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Posted by admin on 11/22 at 07:10 PM
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Now that DJ Hero exists, I feel like a total chump for spending $200 last year buying the whole band kit for Activision’s other rhythm game, Guitar Hero: World Tour. I’ve never been a huge fan of it or the Rock Band series but they are fun enough at parties as long as I never sing or have to press the orange button on the guitar. However, when playing the drums by myself, as I often do, are only a handful of songs I care to perform. One year later, I’ve just completed all 94 mixes in DJ Hero with a star rating of three or higher on medium and am hungrily awaiting the upcoming downloadable songs. The fact that DJ Hero is just as amazing as something like Rock Band, but with a wholly unique soundtrack and set of gameplay mechanics, proves that matter how hard you try to write them off, there is or will eventually be a rhythm game you can’t help but adore.

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding DJ Hero that I do not completely understand. Granted, screenshots of the game or of its turntable controller without any context are a bit befuddling, but once it has been explained to you, or better yet, played in front of you, DJ Hero makes much more sense. There are three buttons of the record for the three on-screen streams which look like veins filled with life giving musical blood. Depending on which icon comes down the path, you either press the button or hold them and make a scratching motion. The difficulty curve is steep but smart. On easy you can scratch how you please but later difficulties require directional scratches. Later difficulties also require you to use the cross fader to switch between the two songs that constitute DJ Hero’s multilayered tracks. Cross fading is the most difficult it part of the game partially due to the peripheral itself. The switch has too much room to slide between its three positions and is not as precise as it needs to be for quick cross fade spikes.

However, everything else about the construction is the quality we expect from Red Octane. The turntable has weight, texture and can be physically rewound for extra points. Other features include an effects dial for pitch-altering score multipliers and a button that lights up when euphoria/star power/overdrive is ready for use. The device itself fits nicely in your lap or on a table and can even be reconfigured for left-handed play. It’s an intimidating toy but its features are gradually introduced. Play on beginner and you can scratch if you want but you don’t have to. On expert, if you can’t pull off a series of alternating cross fade spikes and up-up-down scratches then you are in trouble.

With that lengthy but necessary explanation out of the way, let’s get onto what makes DJ Hero so special, the music and how you interact with it. Since I played so few songs in Guitar Hero, I would exclusively use quick play. Even with my initial interest in DJ Hero eclipsing its sibling, I still questioned the need for things like world tour, features fans clamor for. But now I realize, when you love a playing a rhythm game and almost every song on it, you’ll take any excuse to replay it, even if it is just repackaged into sets with different objectives. DJ Hero, unfortunately, uses a straightforward song progression that has you playing 24 sets made of several songs. It has been stripped down to the essentials of a music game. You can’t fail the songs and errors only stop the track momentarily but you’ll want to do well in order to gain stars necessary to unlock new sets.

The sets themselves are interestingly arranged. The first sets are full of mainstream heavy mash-ups like The Jackson 5 vs. Third Eye Blind and familiar celebrity DJs like Grandmaster Flash, while those hardcore enough to go further will be blasted by techno like the Daft Punk mega mixes (sans “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” the one Daft Punk song everyone knows thanks to Daft Hands) and “Groundhog” as performed by the aptly named Scratch Perverts, the makers of the hardest songs in the game. Occasionally there will be a theme, like a certain guest artist or “Born to Rock” and its mixed bag of rock meets rap, but it’s mostly scaled by difficulty. In interesting observation is that some of the songs toward they end are only difficult if played on expert. “Beats and Pieces” hurts your arm if played on medium but isn’t that hard when you can scratch in any direction. Little Richard vs. Shlomo is way harder even though its one below it on the game’s difficulty scale. 

The almost random nature of the songs I just mentioned is indicative of one of DJ Hero’s greatest strengths or biggest flaws depending on the kind of music you enjoy. Thanks to Vivendi and its Universal Music Group, Activision was able to cast a wide net when scooping up songs to include in this game. Sure, Jay-Z and Eminem are in there but so are Paula Abdul and Tears for Fears. It’s more than just “Hip-Hop Hero” despite some of the marketing focus. If you only like one style of music, than you are probably justified in dreading having to wade through songs you don’t care about. That has always been my opinions towards Rock Band. However, two songs in DJ Hero that may sound bad separately, often times become a magical sounding mash-up thanks to the impressive talent brought in to arrange the set list. Who knew that Marvin Gaye and The Gorillaz went so well together, Rihanna went great with The Killers or that David Bowie can almost seamlessly blend in with 50 Cent.? Sure, songs are reused too often and there are too many Beastie Boys tracks but for the most part it’s the creativity and originality of the songs in DJ Hero that make it the most interesting and enjoyable rhythm game I’ve played since Elite Beat Agents. Plus there are no terrible covers of Avril Lavigne songs. 

