What I Liked:
Great Art Style
Fun, solid gameplay
Consistently amusing writing

What I Disliked:
Can sometimes feel “plodding”
Not enough variety
Some issues with the UI (Text particularly)

Costume Quest is the first downloadable title from Double Fine, creators of games such as Brutal Legend and the acclaimed Psychonauts. This game marks a somewhat radical departure from the norm for the studio, as it is the first title from the company not having been directed by Tim Schaffer. In his stead, animator Tasha Harris takes the lead, and crafts an utterly spellbinding RPG that in some ways feels like a call-back to games such as Super Mario RPG, and yet manages to feel fresh and inviting at every turn.

The game takes place on Halloween, and the player is tasked with rescuing either your Brother or Sister, depending on which sibling you choose to play as at the beginning of the game. Once the other sibling has been kidnapped, then the game truly begins, with the player embarking on a number of quests of various lengths and levels of simplicity, with the eventual showdown with an evil witch proving extremely entertaining.

At its core, Costume Quest is a traditional RPG, with the costumes you’re bound to collect taking the form of classes and jobs. The Unicorn is a great healer, and the Giant Robot can deliver some pretty punishing attacks all of his own. The mixing and matching of costumes in your party allows the game to really thrive in the battles, as you are also able to equip one stamp to each of your costumes, in order to provide yourself with a variety of status or attack enhancements. The game really does feel like an RPG in the vein of any of the Mario RPG’s, with witty dialogue and fun battle mechanics forming the bread and butter of the game. The battle system isn’t just an “attack, and watch an animation play out” affair, as the game will ask you to perform rudimentary actions, such as spinning the analogue stick, in order to deal extra damage to a foe.

It’s outside of these battles, however, that Costume Quest can sometimes feel awkward. There is a distinct lack of variety in the game’s environments, and while the locations themselves may be varied, the activities you’ll take part in within them could have used a bit more variety. While the core quest is entertaining, and provides some great scenarios, the rest of the game feels like content intended to pad out the play time, which clocked in at roughly 6 hours for me, which is a perfectly acceptable length for a downloadable title.

Costume Quest is a great game, with some issues holding it back from being a fantastic one. The text in the game is somewhat small, so if you’re planning on playing this one on a SDTV, I’m not sure how readable the text will be. Also, it stays on the screen for a comparably short time, so I hope you’re a fast reader. With a little bit more variety, it could have been a shining example of the genre. As it stands, it’s a great title, with a unique setting. If that alone grabs your interest, then I wholeheartedly recommend buying it.

For more information on our reviews, read our Review Policy.

What I Liked:

• Deep combat system staves off repetition

• Animation and sound are fantastic
• Co-op mode is a fun addition, and runs parallel to main story

What I Disliked:

• It’s over far too soon

• Story is there, but mainly in the background.
• Art style sometimes gets in the way of gameplay

Shank is brutal, dark, and entirely humorless in its execution. This tale of a lone man out for revenge is certainly not for the faint of heart, but Shank stands on its own 2 feet from a gameplay standing.

At its heart, Shank is a brawler, but with a combo system far deeper than you’d expect. The core gameplay feels surprisingly like a two dimensional version of popular games like Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden, with button mashing abandoned in favor of rhythmic patterns and a graceful system of dodging and blocking. These systems combine to make shank an altogether more fluid game than you’d expect it to be, with the fantastic visuals only serving to highlight the unique animations that accompany each weapon’s many combos.

On the subject of visuals, Shank is one of the most visually arresting games I’ve seen in quite some time. The animations are beautifully fluid, and the sounds that accompany each shot and slice are brilliantly realized. Screenshots of Shank are unable to do justice to its fantastic Tarantino-esque style, as the game looks absolutely stunning in motion, with visual effects adding to a superb overall package, especially the vignetting at the edges of the screen, which adds a film-like quality to the animation, along with the dramatic slowing down of the action whenever Shank pounces on an enemy. If I have one complaint about the art style, it’s that it sometimes gets in the way of the actual game, with the player unable to break out of some animations, leading to situations where I lost over half my health due to enemies being able to juggle me into oblivion.

