Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Available for: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, and DS
Genre: Action Comedy Horror
Developer: Terminal Reality
Publisher: Atari
Players:1 Offline 1-4 Online (Xbox 360 & Wii)
Rating: Rated T for Teen

After seeing the hit 1984 film, what kid hasn’t wanted to bust ghosts for a living, or wield the formidable proton pack against the supernatural? Come on, be honest! We know for a fact that back in the mid 1980’s we wanted to ride the Ecto-1, suit up in our white jumpsuits and bust some ghosts back to the afterlife. After more than two decades, our wishes have finally come true in video game form.

Forget ghouls, specters and ghosts—what really haunts gamers are the memories of hundreds of terrible video games based on cherished movies. Fortunately Ghostbusters: The Video Game isn’t one of them.
In the game, you’re the fifth Ghostbuster, a nameless recruit who’s been tasked with testing out Egon’s latest inventions. The other Ghostbusters don’t bother to learn your name, knowing that you probably won’t be around long enough for it to matter. You prove them wrong by mastering the game’s ghostbusting weapons and its third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective.

The former can be a bit tough; the opening tutorials blast by, and you’re out in the field fumbling with your particle thrower and trying not to get slimed before you know it. Once you conquer ghost wrangling, things move along much more smoothly.
It wasn’t long before our nostalgia meters were picking up readings that were off the charts. Visually, the game is a faithful replica of the Ghostbusters we know and love. The developers, Terminal Reality, wisely set the game in 1991, two years after Ghostbusters 2, which means they didn’t need to explain what the boys in gray have been doing all this time. They also didn’t need to update their vintage 1980s technology to the new millennium (while Egon does introduce a bunch of new gadgets, secretary Janine Melnitz is still using a beige PC with a CRT monitor).

The year is now 1991, and players find themselves picking up the story a few years after the events of the second movie. You will play as a new recruit who is named “rookie” and basically your role is to test out all the new gadgets that may or may not explode or implode on you. Sounds like a lot of fun right? Well, indeed it is. You are quickly welcomed back to the world of Dr. Peter Venkman and the city of New York, which is once again under siege by forces of the paranormal.

The Game was directed with input by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis, which gives you an idea of how faithful the tone of the game is to the original films. They also brought in Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Artherton—and new to the series, Alyssa Milano who plays the love interest of Peter Venkman and is the cause of the new ghost activity. Overall the story is fantastic and ties in nicely with the humorous nature of the classic movies.

The first secret to being a Ghostbuster is to know your equipment. Actually, the very first thing is to try out the fire house pole in the headquarters—trust me, you will love it. Your debut mission kicks off when Slimer escapes his personal containment unit. Of course you being the “FNG” (Freaking New Guy) you have to strap on the newly design proton pack, which comes equipped with a nice venting feature when you overheat. Now the whole snagging, trap ‘em, and bag ‘em scenario will come in to play with this tutorial. With the newly added features to your proton unit you not only trap them, you also have to snare them which will hold them down once you have them weakened. Now, to weaken the ghosts just blast them a few times then ensnare them with your beam and you will then be given the option to rock them or slam them on objects to weaken them faster. However, make sure to watch your proton meter because you will lose your stream if you do not vent your pack!

While the opening scenes may seem overly derivative—Slimer escapes back to the Sedgewick Hotel, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man returns to terrorize Times Square—the game manages to do something that even Ghostbusters’ own sequel could not: build on and expand the film’s mythology in a meaningful way. It does this by revisiting familiar locations while at the same time introducing creepy-but-fun extra-dimensional twists. Particularly effective areas include a haunted children’s playroom, an offworld library haunted by books, and a ghost-powered Civil War re-enactment.

The single-player game is short, lasting 8-10 hours, but there are enough multiplayer options—including the ability to hunt down unique ghosts that only show up in multiplayer—to keep you playing the game. Unfortunately, there is no co-op mode (unless you’re playing the Wii), which is a shame given how much the game relies on teamwork. Multiplayer provides some team-based ghostbusting opportunities, but it’s not the same. The boss fights are also problematic; they’re challenging enough, but they tend to follow the same “identify a weakness, exploit a weakness” formula.