Then you add in the fact that this game is played using a fake turntable, not a plastic guitar. DJing is a fairly abstract art since you are more manipulating music than playing it or actively participating in it. The multiple ways you can affect a song (cross fading, scratching, rewind etc.) as opposed to merely tapping or strumming make the note layouts more unpredictable and the gameplay feel fresher. There is also some strategy to using euphoria as it enables automatic cross fading meaning it should be saved for cross fader heavy section. It’s true that real DJing is about improvisation rather than following a set note chart and some are criticizing DJ Hero for failing to capture that. However, DJ Hero is about being a fun video game that is about music and so far no one has been able to make a fun and accessible video game that sounds good and that manages captures the creativity of making music as well as playing it. Wii Music is the closest game to follow that philosophy and it failed miserably as will the upcoming Scratch: The Ultimate DJ for the same reason, in my opinion. DJ Hero is already weird and off-putting for some and having a more authentic turntable like Scratch’s might make it more alienating than immersive.

Music games are rarely about the visuals but DJ Hero, from its crazy CGI intro movie to its graffiti splattered menus, captures the neon, European meets Inner City ecstasy of house music and the club scene, albeit with more Sprite soda logos. Scenes from your various venues like Time Square move at a frenetic place behind the note highway, sometimes in time to the music. There are unlockable headphones and turntables for you to customize the in-game avatars. These avatars occasionally scratch on screen while you scratch in real life but are mostly further window dressing. You can also play as some of the celebrity DJ’s although their wardrobe cannot be altered. These include the late DJ AM, and DJ Shadow who has glowing eyes for some inexplicable reason. Finally, you can unlock sample sounds like lasers or Flavor Flav voice clips to play during special areas of a song. When speaking of presentation, it makes me wish that the DJ Hero disc art had simply been a picture of a vinyl record. 

I spent a lot of this review hating on Guitar Hero but if you are a fan of the series do not be put off by DJ Hero. In fact, you can sync up a guitar controller and play along with your friend for a few songs, although Guitar Hero’s note highway looks dated compared to the slick fluorescent vinyl one DJ Hero uses. It’s not incredibly deep but it is by far the best and most engaging multiplayer mode in what is very much a single player game which is surprising for such a social genre. Besides, this way you can play the theme song “DJ Hero” made from DJ Z-Trip’s twisted interpretation of “Jukebox Hero” by Foreigner. You can even pick chose an avatar for the on-screen guitarist. I’m a fan of Cletus Cuts and his hillbilly style.

$120 for this game is too much money. I love it to death but compared the original Guitar Hero’s sub-$100 price, DJ Hero is ridiculous. It’s a shame too because it will probably further put off some people who are still on the fence about this game. It’ll seem too weird and expensive. And don’t even get me started on the $200 Renegade Edition featuring about $10 worth of extra content. But if your wallet can take the hit in this economy, you’ll be investing in a satisfying breath of fresh air in what is rapidly becoming the most flooded video game genre of our time. 

Suggestion for next year:

1. DJ Hero is a dumb name that is blatantly trying to capitalize on brand familiarity. Change it. Even something as dumb as DJ Master would be better.

2. Get more celebrity DJ’s like Junkie XL or DJ QBert, maybe even get some chip tunes guys.

3. Use mash-ups to settle feuds. You already have Tupac so get some Biggie Smalls. Get some Taylor Swift from Band Hero and mix her with Kanye West.

4. Fix the controller and maybe allow for one person to use two turntables. The middle portion already has slots on both spots

5.  Most importantly, get some video game songs to mash-up.

Rating: 5 out of 5 (also number of stars earned on “The Theme from Shaft”)


- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 11/19 at 02:21 PM
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When Nintendo chose to model the Wii controller after a television remote, it was not just because of its accessibility and familiarity to the casual gamer. Its simple rectangular shape also made it extremely easy for it to be slipped into a wide array of plastic peripherals. Three years later, we are now living in a world inundated with toy shells for the Wii remote. Out of the list of accessories, which includes everything from boxing gloves to bowling balls, Wii Guns seem to be the most popular, saying much about the human race. Right now you can get a multitude of pistol and shotgun shells for your Wii remote. In such a crowded market made up mostly of cheap hard plastic garbage from shady Hong Kong dealers, Wii gun shells need to go the extra mile in order to succeed. They need to be well-made like the Nyko Perfect Shot, bundled with a game like Nerf N-Strike, or be both and also be made by Nintendo like my previous favorite the Wii Zapper.