Shank is a short game, with the main campaign taking me only 3 hours and 24 minutes to complete (the game keeps score). There is a full co-op campaign however, with a story that acts as a prequel to the main quest. However, I wasn’t able to complete the co-op campaign, as there is no online play, with local only being a particular sticking point, as nobody in my household was able to get the hang of my game, though the cat came particularly close to completing a combo. As it stands, the co-op is a fun distraction from the main quest, though the heightened difficulty sometimes frustrates.

Though it may be short, Shank is nonetheless sweet, with fantastic combat, a great art style, and only minor frustrations harming the experience. It’s a fantastically paced game, with each area bringing with it new ways to destroy your foes, and bringing you closer to exacting revenge. Shank is one of the best downloadable titles I’ve played this year.

For more information on our reviews, read our Review Policy.

What I Liked:

• Great pixel art graphics

• Stunning soundtrack
• Co-op is amazing fun.

What I Disliked:

• Its hard as nails

• Lack of online co-op saps replayability

Scott Pilgrim has a tough time ahead of him. Not only must he defeat Ramona Flowers’ 7 evil ex boyfriends, but he also is tasked with proving that the beat-em-up is still relevant as a genre in this day and age. A task that he (mostly) succeeds in.

If you’ve ever played River City Ransom, you’ll know exactly what to expect when you pick up Scott Pilgrim, and that’s a game with hordes of enemies, along with the ability to level up your character, and unlock yet more moves with which to knock seven bells out of your opponent. Now, all this would be for moot if the game didn’t provide an enjoyable experience, and it certainly does. The enemies come thick and fast, and can sometimes overwhelm you in their numbers. This is certainly a game that’s meant to be experienced with friends, and the co-op is by far the best part of the game, as the whole experience becomes far more manageable when you have people to blame for all your mistakes. Its an incredibly fun time with 4 friends, but the lack of online co-op saps the replayability somewhat, as you’re unlikely to have 4 friends to hand any time you want to play the game. The game is really quite hard solo, a fact that I experienced first hand as I was forced to beat the final boss on my lonesome, which is a task I’d rather not repeat.

However, the game’s looks and sound sapped most of my frustration in the game’s most harrowing moments. This is a beautiful game, with gorgeous pixel art taking up every inch of the screen, and bright, vibrant colours permeating every frame. This is a backed up by a fantastic chip tune soundtrack, with toe tapping beats and great melodies backing up the standard punching and kicking sound effects. This is a game that certainly has flair, and it’s this flair that saves it from being nothing more than a standard beat-em-up.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a good game that doesn’t escape the trappings of its genre, but nobody was really asking it to. What you get here is a game with style and a boatload of fun. It’s really meant to be enjoyed with 3 friends, and if you have the means to play it with them locally, I’d highly recommend checking it out. If not, you’re in for a challenge, but one you’ll gladly take up. After all, there’s a woman at stake!

What I liked:

• Solid update to the first of the Pixeljunk series.

• Unique Ghost mode is unlike most online racing game offerings.
• Free to all owners of Racers, and replaces the original Racers game in the store.

What I disliked:

• HD is essentially required to get the most out of the game.

• The game lacks the charm of the later Pixeljunk games.
• Some gameplay elements are very unclear, instruction wise.

“Let me be the first to say this, but PixelJunk Racers is *not* a racing game.”
–Dylan Cuthbert, creator of Pixeljunk Racers

I remember back in the day when my aunt would take my sister and me to the Grand Prix Raceway, which sounds like it had the grandeur of an international speedway but was, in fact, more like a parish hall with a track in the middle. It was a slot car track, and I remember the fluorescent lights turning half off as two older guys put their cars on the line, ready to race.

I remember that because I always pass by the Raceway on my way to work, now an abandoned building with the red/yellow/green stripes still faintly visible on the side of the weather-worn concrete blocks. I suppose it’s telling that I don’t actually remember any of the slot car racing itself, maybe because slot car racing as a whole just isn’t that memorable to begin with.

