Tournaments and Courses
There’s a career mode in Tiger 11 but there’s no storyline or set discipline you need to follow. You simply select the tournament you wish to play, and you play it. This provides you with an arena to earn experience points to improve your customised golfer. That may sound simplistic but believe me it’s a lot of fun. The tournaments included are World recognised events, all of which have been a part of the Tiger Woods series in previous years with one or two new additions. Also this year, a big emphasis from EA Sports seems to have gone on the Ryder Cup.

Here’s a fun fact for you, this year’s Ryder Cup is going to be held in Celtic Manor in Newport, about a ten minute drive away from my house, so to see the course graphically represented in-game was a real thrill! For those who may not know, The Ryder Cup is an event that features a team of golfers from Europe against a team of golfers from America and takes place every two years with a different venue every time. In Tiger 11, I played Ryder Cup mode in a 2 vs 2 format which then carries on for the duration of the whole 18 holes. The aim? Your team of two needs to perform better on a particular hole than the opposing team of 2. So if you were only able to scrape a bogey and your opponents managed a birdie, they will have the advantage. The Ryder Cup is actually one of my favourite things to do, (apart from develop my customised golfer) in Tiger 11 and really inspires the competitive streak within. This is especially fun when you have a few mates around and are playing pass the pad or if you’re playing online against the best of the best.

Adding some swing to your step
Realistically, the differences between Tiger 10 and Tiger 11 aren’t that substantial. If you played last year’s instalment, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect with Tiger 11. In fact, if you read Phil’s hands-on with the demo, you’d know that he was pretty comfortable playing Tiger 11 having last played Tiger 07. It’s not a complete port however as there are some new features such as the focus mode which almost completely change the way the game is played. The Focus mode is represented by a circular red gauge at the bottom left hand side of the screen which is gradually depleted from a number of different uses. For example, when you’re aiming your shot, there is an opportunity to tighten up the accuracy of where the ball is going to land on the course. Then when you go to take your shot and are in your backswing, by repeatedly tapping the A button you can add more force behind your club, so that when you bring it forward to hit the ball off the tee, it will help the ball move further than it would have normally. When putting, the focus can also be depleted by using a virtual simulation of how accurate your shot is going to be based on your current position. Using this simulation every time will also deplete your focus. Using a combination of these will soon drain your focus and when that happens, you’re completely on your own and will have to hope and pray that your golfing instincts are up to scratch. All is not lost however, as you can build your focus back up by just playing the game without using any of the nifty features and hitting tee shots onto the fairway or getting as close to the hole as possible without any help from the computer.

Also new this year is a mode called True-Aim. Essentially, this is like being an actual golfer on a golf course as it takes place from a first person perspective and basically puts you in the shoes of your golfer of choice. Of course, that means you cant see your focus or how much emphasis you’re putting on your shots. You are, in fact, completely dependent on your own 20/20 vision and the reaction from the crowd on hand to see how much progress you’ve made with your shot. This is an extremely taxing edition to the latest game and will only be used by those who’ve mastered their craft with previous Tiger Woods games. If you’re a big fan, if you’ve been playing the series and think you’re hot stuff, then you need to be playing through each round with True-Aim on. It may just change your perspective.

Almost like the real thing..

The XP system also seems quite improved from last year as does the customisation. As before, the customisation allows you to tweak your golfer how you see fit; everything from the colour of their eyes, to the depth of their nose and down to their cheek structure. Although, if you can’t quite figure out how you look and know how to create an appropriate likeness for yourself in the game with the options on hand, then, once again, EA have included the option to photo yourself and allow the game to create your golfers face digitally using yours as a blueprint. This is a feature that carried over from last year, and, with the imminent arrival of Kinect, will probably be the last time your Xbox 360 Camera is used. The game scans your face into the game, taking around twenty minutes to do so and then recreates it digitally. This can produce some embarrassing results however, as the game has a horrid way of revealing your worst features over your best. For me, I have quite a large forehead and the game seemed to take great pleasure in showing that to me, almost mockingly! However, EA allow you to play around with their design of you if you’re not happy with the way you’ve been portrayed, so don’t feel too disheartened.

