We’ve recently seen a bunch of fake coupons for a free Xbox LIVE 1600 Point Card surface circulating around the Web.  Although we at vpgames have not bought or sold any of these coupons, many other retailers have.

Xbox LIVE does not have any free or discount coupons in circulation through 3rd party aggregators like SmartSource.  The coupon will not work, and is entirely a scam!

Please advise that Microsoft did not issue this coupon and you should treat this coupon as fraudulent.  If you have any questions regarding the validity of your coupon, contact Microsoft directly.

Posted by admin on 04/20 at 08:34 AM
(4) Comments   

The amount of information revealed Nintendo’s recent media summit is too much to put into clever paragraphs. So here is just everything you need to know as bluntly as possible.

Mario Galaxy 2 is coming out on May 23rd. The game is harder, has 240 stars but no hub world, and you can ride Yoshi and power-up him up with dash peppers and blimp berries. The Super Guide is also being considered.

Metroid: Other M is coming out on June 27th. The gameplay is a combination of 3D rendered, fixed camera classic Metroid sidescrolling, Metroid Prime first person action, and lengthy cutscenes featuring a rather talkative Samus fresh out of Super Metroid.

Sin and Punishments Star Successor is coming out June 7th. This sequel retains everything you loved about Treasure’s N64 original while adding better graphics and online leaderboards.

Monster Hunter Tri is coming out on April 20th. Capcom moves this pretty PSP system seller to the console in a attempt to finally connect with Western gamers. The new classic controller pro bundle alleviates the control issues of the past. Free online with Wii Speak support is in and demo discs are being given out at local Gamestops.

The beloved indie freeware, Metroid homage Cave Story is out on WiiWare for 1200 points and it is better than ever with its enhanced presentation.

Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver are out. The two best Pokemon games are reborn with the graphics of Diamond and Pearl and a new Pokewalker pedometer accessory that let’s you strengthen your monster with the power of physical activity.

WarioWare DIY is out. Now you can create your own microgames and share them with the world now matter how obscene they are on the DS and on the Wii.

This summer, for two dollars, Photo Dojo puts you and your friends in a cheap fighting game with the power of the DSi Camera. Hilarity ensues.

The obscure Game Boy, Starfox predecessor X is receiving a DSiWare sequel called X-scape with the help of the original creator Dylan Cuthbert and Q Games. Prepare to shoot down more polygonal heads in first person.

More classics top-down shoot’em up action is coming to DSiWare in the form of Metal Torrent.

With so much information finally known, only one question remains: where the heck is Golden DS? I guess we will have to wait until E3 to find out about the rest of 2010. Zelda anyone?

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 04/07 at 11:00 AM
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Right now, Nintendo of America wants consumers to be solely paying attention to the recently released DSi XL, basically the DSi with bigger screens and a new pen stylus for your arthritic, farsighted grandparents with a Brain Age addiction. But for those who find the XL to be as unnecessary as the Game Boy Micro, aka anyone reading this site, there is hope. A recent, and poorly timed, press release from Nintendo of Japan has revealed the existence of the true successor to the Nintendo DS. Sometime In the next twelve months get ready to experience the Nintendo 3DS.

The only confirmed details are that the system will have 3D graphical effects without the need for special glasses, it will be backwards compatible with existing DS software and it will be fully unveiled at E3 in June. However, there are plenty of fun rumors to speculate on. The Japanese newspapers that blew the lid of the DSi features are saying the 3D will be powered by a parallax screen developed by frequent Nintendo partner, Sharp.

While not ideal for televisions, the limited viewing angle of handhelds allows this type of 3D to be feasible which is good since having to wear glasses might turn off some of 150 million DS owners who find 3D to be kind of dumb (like me). Other rumors include two touch screens, a smaller gap between the two screens, rumble, two analogs sticks, motion sensing, longer battery life and specs similar to the Gamecube thanks to nVidia’s Tegra chip. 

In Japan, there is already a DSi game that uses the internal camera to track the players head movement in order to simulate 3D. Objects appear to be inside the screen instead of popping out. Perhaps 3DS games will look similar. Just imagine staring at all 698 Pokemon for all angles in three glorious dimensions. Let’s just hope that all games are not black and red unlike Nintendo’s first foray into 3D, the spectacular, career-ending, child-blinding abomination known as the virtual boy.