So perhaps it’s a testament to Q-Games that they’ve managed to make a unique, if not fun slot racer that seems a lot more fun than the real thing, now in an updated form called Second Lap. This new version of Racers includes the suite of PS3-OS functionalities such as trophies, YouTube uploads, custom music and more, as well as burn-in protection and a much needed adjust in difficulty as well as a new mode called Ghost Attack.

In PixelJunk Racers you go though a single player tourney of events, most all having to do with the white drone cars that litter the track (smash the cars, now dodge the cars, now smash the cars but then dodge them, smash only the white cars, now smash this specific car, smash the black car but don’t smash it a second time, eat the cars, beat the cars, and so on.) The challenges are all fairly standard and there are a few gems hidden in there, as I rather enjoyed the slower challenges since they feel like you have to legitimately use strategy, as opposed to the fast races where you don’t have any time at all to switch lanes to dodge cars. It’s a simple single player game that will keep you busy for 3-4 hours or so, though the gameplay doesn’t inspire me to do it all at once. The new Second Lap features tone down the difficulty quite a bit, as it awards you better ranks and more forgiving bronze/silver/gold earnings. It’s definitely an improvement.

Along with the standard tourney mode is Ghost Attack, which is a very unique idea in that it allows you compete with ghosts and rank up on the leaderboards via a points system. It really feels like you’re playing with another person despite the fact that it’s just a replay ghost, and gets rid of the necessity of having to find a lobby, wait for an opponent, and the issues of lag. It’s an idea that probably won’t benefit most games, but for this one, it’s perfect.

It always felt like the original Racers was the black sheep of the PixelJunk family, with its lack of trophy support and general functionality found in the current PJ games, so it’s nice to get this update to round out the series. The local multiplayer (with seven, yes, seven local player support) is where you’ll get the most fun out of the game, and for a quick burst of gameplay, it’s certainly enjoyable. Just don’t expect the game to compel you to play for hours at a time.

NOTE: the game will be available as a free download for all Racer owners and will be available to buy on the PS Store for $6.99 on August 24th, replacing the current version of Racers entirely.

Click Here to purchase PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap from Amazon.com

What I Liked:

• Catchy tunes

• Easy to pick up gameplay
• Crazy visuals

What I Disliked:

• Beat didn’t always seem dead on

• A little on the pricey side

In a world of rhythm games, how does Vibes fare? To compare it to other rhythm games, Vibes really reminds me of Elite Beat Agents, just minus the touchscreen. You control the central arrow, as seen in the screens. As each song plays, colored icons corresponding to face buttons on the controller fly towards you. Point toward the icon with the arrow and hit that button. Hit it in time with the tune to score combos, keep your health alive, and shoot for high scores. A pretty simple concept, but it makes for quite an engaging experience. I played it on a PS3 controller and enjoyed it, but Chris K wanted me to note that his hand cramped-up after awhile when played with the PSP’s nub analog stick.

The game looks great for a mini. It has numerous 3D backgrounds that are all trippy and are usually pretty funny too. The sumo wrestler and rubber duck backgrounds were my favorite. One problem I found with them was that sometimes the background color would match the very color of the icon on screen flying towards you. I also found that sometimes the animations just didn’t stick with the tunes playing, and the vibrations of the background caused me to get off beat from the song.

Vibes has a play-list of 13 tunes. They’re most likely not from artists you will recognize, but for only 13 songs, they are a real variety and I enjoyed the majority of them. “Hello” by Fake Elegance was probably my favorite track. Yeah, euro-pop, don’t judge. Each song has 3 difficulty levels a la DDR. You start out with a couple songs unlocked on easy and you’re free to go from there. As you get more high scores and clear more difficulties you unlock new songs and difficulties. I found some of the higher difficulties harder, (duh) but also found that sometimes the beats didn’t always match up with the notes I had to play. This would take out my combo and I would get a bit flustered. This is the only problem I had with this game. If you’ve got the music in your bones, pick this one up for sure… and here’s hoping for a couple installments of this game, with some tweaking this could be a must have.