Once you’re done crafting your likeness into the game, you’re given a brief introduction into the XP system. Essentially, your golfer has levels and an XP bar that needs to fill in order for you to progress to the next level. XP is awarded in a variety of different ways; if your tee shot hits the fairway or if you make a close approach on the hole and land it on the green you’ll gain some points. You’ll even gain XP if you score a birdie or a hole in one. Depending on how much XP you’ve obtained from a course indicates how much you get to spend at the end of the course on your golfer. For example, if you would prefer your golfer to be a more accurate putter than a power driver, you can assign XP points to that particular field. Essentially, your golfer’s abilities are in the palm of your hand.

FOOORE!
Graphically, this game is about as good as you can expect a golfing game to be. The courses are about as close to the real thing as you can imagine, including all the bunkers, the hills, the trees and water hazards. Its quite clear there is a powerful engine backing Tiger Woods 11 as it factors in inclines on the course and forces gravity whenever the ball hits a tree. Tiger Woods 11 is very polished in this sense as one has come to expect from an EA Sports product, the physics seem spot on and it looks crisp. The water gleams, the sun shines and the courses are represented so accurately from their real-life counterparts, that at times, it would be difficult to tell the difference. The same is true of the golfers; Tiger really does look like Tiger, as does McIllroy. You can see their apprehension, their excitement, their enthusiasm and their fear as the ball moves about the course. The camera also allows great replay features and gives great perspective as to where it’s going to land. EA have done an excellent job of capturing golf emotion in this package and have shown that there is certainly more to the game than flagpoles and clubs.

Sand in your eye?

Back from Tiger Woods 10 is the randomised weather system, which essentially never lets you play the same game twice. So, in one sitting the wind may be completely against you and rain is pounding down furiously, then in the next, there is but the tiniest breeze and the sun is shining. This is one of a few games where I feel the environment plays as much of an important role to the game as the graphics themselves.

Chirp like a birdie, squawk like an eagle!
The music is generally quite irritating. For me, it’s a slight improvement over last years but that’s not saying very much. While playing the game, however, music isn’t a factor. I also found out while I was playing the game on Xbox 360 that customised soundtracks aren’t allowed whereas they are on Playstation 3. For some, this could be a key feature when deciding upon your purchase, however for me, I just spent as little time on the title screen as I could and jumped straight into a game.

However, if you thought the title screen was bad, wait until you get to the commentators. It’s quite irking to hear that the majority of sound-bites from the commentators last year have been carried over into this instalment and little has been done to change it. They’ll still say the same things, still react in mostly the same way with a slight change here or there to make it seem as if something has actually been changed. Arguably, you could ask what more can be said that wasn’t already captured in previous games. This is true, but if you’ve got any experience with the series at all, you may find that a simple thing such as similar commentary does less to emphasise the changes made between Tiger 10 and Tiger 11. For those who’ve never played a Tiger Woods game before however, even after a while, these two will probably still get on your nerves. Thankfully, you can switch them off, although some may find having them on useful.

Where this game shines with its sound however, is when you’re on course and you’re just listening to the sounds of nature and man coming together. You’re normally listening out for birds chirping, or the crowd whooping, or hearing the chink of the club as it hits against the ball. It’s a rare game where there isn’t music beating in the background and it’s all about being outdoors and hearing the whistling wind or the listening to the waves on the sea. In that sense, PGA Tour 11 is actually very relaxing and calming and does really make a great game to play if you just want to unwind and unravel. All the sounds are as authentic as you can imagine them to be and suit this game so well.

Controversial online schemes
You’ve heard it, talked about and now it’s here, Tiger Woods 11 is the first game to fall victim to EA Sports new online policy. Essentially, this affects gamers who play pirated copies of games or buy them pre-owned. If you buy Tiger Woods 11 shrink wrapped and sealed, you’re going to get a code on the back page of your manual that will allow you to unlock the online mode, free of charge and enable you to play as long as you want. However, this can only be used once and so if you buy this pre-owned, you won’t be getting online with Tiger Woods past a seven day free trial unless you pay a fee equivalent to 1200 points/$10. This has irked some gamers and will clearly take a big chunk of online gamers out of the equation as many rely upon the pre-owned market to get involved with the latest games. However, EA Sports, for better or worse, have decided to make a stance against this and from Tiger 11 onward, all of their games will adopt the same policy. It’s clear that it is having an impact on the industry however, as other companies are considering adopting similar concepts. So be warned.