Your damage meter will also show on your proton pack in the form of three green blinking lights, so keep that in mind when you need to regenerate your health. If you do fall down or if any of your teammates fall down, they will come to the rescue and revive you. So far the A.I. and especially the commentary from all the actors is well done and not repetitive. Once the ghost is at the catatonic stage, throw down your trap and lead them into the beam. The only problem is keeping them ensnared inside the beam long enough for the trap to consume them and here is wear your roping technique comes in handy with the right analog stick. Keeping them steady inside the lighted area will earn you the victory you need and of course the money earned with every ghost caught.
Let’s take a moment to discuss the money feature in Ghostbusters. You can use all the money you earned while fighting ghosts to upgrade your equipment and combat skills. Having the steady stream and upgraded trap options will help a lot during the long battles against evil specters. Which brings me to other equipment: for example, your PKE (Psycho Kinetic Energy) meter which detects ghost and collectibles that are haunted. When hunting the ghost you will need to pull out the PKE which puts you into a first person mode having a goggle scanner on your face. Each time you scan a ghost or haunted object, you get the facts on said object and it is added into your collection, which turns into money. Basically, this encourages players to go on a ghost/cursed artifact mission while on the job. However, I also had fun burning my name on a wall, but causing a lot of damage and racking up bills.

The locations of New York City are well detailed - especially if some of you remembered how times squared looked back in 1991 and before the State Puffed Marshmallow Man invaded. Visiting the Sedgwick hotel from the first encounter with Slimer was a nice touch; however they didn’t have the original actor that played the owner of the hotel which is disappointing. I know what you all are interested in knowing more about, and that is multiplayer options. Sadly there is no split screen or online campaign co-op. Yes, I know that many will be deeply disappointed by that factor. Do not be too discouraged because in the 360 version there is multiplayer—just not story based multiplayer. 

I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that the BIG negative side of Ghostbusters is of course no campaign co-op. Honestly, that was a bad move even if we are using a fifth Ghostbusters character that only means five player co-op which should have been easily done. In addition for the PC version, there is no online anything! Terminal Reality really screwed the pooch by stripping all online aspects completely, bad move.

The controls could use a bit of fine tuning, as well and a dodge roll button. It also would have been great to have a crouch button for those ghosts that like to do fly bys or slime-bys which knocks you on your butt. Not being able to drive the Ecto-1 was similarly very harsh and a big tease since many of us would have loved to take that vehicle out for a spin.

Pros: It is the Ghostbusters and you get a Proton Pack what more do you want?

Cons: No Online Campaign Co-op, Can’t Drive the Ecto 1, controls are a chore.

Rating: 4 out of 5

- Ian Simmons

Posted by admin on 07/01 at 10:27 AM
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VP Games is proud to announce the new mobile web versions of vpgames.com!

We actually have two mobile sites launching this week: vpgames.mobi and a QuickSearch site. With the rise of the mobile web, we understand how important it is to have a mobile-enabled website.  We also understand that every web-enabled phone is different, and what works on one phone may not work on another.  This is why we have created two separate but functional sites for your convenience: a full mobile-version of vpgames.com, and a quick search-only site. Both sites are still in “Beta,” so there may be a few bugs, but feel free to test them out now and send us feedback if you wish. 

Here are the details:

vpgames.mobi

• Mobile version of full vpgames.com site, including all pages and products
• Ability to log in, add items to your cart, save them for later, etc...
• Intended for iPhones, Blackberrys, and other full browser-enable smartphones

vpgames QuickSearch

• Search and find items quickly; get prices, item description, and shipping estimates. Super fast loading...
• You won’t be able to buy directly from here, but you can email the page to yourself or to a friend
• Intended for slower-loading phones, or when you just want to get info. on an item/compare prices quickly and easily...

So if you’re shopping in a store and see a game or product you want, just type the UPC, MPN, or product name into our QuickSearch engine and compare prices on the spot!  Then you can email it to yourself for purchase later, or purchase directly from vpgames.mobi.

We hope our new mobile sites help you make the best decision before purchasing, and at the very least it gives you something to do while stuck in traffic dreaming of the new Ghostbusters game!

If you have any questions or comments please email support@vpgames.com

Happy browsing!

Posted by admin on 06/24 at 01:24 PM
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Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 in a series on E3, written by highly opinionated gamer and vpgames guest blogger Ethan Yetton. Feel free to disagree with him if you will, but don’t be scared. He’s really a puppy dog at heart.

Part 1 - Microsoft’s Presentation

As of late I’ve had a strong anti-Microsoft sensibility. Being screwed out of a couple hundred dollars worth of downloadable purchases because the company a) can’t engineer a stable system to save their life and b) simultaneously cripple their services with abhorrent DRM can do that to a guy. In any event, I went into E3 2009 trying to keep an open mind.

But why?

Their conference started out with something like twenty minutes devoted to showcasing “Rock Band: The Beatles”, which looks… fine. It has a nice design, triple vocal harmonies, a large catalog of default songs and the promise of oodles of DLC down the line. Of course the Beatles are the single most overrated band in the history of music and I don’t give two craps about them. Thus, I can’t bring myself to actually care about this game, which is a problem for any ”Single Band” music game. If the consumer doesn’t actually like the group showcased, the purchase isn’t going to happen.