Click Here to purchase Vibes from Amazon.com

What I Liked:

• A Great Update To A Classic Game

• Fantastic Writing
• Excellent Voice Acting
• Superb Music
• Helpful Hints System

What I Disliked:

• Art Style At Times Is Slightly Iffy

• Couple Of Crashes

Its been a long time coming, but Lucasarts has finally seen fit to grace PSN users with their 2009 remake of The Secret Of Monkey Island, the game which launched the classic adventure franchise over 10 years ago. As releasing the game unaltered on PSN would likely only appeal to those of us who were fans of the game in the first place, Lucasarts took the position of adding a whole load of new features to the title, hence the “Special Edition” seen here.

As a game, The Secret Of Monkey Island is utterly fantastic. Players take the role of Guybrush Threepwood, “Mighty Pirate”, a hapless buffoon who somehow stumbles into a variety of situations, and sets out to rescue Governess Elaine Marley from the clutches of the evil ghost pirate LeChuck. The game is an adventure game right to its hoarding core, with players expected to pick up everything that’s not nailed to the floor, and use it against everything that is. Monkey Island’s writing was always the best part of it, with hilarious dialogue helping to drive the player forward, and the Special Edition greatly improves on the original with the addition of full voice acting throughout the game.

The cast is, as is to be expected with the Monkey Island games, fantastic, with each line being absolutely spot on with its delivery. Everything you loved about the original game has been enhanced, such as re-recorded music, and a hint system has been added, for those of you that prefer not to rip your own hair out with frustration.

As with all remakes, there are of course some things that people who loved the originals will notice, such as Guybrush’s hair. The new art style is nice and stylized, but some fans will likely deem it too much so, with Guybrush’s hair being a prime example of this. Also, the game crashed twice during the course of my review, but, due to the generous autosave, I only lost about 10 minutes of progress in total.

When It was first released, The Secret Of Monkey Island was a great game, and time certainly hasn’t dulled its razor-sharp wit. This is one game that It would be criminal for you to miss out on.

This game was purchased for review purposes.

FuturLab started off as a developer with extremely ambitious intentions for their work on PlayStation platforms. However, you have to start small if you’re dreaming big, so their first mini, “Coconut Dodge”, was recently released onto the PSN Store.

Coconut Dodge is, at it’s heart, a relatively simple puzzle game, with you playing as a crab, dodging coconuts and collecting coins in order to further your own high scores. The game also contains a maze mode, in which you guide your crab through a variety of coconut mazes, in order to get the highest scores possible. Be sure to scroll past all the mazes to find some hidden goodies. As you can probably tell, the game is extremely score based, and as such, can get extremely addictive. I’ve lost count on the number of times I’ve found myself retrying for a higher score, and (mostly) succeeding. The game is certainly going to hold your attention for quite some time.

If there is a caveat to the game, its that the way that its presented may turn off some players. The game isn’t particularly flashy, presentation wise, although the music has managed to worm its way into my brain, and sure as heck won’t budge for quite some time to come. If you’re not a fan of bright, fun games, then you’re unlikely to like the presentation here. But then again, you’re probably too busy writing twilight fan-fiction to care.

The bottom line here is, Coconut Dodge is an incredibly fun game, and deserves to be played by absolutely everyone. It’s charming, and utterly addictive.

Click Here to purchase Coconut Dodge from Amazon.com

What I liked:

• 4 campaigns to play through.
• Not overwhelming like a lot of strategy games.

What I disliked:

• Not a robust online community
• Wasting my carriers because I’m an idiot.

I’m usually pretty iffy about picking up a new strategy game. Many can be pretty hard to pick up (I’m looking at you Military Madness: Nectaris). Greed Corp on the other hand, does a little bit of helpful hand-holding in the first level of the campaign so you can pick up the basic strategy, and then throws you into the fray. You’re introduced to four different factions all fighting over territory: The Freemen, The Pirates, The Cartel, and The Empire. Each has their own story and animation scheme, but all have the exact same weapons and units at their disposal: Harvesters, Walkers, Armories, Cannons, and Carriers.