Ready to set a new trend?

As a reviewer, I only got to sample a seven day trial for the game but it gives a good enough indication of how the online world of PGA Tour Golf 11 plays out. Everything you can play in the game is available online, including the Ryder Cup and other tournaments. You can play team based games, playing co-operatively or against friends, you can even take your customised golfer online. What’s also cool is that you can film any videos of any excellent shots you’ve taken, upload them to the net and people can download and watch those shots. Photos can also be taken to your heart’s content. Taking all that into consideration, when playing an actual game online, the servers seem pretty stable when supporting multiple players, I did face the occasional stutter, however, I think that this might be more of an issue with my connection than the game itself. So, it appears that the fee for online gaming constitutes decent online play, or at least the same as you’ve been used to for EA games in the past. However, just to clarify, there is no noticeable difference in the quality one way or another. I suppose it could be worse, it could be a subscription based model!

Tiger Woods is also an ever expanding product because there will always be challenges for you to accomplish. Whenever you start the game up, if you’ve registered an account, you will be logged into the EA servers, and dependent on which hole you play, you will be competing with players from all over the World based on your performance on that hole. So when at your tee shot, a pop-up may flash on the screen to show you that on a Par 3 hole, someone named XxM@lk0mxX has managed to hit his tee shot onto the green near the flag in one shot. The game will then challenge you to better or to equal that feat and, if you’re capable of doing it, will award you EA Points and XP. While not in direct consistent competition with any individual at one time, there will always be a way to improve your game and your standings in the World rankings, even if you feel you’ve managed to conquer it all.

Hole in One?
Sales of this game have been quite poor in comparison to previous years and whether this is a statement as to the consumers tolerance of Tiger’s infidelity, fans showing their disregard for EA’s new online policy or that there is simply too many other games out there is an arguable point. Whatever the case may be, Tiger Woods 11 is a very good game and its sales are not indicative of its quality. It’s not a vast difference to Tiger 10 and it’s debatable whether this is worth the full amount if you already own last years instalment but there is enough content in here that if you’re a golfing fan, it may be worth another look. The Ryder Cup mode is quite entertaining and the focus system certainly adds a very strategic element to the game. Levelling up your golfer and developing your golfer with all the options available is also quite addictive and can keep you entertained for hours. Also, when considering the platform you want to play on, it may be worth considering that Tiger 11 supports motion plus on the Wii and will have a patch released in September to support Playstation Move. However, EA Sports stated that Tiger 11 was too far in development to support Kinect and Microsoft owners will have to wait until next year to have some motion based golfing!

In short, Tiger Woods 11 is a good game for golfing fans and a good game to get people into golf. It’s a user friendly game, playable and enjoyable by all and can be used for pick up and play or to get more heavily involved in the intricacies on display. Coming from a reviewer who doesn’t generally play or buy sports games, I found many an entertaining hour in Tiger Woods 11 and believe that many of you reading this review would feel the same way.

How We Review Games

As a fan of both Lego and HPVerse, I decided to take the plunge and quickly pre-ordered my copy, keen to see what TT could do with the franchise in the world of bricks. Having spent hours upon hours hunting for crests and collecting studs, I now have a good enough idea of how this plays to give an informed review and to tell you if this has been worth the wait. So, should Lego Harry Potter Years 1–4 be permanently expelled or should this class remain in session?

Please note, the majority of my time playing this game was local co-op with my girlfriend, who has also offered some of her input into this review. Appropriate credit given at the conclusion of this review.

This isn’t my first brick building barbeque…
The Lego games have been a guilty pleasure of mine since I first played Lego Indiana Jones a few years back. From there, I spent over sixty hours of gameplay time completing Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga to 100% and then decided to BOFF, WHAP and KA-BLAM my way through a series of goons in Lego Batman. The very thought of Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 has excited me for some time, considering it brings magic, wizards and trolls to a Lego game for the first time and has had my attention since its initial announcement.