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 03/31 at 10:14 AM
(8) Comments   

If you own the slim-version of the PS3, RELAX! This error does not pertain to you.  Unfortunately, all of those who own the pre-2009 models have been faced with the error, which prevents gamers from signing into the PlayStation Network.  This pesky error also prevents gamers from getting their much need gameplay of the day online and, in some cases, offline, causing a stream of obscenities to rush from their mouths. 

Now, how did this error occur, you ask? Well, Sony speculates the nasty little bug that’s causing all the fuss came from the system’s internal clock functionality.  Until this issue has been resolved, gamers are urged not to use their old PS3s as the error can cause some data and trophy loss.

For the safety of your precious game data and to protect those coveted trophies, here is a list of errors to watch out for. All of these errors can be found at PlayStation’s Blog site (http://blog.us.playstation.com/):

* The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
* When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following
message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been
signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
* When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears
on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install
trophies. Please exit your game.”
* When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the
Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date
and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
* Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the
PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

Sony hasn’t released the details on how they intend to fix the firmware error, but more details are sure to come. Nevertheless, Sony is work tirelessly to fix the bug, so gamers sit tight! Everything should be back to normal within the next 24 hours.

- Natasha Harmon

Posted by admin on 03/01 at 05:41 PM
(1) Comments   

2009 seems to be the year when Nintendo finally adds features to the Wii that probably should have been there at launch. Earlier this year they allowed for games to be played off high capacity storage cards, effectively giving the system a small hard drive. Now, a year and a half after the launch of their original digital games distribution service, WiiWare, they will be allowing consumers to demo certain titles before taking the plunge. 

Demo games are listed under the demo genre on the Wii Shop Channel and are downloaded for zero points. Games currently available as demos include Bit Trip Beat, World of Goo, NyxQuest: Icarian Spirits, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles My Life as a Darklord. All of these titles have been met with general praise and have already been available for purchase on the Wii Shop channel for months. After completing a demo you are instantly redirected to the Wii Shop Channel and given the opportunity to purchase the full game.

The fifth game featuring a demo is Nintendo’s first $15.00 WiiWare game, Pokemon Rumble, which was released on the same day. This dungeon crawler has you playing as chibi Pokemon toys. While the idea of a real-time Pokemon game has loads promise, based solely on the demo, my impression of game and its simple button-mashing combat has not been great. This also comes right after the release of the excellent WiiWare remake of Excitebike, which unfortunately did not receive a demo.

Expect more demos of high-profile WiiWare in the future. Perhaps the upcoming re-releases of the Phoenix Wright series on WiiWare. Maybe expect more demos of games that are already out too. While it would be nice for every game to eventually receive a demo, I am not sure if something like Spogs Racing even deserves one. Free is too expensive for that game. They should be playing you to play it. Who knows, we may even get some Virtual Console demos too.

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 02/02 at 11:29 AM
(4) Comments   

Digital Battle has recently reported that Microsoft has been sued over their alleged fraudulent sale/use of Xbox Live points.

The controversy stems over the fact that unused Microsoft points cannot be refunded - the user is essentially forced to buy something or lose the points, which the group says violates the law.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft reacts to this lawsuit.  Will they fight it?  Pay off the accusers?  Free Xbox Live points for all?

Posted by admin on 01/27 at 12:05 PM
(5) Comments   

When the first thing you notice about a game is how unsettling its title screen is, you know that you are in for a quality survival horror experience. Actually, Silent Hill Shattered Memories is more akin to a psychological thriller or an episode of the Twilight Zone than it is to The Grudge or Dawn of The Dead. So much of what makes this game so excellent are story elements or gameplay set pieces that must not be spoiled in this review. However, what I can say is that despite their differences, Shattered Memories for Wii is the best Silent Hill title since Team Silent’s original trilogy. The PS2 and PSP versions are pretty good too.