The problem with the Zapper is that family-friendly Nintendo went out of their way to make it not look like a gun. However, in the majority of the games that “support” the non-descript piece of plastic, you are wielding it like a gun. Then the Wii Buckshot by Komodo arrived at my house. It quickly dethroned the Zapper as my favorite gun shell by not only being extremely well-made, but also for simple looking like an awesome gun.

Based on the packaging and the general look of the device, you could easily mistake the Buckshot for a toy that had nothing to do with the Wii. It’s a testament to the quality of the design that even without the light gun element it would be able to stand on its own as a fun toy. Between its futuristic shotgun shape, glossy plastic coating and rubberized grip, the Buckshot leaves a terrific first impression. Setting it up for actual playing reveals more of its surprises. After fiddling with the annoying wrist strap, the Wii remote is placed inside a cabinet on the top never to be touched during the gameplay and never breaking the illusion that you are holding a gun. The spring loaded trigger presses the B button while pumping the barrel activates the A button which feels great.

Wii remote vibration and can still be felt and oddly enough, if you have a Nyko rechargeable battery for your Wii remote, it will still fit. Just know that the pumping action will wear away at your rubber grip somewhat. The handle features the analog stick, motion sensing and Z and C buttons of the nunchuk and is attached to the remote through a cool locking mechanism inside the Buckshot. However, the analog stick itself is a bit stiff compared to the real thing. Finally, there is a rail on top presumably for lining up shots but considering Wii IR calibration isn’t the best, it’s mostly just there to look cool in the same corny way arcade light guns do. The one thing the Buck Shot does best is look cool.

After getting it set up and playing some games, I realized that the Buckshot unfortunately shares many of the problems that plague other Wii light guns. It has some heft to it that helps steady your shots but also slows you down a little bit. The biggest issue is that because the Wii remote is locked inside the front, all face buttons except for the A button become inaccessible which can be a problem for some shooting games. Also, the A button can only be hit once with the pumping action, not held down for an extended period of time. It’s mostly a problem for first-person shooters like the Conduit, or rail shooters built specifically for the Wii and that use more of its buttons like Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles or Dead Space: Extraction. And don’t even think about using it with Metroid Prime. The back of the box claims that it works for both light gun shooters and rail shooters, but using the analog stick to move in conjunction with aiming with the gun feels like rubbing your head and patting your stomach at the same time. Having your hands separated by the Wii remote nunchuk set-up makes it easier for them to do different things in unison. Having everything on the gun substitutes some of that playability for style.

However, the Buckshot works beautifully with most Wii light gun games. Often times when using it in first-person shooters and I would play them like rail shooters, only moving when absolutely necessary. Since most rail shooters have somewhat uncomplicated set-ups, they aren’t hindered by the Buckshot like some other games. The standout for me was House of the Dead: Overkill, the game Komodo smartly chose to demo the Buckshot with. Not only does that game have a badass shotgun-friendly attitude that gels perfectly with the look and feel of the Buckshot, but the A button reloads letting you use the sweet pumping action. Oddly enough, the only other games I played where A reloaded were the live-action plunger shoot-outs of Rayman Raving Rabbids 2. Rounding my collection of games the work nicely with the Buckshot were Ghost Squad, the fake Duck Hunt game in Wii Play that still has no dog to shoot, the on-rails section of Medal of Honor Heroes 2, and Resident Evil 4 thanks to its shooting system that forces you to stop while aiming.

The Buckshot is a sizeable device with a sizeable price tag of about $30, making it more expensive than Nintendo’s Zapper/ Link’s Crossbow Training combo. By the way, Link’s Crossbow Training also works pretty well with the Buckshot. However, the Wii Buckshot is so well made and has enough new and useful functionality that it is totally worth it. Just know that you will be still experiencing many of the limitations native to Wii light gun shells. If only they would bundle it with House of the Dead Overkill. It would be like the Wii Zapper but for men. 