Upon my first touch of the pad, I can say that I was not disappointed.

You’ll start the game with a cut-scene familiar to anyone who knows anything about the Philosopher’s Stone source material. Harry is staying at his Aunt and Uncle’s house with the greedy Dudley, essentially being treated like a piece of dirt, when all of a sudden the house is flooded with letters, sending Harry into fits of joy and his Aunt and Uncle into a bout of rage! After failing to remove the letters from the house, Uncle Vernon decides to take the family away from Privet Drive to somewhere more remote. However, they are soon cast in the shadow of the mighty Hagrid, who has other ideas for Mr Potter. Hagrid leads Harry to Diagon Alley, where he obtains his first wand and gets himself prepared for life at Hogwarts. Once through this initial section, you make the trip to Hogwarts via the Hogwarts Express. As Harry, Ron and Hermione you will find yourselves running through Hogwarts and have the option of following ghosts who walk the school corridors leading you to the next level or taking you exploring into the deeper recesses of the old, mystical building. Of course, being at such a early level of wizardry, some areas of the school will be blocked off to you unless you’ve learned how to wield a particular spell. So, for example, there are some Devil Snares blocking your path to one area of the castle and in order to pass you will need to learn Lumos in order to defeat the plant and move on. This is sort of a sandbox area, but it also contains many hidden treasures, secrets, levels and lessons where you can learn more powerful spells in order to progress through the game.

Playing with Lego
In order to access the game menu, which enables you to select the level you want to play, purchase characters for studs or to continue your story from your previous saved file, you will be taken to the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley where you first started the game. TT have been criticised in the past for creating a game which is level after level. However, they have certainly gone to great lengths to try and make Lego Harry Potter feel more of one large interactive environment, something that is certainly very plausible within the HPVerse. Sometimes, it’s even difficult to tell when you’re about to start a level within Hogwarts, the whole experience is that fluid!

From the cradle to the... broomstick?

As your characters learn new spells, they’re added to a wheel which can be easily accessed by holding in the Y button and can be selected using the left analog stick. You’ll have to use different spells in certain situations and it will be up to you to figure out what you need to do in order to progress. You’ll also be able to buy new spells from Diagon Alley, which have a multitude of uses and a wide range of costs.

As always, different characters will also be capable of different things. So for example, only Ron can use his rat Scabbers to access smaller areas, Harry is the best at flying on a broomstick and Hermione sticks to the books and can solve several puzzles featuring symbols. Same as previous lego games, you’ll need to alternate between the cast of the series, in order to further your progression in each stage of the game. This is certainly a common trait in each Lego game, although I found myself quite surprised by the amount of diversity spread among the HP cast, from the main three, to Hagrid, Fang and a Gringots Goblin; there really seems to be a wide range of things that the player will need to take into consideration when trying to tackle some of the obstacles in game, perhaps more than there’s ever been.

I also love how the most simplistic aspects of Lego games have been tuned into something much more suitable for a Harry Potter game. Building blocks are handled differently by using Wingardium Leviosa. You’ll also be shooting projectiles from your wand, rather than beating someone up with your fists. TT have done everything possible to make this authentic, just as they’ve always done with the Lego games and it really does show. It’s a real geekfest for a Harry Potter fan.

It's sport but not as we know it!

Swish and Flick!
The graphics are  improved over other Lego games, more detail has been added to the faces of the cast as one can see in modern day lego figures, and facial expressions are much easier to read than before. This is especially important for the cut-scenes, which, as always, are completely devoid of dialogue and are usually a tongue in cheek representation of an actual scene from the books and/or films. There are many memorable, laugh out loud moments in the game with a humour that will probably appeal more to the adults than the children in some cases (such as Voldemort going to drink Unicorn blood with a knife and fork and the very same Unicorn being nursed back to health in Hagrid’s hut with a thermometer stuck in its mouth). It’s the same quirky, in-joke humour that we’ve come to know and love from the series and is as appropriate and excellent as ever.