Shattered Memories is the antithesis of Resident Evil 4. Both series started off as relatively similar survival horror games. But since both of those original games have aged terribly and now that we are beginning to realize that survival horror is barely a genre, both series have had to reinvent themselves in order to survive in today’s game space. Resident Evil 4 was an action-packed masterpiece partly responsible for the current third-person shooter revival. Meanwhile, Shattered Memories goes in the opposite direction, essentially becoming an adventure game with a very different sort of action. It’s not as palatable for the mainstream as Resident Evil 4 and therefore will not be as influential. But that does not mean its approach is not just as valid.

The most refreshing thing about Shattered Memories very prominent storyline is that, if interrupted correctly, there is nothing supernatural about it. This reboot of the PS1 original still sees Harry Mason searching for his daughter Cheryl in the eerie town of Silent Hill. He still goes through Midwich High, meets lady police officers, nurses and psychiatrists, and of course encounters monsters when the town violently shifts into its nightmare state. However, all of the demon/cult nonsense of the original game has been thrown out in favor of a new mind-bending prose that warrants a thesis essay in order to properly analyze it. Put as vaguely as possible, the “monsters” in this game are more like “daddy issues”.

Of course, daddy issues do not make for interesting gameplay by themselves. Luckily, the parts where you play Shattered Memories are as entertaining as its plot. Silent Hill, while not an open world, is still a vast, desolate and snow-filled wasteland for you to explore. The bulk of the game has you solving logic puzzles with fluid, natural motion controls in urban and natural environments so beautiful, they proves that the Wii can pull of non-stylized (a.k.a. realistic) graphics with flair. Your pointer based flashlight illuminates crisp textures and shadows are cast so well, some of the object twisting challenges are based on shadows. Add to that awesome uses of the tinny Wii remote speaker and you have one of the games built specifically for the platform.

PS2 and PSP see a graphical and control hit but it does not pull down the experience too much. The puzzles never get too difficult but having to spend too much time on a single one would halt the game’s momentum, and lessen the tense atmosphere which is more valuable. Adding to the immersion are unexpected first-person sequences, and a cell phone capable of calling various numbers, taking grainy photos, and receiving supernatural voicemails and text messages. It is ironic that in this game, the completely deserted town of Silent Hill, feels like a real, living, breathing place. 

The shortest but most intriguing sections of Shattered Memories are the occasional visits to your psychiatrist, returning character Dr. Kaufman. The answers you give during his session subtly influence the rest of the game which is even creepier to think about once the questions become sexual in nature. In a game with chillingly appropriate music by series composer Akira Yamaoka and excellent voice acting and writing, Dr. K’s performance stands out as my favorite. He can be both cool and dramatic, he plays into the conclusion quite nicely, and answering his question’s truthfully led to a frighteningly accurate psych analysis during the credits. Shattered Memories never lets up, which unfortunately also means that it ends in about six hours. But trying to see all of the ways the game can change itself adds considerable replay value. 

Finally, there are the “action” sequences. In an appreciated change of pace, during these set interludes Silent Hill will freeze over rather that its usual process of burning and rusting. Fleshy, skinless, humanoid monsters will then pursue you with wild abandon until you reach a waypoint of solve a puzzle. If you take the time to glance over your shoulder, you can see that these creatures change throughout the game. However, Silent Hill games have usually had various kinds of creepy monsters to throw at you and this game only has one. At least their designs actually mean something instead of the usual Japanese horror style of “weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff”. Being just an average dude with a flashlight, you can never fight these foes, at last justifying the game “survival” horror. Flares, obstacles and motion-controlled shoves can keep the beasts at bay but the real solution is to run. Icy markings show you the way but stiff running and a poor map can make these mazes more frustrating than frightening. When they work, they really work and its creates an intense, thrilling gameplay experience that perfectly compliments the slower, more methodically paced exploration and therapy portions. It adds straight up fear to go along with the general unrest. But Shattered Memories chase sections are hit and miss to the point where they are sometimes more fun in theory than in practice.

However, taken as a whole, Silent Hill Shattered Memories is a risky experiment that pays off incredibly well. Being a mature Wii game (as well as a 2010 PS2 game and a PSP game period) no one will buy it. Plus, its radical changes to the Silent Hill fiction and formula might turn away the more dedicated fans. But like the best cult movies, those in the know, whether they are veterans or newcomers, will have the best kept secret in psychological horror gaming all to themselves, perfect for those lonely winter nights.

