City, the Caped Crusader faced one of the greatest adventures yet in his legendary career. Now, that game has made its way onto the Wii U as Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition. The new touches added here don't contribute much to the experience, and occasionally risk interfering with it, so there's no reason to buy this version if you have access to others. However, the Wii U version is still an excellent game, one that's absolutely worth playing if you haven't yet stepped into the batsuit and explored the open-air superprison of Arkham City.
Faced with a criminal housing crisis in the wake of the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the city of Gotham has fallen on dark times. Certain unscrupulous characters took advantage of the crisis by acquiring the run-down neighborhood of North Gotham, walling it off from the rest of the city, and tossing criminals in there to fend for themselves. It's an inhumane and immoral operation; food and warmth are scarce, and some inmates are people whose only crime was voicing a negative opinion of Arkham City and those who run it.
But their misfortune is your gain. The area of several city blocks that makes up the superprison isn't especially vast as open worlds go, but what it lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in atmospheric detail. Arkham City is home to an old courthouse, a former police headquarters, a musty museum, a disused subway terminal, and other fascinating places. These structures, with their faded portraits, old billboards, and plentiful other features, convey a sense of history, and the art direction that makes this vision of Gotham so fantastic is in full effect on the Wii U.
Batman has no choice but to explore the alleyways and underground tunnels of North Gotham. Within the prison's walls, Joker is dying, and the villain's schemes force the Dark Knight to help him find a cure. That quest brings Batman into contact with the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and numerous other members of Batman's rogues' gallery. Each character is represented terrifically, with plenty of nods to their histories as established in the comics, and part of the fun of progressing through the story lies in seeing what character might make an appearance next. The excellent Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their roles as Batman and the Joker, heading up an ensemble of voice actors who never miss a beat.
Naturally, Batman's errand brings him into constant conflict with the many thugs and lowlifes lurking in the shadows of Arkham City. The game's combat is outstanding; there's a rhythm to chaining together your strikes and counters, and successfully keeping a chain going for a while is immensely satisfying. Your attacks are accompanied by terrific animations that look simultaneously graceful and brutal, and the increasingly varied configurations of enemies you encounter as the game progresses require you to frequently alter your tactics.
Of course, thugs with shields, blades, and body armor are one thing; enemies with guns are something else entirely. Batman is tough, but far from invulnerable, and when faced with such firepower, it's time for him to rely on stealth. Batman has an assortment of sneaky techniques at his disposal, all of which are great fun to use. Crawl up to an enemy from behind, and you can take him down silently. By hanging from a gargoyle, you can ensnare an unsuspecting enemy below with an inverted takedown. The excellent sound design adds tension to these stealthy standoffs, with bad guys becoming increasingly frightened as you pick off their buddies one by one.
One addition to the Wii U version of Arkham City does take some of the bite out of combat, though. Batman's suit now comes equipped with what's called Battle Armored Tech mode, or B.A.T. As you fight enemies, your suit stores up kinetic energy, and once you have a full charge, you can trigger B.A.T., which makes your blows do twice as much damage and activates a visual filter that highlights enemy positions. Part of what made the combat in Arkham City so involving was that every strike mattered and that Batman was fragile enough that missing a counter could be a costly mistake. Being able to do more damage at set times means you can worry about precision a little less, and this eliminates the exciting balance that combat previously maintained. Of course, you're free to just ignore B.A.T. and not use it, but you can't turn it off entirely.
Another silly addition to Armored Edition is sonar, which lets you see indications of nearby enemy positions, as well as the locations of nearby collectible Riddler trophies, on the GamePad screen. Batman's detective vision, which lets you see through walls and easily spot any enemies in the area, is much more useful than glancing between the GamePad and the television to plan your next move, and manually spotting and tagging those Riddler trophies you don't know how to snag just yet is far more involving than letting the sonar do it for you.
Other implementations of the Wii U's GamePad to perform certain functions are more sensible, but don't appreciably improve the experience. When Batman investigates a crime scene, for instance, you can now move the GamePad around to search for clues; it's a nice option, but hardly a meaningful addition. Similarly, you can tap the GamePad to detonate explosive gel if you prefer that to the button command. Armored Edition's best use of the GamePad is not in the gameplay at all, but in the sound design. Now, radio transmissions, and all the enemy chatter that Batman intercepts, come through the GamePad's speaker, giving them a distinct, crackly sound.
New Super Mario Bros. U Review
New Super Mario Bros. U is an amazing jump start for Mario's 2D platforming career. It incorporates the best elements from the classics and mixes them into the New Super Mario Bros. formula, revamping the subseries' reputation for bland level design and menial difficulty.