The backdrops also look impressive in Lego HP. Seeing the Hogwarts Express take its first voyage and seeing Hogwarts for the first time from the rowing boats are really set-apart moments that will elicit a tear of joy in a die-hard fan or trigger a bolt of recognition in anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last decade. The graphics supporting the levels are also very well designed and unlike in Lego Indy 2, when split-screening, the game doesn’t slow down as much and seems much more comfortable supporting the framerate than before.

Most things will be familiar from past Lego games, such as the hearts at the top of the screen next to a character portrait and a series of studs combined together at the middle of the screen to show your ‘True Wizard’ progress in a particular level. There is a real wizarding vibe here that fits a Lego game like a glove, seeing robes and wands, potions and trolls. It’s a refreshing environment for a Lego game and all of it just looks superb and will instantly make you want to pick up a pad and Stupefy something!

The triumphant trio

Wizard rock!
As is always the case with Lego games, the characters don’t talk during cut-scenes and generally only grunt and groan. Freakishly, however, the grunts actually sound like the characters voices and somehow TT have managed to make the characters sound like their film counterparts, which is quite uncanny and actually rather spooky. The sound effects are also spot on, with the sound of spells flying around the screen, zapping creatures and abominations.

The background music is straight out of the films and that’s a great thing. While it’s not the entire score from the soundtrack of the first four films, there’s a real selection of great tracks that suit the tempo and the mood of each scene; everything from the boss battle with Quirrel to the murky Forbidden Forest filled with evil and wonder, to Harry’s first foray into Quidditch. Everything that’s in there is suited to the scene you’re participating in. The theme within the menu will be especially memorable to anyone whose seen a promo spot for a Harry Potter movie, and will totally get you in the mood for the wizarding world at large.

Two wizards are better than one.
Multiplayer follows on from the introduction of the progressive split-screen in Lego Indiana Jones 2, whereby if one player disappears from the screen, it then splits in two and tracks the progress of both players around the map, until they join up together making the screen whole again. While the idea seemed like it could use some fine-tuning and refinement in Lego Indy 2, it seems spot on in Harry Potter, save for one blemish. Sometimes the scheme seems overly sensitive and begins to split the screen when it doesn’t really have to. Unfortunately, this can be quite annoying, as there will sometimes be a line right through the middle of the screen, that can block both yours and your characters line of sight, whether you’re trying to collect a stud or just bypass an obstacle. Separating and meshing the screens together really is quite trippy on the eyes the first few times you see it, but once you get used to it, you begin to see how much of a technical marvel it actually is. The splitscreen is quite unique for any local co-op game, as essentially both characters being played remain on the same screen, but then if they decide to go in opposing directions, the screen splits  and will follow each character’s movements.

That said, it’s a vast improvement over Lego Indy 2′s variation and it’s clear the development team have had some time to get it right. What was once an annoying aspect of the Lego games has now become a refreshing and enjoyable change. This also allows players to explore different sections at the same time, really adding a deeper emphasis to teamwork within the game. I always feel that Lego games are better played with a friend (even though much of my time with Lego Star Wars was spent alone) and Travellers Tales are clearly supportive of that as well.

My only other issue is a longstanding one with the series in the achievement/trophy system which only seems to recognise the first player and treats the second as a guest. I really don’t understand why in 2010 this is still an issue and why achievements cannot unlock for both players if both have gamer profiles, tracking their statistics individually. Instead, only player one will unlock certain achievements, so if you are playing this co-operatively with a friend, you’ll need at least two full playthroughs to get everything done. What is new in Lego Harry Potter, in the description of the achievements, it states Single Player Only. This seems incredibly backwards to me when games are in the trend of being more progressive. Unfortunately, it is not just Lego Harry Potter that is guilty of such a crime, as I found myself even more infuriated with Capcom’s Lost Planet 2 for similar issues.

It's all about the lego!

What’s the final wizarding word?
Real perfectionism has gone into this game and it shows. Travellers Tales didn’t want to release a half-baked product lathered with glitches and hiccups. That TT and WB have collaborated to ensure that the same issues that plagued previous games didn’t crop up in Lego HP is clear and reassuring. The appropriate amount of care and attention to detail has been observed and what we have is a really polished end product that totally appeals to just about anybody with a pulse.