Rating (Wii) 5 out of 5

Rating (PS2 & PSP): 4 out of 5

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 01/25 at 09:39 PM
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Retro Capcom fans rejoice, Megaman 10 has is coming to WiiWare and presumably Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network. Just like 2008’s Megaman 9, Megaman 10 will be a downloadable Megaman game in the style of the NES classics complete with 8-bit graphics.

Currently, details are scarce but we do know that Megaman 10 will feature Mega Man, the mysterious Protoman, and an unnamed third playable character (signs are pointing towards Bass who debuted in the SNES-only Megaman 7) each with unique abilities. We also know that the plot sees Megaman searching the world for the cure to a rampant robot virus (Robotenza) that has infected his “sister” Roll. Megaman games of old are legendary for their difficulty so hopefully the inclusion of an easy mode might allow more, less hardened players to experience the sublime combination of 2D shooting and pinpoint platforming.

Megaman games are also well known for their colorful boss characters each with a special, usually elemental, power Megaman can gain after defeating them Right now, two of the robot masters of Megaman 10 have been revealed: the tank-like Commando Man and the flamboyant Sheep Man with a thunder wool attack. Megaman 9 broke new ground by including the first female robot master, Splash Woman. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that once again, the bosses of Megaman 10 will be all men, robot men.

In the past, Capcom has run contests for fans to design robot masters that have actually been put into the games such as Wind Man and Knight Man. So I decided to share my own ideas for the six remaining Megaman 10 robot masters, ignoring the info pointing to their actual themes: fire, sports, sewer and ice. Besides, none are that much more ridiculous than Sheep Man. I hope you are listening Capcom…

Pie Man- Megaman journeys through a delicious lair of pastries and red-hot ovens to track down the confectionary creature known as Pie Man. His banana cream shot kills the enemy it strikes and leaves behind a sticky trap for those foolish enough to walk through it.

Train Man- Taking a hint from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Megaman rides the rails to take on Train Man. This stage could see Megaman running on top of moving trains, sliding over rails with proper timing, and hopping on platforms floating on smokestacks. Train Man’s conductor shot impales enemies with golden railroad spikes uniting east and west.

Math Man- Megaman learns that math can be fun when he enters Math Man’s infernal classroom. After dodging flying numbers and calculators, Megaman periodically must blast his way to the correct answers of increasing difficult equations. The power of Math Man’s logarithm shot increases exponentially.

Amoeba Man- Keeping with the virus theme of the game’s plot, Megaman gets microscopic to combat Amoeba Man’s army of cells and bacteria. Maybe this stage could take place inside the body of Megaman’s creator, Dr Light, a la Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside story. The RNA beam does damage over time, but be sure not to his any vital organs.

Beatbox Man- Megaman takes it to the streets to face off against hoods and gangsters last seen since Double Dragon. All the while, he must use his robotic ears to listen and pay attention to the hot, fresh beats to locate Beatbox Man’s underground club base. The ghetto blaster stuns a wide area of enemies with its sonic power.

Man Man- Megaman fights his way through traffic and office buildings to hunt the most dangerous game: man. Man Man is armed with nothing but a regular pistol and a bottle of whiskey and is only vulnerable when loosening his tie or taking off his belt to beat you with it.

Stop settling for the Megaman ZX’s and forget the Star Forces and Battle Networks. Megaman 10 drops this March. Here’s hoping it won’t have poorly done downloadable content again. On a related note, be on the lookout for Eddie Lebron’s crazy/awesome looking Megaman live action movie coming…eventually.

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 01/20 at 12:07 AM
(17) Comments   

The debate will forever rage on, mostly on the internet, about which Mario title is the pinnacle of Nintendo’s flagship platforming super-franchise. For me, the greatest 2D Mario will always be the Super Nintendo showpiece, Super Mario World. Granted, a lot of that is based on nostalgia but a good amount on my reverence for that game is based on newfound appreciation of its brilliant gameplay mechanics that can only be recognized once older. New Super Mario Bros Wii, a worthy candidate for Nintendo’s big holiday offering, plays like the myriad of side scrolling Mario games that came before it so it can not be called brilliant in that sense. Instead, its brilliance comes from the way it combines the best elements of the Mario games along with enough new tricks of its own. It is sort of like Super Mario All-Starts but as a whole new experience as opposed to a compilation.