While on the surface, this seems too simple, what you do with these units on your turn is your call (got to act quick though, you only have 60 seconds a turn, making things get a bit frantic sometimes). Some levels I’ve fought by constructing a cannon and blowing the crap out of my adversaries, while other levels require a lot of planning and hording, resulting in an air invasion via your carriers (Just make sure you select enough units for transport when using the carrier…).

The economy system in Greed Corp is what really makes this game a wonderful strategy filled experience. In order to gain resources, you must build harvesters. These harvesters are a double edged sword though. While earning you resources, they also gradually destroy the tiles of land surrounded by it. This means the territory you control (and sometimes your enemies’) can shrink almost in an instant if you don’t plan out which land you want to sacrifice. A fun strategy I’ve employed is landing units deep in enemy territory and building a harvester. While the enemy is quick to take the land back, that harvester is going to sit there destroying their land until it destroys its own tile, or until the enemy makes it self destruct, always ending in some type of damage to surrounding tiles anyway. Watch the Little Look for this game (a match between Chris K. and myself) and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

The soundtrack for this game is great. I think a buddy of mine put it best, that it reminds you of sitting on a porch down south somewhere smoking a fine cigar. Yeah, weird but this old timey kind of sound just seems to fit the game so well. Once again, check out the Little Look and you’re hear what I’m talking about. Graphics are all pretty crisp and honestly I’m not gonna ask for much more. Multiplayer works flawlessly, you can play locally and online… but as mentioned, you’re gonna have a hard time finding someone to play against randomly.

Some say strategy games aren’t for everyone, but Greed Corp would like to have a word with you. This is some fun turn based strategy. If you and your chums wanna move off the tabletop for something different, by all means, I suggest giving this one a shot.

Click Here to purchase Greed Corps from Amazon.com

What I liked:

• Very lengthy game (for a downloadable title)
• The leveling system.
• Something not done on PSN before

What I disliked:

• The art-style is the stuff of nightmares.
• Inventory system is a little tough to learn.
• A little on the easy side.

I think when people see a game on PSN with no demo that is $14.99 they will turn away. On the off chance that they look into the game, Vandal Hearts isn’t doing itself any favors with the art-style it possesses. But if you can look past the art, Vandal Hearts is one of the best SRPG games I have played in a long while.

What made me love the game so much as the way leveling was handled. You can make every character what you want them to be. Let’s use Tobias in this example. Say you want to make him your party’s healer. Well all you will have to do is constantly use healing spells and buffs and he will level up in those areas. Maybe you want him to be a ranger and use a bow. Well you guessed it, have him attack with a bow and he will level in that. Making each character the way you want is pretty awesome. By the time I was half-way through the game I had a bunch of excellent rangers, 2 magic users, and a pretty awesome tank character.

I was tearing through this game, and it made me a little sad. The game is fairly easy, I think that I only got a game over maybe one or two times and it was from my own stupidity. While this isn’t the easiest SPRG I have played, it is up there (Jeanne d’arc was the easiest I have played). But this fact may be do to the way I play the game (power leveling is my thing). Another thing I really didn’t like was the art-style. I dunno why they chose this cartoony/anime look. The cut-scenes had me laughing out loud at how weird they looked. It was like they rushed to put them in, but I guess the game wouldn’t be as good as it is without them.

The story is your typical jrpg type story. A boy’s homeland is at war and he must fight to stop it. Even if it was corny I still cared about my characters. If one of them would die, I would usually start the quest over just so they wouldn’t lose experience. RPG fans who are looking for something to play in-between Final Fantasy 13 sessions will definitely like this breath of fresh air. Even though there aren’t many RPG titles on PSN, I think that others will have to try very hard to beat Vandal Hearts. Do yourself a favor and pick this up.

Availability:
Price: $7.49 | £6.29 | €7.99 | HK$ 78.00
Release Date: December 17th, 2009

What it adds:

• 6 more trophies to earn.
• 12 new puzzles.
• The next chapter in the murder mystery.

Check out the game in action with our Little Look.