There are lots of things to do here and the levels are very replayable, once through on story and then several times afterwards on Free Play. If you want to unlock everything, you’re really going to have to commit the time to obtain True Wizard on every level, get every crest from the four houses, post every post box by way of a snowy owl, unlock every character and every special ability. While still not as vast as Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga, this is the biggest single Lego product to come out since and has a lot of tools at its disposal. Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 is a triumph, and is easily the best Harry Potter video game to date, the best Lego game to date and the most fun co-operative experience I have played so far this year!

Credit to LaurieTLC for her input into the structure and development of this review.

How We Review Games

The question is, should Nelson have stayed hidden in this secret division, locked up in the deepest recesses of the FBI? Lets find out…

So what does it take to be in the FBI?
The game starts with Nelson sat at his desk trying to solve a crossword puzzle. The day has clearly been a long one as Mr Tether’s eyes are drooping and he is reliant on the bowl of chewing gum on his right to keep himself awake and concentrating. Soon, however, the lure of sleep becomes too much and Nelson crashes face first on his desk and is away with the fairies. During his dream, Nelson sees an individual in a space suit approach his desk, Nelson faces the astronaut alarmed, flummoxed as to how or why one would be in his office. As he tries to get his head around the very thought, the astronaut seems keen to introduce himself, raising the mirror in their helmet. Nelson startled, struggling for breath, wakes up with a start before we find out who the individual is and sees that his beloved crossword puzzle has been shredded into multiple pieces. It is here we’re introduced to the meat and potatoes of Puzzle Agent’s premise; puzzles!

The game itself has borrowed heavily from the likes of Professor Layton, with Telltale themselves openly admitting it. As Layton has proven to be such a hit with DS owners, that’s definitely not a bad thing either. The first puzzle of the game sees you try to rearrange a crossword puzzle that has something written in red ink all over it back into a legible form. The puzzle is fairly straight forward and serves as more of an introduction to what you’re going to be doing throughout the course of the adventure. Solving the puzzle will mysteriously reveal the word Scoggins to the player. Seconds later, Nelson gets a call from his boss to tell him to investigate a mishap at a factory in the town of Scoggins, Minnesota. Perplexed at how all of this seems to tie up, Nelson thinks there is only one thing for it, shrugs his shoulders, and takes to the snow-sleigh to make his way through the snowy suburbia.

The lay of the land

As you would expect, the puzzles increase in difficulty the further into the game you get. Players will go from piecing together a crossword to configuring fuses and putting bugs in matchstick boxes. There’s a real mix of head scratchers in this game and they will definitely keep you on your toes. Don’t worry, Telltale have been very forgiving in the way that you can always get some help. Nelson chews gum in order to help him concentrate on puzzle solving and this helps him focus on the task at hand, enabling the player to get a hint. This goes from a minor hint, to almost completely spoiling the puzzle for you (although Telltale never completely give the game away). However, every time you use a hint, it will go against your record which you have at the end of completing every puzzle. The record also takes into consideration how many attempts you’ve made at the solution and then give you an overall score for your performance, whether you’re a borderline puzzle solver or a top agent!

Bugs + Matchsticks = Buddies

So being an agent isn’t all about action?
As always, the game’s control is handled via a cursor on your screen and you will interact with ‘hotspots’.  However unlike other point and click games Telltale have done, a simple click of the mouse sends ripples out on the screen, like a sound wave and depending on if you’re in the right area, will highlight the areas you need to interact with. So, a looking glass will appear if you need to examine something or a speech bubble will appear so you can talk to another character. Usually, when Nelson goes to examine something, he will pull out a tape recorder from his coat and speak into a dictaphone, considering it a clue for his investigation.

Captains Log, Stardate... Oh Wait...

You’ll also find chewing gum scattered across the game. Every time you click on the gum, Nelson will gather it and this will allow him an extra hint when he is puzzle solving as I previously alluded to.