At this point, complaining about the cliché “rescue the princess” storyline of Mario games has become a cliché itself. Still, after playing through the hilarious tongue-in-cheek story of Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, there is something sweet about the genuine and un-ironic way the story in New Super Mario Bros. Wii presents itself. It is still nothing more than an excuse to get right into the gameplay but it is a timeless excuse nonetheless. 

From grabbing the first mushroom and sliding down the flagpole of World 1-1, to dodging lava in the epic final Bowser boss fight eight worlds and eight hours later, this feels like a Mario game through and through. The most obvious reference point is Super Mario Bros. 3 but it really is a greatest hits of all Mario games. Castles use tricks from the original, items can be picked up like vegetables in Mario Bros. 2, airships and koopa kids return from Mario 3, Yoshi along with ghost houses and the spin jump are from Mario World, the red coins from Yoshi’s Island return, the 3D graphics allow for Mario 64 moves like wall-jumping and butt-stomping, the prodigal son Bowser Jr.’s first appearance was Mario Sunshine and the spin jump is activated using a Mario Galaxy-esque wii remote shake. Also, it is a follow up to, and uses most of the music from, New Super Mario Bros., one of the best-selling Nintendo DS games. Hell, one of the challenge stages is an expansion of the original arcade Mario Bros. game. There’s rafts, p-switches, hidden exits, blue coins, pow blocks, vines, walking piranha plants, spikes, bob-ombs, koopa clown cars, spinning panels and so much more. If you have ever played a core Mario game, you will love at least one aspect of this Wii successor, even if it is just the unforgettable sound effects, the throwback title font or the red box.
However, Nintendo would not have put that “new” in the title if they did not have any new ideas. There are new powers. The ice flower puts out fireballs and turns enemies into frozen statues for you to toss. Unfortunately you can’t walk on water like you could in Galaxy but at least it doesn’t wear off. The penguin suit lets you walk on ice better and slide through blocks while keeping the powers of the ice flower. Finally, there’s the propeller mushroom that allows you to fly through the sky. It’s not game breaking but it can certainly make things much easier. There are so many power-ups in this game that some, like Yoshi and the mini-mushroom, are under-used. It’s a shame because Yoshi can help you hijack Latiku clouds which is pretty much the best thing ever. Even the fire flower takes somewhat of a backseat to its cooler, newer counterpart. Items can also be saved in your inventory for later use in harder levels they are most suited towards. Ice is good for putting down the Dry Bones in Bower’s castles and turning fish into floating platforms. The NES style controls have also received some Wii enhancements besides needless, optional nunchuk support.

Certain sections require you to tilt the Wii remote to control lights and bridges. Shaking the Wii remote activates the spin jump, propeller suit, and a small mid-air twist that can keep you in the air longer adding a new twist to the platforming finesse. The over world map contains familiar locations like minigame mushroom houses and enemy encounters, but now you might be summoned back to an earlier stage to carry a kidnapped Toad to the end for a prize. The whole game is satisfyingly difficult in that classic Mario way but because these challenges have you taking care of two characters at once, they can get hard in a new way. If you ever feel down though, the game will applaud you if you pull off a particularly stylish technique like in Super Smash Bros. 

The most obvious difference between New Super Mario Bros Wii and its predecessors are the 3D graphics. Mario now runs from left to right in a polygonal world full of lighting and particle effects not feasible on the DS and not even possible the systems of yesteryear. Boos are now transparent, clouds disperse and fade away when you spin and dark caverns can be illuminated with light blocks. The look is kind of a mixed bag. The world has a plastic sheen that’s like Galaxy but without the spacey glow. It’s pleasing to look at, particularly the maps, but not as much as say, the side scrolling sections of Super Mario Galaxy. Plus, the 3D characters control slightly differently then they did back in the second dimension. Instead of the tight controls of Wario Land Shake It, it’s more about sliding and momentum management. You’ll get used to it but the physics do feel off at first. Perhaps Nintendo could have implemented some 2.5D trickery like Klonoa. However, then it wouldn’t have been 2D Mario. That’s my one major complaint with this game. It is very reverent of its forefathers, which is fine, but by spending so much time combining and improving on what they did, it forgot to do new things of its own, something older Mario games were pros at. No one is going to confuse Mario World 1 with Mario World 2 but they might mix up this Wii one with the DS one. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is an excellent game the just lacks a unique identity within the Mario canon. 