4 out of 5

-Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 11/13 at 10:13 AM
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Unless you’ve been living in a cave in Afghanistan, you’ve probably heard about a little new release this week. by the name of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. We at vpgames.com are proud to offer some cool bundles for you along with the game:

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Posted by admin on 11/11 at 02:52 PM
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Last December, Nintendo of America rolled out their customer loyalty program called Club Nintendo. Whenever you buy any Nintendo products, you can then sign up for a Club Nintendo account and register them for coins. Coins can be exchanged for prizes such as playing cards and posters. However, if you manage to get a certain number of coins in a single Club Nintendo year, like I did, even more exclusive prizes are yours for the choosing. For example, right now select Club Nintendo members are receiving download codes for the demo/expansion to the recent Wii Punch-Out called Doc Louis’s Punch-Out.

True to its name, Doc Louis’s Punch-Out has you play as scrappy young pugilist Little Mac fighting your grizzled, old, black trainer Doc Louis who still has he creepy chocolate bar obsession. The sweet relationship between teacher and student was one of the best surprises in Punch-Out and here that is played up even more during the humorous cutscenes. Nintendo found the perfect voice actor for Doc Louis.

The actual gameplay boils down to three similar modes: easy warm-up, medium training, and difficult sparring. None of that weird multiplayer. The real draw is fighting against a totally new Punch-Out character considering retail Punch-Out only had 14 fighters, 12 of which were repeats. The effort put into Doc is what you would expect from a Punch-Out boxer with tons of well-crafted animation and patterns. As you fight him in the locker room, you’ll even here his unique version of the Punch-Out theme.

Most of the gameplay remains the same but Doc has a few new tricks to show off. Apparantely he invented Mac’s signature star punch and can unleash it if he gets a good hit on you. Even though he is your trainer and tends to help you out during the fight, Doc is hard and for a Punch-Out character that is saying something. Not ducking correctly and getting his by a punch feels even worse when the character actually says, “duck this one” before he hits you.

This freebie runs on the same engine as Punch-Out and plays identically to it. Because of that, this game reminds of how great Punch-Out Wii was. The gameplay is still tight and addictive, the graphics are vibrant and expressive and it manages to be really funny and self-aware. If I can look forward to getting more free things like Doc Louis’s Punch-Out then I am glad to be a member of Club Nintendo.

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 10/29 at 12:13 PM
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In what turned out to be a fairly uneventful Tokyo Games Show, Capcom managed to generate some hype by announcing new content for one of its most popular, recent fighting games. That’s right, Frank West has been announced for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom alongside Joe the Condor, Tekkaman Blade and Megaman Zero making me 1 for 10 in my predictions. In other news, Street Fighter IV is getting some new stuff too.

In the tradition of re-releases like Street Fighter II Championship Edition and Street Fighter III Third Strike, Street Fighter IV, released this February on consoles and last summer in Japanese arcades, is getting an update known as Super Street Fighter IV. The revision, coming next year (?), adds several new characters and gameplay quirks. Native American warrior T. Hawk and Jamaican kick boxer Dee Jay are being included meaning every character from the classic Street Fighter II will now be in IV, its spiritual successor. Capcom is also promising new characters the first being Juri, a sadistic female South Korean that appears to have the same evil, purple psycho power as M. Bison, the series’ main antagonist.

In addition to the new characters, Capcom is also rebalancing the game to appease its thriving competitive scene and its changes are based on high-level player suggestion and tournament data. Right now, this includes new and modified ultra moves and more subtle tweaks like higher and lower damage values. Currently, Sagat sits at the top of the tier list so expect him, main character Ryu’s Thai nemesis, to take the biggest hit.

Super Street Fighter IV will most likely hit Japanese arcades first as those versions of the game are still missing the changes, like playable bosses, and characters, like Cammy and Dan, from the original home version. When it does reach the US, expect a cheaper price tag for what is essentially a “remix” as opposed to a new game. Expect it to be indestructible too. Nothing’s going to stop it now.

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 10/27 at 08:30 AM
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When indie studio Gaijin Games released a mysterious web video entitled “Commander” few expected it to be a viral video for a downloadable rhythm game series for the Wii. Despite its strange advertising campaign, The Bit Trip series has brought two of the cleverest games on WiiWare this side of Nintendo’s Art Style franchise. The two released games, Bit.Trip Beat and Bit.Trip Core, are soon to be joined by a third called Bit.Trip Void and according to the developers, three more are on the way too. This review will be a look back at the original Bit.Trip Beat.