If you enjoyed the first episode, you will enjoy this one. More of the same quirky humor and excellent story telling. The puzzles this go around were a little harder, which I actually liked. But even with those harder puzzles, the time you will be playing is roughly the same was last time. So if you blew through it in around an hour or so, it will probably be just about as long. And of course, this episode also ends in the cliffhanger whetting your appetite for the next release. I don’t see anything wrong with dropping some cash on the second episode. Especially if you are down to try out some brain teasers. Check this out sharpish!

What I liked:

• 120 levels of brain teasing gameplay.
• The addition and subtraction spots on the boards.

What I disliked:

• The “music”, will get to this in a bit.
• The warning message that pops up

Booting the game up, we get treated to the game’s “score.” I’m gonna keep it clean here, but, its rough. It seems as though the track was an afterthought, somebody tacked on an absolutely brutal piano diddy that loops about every 5 seconds (I’m not kidding, I counted). Let me throw out a suggestion, just turn the sound off and you’ll be alright. At times like this I really wish the PSP had some way to allow custom soundtracks.

Now getting that off my chest, we come to the gameplay. You can choose from easy, medium, or hard settings, each of which consist of 40 levels. The main objective is to move a group of blue circles to capture the golden zero, or, eliminate all of the yellow circles. In order to capture a golden zero, four blue circles must be around it. Each circle, whether blue or yellow, has a number associated with it. As you see in the screens, the boards are laid out in a fashion so that you have 4 spots in a ring. You just have to add up the values of the like colored circles in a ring and which ever is higher eliminates the others. This can sound fairly simple, but after the first few stages, this gets really complex! You have to plot out every move you make. Some of the later levels really had me scratching my head, so that’s where circles gives us some redeeming value.

Circles rewards the player with a gold or silver medal depending on how you complete the level. When you lack the minimum blue circles needed to capture the golden zero, a warning message appears in the games hard to read italic serif font. This message annoyingly scrolls up to take up most of the screen and scrolls back down. It gets quite irritating after you see it a few times.

Yep, I’ve got some gripes with this one, but these puzzles can get quite challenging. I wouldn’t really recommended this to everyone one, but if you like math puzzles or maybe even something like sudoku. Then you might find enjoyment with Circles.

What I liked:

• Support for almost all PSN feature (voice and video chat coming soon)
• Beautifully rendered and realistic graphics.
• Online lobbies and betting your hustle credits.
• Lots of modes to keep things fresh (Trick shots, Clear-up, Beat-The-Clock, etc.)

What I disliked:

• Having DLC chalk that only lasts for a certain amount of turns before you need to buy more.
• Difficulty towards the end of the game maybe too tough for some.
• The way it is set for the challenger to break in an online match.

Upon starting the game you will be greeting with text stating the follow, “A game with shiny balls, developed by VooFoo Studios.” I will have to agree with the devs here, the balls in the game can in fact be very shiny. They are not the only thing that shines in this game though.

Hustle Kings is a title that really takes advantage of all the features you would want in a PSN title. The game has pretty much bullet-point item you can think of, except video and voice chat which are being patched in soon. There is replay saves, custom soundtracks, online multiplayer, trophies, in-game screenshots, etc. The only thing other than the voice stuff that I can think of that it is missing are some Home unlocks.

The game has your standard progression. There is a tutorial when you first start it up, this will teach you the ropes. After that you should be able to easily hop into the career mode and rack up some Hustle King Credits. While progressing through your career you will unlock events that you can play in the Offline mode. Think of that as a practice mode for tuning your skills which you will want to do. Once you have a fair amount of Credits you will want to take this game online.

What I do usually is hop into a room of people, up to 32, that looks fairly full. From there you can either challenge a player, using the credits you have earned, or sit around and wait for someone to challenge you. I would suggest challenging others though as if they accept your challenge you will get to break. If you are good enough you will be able to run the table before they even get a chance to chalk up their cue. Although if you are on the receiving end of this you might not like it too much. I found that some players would refuse to play me if I challenged them for this reason. I usually don’t like to suggest ideas, as I am sure the devs though of stuff like this, but I would really like it if the person who breaks was chosen at random. It would be more fair, and I am sure more games would be played. But there is always that person that would quit if they don’t break. In that case you can’t really do much about it.