There is still more to this game though. You will die a lot if you do not know what you are doing. Fortunately, if you die eight times in a row the new, optional “Super Guide” can help you complete the stage by having Luigi show you the way, as always. However, you only have five lives at first. So know that before you can even use the super guide, you will get a game over and lose your progress after the last castle. The save system is strangely limited and can even get a little frustrating. I ended up just collecting lots of coins and hoarding lots of lives and spare items to make it through the end. There are also three star coins in each level you can use to unlock extra hint videos and even a whole new secret Star world.

Finally, there’s the much talked about multiplayer element. You and four of your friends can compete in coin battles but the real star is how you can play the entire single player game with four player cooperatively. Four players trying to hobble their way through a somewhat larger that usual Mario stage is as ridiculous as it sounds, especially once everybody starts picking each other up and bouncing off of each other. But this mode can actually be easier for a few reasons. When a person dies there is an annoying pause but the rest keep going, whereas in the single player game death kicks you back to the beginning or half-way point. Players can also put themselves in protective bubbles. If everyone bubbles up the game ends but if one person makes it through, the rest in bubbles keep their lives. Therefore, if the good player loses all their lives, they gets a continue and can move forward because the players who used bubbles still survived. It’s hard to explaining but the players in bubbles almost become “life barriers”. It’s like clones bred specifically for donating their lives/organs to Mario/their older sister with cancer.

The point is four player Mario is stupidly fun and is the best thing this game has that it can call its own. Unless you count Zelda: Four Swords or the Smash Bros Brawl single-player but those are too different to compare. Two toads are still lazy character choices though.

New Super Mario Bros Wii is more like Another Super Mario Bros….Wii. Awkward titles aside, this game is not the leap forward Super Mario Galaxy was. Galaxy 2 won’t be that leap either but it’ll be closer. This isn’t even the great leap forward for 2D Mario games. Yoshi’s Island was the last time that happened. It’s hard to deny how enjoyable this game is though. Doing what works isn’t the most creative thing in the world but it’s not a bad thing either. New Super Mario will keep you entertained from its first rolling green hill, to its toe tapping, interactive credits. Who wouldn’t want another Super Mario Bros. game?

Rating: 4.5 Stars

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 12/13 at 09:14 PM
(3) Comments   

The first scene in Dead Space Extraction, after some expository video chatting with one Lexine Murdoch, in as over the shoulder view of a man clad in mining armor extremely reminiscent of the protagonist of the original Dead Space, Isaac Clarke. If you didn’t know any better, for a brief moment you’d think that was your playable character but then the camera pulls away, the IR cursor comes on screen, and you realize you are actually playing an on-rails shooter like Virtua Cop. That’s the conundrum of Visceral Games’ first Wii effort. It does so much right, and goes so far out of its way to get you to believe that it is Dead Space at every turn. While this enthusiasm is appreciated and enjoyable it also serves to highlight that Extraction isn’t Dead Space. It’s better in some ways like more immersive storytelling and worse in others like less open-ended gameplay. If you can get past that, you’ll find an excellent, well-crafted sci-fi horror guided first-person experience.

Unlike so many other rail shooters, Extraction uses embedded perspective and complete control over the pace and sequence of the game to create one of the most symbiotic combinations of cinema and interactivity seen in a video game. That’s not as good as it sounds, things tend to slow down to too often, but it lets the game pull off so many unique tricks that having permanently integrated cutscenes wasn’t such a bad thing. It also helps that the story itself is pretty good too. Playing out a lot like Aliens, or perhaps a grittier more realistic Metroid, Extraction follows a group of four well voice-acted characters that survive a mysterious plague of insanity, suicide and violent alien creatures on a mining colony only to be stranded on a nearby ship filled with the same infestation. Along with the terrible animated movie Dead Space Downfall, and the decent, uniquely drawn, Dead Space motion comics (included as unlockables in Extraction), this game serves as a prequel to the original Dead Space so there are only so many ways the action could play out. The escape and survival storyline of Extraction ends up being fairly similar to the movie and the comics. That being said, as a horror movie it manages to be serious without being unintentionally stupid. Your crew is a nice mix of who you would want on your space zombie killing team and who you would likely be stuck with. Plus, at any time your character could abruptly die as part of the story which is surprising and sort of unsettling the first time it happens. Be on the look out for some cameos of characters important to the plot of the first Dead Space too.