Its not all it appears to be.
As you can see from the pictures above, the game is hand drawn and is more of a 2.5D experience which is another new approach for TTG and is a real rare treat in this day and age of 3D gaming. Once again, Puzzle Agent dares to be different and pays more of an homage to point and click games of yesteryear than those we see today. As the game art is hand drawn, new freedoms are opened up to both developer and player. For example, facial expressions seem less stunted than in 3D games and there is a more personal flair to the game than anything TTG have done to date.

One may argue the environments in Puzzle Agent are especially bland as the majority of the game takes place in the snow, but that only adds to the atmosphere of the game, as we’re led to believe that this little town is remote and yet there is a much more sinister undertone to its day to day living. While the environments are snowy, they are also quite dark and gloomy and is very easy to compare to the likes of Fargo in terms of how it looks and feels.

Unfortunately, there's no co-op in this adventure!

So is it all authoritative barks?
Nelson sounds like a bit of a weed, but that’s sort of the point as this is an agent more comfortable with textbooks and lateral thinking and doesn’t like being thrust into the thick of danger. As an agent, Nelson is quite jumpy, he doesn’t trust anyone and whips out his tape recorder at a moments notice whether the clue is relevant to his investigation or not. The voice acting suits completely as it does for the Scoggins natives, some of whom treat him as an intruder and others overly welcoming.

The tempo of the music in the background is also a real draw. While Nelson seems weedy, TTG have managed to create a legitimate tension in Scoggins that makes you believe we’re not being subjected to the paranoid machinations of a jittery protagonist. They really make the place seem to be quite frightful, and that only the residents are the ones who truly feel comfortable being there. There’s a real dark vibe coming from the music in this game that is reminiscent of things TTG have done before, but also shows that they’ve gone in a completely different direction with Nelson Tethers. They’re really trying to distance themselves from the games they’ve done in the past and to prove, point blank, they can do the weird and the creepy as well as the cartooney, cutesy and zany.

Definitely of the weird and creepy category

So is this a puzzle worth being solved?
This game isn’t going to be for everyone, but that seems to have been a battle Telltale Games have been fighting since their inception. Certainly the Professor Layton games have proven to be exceptionally popular and this game is focused on anyone with even a passing interest in that market, as well as anyone who has played a TTG title before. There is enough variety in here that’s going to appeal to many people. The puzzles vary enough that they will challenge every ounce of your grey matter, there are side puzzles you can tackle if you want a break from the main story and when you want to jump back in, the main puzzles slot in very significantly with the plot (of which there is a good one). On the other hand, if you’re coming into this game expecting your normal Telltale product, don’t. While it’s very geared towards story and dialogue, this game is all about the puzzles. There is limited investigating here; there is no inventory, just a case file filled with previous puzzles which you can replay to improve your score and the story which is fairly easy to progress as the game will either tell you what you need to do or there are a limited number of objects to interact with to begin with.

Ultimately, Nelson Tethers certainly deserves more of Telltale’s attention as its a complete deviation from what people expect and really does stand up with the likes of Professor Layton as the story is quite dark, mysterious, gloomy and even sometimes downright sinister. Telltale have learned a lot from their previous forays and have been able to create a myriad of brilliance in Puzzle Agent. This is a great value game that will keep you puzzling for several hours and has a good storyline to boot. If the thought of finding a rubber band in a persons stomach through a slithering tapeworm or assigning birds to carry sacks full of gnomes tickles your tastebuds, you won’t find any more refreshing an experience than Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent!

How We Review Games

Flash is back, Flash is back!
Little known fact; I DJ’d for ten years, playing house and other underground dance music, so when Activision announced the inevitable DJ Hero I was a little apprehensive. I mean, there are so many facets to DJing, so many genres and styles to cover, I didn’t think it would be possible. Would they be focusing on what I knew to be DJing? Seamlessly linking one track into another to entertain folk on a night out? It wouldn’t make a fun game, and how would they manage to fit in the required tracks to make that worthwhile?

There was one facet I hadn’t thought about and it’s the most creative one; scratch DJing. More specifically the type that a personal hero of mine, Grandmaster Flash, helped start back in the 70’s. Back then, the likes of Flash, Mellie Mel, and Grand Wizard Theodore would take existing tracks and mix them up with other records to create something new; that is the basis of DJ Hero.