To help celebrate the game, Microsoft let a bunch of dorks play an entire song for the audience which… c’mon now. “Rock Band” is a ton of fun to play and, if you’re with friends, it’s fun to watch others play it because you all look like losers and are sharing in the communal spirit of being losers together. Watching complete strangers act like they’re really the Beatles is lame and boring.

Strike One.

Then Microsoft carted out George Harrison’s widow and… Yoko Ono.

Yoko.

Ono.

Strike Two.

Then Microsoft carted out Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, who stood on stage and rambled about the game like they knew what they were talking about. Ringo muttered something about the “nice graphics”, they shared an uncomfortable glance at each other, and I prayed for the magical hooks to protrude from stage left and yank them off.

Strike Three. YER OUT!

From there, Corporate Vice President for John Schappert took over to emcee the rest of the media briefing. He introduced Tony Hawk, who described “Tony Hawk’s RIDE”, which is the next iteration of his much loved (and, as of late, awful) “Pro Skater” series. This game sets a new standard, though! Oh yes… See, it comes with a full-sized skateboard controller that you ride, supposedly like the real thing. Following Mr. Hawk, a video showed gamers and pro skaters actually using the peripheral, which is apparently the most accurate thing ever except for the fact that they just had to raise their heels an inch to send their avatar five billion feet into the air. As with the Beatles stuff, I just couldn’t bring myself to care about this one.

Next up was Infinity Ward’s “Modern Warfare 2”, which I shouldn’t even try to criticize. It’s going to sell a million billion copies on name recognition alone. The first one was a great game, or so I’ve heard. Every time I played it, my character spun around in circles trying to get a shot off on anything, anything at all, while 12 year olds in Iowa shot me to death. I hate dual analog FPS crap. To be fair, the game looks really nice and the level they demoed is very snowbound, which excites me to no end (though no game will ever top Metroid Prime’s Phendrana Drifts for sheer ice-level awesomeness).

At this point it occured me that MS was showboating three huge titles… all of which were multiplatform. All they could really brag about was that “All You Need Is Love” is exclusive to Xbox Live and there is exclusive DLC for “Modern Warfare 2”, but I’m willing to bet all of this will show up on the PS3… someday.

Square Enix was hauled on stage next to show off “Final Fantasy XIII” which, you may recall, was announced at last year’s E3 to have gone multiplatform (this makes #4 on the day...). Again, the game looks nice enough, but the character designs are the typically awful “Final Fantasy” fare and who has really liked this series since Part 9?

Up next was Cliffy B—er, I’m sorry. He wants to be called Cliff Blezinski now. He and some other tool were showing off “Shadow Complex”, which looks like what would happen if you took “Contra” and stripped out all its personality. Cliffy did his best to be ironic by wearing a Bill Gates mugshot shirt. Oh, you silly, silly Cliffy B!

“Left 4 Dead 2”! That came next. I’ve never had a chance (or the friends) to play the first one, but Valve usually brings quality to the table and this looks to be no exception. Anyone want to play that with me when it releases?

Then Ubisoft showed up to talk about the new poor man’s “Metal G—er—“Splinter Cell: Conviction”. The “SC” franchise bores the living heck out of me and Ubisoft has been on a mad streak of phoning it in for a paycheck. I expect nothing better here. Also, when your framerate chugs to hell during your big E3 demo, you know you’re screwed. What, Ubisoft? Were all your good coders tied up with the latest installment of Petz?

“Forza Motorsport 3” left me with mixed emotions. I suck at racing games, but actually kind of like them. Forza 2 is awesome and this new one looks to build on everything that made it great—the realistic racing, the awesome customization. But the developer who spoke on behalf of the team called it “the definitive racing game of this generation” like six times. You bearded bastard. You’re the definitive bearded bastard of this generation, you bearded bastard. Chew on that, you bearded ass.

Joe Staten from Bungie came out next to pimp “Halo 3: ODST”, aka “The Halo games are the Beatles of video gaming and everyone loves them for no good reason… stop making them”. Seriously, I’ve tried all three of the Halo installments and all three put me to sleep faster than a double dose of Vicodin.

Joe then got to show a teaser for what is probably “Halo 4”, which made me think…

If I worked for Bungie, I would kill myself. I imagine every single design meeting going something like this:

Developer 1: I have a great idea for a game!

Team leader: OH! From the Covenant perspective? Awesome!

See what I mean, everyone? If you work for Bungie you will spend every waking hour finding new ways to render Master Chief’s armor.

Remedy came out after this and gave a walkthrough of part of their long-in-development “Alan Wake”. This game was moody, atmospheric, beautiful—and it didn’t try to hard to seem “adult”. It was easily the best thing on display… and it’ll be out sometime in 2010.

Wow.