Compared to many other games, Dead Space Extraction places a heavy emphasis on story. However, that does not mean the EA, Visceral Games, (and Eurocom too but keep that quiet) phoned it in on what already must be a relatively easy game type to produce. Against my wishes, rail-shooters have this reputation for being a lesser genre for some reason. Granted, although there are things like branching pathways and brief moments of full camera movement, much of the mobility and control is taken away from the player and video games are a lot about control, but Extraction makes up for this by applying Dead Space concepts in order to create new, exciting and innovative gunplay. Aside from humans and their vulnerable heads, enemies in Extraction must have their limbs removed in order to be killed. As the enemy types vary, limbs become more numerous and more oddly placed. In order to defeat this monsters, player use a variety of guns with a variety of effects not usually seen in the genre. While you do have a pistol with unlimited ammo, you also have limited and specialized weapons like fire, lightning, telekinesis for item grabbing and box launching, glowworms for lighting up dark rooms, and the ability to slow down time. Each weapon can be upgraded and has an alternate fire accessed by tilting the Wii remote. For example, the plasma cutter fires horizontally by default and vertically when tilting the Wii remote vertically. This adds a satisfying layer of depth and strategy to a genre criticized for being shallow and mindless. It all comes to a head in one final shootout against legions of “necromorphs”. Along the way you’ll also be using your arsenal to build barricades, saw through strange bacterial growth, repair electrical panels, and hop between platforms in zero gravity. If you want to try your hand at mastering the combat without treading through the story again, there are also ten challenge rooms, one for each story mission, with waves of enemies waiting to be “strategically dismembered”. 

There is something about Extraction that occurs throughout the whole game but struck me particularly at the second to last chapter, the best one in the game. All rail-shooters are scripted, but this one is so well-scripted that you thank it for being so. Call of Duty 4 has the quality too but not to the same degree. Hallucinations happen often enough that you don’t know when to expect them. Music cues happen perfectly whether they are a creepy version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or dead silence while fighting a boss in the vacuum of space. Though on that subject, boss fights in on-rails shooters continue to be dumb since you always just end up going in a circle. But, being able to effectively apply cinematic technique and flair so commonly seen in movies to game is still quite a feat. Perhaps why that’s Uncharted 2 is getting so much praise, because it manages to do that without being on-rails. Essential to this are the graphics which high quality for a Wii game like most of its rail-shooters and their good graphics making up for small scope. Unfortunately, once you reach the Ishimura mining ship of the first game, the environments and levels start to blur into each other. The used, decaying future comes across nicely and stuff like the blurry vision caused by the dust and the green haze caused by your helmet, take advantage of the first person perspective in a way reminiscent of Metroid Prime. There are some oddities though, like being able to fire a gun while both of your hands can be seen doing climbing down a ladder, but minor inconsistencies like those hardly taken away from the strength of this “guided first person experience”.

When I first heard that Dead Space was coming to the Wii I was extremely happy. I was in need of some quality third-person shooting and sci-fi is kind of my thing. Then I heard that it would essentially be a dumbed-down rail shooter and was crushed. After playing Dead Space Extraction for the seven hours it lasts, I can safely say that it is anything but dumb. It’s a shining example of one way you should do this type of game on a console, House of the Dead Overkill being the other end of the spectrum. However, I still wish EA and Visceral had not skimped out and made a real Dead Space for the Wii instead. Resident Evil 4 worked beautifully on the Wii and Dead Space is essentially Resident Evil 4 with more modern, western controls and space zombies instead of Spanish zombies. Still, games should be judged mostly on their own merits, and with that in mind Dead Space Extraction is most definitely game one should experience, because you’re not going to get that experience anywhere else.

Rating: 4 out of 5
- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 11/25 at 11:01 AM
(3) Comments