Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Review
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward is a memorable and enthralling sci-fi/horror adventure that will have you glued to the small screen.
Adventure games are making something of a resurgence lately, thanks in part to the new input methods appearing on consoles and handhelds. Interest in adventure games has also been driven by a number of somewhat less traditional entries in the genre, such as the heavily text-and-image-driven visual-novel-style adventure games from Japan. In 2010, Aksys Games released Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for the DS, a horror-themed adventure game mixing visual-novel-type storytelling scenes and character interaction with puzzle-laden rooms that you needed to escape. The warm reception of that game has now yielded a sequel in Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward--and it's just as enthralling as its predecessor.
Virtue's Last Reward begins with the protagonist, a college student named Sigma, waking up in an elevator next to a strange woman who seems to know more about him than she's letting on. A strange rabbit creature appears on a monitor near them, telling them that they must figure out how to escape the car before it falls. Once they do, they find themselves in an abandoned warehouse with seven other abducted individuals. The creature appears again, telling them that they must all play the Ambidex game to escape their industrial prison. The Ambidex game involves puzzles, traps, and important decisions to either trust or betray your fellow players.
The penalty for losing or failing to comply is death, or possibly an even worse fate. The game is divided into two distinct sections. As Sigma, you team up with groups of your fellow captives and explore various rooms in this mysterious facility. These rooms are the escape portion of the game: you investigate a room for items, clues, and puzzles to solve, piecing things together until you are finally able to unlock a safe containing an item to allow you to exit.
The story- and dialogue-heavy portions of the game are the novel portions, which appear in between the escape sections and elaborate on the various mysteries the game presents. The game's use of the term "novel" to refer to these sections is apt: there's a massive amount of text in Virtue's Last Reward, but because the writing is superb and the voice-over work for the supporting cast (available in both English and Japanese) is excellent, the hours upon hours of dialogue you page through are a pleasure to experience.
The quality of storytelling is a key factor in an adventure game, and Virtue's Last Reward passes that test with flying colors. The game's plot immediately grabs you and rarely lets go, expertly going from a creepy horror premise to an interpersonal character drama to mind-blowing sci-fi concepts. The promise of unraveling the many mysteries--Why are we here? Who are these other people? What purpose do the Ambidex game and the room puzzles serve? What is this facility?--keeps you engaged, and the many new mysteries that appear throughout give you even more reasons to keep playing for hours on end as solutions dangle tantalizingly in front of you, just beyond the reach of the next puzzle.
Liberation Maiden Review
Liberation Maiden is a striking action-packed shoot-'em-up that's up there with the best in the genre.
In New Japan, being president isn't all diplomatic lunches, trade meetings, and the odd cigar-based mishap; for Shoko, it's a far greater challenge. The fate of the world rests on her shoulders and those of her sleek, hyper-fast, fully loaded mech. And together, they're out to save the planet, one action-packed shootout at a time. But knowing that certainly isn't a requisite for getting the most out of Liberation Maiden, even if it's told via some striking anime. Nor does it matter that her enemies--hulking Conduit Spikes that dwarf her tiny mech--are tearing the planet apart from the inside out. No, what really matters is the action. And, boy, does Liberation Maiden have some of the best and most exciting action on the 3DS.
This is classic bullet-hell shooting, done with an attention to detail and finesse that make it a joy to play from start to finish. And it's done without totally relying on classic shoot-'em-up tropes either. For starters, you're not on rails; the third-person viewpoint and tight controls allow you to explore each of the game's levels with ease. The circle pad controls your movement, holding down the left trigger allows you to strafe, and poking the touch screen with the stylus targets enemies and unleashes attacks.
It's a simple setup that works brilliantly throughout each of the game's five stages--particularly as those stages are so well designed to begin with. Small islands covered with skyscrapers and concrete buildings float in a large expanse of blue water, encouraging you to fly between them and explore. There's not much to see, however, except for a lot of things to blow up. Each island is filled with all manner of enemies. Some fire easily dodged lasers at you. Others fire streams of pink energy blobs that require deft reflexes to escape. And there are those--like submarines and warships--that fire homing missiles at you, filling the screen with dozens of tiny rockets all intent on blowing you to smithereens.
It's in those moments, when everything turns into absolute chaos, that Liberation Maiden comes into its own. Your mech is armed with a regenerating energy beam and shield, and the two are intrinsically linked. Each of your shots depletes one bar from your shield, and if you get hit, you lose a shot. It's this mechanic that forces you to think about each and every action as you fight. You can target enemies easily by swiping around the touch screen and unleashing gloriously colourful laser attacks, but do so too much, and you leave yourself open to attack. This system results in some frantic and wholly compelling action as you dodge and fire and studiously analyse all of your movements.
And there are other things to consider too. High-score chasers will want to link together as many shots as possible for chain combos that increase the score multiplier. These combos also add more shots and shield bars to your arsenal, which gives you more opportunities to strike and defend. If you want to generate the biggest bang possible, holding down the stylus on the touch screen charges up your weapon, allowing you to unleash huge energy bolts that tear through the opposition in one shot, albeit at the cost of your shields.