Schappert took to the stage again to pimp new Xbox Live functionality. Of note:Netflix: now you can add films to your queue from the Xbox 360. No more going to a PC to set that up. Also, you can instantly watch anything without queueing it up.

Video store: everything will be 1080p and load immediately.

Music: Last.fm is coming to Xbox Live.

Avatars: new clothes and accessories are coming soon.

Facebook / Twitter: both will have “seamless” integration with your avatars and Gamertag.

Essentially, Microsoft is making a big push into turning the 360 into the central hub of your living room.

Side note: Here’s where I have a BIG problem, like HUGE.

Anything you buy on Xbox Live is tied to a) your Gamertag and b) the console you purchase it on. Every year you are allowed one transfer to a new machine without penalty. After that, if you don’t have an active connection to XBL, none of your purchased stuff, including game DLC, will work until a year is up and you re-register. So, let’s assume you have, oh, two Xboxes red ring in one day and return them for a new one after having already transferred your licenses over. Yeah, you’re screwed for a year. India says so. This makes my desire to actually spend money on any of the “entertainment” BS Microsoft pushes nonexistent. It’s a one-way transaction. MS gets your cash, and you get a “rental” of whatever content you’re paying for. Then if you are stuck on the one-year moratorium from actually owning your stuff and Live, say, has a massive outage that covers two weeks of the Christmas season (hello, 2007!) you’re royally screwed. At least on the Playstation Network you can register and deregister consoles iTunes style.

On the plus side, MS had Felicia Day come out to show off the Facebook stuff. Rrrraaarrr. You know what I’m talking about geeky guys. I KNOW you do.

Felicia was followed by Hideo Kojima, finally shutting the fanboys up and announcing that the next Metal Gear Solid game, “Metal Gear: Rising” will be coming to Xbox 360, too. Too bad it stars Raiden. Okay, okay. So “MGS 4” made him kind of cool finally. Still, though…

Finally, another talking head took to the stage to unveil “Project Natal”, which is a controller-less motion control system using a “3-D space camera” that lets you pantomime whatever you’re doing on screen. The script was almost identical to the one Nintendo used two years ago to introduce the Wii and the technology looks… interesting… but I have serious doubts that anyone’s going to use it to any great effect. They demoed a bunch of minigames, complete with a model twitching like an epileptic while playing a full-body “Breakout” clone. They also showed how the camera integrates with the Xbox Live dashboard (you can “swipe” through the items on, say, the Netflix queue). Then they brought out Steven Spielberg to talk up the technology (again, JUST LIKE NINTENDO DID)! Lastly, Lionhead’s Peter Molyneaux showed off a freakily believable A.I. “child” who interacted with a live person. She even wrote to the child on a piece of paper and “passed” it to him through the TV, and he recognized what she gave him. It even read her body language/facial movements to gauge her “mood”. It was stellar…

...and it was Peter Molyneaux, which means we’ll never see anything even close to this in reality. Remember “Fable”, Fable II, both “Black and White” games, or “The Movies”? Each one of those was supposed to redefine gaming and each one of those was a minor step at best. The man really believes in the ideas he espouses, but he promises too much and always underdelivers.

Apparently the strongest “real world” application of the technology is on the show floor as a revamped “Need For Speed” demo. You can sit down and “drive” the car with no controller and the camera even picks up your foot pushing in and out on the gas. Now THAT’S awesome.

What was missing? How about “Mass Effect 2”?? EA had its own showcase a few hours later and they did delve into Bioware’s massively-anticipated sequel, but I still think not having it as part of the MS media blitz was a mistake. That game could have really riled the crowd up.

Okay, so in a nutshell, Microsoft talked up lots of third-party cross-platform stuff, showed that unless you’re Cliffy B or “Halo” you won’t be exclusive to the platform, tweaked Xbox Live a bit, and built on the foundation of what Nintendo created two years ago… now they need to deliver on it.

What do you guys think?

- Ethan

Posted by admin on 06/02 at 08:00 PM
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Platform: Xbox 360 and PS3
Manufacturer: MadCatz
Type: Controller
Price: $89.85

Street Fighter 4 fans rejoice!  The Official MadCatz Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV Arcade Fight Stick is back in stock and available now for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Features:

• Dual licensed by Microsoft and Capcom
• Heavy duty, features convex buttons (curved outward towards your fingers) Made from high quality materials
• Arcade-Style, measures 11 inches wide x 7 inches long x 1.5 inches thick
• Compatible with Street Fighter IV and recommended for all fighting, action, and classic games that are available for Xbox 360
• Also compatible with PC games that support Xbox 360 gamepad controllers

Hardcore gamers will only settle for the best, and the best is from Hori. For ultimate precision control and sturdiness, Hori’s PS3 Street Fighter IV Arcade Fighting Stick is the authority. The combination of great design, sturdy construction, and comfortable use makes this arcade stick a must have for every enthusiastic gamer. Get one today for just $89.85!