As a whole, Story mode is a blend of joyful speed-run-friendly courses and precision-based platforming puzzles. It's the same balance of freedom and challenge that defined legendary entries like Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3, and it's the backbone of New Super Mario Bros. U's success. Also here are branching paths, a sprawling world map, and the overall sense of wonder that comes from exploring every last corner of the modern Mushroom Kingdom for secrets and alternate exits.
The first half of the game is a relative playground; troublesome enemies are at a minimum, power-ups are plentiful, and the environments are generally forgiving. Even at their easiest, the earlier stages are still enjoyable because their compositions lend themselves to acrobatic displays of triple-jumps and power-up-fueled maneuvers.
Sprinting through the first few worlds is carefree and instills confidence. Eventually, however, such hubris must give way to patience and awareness lest you squander all your remaining lives. The game's rise in difficulty is easy to miss, seamlessly transitioning from a light romp to a challenging test of perseverance.
Should you continue to fail multiple times in a given stage, the Super Guide box appears granting you a demonstration of Luigi completing the level, or allowing you to bypass the stage completely, though you may choose to forge ahead on your own. When failure persists despite your best efforts, the addition of a second player on the GamePad becomes a very attractive option. By using the touch screen, a second player can place up to four platforms at a time within a level, and can also stun enemies and interact with elements in the environment.
Where New Super Mario Bros. Wii's co-op was often frustrating and useful only on occasion, the touch screen method employed here affords an experience that rewards teamwork. There are still ways that the "ghost" player on the tablet controller can interrupt Mario's flow and ruin the experience, and this opens up delightful opportunities for the tablet holder to make a little mischief. Deviously obstructing a player's progress can be as amusing as virtuously helping them to victory, and every player should be sure to take a turn with the tablet. Up to five people may participate at a time when four Wii Remotes are used, and roles can be switched from the world map without having to exit to the main menu.
Mass Effect 3: Special Edition Review
The horrid creature standing before you might be a disgusting monstrosity, but you once spared this beast's entire species from annihilation. Do you do so once more, and risk losing a valued squad members and a crucial alliance? Or do you allow an even greater threat to destroy it--effectively committing genocide--so you might make a speedy exit, even though this creature's assistance could turn the tide of a vital galactic battle? In Mass Effect 3, such choices loom large, and not simply because there are many of factors to consider. Your actions often guide the course of events to come, sometimes in ways that see the loss of those nearest and dearest to your heart.
How deeply you grieve those losses depends on whether or not you have played Mass Effect and its sequel, and how close you've grown to the inhabitants of their irresistible universe. This is the first time this role-playing/shooter hybrid series has appeared on a Nintendo console, and it's possible you haven't played a Mass Effect game before. If so, you're at a disadvantage: without a connection to the wonderful characters that have already crossed the playable hero's path, you may place less weight on their ultimate fates. Yet even without that previous connection, it's hard not to be drawn to your comrades in arms. Every character leaps off the screen, thanks to top-notch voice acting and great facial animations that effectively communicate the sting of sorrow and the rush of victory.
Nevertheless, leaping blindly into the final installment of a beloved trilogy requires a degree of faith, and the game at least allows newcomers to catch up on the spacefaring series' plot developments via an interactive comic that has you making a number of decisions that determine the state of the universe prior to beginning the game proper. The attractive comic covers key plot points, and benefits from an outstanding narration. And while it's no substitute for dozens of hours' worth of dramatic storytelling and exciting gameplay, the comic gets the job done as well as could be expected.
Whether or not you're new to the series, it's hard not to be taken in by Mass Effect 3's narrative. You play as the customizable Commander Shepard, galactic hero and star of the first two games. Galactic tensions are high: a sentient race of starships known as reapers are eager to harvest organic species and turn their vibrant planetary homes into lifeless husks. After a short exposition, an opening combat scenario cleverly combines the "big" of a reaper attack on Earth with the "small" of a single death. While there is plenty of action, the game continually subverts expectation. Every so often, the shooting heats up, only to lead to a climax that comes not in the form of an explosion or a boss fight, but in a simple quiet conversation, or a few limping steps.
The reapers aren't your only adversary in Mass Effect 3: the pro-human organization known as Cerberus, led by the Illusive Man, complicates the conflict. Your ultimate goal is to rid the galaxy of the reaper threat with the use of a superweapon, yet the Illusive Man has different ideas and goes to some disturbing lengths to implement them. Discovering his goals and means is one of Mass Effect 3's better story threads, in part because the Illusive Man is such a strong presence. Actor Martin Sheen brings a calm, chilling strength to the character, but also exudes a touch of vulnerability when the Illusive Man is forced to confront his own demons.