There's a structure to the destruction, though, with missions being relayed to you via radio commands from headquarters. Most of the time you're asked to chase down Conduit Spikes. Lesser Spikes are found on certain islands in each level and are usually surrounded by masses of heavily armed enemies. They're not easy to beat, thanks to multiple weak points that all need to be destroyed, but the challenge is a welcome one. Strafing around them, avoiding enemy fire, launching shots of your own, and figuring out what to target first--the surrounding enemies or the Spike--is wonderfully compelling, and a testament to how tightly integrated the controls and level design are.
There are smaller side missions to take on too, such as having to blow up a set of bridges within 30 seconds or hunt around for a secret enemy weapon. But the biggest challenge comes from the Greater Spikes, the boss battles of the game. There the viewpoint changes, and your movements are limited to strafing around the Spike and dodging up and down. Each boss has a different attack to avoid: one throws rocks and other debris your way, another fires lasers, and the meanest of the lot throws up shields, unleashes a giant robot, and burns through the environment with huge energy beams that tear through your tiny mech with ease.
The bosses are certainly a challenge, and you might not make it past them on the first go, particularly if you're too gung ho and don't analyse their attack patterns. But they are a lot of fun, and a satisfying conclusion to each level. It's a shame, then, that there are only five levels to play through, and you can easily whizz through them in one very enjoyable sitting. Of course, you can go back and reply each stage for high-score bragging rights via the Stage Attack mode, but without online leaderboards, the victory is a hollow one.
Still, Liberation Maiden isn't a full-priced release either, and its thoroughly entertaining content makes its Nintendo eShop download price a bargain--this is easily one of the best downloadable games for the 3DS. While it's certainly a tad short, in every other respect Liberation Maiden feels like a premium game thanks to its sharp, colourful visuals and its supremely compelling gameplay.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Review
In Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, thoughtful puzzle design shows that the series is still at the top of its game.
Despite the killer robots, masked megalomaniacs, and evil scientists in Professor Layton's universe, there's something endearing about a place in which all problems can be solved with a puzzle. If solving a riddle could defuse any situation, the world might very well be a better place. This kind of whimsical concept, coupled with a charming plot, is one of the largest appeals of the Layton games. And thankfully, that charm remains intact in Professor Layton & The Miracle Mask. The series' shift to 3DS has allowed developer Level-5 to revitalise the top hat-wearing hero, casting him in a bewitching new outing that makes fantastic use of the 3DS hardware with clever, rewarding puzzles and imaginative visuals. Miracle Mask is Layton at his intellectual best, and this thrilling adventure proves that he still has what it takes to crack the toughest of cases.
The plot of Miracle Mask follows on from last year's Spectre's Call (known as Last Specter in the US), with Layton, Luke, and Emmy being summoned to the mysterious tourist town of Monte d'Or, a Las Vegas-like city in the middle of a vast, arid desert in England. Clearly, Level-5 are happy to use some creative license in regards to UK geography, but that's part of the charm. The neon glowing signs and bustling main streets of Monte d'Or stand in stark contrast to Layton's academia and Luke's 19th century Cockney chimney sweep demeanor.
If it seems unusual to wax lyrical about the locations in a Layton game, all becomes clear once you see Monte d'Or rendered in glorious 3D. Gone are the (admittedly gorgeous) 2D backdrops, replaced by bustling three-dimensional areas that are rendered in a way that shows off the 3DS's more subtle capabilities. Areas appear on the top screen while you slide your pointer around using the touch screen, allowing you to peer left and right, up and down in 3D. The magnifying glass cursor pops into and out of the screen, disappearing off into the distance as you examine a building at the end of the street, then jumping to the foreground as you scroll over a character standing by you. At first, the new control method feels inaccurate since you're dragging and not tapping, but very soon it becomes second nature, and the tiny loss in accuracy is a fair trade-off given how great the system is.
This neat system even creates an illusion of depth with the 3D turned off by tilting the image and adjusting the cursor size. You can zoom in on points in the environment, often in order to peer around or behind objects. There's a real feeling of the world coming to life, and the use of 3D space is some of the most impressive to date on the handheld.
Additionally, the characters are now three dimensional models. This change allows for more cinematic moments, with in-engine cutscenes cropping up that enable the characters to interact with each other a little more dynamically than the traditional Layton method of putting conversing characters on either side of the screen, although there's still plenty of that too. Thankfully though, Level-5 hasn't done away with the gorgeous 2D animated cinematics either, and the fabulous Layton art style looks better than ever in subtle 3D.
Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion Review
Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is a great platformer with inventive level design and a colourful cast of classic Disney characters.
Don't let the cutesy good looks and eclectic collection of Disney characters fool you: Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is a ruthless platformer. Like the classic Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion games it's inspired by, there's little in the way of hand-holding as you're pushed through its smart, well-designed levels and asked to save the world with little more than a stomp and a paintbrush. And while the tight platforming is a wonderful thing, it's Power of Illusion's role-playing elements, such as side quests, shops, and a leveling system (albeit, a basic one), that make it such a rich experience.