Hustle Kings is a game that you will show off to your friends. The excellent rendering of the pool table and environments really shows off what the PS3 can do. The game is no slouch in depth either. It has almost all variants of pool, minus a few like snooker which I hear is coming via DLC. The extra little games like the trick shots will keep you playing the single player, while the online community, which is rather active, will keep you busy in multiplayer. Some may find the game to be a little hard after clearing the first two leagues in career, but for a player that is really into pool there pretty much isn’t a better game out there.

Click Here to purchase Hustle Kings from Amazon.com

What I liked:

• Robust amount of content
• Brain teasing puzzle mode
• Polar Bears (who doesn’t love a polar bear)

What I disliked:

• Graphics leave a bit to be desired
• Soundtrack gets old

Remember Windows 95? I hope you do, or I’m just getting old. Well take Chip’s Challenge, the classic game that came packaged in Windows Entertainment Pack, mix in a little Bomberman, add an icy polar bear kind of feel to it. That is pretty much the recipe for this platform puzzler.

Polar Panic houses a surprising amount of content, with a story mode, a 50 level puzzle mode, and survival mode that you can tackle with friends. The survival mode reminds me of a Bomberman kind of feel, except without as many explosions. Going at it with 3 of your best polar bros makes it a pretty good time.

Controls are tight, but how can’t they be, you’re on a space by space movement scheme. The gameplay mechanics are also fairly simple. All you will do is move around the screen avoiding trappers, who happen to be dressed like Santa. You press X to break up snow or to push ice blocks around. In story mode there are a few boss fights, they were probably my favorite part. But I felt that the build up to them left some things to be desired. The soundtrack, while well done, gets repetitious rather fast. You’ll want to stick to a custom soundtrack.

I’m not one to demand eye candy, but I have to remark that the graphics just don’t seem up to snuff. Often it felt as though the game was just too zoomed out. While levels are complex from a puzzle standpoint, they mainly consist of just a few types of blocks, which isn’t very appealing. If it was closer oriented, I feel as though the game would have had a lot more charm, even with its simplistic design.

If you’re big on puzzlers, by all means give this one a download. If you’re not, then at least try out the demo. Sometimes this type of game is hard to judge, you will pretty much either love it or hate it.

What I liked:

• The puzzles got progressively harder as I went on.
• The games length is about right for a minis title.
• The amount of items you can unlock as you play.
• The writing in the game is campy, suits the style.

What I disliked:

• No replay value.
• Some slowdown when you have a full army of zombies.
• The cursor moves too fast when you are fully zoomed in.
• You can’t save in the middle of a level.
• The inventory management can be tedious.
• The zombie’s pathfinding can be off at times.

It took me a little over 3.5 hours to complete this game from start to finish. And in that time I collected 97% of the items. I don’t think I will ever go back and get those last few items, but this doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun playing it. It is hard to look past some of the technical issues and the occasional level restart due to bad checkpoints. So I would truly only get this if you are a fan of RTS games.

What I liked:

• Lots of different power-ups.
• Tons of customization, lots of collectibles.
• Online multiplayer is lag-free.
• There are lots of levels to choose from.

What I disliked:

• No custom soundtracks
• Not being able to play with bots online.
• Single-player may leave some asking for more.

If you like multiplayer games this is one to get. Playing either with your friends locally or using the online multiplayer, this game just doesn’t get boring. Bomberman has been a favorite of mine since the N64 days and I am glad to see it is still just as fun.

What I liked:

• More platforming then shooting (It had a about a 70:30 split between the two)
• Great Weapons (Even if they are mostly repeats)
• Great story (Patches the story between Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time)
• Never needed to grind for bolts

What I disliked:

• The puzzles are fun, but they are easy (Not much thinking involved)
• The game is short (5 hours at the most)
• Had a hard time getting the Magnetic wretch to work
• You can’t pause the cutscenes

Even if it is a little short, Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty is the best platformer available for download on PSN. It has a good story, fun puzzles, and great weapons. It is what you expect from a Ratchet game. If only it was just a little bit longer.

Click Here to purchase Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty from Amazon.com

This game was purchased for review purposes.