Much has already been made of Mass Effect 3's controversial finale, so you should note that the Special Edition incorporates the Extended Cut ending, which closes some holes left open when the game was originally released on other platforms. And even if you feel ambivalent toward its ending, Mass Effect 3 is hardly lacking in memorable moments. The choices you make during story scenes using the game's dialogue wheel have dramatic implications, and entire quests, conversations, and characters shift as a result of your actions. Other consequences are less sweeping but still emotionally affecting; a lover might fondly recall her previous entanglement with you, while still supporting your new romantic interest, for instance.
As a result, you might be delighted by characters other players never meet, share intimate talks with crewmates other players never interact with, and deal with decisions other players never make. Your entire attitude, governed by Mass Effect 3's morality system (paragon versus renegade) when choosing dialogue options, can drive you to conclusions other players could never consider. Rising personal tensions are enhanced by the game's ominous visual identity. A raging storm encroaches, giving battle an even greater sense of urgency. The sheer darkness of a subterranean ruin enhances the sense of danger. The art is effective, with touches of blue and crimson contrasting the cool apathy of space with the passions of its fearful residents. The Wii U release holds up rather well against the others, with only a few frame rate dips and less-saturated colors sullying an otherwise fluid and attractive experience.
Mass Effect 3 packs in plenty of excitement between story developments. The action plays out as a typical third-person cover shooter, with special tech and biotic powers livening up the core shooting. Mass Effect 3 provides a huge supply of guns and weapon modifications. There are five weapon types and loads of choices within those types, each with its own pros and cons. You find weapons and mods in mission areas and can purchase them from vendors on the space station known as the Citadel or from a terminal on your ship, the Normandy SR-2. You don't just need to consider your play style when choosing weapons prior to battle--you also need to consider how their weight might affect your ability to perform biotic and tech skills. The heavier your loadout, the less often you can send the bad guys flying into the air.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II Review
The past and the future meet on many levels in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In the campaign, you relive the events that made a man into a villain, then fight to avert his plans for future catastrophe. The competitive multiplayer offers the same frenetic intensity of past games in the series while providing a new way to play that subverts the history of these hallowed online battlefields. And the Wii U finally lets owners of a Nintendo console experience the visual fidelity that players on other consoles have enjoyed for years, adding some novel ways to experience the action courtesy of the GamePad. Poised between past and future, Black Ops II finds solid footing, providing another great ride on the Call of Duty rollercoaster.If you played Call of Duty on the Wii, you can stick with your preferred control scheme here as the game supports the Wii Remote with either the Nunchuk or the Classic Controller. The new pro controller is also a great option, but the GamePad offers a few appealing novelties. Most notably, you can play the game entirely on the tablet screen, leaving your TV free for other uses. The screen shows a good amount of detail and runs at a smooth frame rate, making is possible to enjoy any game mode. It does have drawbacks, however, as the small screen area can make it tougher to spot mid-range foes and the button placement on the comparatively bulky GamePad take some getting used to.
This feature can also be used while someone else is playing on the television, enabling each player to have their own screen. You can team up or face-off in competitive multiplayer, both online and off, as well as take on the cooperative zombies mode. If you have a sizable main screen, you might be better off sticking with splitscreen play, but the added versatility of the GamePad is an asset to this version of the game.
As in the other versions, the ride starts off a bit rough as the game makes good on its pre-campaign warning of graphic content (which also lets you opt out of said content). Two early scenes linger on people burning alive, and while one ends up contributing to character development, the other is just gratuitous. Later cutscenes don't flinch from depicting gory violence, though of all the unpleasant sights you see throughout the story, the playful (and not at all gory) post-credits video might be the most appalling.
Fortunately, the campaign boasts an engaging story and a lot of entertaining action. It features the lead characters from the original Call of Duty: Black Ops, and though it references events from the past, a clear narrative thread emerges that is easy to follow. You jump between two time periods: the present, which is the year 2025, and the past, which spans about a decade during the Cold War. The narrative reflections of the elderly Frank Woods (a protagonist from Black Ops) weave these two timelines together, but the character that truly drives the story is the villain, Raul Menendez. During the Cold War missions, you follow Menendez's origin story and rise to power. In the 2025 missions, you desperately try to avert his catastrophic master plan. This parallel character development is deftly handled, infusing your missions with undercurrents of curiosity and urgency.
Things get even more intense when you are asked to make a choice. Press one button to kill a target, the other to let him live. The conditions of each choice vary and there are only a few of them, but even when you aren't responding to a prompt, you might be making a choice in a dramatic moment that will have consequences later. The main course of the campaign remains constant, but these decisions do affect the fate of some key characters. A few of these moments are sure to give you pause, adding some welcome weight to the proceedings, and there's a handy story rewind feature that lets you play earlier levels in order to see how different paths play out. There are also mission-specific challenges that give you ancillary goals to complete while you do so, further increasing the replay incentive.