It helps that there's a story tying the whole thing together, which draws from both the older games and Mickey's latest outings in the Epic Mickey series. Oswald once again summons Mickey to the Wasteland--a sort of limbo for forgotten cartoon characters--except this time he needs Mickey's help. The evil witch Mizrabel's Castle of Illusion has suddenly appeared, and cartoon characters across the Wasteland are disappearing fast. It's up to you to enter the castle, search its rooms, find the missing toons, and take down Mizrabel once and for all.
To do so, you have a number of special abilities at your disposal. You can spin to take down enemies, fire blobs of paint and thinner at them, or bounce off their heads. It's the latter that makes the platforming so satisfying, thanks to tight controls and a neat mechanic that rewards you for riskier attacks. If you leave your bounce attack to the very last second--just before you come into contact with an enemy--you gain a super-bounce, which leads to more item drops and sends you skyrocketing to access secret or difficult-to-reach areas.
Each room in the castle is based on a classic Disney franchise such asPeter Pan, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. There's a great attention to detail at play that makes levels not only a joy to look at, but a joy to play. The vast ships of the Peter Pan levels give you plenty of room to jump around, while cannons and barrel-rolling henchmen provide obstacles for you to duck and weave your way through.
The Little Mermaid levels are more constrained, with tight, jellyfish-filled tunnels and rows of spikes requiring precise movements to make it through safely. While Mickey has unlimited lives and can take multiple hits before his health bar is depleted, getting killed during a level sends you straight back to the beginning. That can be frustrating, particularly during some of the extremely challenging levels in the latter half of the game, but the sweetness of the platforming inspires you to give it just one more go.
Aside from traditional platforming obstacles such as spikes, fireballs, and moving platforms, Power of Illusion also makes use of the touch screen in some inventive ways. It shows an outline of the platforms on the level, as well as objects you can interact with. Some, like cannons that fire you into the air, can be drawn in by following a specific outline, giving you access to new areas. Or you can remove obstacles like blocks by using thinner. The puzzles aren't overly taxing, but the fact that you have to stop what you're doing and peer down at the touch screen to solve them means they sometimes interfere with the smooth of flow of the platforming. There are bonuses for solving them, though, with a neat reward system giving you bonus paint, thinner, and a temporary speed boost for accurate drawing or erasing.
Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure Review
Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure is an enchanting rhythm adventure that really brings the funk.
UK REVIEW--It has long been a theory that anything can be improved with choreographed dance routines. The people at Sega are champions of this cause. Space Channel 5, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, and evenBayonetta manage to get in on the action. Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure, Sega’s latest foray into the world of funk, is an immensely fun musical adventure around the streets of Paris, mixing various rhythm-action minigames with some light point-and-click adventuring.
The game opens in true flamboyant Broadway style as hero Phantom R greets you with a dance-off. After a brief introduction, you're instantly tapping, swiping, and circling the touch screen in time to a troupe of dancers on the upper screen. Single-screen instructions appear before this (and every) minigame, removing any barrier to getting started. It's hard not to fall in love with a game that begins with you strutting your stuff atop the Arc de Triomphe.
Then the story gets going. Phantom R, real name Raphael, is Paris' most wanted thief. With cops hot on his trail, he breaks into art galleries and museums, stealing their priceless treasures and generally making a fool of Paris' most highly strung detective. He warns the law first, of course. Phantom R is all all about spectacle. After all, you can't have a dance-off without an audience. It soon becomes clear that there's a little more to Phantom R's behavior than just plain villainy, however. Aided by his dog Fondue and mysterious violinist Marie, Phantom R sets about uncovering a citywide conspiracy and foiling the plan of the recently resurrected Napoleon Bonaparte.
It's all very silly and over the top, and this gels perfectly with the style of the numerous minigames on offer. You won't just be swiping in dance-offs. There's plenty of variety, from rhythmically sneaking behind statues and tapping the corresponding colored button to the beat, to cooking broccoli and steak in time to music. There are platforming segments, as if Cameo met Canabalt, where you tap the face buttons to spring from highlighted spots. There are minigames that use the 3DS's gyro controls (and the game has the sense to disable the 3D effects during these), a few games, which would be a shame to detail in advance, are even based on existing Sega IPs. Then there's the wonderful series of violin minigames--laid out like Guitar Hero--that see you swiping the stylus back and forth in time with Marie's bowing.
Most of the minigame types are repeated, but the rhythms and forms they take are different to the point that the reuse of gametypes is never unwelcome. The music is wonderful; it's a mixture of original pieces and new arrangements of classical tunes. Action plays out on the top screen, and you have audio cues, the characters' own actions, and an optional button guide to aid your timing. None of the games are challenging enough to become frustrating, although you can purchase power-ups before each minigame that either speed your performance meter's increase or slow its decrease. If you're finding things too easy, there's also an optional feature that requires you to perfect the minigame before you can proceed.