- Admin

Posted by stefan on 05/25 at 03:34 PM
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Manufacturer: Mayflash
Type: Cable / Adapter
Platform: Xbox 360

The new Mayflash Max Shooter for Xbox 360 is a unique adapter that allows you to use a PS2 controller, or a keyboard and mouse on your Xbox 360. The idea is, you can enjoy First Person Shooters (or any other games where precision targeting is important) the way they are meant to be played.

The ongoing war that is raging in households between console and PC gamers will take another step towards peace. This peripheral will hopefully give those big-mouthed PC gamers playing on Xbox Live a chance to prove themselves and all of the words they seem to orally defecate through their headset. Simply plug in this device, then slap a PS/2 or USB keyboard and mouse into it and you are ready to play with some of the default configurations already saved. The Max Shooter comes preloaded with configurations for many of the latest FPS games out and also allow for plenty of customization.

This, at least, is how the Max Shooter 360 is supposed to work in theory anyway. Unfortunately using a wireless keyboard mouse is next to impossible. And after several other wired keyboard and mouse configurations, I finally managed to get it to work, but with mixed results.

After you have gotten your Max Shooter and your wired controller you are ready. The instructions are really simple and you can have a config on your keyboard how you like it in minutes. The PS2 controller connection works beautifully. The keyboard works flawlessly whether USB or PS/2 connected.

The keyboard works great. The mouse, however, is the issue: there is no automatic magical conversion.

Getting your mouse to work requires striking a balance between the type of first person shooter you are playing, the axis sensitivities within the game and the sensitivities in the adapter itself. Your best bet may be too place the sensitivities in the game you are playing to as much as possible for both the X & Y axis and then fiddle with the max shooter wheels for the best arrangement. This trial and error procedure must be done for every game you play. What works great and feels PC-like for F.E.A.R. 2 will be a complete disaster when you play Halo 3, for example.  Although, at the end of it all, getting the mouse to work really well is tricky at first but doable.

The good thing is, if you have the controller still plugged in you can always pick it up and play some portions with the controller and get back to the mouse and keyboard for the shooting parts like in GTA 4. The Max Shooter supports all connections simultaneously. So a keyboard and mouse and a Playstation 2 Controller and a Joystick can all be connected at once and all can be used to provide input. The max Shooter can only support one player at a time. It cannot function like a Multi Tap. So if you want to be playing 2 player fighting games with 2 PS2 controllers you would actually need 2 Max Shooters.

I haven’t tested steering wheels for racing or joysticks for Ace Combat and such but when I do those reviews will come. Another small down side, there is no headset support on the adapter so you will have to keep the wired controller in the Max Shooter to have that feature when you are fragging online with your keyboard and mouse.

The Max Shooter saves your button layouts so you can turn off or unplug it without having to reconfigure each time. Only the mouse settings may need changing when you play a different game.
All in all, The Max Shooter for the Xbox 360 an okay adapter. It somewhat allows PC gamers on a budget to still play high def shooters without shelling out tons on PC hardware. The need for a wired controller may seem like a lot but you won’t have to worry about battery life and it’s a more comfortable controller by lacking the battery pack bulge in the back.

I do recommend the Max Shooter for the Xbox 360, but at a cost. The question is, how many brain cells are you willing to lose to set it up…

- Ian Simmons

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Posted by admin on 04/26 at 07:38 AM
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Finally, a video game that any good old, truck-driving, gun-toting redneck can appreciate! Deer Drive is from the Developer/Publisher Mastiff and is the Wii adaptation of the popular arcade hunting game by the same name. Unlike other hunting games where the animals usually stay put until you fire your gun, these are constantly on the move...and if you were to drink enough alcohol, as one would in a bar, then this game might actually be fun to play.

Deer Drive from SCS Software is an arcade-style deer hunting game. Take aim from your cover, and pick off the best trophies as they run headlong past you. After that next Pabst Blue Ribbon, do you go for the Prize Whitetail Buck, or play it safe and take out the marauding moose before he takes you out?

Believe me; you’ll need to get through a few to adjust yourself to the idiotic Wiimote implementation here. The game can be played with the Wii remote and nunchuck just as they come out-of-the-box, and if you’re one of the gamers who has a gun attachment, it’s probably a good idea to use it when playing Deer Drive. Unfortunately, you have to stand 10-12 feet away! So yes, I drank and played up against the wall.