You can also see some variance in the available strike missions, which are a new type of campaign level. These stages put you in a squad of soldiers and drones, and then let you choose which asset to control at any given time. Defending installations against enemy assault, escorting a convoy, and rescuing a hostage are some of the endeavors you might undertake. Though you have a team at your command, strike missions are still all about you gunning down foes. Your AI allies are only good at slightly hindering your enemies, so you end up doing the heavy lifting yourself, often while tracking activity on multiple fronts and hopping around to deal with advancing enemies. Having to consider the bigger picture is a nice change of pace for a series that has mostly involved just shooting what's in front of you, and these missions are a welcome shot in the arm for the familiar campaign pacing.
Of course, familiar as it may be, that pacing is still great. The campaign ebbs and flows as you move through a variety of diverse, detailed environments using an array of powerful weaponry to dispatch your foes, occasionally hopping into a jet or on to a horse for a short jaunt, or manning a missile turret to tame a swarm of hostile drones. A few neat gadgets and surprising gameplay moments satisfy the novelty quotient, but you still get the lingering feeling that you've done this all before. The new strike missions, dramatic decision points, and memorable villain help keep this concern at bay, however, and this feisty, enjoyable romp is more enticing to replay than other recent Call of Duty campaigns.
Darksiders II Review
The Wii U version of Darksiders II may suffer from some additional technical hitches, but this vast adventure is so absorbing, it's still easy to lose yourself in its oppressive world. And what a world it is, with architecture so sharp that every spire threatens to puncture the heavens and make them bleed. You needn't worry about too many confusing story details if you missed out on the original Darksiders: this sequel's narrative isn't so much about plot as it is about place and tone. And that tone is what sets Darksiders II apart. The skies are ominous, the armor is impossibly chunky, and the game's star--Death himself--speaks with gravelly, somber tones, save a few moments of sarcastic humor that betray his agitation.
This port isn't the finest way to lose yourself in Darksiders II's fantastical universe, however. On the bright side, the Wii U release includes Argul's Tomb, downloadable content delivered for the earlier versions. The tomb isn't Darksiders at its best, with a protracted shooting segment lasting too long to be fun. (Though to be fair, you could take the melee approach in spite of all the guns scattered around.) This content can be accessed at any time, and provides you with the abilities necessary to complete it if you haven't unlocked them in the main campaign. But significantly, the game suffers from some frame rate problems, distracting loading times as you move through the overworld, and longer loading times when opening doors than in the other iterations.
Technical hiccups aside, Wii U owners get the same experience as everyone else, though with some gamepad tweaks: menus are accessible on the touch screen, special abilities can be (but don't have to be) activated by touching their icons, and tilting the pad changes your direction when swimming and pushing boulders. As for the basic mechanics, an icy opening introduces you to combat and movement. In traditional action game style, you slash away at clawed creatures with primary and secondary weapons. You run along walls and jump across beams like a devilish Prince of Persia. There are also role-playing elements: your enemies drop coins, armor, and weapons. You can don equipment, sell it to a merchant, or sacrifice it to level up rare possessed weapons, which you can customize at certain thresholds.
Darksiders II is clearly reminiscent of other games you have probably played. It recalls the structure of The Legend of Zelda, the parkour of Prince of Persia, and even the dimension-bending puzzles of Portal. Yet in spite of how heavily it wears its inspirations, Darksiders II establishes an identity all its own. The game's large scope and thoughtful pace allow you to breathe between battles, and each new mechanic has time to settle in before a new one is introduced. The leisurely sense of pace is obvious in the first level, where you can take in the frozen chasms beneath you, and enjoy the slick motion mechanics that have you defying gravity in heady flights of fancy.
If you played the original Darksiders, you might miss the up-front barrage of action at first, but Darksiders II is more about adventure than constant onslaught, though there are plenty of battles waiting ahead. As you ride your steed to the first main dungeon, you can relish the green fields of the first of multiple major regions, and simply enjoy the act of being. If you want, you can explore some of the surrounding ruins, where treasure chests protect valuable pauldrons and cloaks. Or you can slash up the baddies that roam the land, even from atop your horse. But once you get into the dungeons, Darksiders II becomes special--more cerebral than your average action game, and more energetic than your average exploration game.
As expected, each dungeon requires that you puzzle out how to get from one point to the next. At first, this involves scaling walls, throwing the naturally occurring bombs you stumble upon, and pulling a few levers. Then, you get a phantom grapple hook that allows you to swing from glowing hooks and extend your wall runs. Later, you split yourself in three, petrifying your main form and using two doppelgangers to stand on switches and move platforms. Ultimately, you fire portals to travel across great ravines and even through time itself--and these are hardly the extent of the tools you use to make progress through Darksiders II's clever self-contained puzzles.
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