Being the first in the series, Bit.Trip Beat established many of the franchise’s enduring conventions. There’s an abstract story about pixilated man called the Commander who’s on some sort of psychedelic 8-bit musical journey. His story is supposedly to span the entire series, out of chronological order as that would make too much sense, but frankly the “plot” is borderline incomprehensible, slightly pretentious and ultimately unnecessary. The real star of the Beat and the entire Bit.Trip series is the stellar rhythm gameplay. 

At first glance, Beat resembles an Atari 2600 game with is blocky graphics, primitive bleep-filled soundtrack and muted neon color palette. The gameplay is also reminiscent of the classic 2600 game Pong. By tilting the Wii remote back in forth in a fluid and satisfying motion, you move an onscreen paddle up and down on the right side of the screen in order to deflect pixels flying in from the right. What makes this a modern game is that blocks come in on a beat and must be hit in rhythm creating a sort of song. It is like an awesome unholy fusion of Breakout and Guitar Hero. As you progress things get harder and more complicated. Blocks stop merely coming in straight on and begin adopting patterns such as bouncing back or coming in groups of three that must be deflected simultaneously.
Gaijin Games set out to make a thoroughly retro game and they succeeded.

As you do well, pixilated explosions go off in the background that are so funny to look at you forgive them for obscuring your vision. If you start to slouch however, the graphics get worse and worse. Right before death, the screen becomes black and white with scan lines and sound coming from the terrible Wii remote speaker instead of the TV itself. It is touches like those that make Bit.Trip Beat feel like a love letter to a forgotten era. An era without advancements like online leader boards which Beat lacks as well. Maybe that letter is little too loving.

600 points gets you three songs which is fair considering most downloadable songs for rhythm game cost about two dollars. However, you may not even get past the first song. The steep difficulty curve in Bit.Trip Beat is by far its biggest problem. Songs tend to drag on for too long, becoming more like endurance tests than fun challenges, and while the motion controls feel great, they are not quite precise enough. However, a high level of difficulty is another calling card of retro games.

Players looking for a game that mixes fresh and modern design with old-school challenge and feel should check out Bit.Trip Beat. If you like it, be on the lookout for the rest of the games in the Bit.Trip series. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 10/23 at 12:26 PM
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vpgames.com is pleased to announce the introduction of iPhone and BlackBerry Exo-Flex skins!

Back in August, we introduced Exo-Flex skins to the world. The response from the gaming community has been fantastic, with praise from many reviewers and bloggers.

Due to a high number of requests, we are now shipping over 100 designs of skins for the iPhone 3G/3GS, Blackberry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900, and BlackBerry Storm. This marks the first foray into mobile phone accessories for us here at vpgames, and we are starting things off the right way.

Exo-Flex products are custom designed to provide style and protection to your electronics and peripherals. Each skin is easy to apply, with no squeegee required to push off annoying air bubbles, and they are guaranteed never to fade, peel or bubble up. You can use them, abuse them, and re-use them as much as you like! Exo-flex products are manufactured to take any punishment that you can dish out.  The top film is water resistant, while the middle and bottom prevent any kind of residue from being left behind on the surface of your device. They are removable, repositionable, and can always be re-applied!

Posted by admin on 10/21 at 12:53 PM
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Microsoft, under the current Xbox LIVE update preview program, has just announced that all unauthorized memory units and devices will be banned in the upcoming update. The upcoming update will also integrate with Twitter, Facebook and Zune.

This is a huge blow to manufacturers like Datel, who sell a 2GB expandable memory card for only $15 more than Microsoft’s official 512MB memory unit. This huge difference in price and value is sure to upset many consumers who use third party memory units to save their Xbox 360 downloads, gamesaves, and more. Datel also manufacturer’s the XPORT, XSATA, Transfer Kit, as well as Max Memory, although the XPort might not be affected Microsoft cannot detect it as even being a memory storage device. 

A Microsoft spokesman says they are only going after memory units that are plugged in front of the console, not unauthorized hard drives.

A representative from Datel says the company is ”disappointed” with the issue, noting that “Microsoft (is) taking these steps to prevent customers from exercising their freedom of choice”

Larry Hryb (also known as “Major Nelson"), director of programming, Xbox LIVE, stated on his blog that all unauthorized storage units would stop working with Xbox 360 after this update. Nelson suggested that users should save their profile and saved games on an ‘authorized (ie, much more expensive) Xbox 360 Storage device’ before taking the update. Users with unauthorized units will no longer be be able to access their user profile as well, and saved games will be barred.  He neglected to mention that users are not required to download the update if they choose not to.