Deer aren’t the only things worth huntin’, though. Every now and again you’ll see a duck, squirrel, or rabbit. Shoot one of them to score a nice sum of points. Just don’t dilly-dally waiting for them to appear - each level is timed. It’s too bad the graphics in Deer Drive are so low-resolution that you have to fire-off ten shots to bag on of the little critters. And again, I believe the alcohol consumption may have had an effect on my aim.

Oh and by the way, don’t worry; you can shoot Grizzly bears as well.

Deer Drive also allows for multiplayer, just in case America’s forests need wiping out even quicker, and there are tricks as well - want to shoot a moose whilst doing a keg stand? YOU CAN DO IT IN DEER DRIVE! Shooting animals with rifles on your head has to be one of the conditions for getting into Hell. I can’t think of evil more accurately represented. Hell will enough Wiimotes, you can have four people do it a once!

The one, truly satisfying thing about this game are the gun sounds. The guns themselves vary from level to level, and one can acquire better rifles and such through hitting targets with power-up icons above their heads. Oh how Original! But all-in-all the sound of bringing down an animal on the endangered species list, with a high-power rifle is priceless.

Sadly, Deer Drive is one of the worst examples of a hunting game I have ever seen, plain and simple, drunk or sober. It’s a bad combination of everything, from with the low-resolution graphics to the caddywhompus control scheme. My suggestion, grab a drinking buddy, go out to your local watering hole, and stuff $30 into the arcade version – you’re more apt to get your money’s worth.

Final Verdict: 1 out of 5

- Ian Simmons

Posted by stefan on 03/26 at 11:43 AM
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Here at vpgames, we stock up on the hot-selling video games (your Call of Duty’s, GTA’s and Mario Kart’s of the world), and we special-order the rarer, slower-moving games from our suppliers.  But once in a while, a game comes along that defies all logic.

Marble Mania: Kororinpa is that game.  We ordered 3 of these for the Christmas Season last year, and they sold out in about 3 hours. Naturally we tried to order more, but the game was out of production. We were able to find some more copies from an alternate supplier, and they were going for $109 each new, and $79 each used.  At one point, this game was going for $119 on Amazon, and nobody here had any idea why.  I was desperate to play it and see what all the fuss was about, but we could not hold on to a copy longer than a few hours before it sold.

Now that the Christmas season is over, the price has dropped a bit and we finally had a chance to play it. We understand when a game goes out of print, the price goes up. But $120 each? That’s just insane. So, we set out to find out why a no-name “Marble-Mania” ripoff game for Wii continues to be so popular.  The verdict: We still have no idea why.

Even though the Nintendo Wii is a unique platform that brings new ideas of gaming to a much broader audience, that doesn’t mean that Nintendo always licenses good games for the console. That being said, Kororinpa: Marble Mania is one of the better – although not necessarily good – games to take advantage of the Wii’s unique motion controls. In the larger scope, the game falls short with its original content.

This is a classic case of too little too late. While I liked the colorful backgrounds and playing levels, I felt that I had already played Marble Mania before. Marble Mania is just another “Marble Madness"-type brain teaser. You control a marble. No, actually, you control gravity. You tilt gravity to make the marble roll. Over and over and over. Is it repetitive? You bet. Is it Addictive? Kinda. The only motivation to keep playing this game is to get to the next level to see if it gets any better. It doesn’t.

The one part of the game I did enjoy was the feature of collectable marbles. If you get tired of playing as a marble, that’s when you can choose to roll around a different item. These items are panda and pals. Some animal marbles (and watermelon marbles) roll faster or slower than others.

Flatulent Panda is fuzzy is the best of these little “perks”. That crazy Panda, he rolls a little less hurried. This helps you roll him across the hardest, roller coaster-esque mazes, and wobble him across tightropes made of warped, wooden floors, riddled with nutty dents, bridges and ramps. Not necessarily the best level design for these types of settings.

While the environments are ever-changing, and the puzzles with them, guiding marbles around mazes sounds easy, but it’s not. It’s a physics challenge. Your marble/panda always starts someplace silly, like rolling along an empty highway suspended 40 stories in the air, above a city, while a blimp putters around. Some of these puzzles while challenging, don’t bring anything new to this Wi-iish-marbley-game genre.

You don’t have to push any buttons. You balance and twist your wireless Nintendo Wii remote in your hands, and the game reads those movements as a means to change gravity. Changing gravity forces the marble forward, back, left and right along the highway’s curves. There are lots of obstacles such as potholes and killer laser beams. Other things on your path help you, such as magnets, conveyor belts and cannons that shoot you someplace safe. Again, nothing new here. Smells to me a bit like Monkey Ball.

But to the game’s defense, it’s the gravity that gives you fits. It changes suddenly, as if you were walking down stairwells in an M.C. Escher illustration, but then the gravity of the stairs changes to adhere to the wall or ceiling.
I don’t have young kids, but if I did, I wouldn’t force Kororinpa: Marble Mania as a punishment on them, instead I’d lock them in the basement with a carton of cigarettes, a five gallon bottle of water and a ration of Saltine crackers.

Final Verdict: 3 out of 5 Stars.  A decent game, but definitely not worth $120.

*Update* The Sequel, Marble Saga Kororinpa, is now available from Amazon for $27.99.  That is of course, until the stock runs out.

Ian Simmons

Posted by stefan on 03/24 at 11:53 AM
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Available now for Xbox 360 and PS3

Monolith has been producing some of the best first-person-shooters for over a decade, some good, some bad and some just plain ugly. Even with the lights turned out, the headphones cranked up, and the screen 10 inches from my face, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin just didn’t quite give me enough “oh shit” moments. While the original F.E.A.R. has you playing a faceless protagonist with seemingly no real agenda and seemingly no plot either, the scares were really there. Actually, the scares themselves were what motivated you toplay the game.
This time around, Monolith got around to defining a character named Michael Becket, a guy with a shady past and an even shadier present.  In addition, Monolith came up with a much more substantial storyline to follow, which works better than most of the game of today. The story runs along the same timeline as the original, as do the expansion packs for the original created by Timegate Studios. In any game story is everything and Monolith didn’t disappoint - that’s the Good part.

Even though Alma has returned with a personal grudge, the scare factor is near zero in this otherwise near-perfect shooter. The sounds, the environments, the details are all in place and polished to an almost too-good sheen. With a really powerful PC, you can really crank-up the eye candy and behold things that neither the Xbox 360 nor the Play Station 3 versions can live up to. Unfortunately there are a few drawbacks in the overall quality of the game. For instance, the volume of the game is extremely low by default, and I had to really boost the sound outside the game to sound like I wanted. Some glitching occurs every so often as well. I got stuck in several areas behind objects during a hallway fight – that’s the Bad part.

Another big issue with F.E.A.R. 2 is the fact that the multiplayer component isn’t nearly as fun as the original. As with Single-Player mode, F.E.A.R. 2 holds on to the exact same formula as far as movement, and the “bullet time” gimmick the original was so famous for. Sadly, the Multiplayer has not brought anything new to the table, which is a disappointment. Even more upsetting was the fact I could only find a dozen or so servers (you can still find hundreds for FEAR) hosting, and only a few players anyway. One of the biggest appeals of the original, was the rockem’ sockem’ action of the few but quality maps available and F.E.A.R. 2 just falls short – and that’s the Ugly part.

To some I may seem to be overly-comparing the original F.E.A.R to F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Well, I am. When you play a sequel – one that has been in development for four years - to one of the best shooters of all-time, your damn right everyone is going to scrutinize, analyzes, and looks for every imperfection they can find. That is why it is so hard for developers make really good sequels. That being said, I do believe that all the elements for a Triple-A title are in F.E.A.R. 2 and without giving too much away, I hope that the come out with an expansion or two.

To sum things up, F.E.A.R. 2 is a game that could have done something but didn’t quite deliver, which leaves a player wanting. A good game is defined by a balance of story, game play, graphics and sound but a great game goes the extra mile and immerses a player into something special and hard to put into words, which ultimately makes F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin a good game at best.

I hope you have enjoyed my first of many game blogs here at vpgames, and if you have any comments ideas or other suggestions, fell free to email me or post something on our forums.

Ian Simmons
sbwb *at* hotmail.com

SEO friendly web resource directory, fast links promotion

Posted by stefan on 03/10 at 11:00 AM
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Available now for Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, and DS (although this review covers the Wii version specifically)

When Wii Fit first came out, my favorite mini-games off the bat were the skiing, long-jump, and snowboarding games.  Developers also immediately saw the potential of a Balance Board skiing/snowboarding marriage, and within a few months a number of skiing games for Wii hit the shelves, the most famous being We Ski.

The only problem was, We Ski wasn’t very good.  The game felt like a gimmick, with Mii-style characters and sub-par gameplay, and it certainly did not do justice to the potential of the Wii Balance Board.  There was a feeling that something better would come along. Enter Shaun White Snowboarding.  With his latest X Games Gold Medal, Ubisoft couldn’t have picked a better sponsor for the game.

Although the game was released for 6 consoles, the one that garnered the most attention was the Wii version, which uses the Balance Board. (Alternatively, you can use the Wii Remote to control your boarder, but what fun is that?) So how does it fare?  Here is the rundown:

Gameplay: First off, this game is really fun to play. The balance board is a very sensitive instrument, so you might want to set the sensitivity settings to LOW.  Doing this allows you to really push your weight around the board: grinding into turns, leaning forward for more speed, and of course spinning around in mid-air.  As a snowboarder myself, I can say that the controls are fairly accurate to what you would do on a real snowboard.