Posted by admin on 10/20 at 08:46 AM
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Back in the golden era of video arcades, there was nary a child who could resist the quarter-robbing aura of a giant plastic light gun cabinet. Games like Virtua Cop and Point Blank made the dream of murder simulators that much closer to reality. But that age has passed and as standard controllers have become less and less gun gun-shaped, light gun, on-rails shooters have seemingly turned into analog-stick free roaming first-person shooters. Also, the new-fangled HDTVs do not get along with light-guns the way old cathode ray tubes would.

However, recently there has been a resurgence games in the light-gun genre. Nintendo’s vaguely gun-ish peripheral the Wii Zapper combined with the pointing ability of the Wii remote and the casual gamer’s positive response to fast and simple games like Duck Hunt, have made light gun games as relevant as they have ever been in the 21st century. While Nintendo’s only contribution is the enjoyable but strange and nonviolent Link’s Crossbow Training, it’s been up to third-parties to sustain the new, emerging genre known as the “console-style on-rails shooter.” A concept that would have sounded ridiculous years ago is now a reality. Old light gun games that have been ported to Wii, like Ghost Squad, are short and shallow. While that’s okay for an arcade game, these new console-style light gun games are offering deeper, longer experiences with the speed and accuracy of true light guns being the only trade-offs.

While the revival was brought on by the Wii, it has spread to other consoles as well. Time Crisis 4 arrived on PS3 with a new-IR based gun controller. Maybe when Natal comes out, players can simply make gun shapes with their hands and point at the screen to shoot zombies in House of the Dead 4. Unfortunately, some companies are releasing some truly awful games to take advantage of this new trend. Someone needs to tell the people behind Target Terror that games with poorly edited footage of live action actors went out of style fifteen years ago, unless of course, you are referring to the on-rails plunger shooters in the Rayman Raving Rabbids series.

The comeback tour for on-rails shooters continues this fall on the Wii and here are three of the standouts…

House of the Dead Overkill: Since it came out this February, the newest entry in one of Sega’s numerous light-gun mega-franchises is not really a fall release. Also, since it maintains the speedy gameplay and short length of its arcade predecessors, it can’t be described as a console-style light gun shooter either. However, between its hilariously raunchy grind house style, expansive gun customization system and responsive shooting action thanks to some smart calibration, Overkill reinvigorates the franchise in a way only a new console game could. Also available on the Wii is the House of the Dead collection featuring the second and third entries in the series, two of the best. Chronologically speaking, Overkill takes place before those two games since it is the first time AMS Special Agent G has had to shoot his way through a mob of zombies/mutants.

Dead Space: Extraction: To be honest, I was extremely disappointed to hear that EA’s third-person horror shooter spectacular Dead Space would be turned into an on-rails shooter prequel on Wii. However, despite the change in perspective, Extraction has managed to maintain the brooding atmosphere and graphics of the original along with an increased focus on story and the innovative gun combat system. In space, zombies must have their limbs cut off, not their heads. Zombies tend to be the standard enemies in light gun games, probably because no one has any moral problems with shooting them in the face, so at least EA gave their zombies a sci-fi twist. EA keeps calling this one a “guided first-person experience” as opposed to the light gun game. Perhaps that is a cooler sounding name for “console-style on-rails shooter”. They are both equally fake so we might as well use one created by a marketing executive as opposed to a random person like me.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles: Capcom’s latest stab at the guided first-person experience is a sequel to 2007’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Like that game, Darkside Chronicles is a light gun retelling of classic moments from Resident Evil history. In this game you’ll shoot your way through the T-Virus infected Raccoon City of Resident Evil 2, the twisted lair of the Ashford Twins as seen in Code Veronica, and a new South America environment reminiscent of the shanty towns of Resident Evil 4 and 5. Since this game dares you to walk on the dark side, who better to play as than bad boy, police officer turned Secret Service agent, Leon S. Kennedy, who is quickly becoming the most popular character of the franchise. He’s not the only playable character but he’s the one you probably care most about. Actually, since it is a first person game, you’ll want to play as his partner Claire Redfield or Jack Krauser so there’s chance of seeing Leon during the action.

What’s funny is that Nintendo went so far out of their way to make the white, multi-pronged Wii Zapper as little like a gun as possible. But all of the companies using it are making M-rated, bloody zombie bullet fests. Now all we need is for keyboard shooters to make a comeback. Sega, it is time for Typing of the Dead 2.

- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 10/16 at 12:36 PM
(1) Comments