Graphics: Wii titles often get dinged for having lackulster graphics, and this game is no exception. Playing it on 360 or PS3 is a much different experience than playing it on the Wii.  However the graphics are secondary to the interactive nature of the game, and the Wii makes do with the power it has in this regard.

Music & Sound: The soundtrack is decent, pulling mainly rock tracks from Audioslave, Sonic Youth, and The Offspring.  Nothing especially significant here, pretty much what you would expect from a snowboarding game.

Pros: This is Wii playing the way it was meant to be - fun, interactive, and realistic - the kind of game you can whip out for a party and everyone is guaranteed to have a good time.  Wanna-be boarders can get an easy, pain-free intro into snowboarding, and veteran boarders will have fun tuning their skills in the off-season.  The use of the balance board is done well.  The Wii needs more games like this.

Cons: Even when leaning forward on the board with all your weight, it never feels like you go very fast in this game. Also the wipeouts could be better, and the developers decided to allow the rider to go through some hard objects like trees, which only slow you down instead of completely stop you in your tracks!  (Not much for realism there...!)

Overall: B+

Rent or Buy: If you just got Wii Fit with the Balance Board for Christmas and are looking for a good game to use it with, then I would recommend buying this one.  Just don’t get it from Circuit City!

- Stefan

* Attention Friday High-Five Followers: The answer to the following question is the final High-Five Coupon Code for Friday, January 30th. Shaun White has many sponsors, including Oakley and Sony Playstation.  What is the one and only soft drink sponsor that he has?

Good luck!

Posted by stefan on 01/28 at 12:53 PM
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Available now for Xbox 360, PS3, PC

This being my first time with the Dynasty Warriors series, I was excited to get a look at the kind of gameplay that enables a sixth installment.  After you insert a game, a wallpaper picture usually comes up giving you the first peak at what kind of visual experience you can expect.  As you know first impressions are important, and my reaction to seeing the terrible wallpaper that pops up when the cursor is over the Blu-ray disc was to give a little disappointed “Ugh.” I flopped down to read a book instead (I know, what gamer does that right?).  Later that week I was in a more optimistic mood and decided to give Dynasty Warriors 6 a go, despite the first impression that left me believing this game was going to be just an uninspired sequel.

If you don’t know about this series it has a lot to do with hacking and slashing whole armies with your war hardened hero.  The third person view gives you a good look at the character you’re playing, which can only be changed when at the begging of the story, or “Musou” mode.  There are plenty of choices between styles of hacking and slashing including heroes who use swords, spears, bows, staffs, claws and more.  Over the levels your characters gain experience giving them points to use on a grid that is similar to the sphere grid of Final Fantasy X.  This aspect of the game is pretty shallow in the view of an RPG fan because leveling up doesn’t do a whole lot for your character, however it does give you a warm fuzzy feeling when that LEVEL UP icon flashes on the screen.  Other features of the game include a free mode, allowing as much hacking and slashing as your thumbs can physically take, as well as a challenge mode and couple of places where you can see how your characters and equipment are progressing.  As for the options they are basic but what is really needed like personalized button schemes and vertical and horizontal axis inversion are included. 

Pros:
It’s a great way to blow off some steam, just set the difficulty to easy then hack and slash away.
The characters are beautifully done and have a mystical glow compared to the NPC’s.
There are some different options if you get tired of playing story mode for hours, which make for a nice interlude.
It’s not an easy game to get through, (unless the difficulty is on easy) so there should be plenty of dieing and cursing before you beat this title.  Some may see this as a bad thing, but not me.

Cons:
Although the camera may be in close to see the beauty in the characters, it ultimately makes protecting yourself much harder because you often have enemies attacking from off screen.
There aren’t too many different attacks or combos you can string together which can boil gameplay down to primitive button mashing. 
Even though the characters are well done, it doesn’t seem like the developer put the same amount of effort into the environments surrounding such beauty.

Overall:
This game is fun.  Nothing extraordinary and yet it’s not ordinary, it’s just fun.  It is interesting to see some of the artifacts from ancient china that were thrown into the story mode for a little authenticity, and worth while to listen to some of the ideas and values portrayed through interaction between characters.  These little bits make the story mode bearable, but bearable at best so if you’re looking for an adventure story to sink your fangs on you should keep looking.  This genre is more in tune with gamers that want to cut their way through enemy laden cities, chaining together kill after kill to make your character into an war hero, all while collecting some pretty cool weapons of course! 

Rent or Buy?
With new games costing 60 dollars, and used not too far below that I cannot recommend purchasing this game.....so just rent it!

Grade:
C+

Happy gaming,

-Stu

Posted by admin on 01/20 at 10:21 PM
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