The controller.

Should be called ‘Sample Hero’
Ok, so the game does use a turntable controller, but DJ Hero is far more about the manipulation of samples rather than the actual art of DJing. The turntable platter comes equipped with three buttons. The green is for the left hand channel, the blue for the right, and the red controls different samples from either or unrelated tracks. Similar to other music games you are required to press the right buttons as indicated when the icons scroll down the screen, however rather than acting as notes as you would find in Guitar Hero, these buttons actually control the cue points for the records (where the track will start when you press it).

That aspect in itself will sound pretty easy to music game maestros, however once you throw the cross-fade, scratching and effects into the mix it becomes an entirely new ball game. Scratching is controlled when one of the channels throws a big block at you with directional arrows. For difficulties up to medium, all you need to do is a constant back and forth motion, go higher in difficulty and it becomes a lot more complicated; more on that shortly. The cross-fade involves simply switching to one track on its own, and is represented on screen when the either the left or right channel cuts to the far left or right. You will also notice that there are times when the channels will pulsate, here you can use filter effects by turning the effects knob back and forth and this will double your score multiplier while doing so. There are also ‘freestyle effects’, in which using the red button you can lay down short samples over the mixes.

So, what about ‘star power’? Here it’s called ‘euphoria’ and just like in other music games you will encounter glowing sections that should you perfect will give you the option to double your multiplier. There are three tiers of this you can earn and you can use them at any time; it’s activated by a big button on the mixer that glows read when available. The last trick available is the rewind. Chain together a large part of the track and you will earn this option, which allows you to spin the record back to repeat sections of the track to help earn the really high scores. Each individual aspect of the game when described like this probably makes it sound like a doddle, but it’s really anything but.

The difficulty levels have a large factor in keeping the game challenging and there are five on offer for people to ease their way into playing. Beginner requires no button coordination in that you can press any button and only have to worry about occasional and minor scratching. Easy brings the colour matching back in, but you don’t have to worry about the cross-fade still. Normal gives you access to everything and is probably the optimal level that your average gamer will want to jump into. Being somewhat familiar with mixing and scratching in my past I did find some of the tracks really easy, but even on this level some of the later tracks are extremely difficult to five-star. Hard eases you into the idea of ‘directional scratching’ as there are moments when you’ll be required to scratch once or twice a specific amount of times in a certain rhythm, and it’s here where the game is closest to the art-form it aims to mimic. Expert takes everything you know already and ramps it up to an insane degree.

Aside from the difficulty levels there is actually no way to ‘fail’ a mix, which removes some of the challenge aspect for me, but it’s traded off against the drive to unlock everything. As you play through the game you get your typical one-to-five star rating, the more stars you unlock the more things such as new DJs to play as or venues to spin your tracks at. It does motivate you to go back and better yourself, but for non-completionists it would probably withdraw some of the replay value.

There are two track lists that feature the DJ playing alongside a guitarist and in these moments you can allow a friend to join in on guitar. I don’t think this will be a widely used feature, but it’s a nice option to have should you suddenly have mates around.

Looks familiar still doesn't it?

Familiar territory
People are likely to find no surprises here in DJ Hero as visually the game is rather typical of the ‘Hero’ games. The only real difference comes in the types of venues you will use and the characters you have access to. There are a number of made up DJ’s similar that you have access to use from the off, and as you progress through the game you’ll unlock the likes of Grandmaster Flash and Daft Punk, all of which are modeled nicely with a cartoony look to them.

Choice cuts
I’m going to just put this right out there; DJ Hero has the most enjoyable soundtrack of any music game I’ve played to date. The beauty I find in these types of games is that I get to experience a new type of music I might not usually listen to, and this is no different. Not only does it help you experience a wide selection of genres from rock, dance, pop and hip-hop, it allows you to do it in an entirely new way. Some of the mixes are completely ridiculous in theory, such as ‘Ice Ice Baby’ mixed with Paula Abdul ‘s ‘Straight Up’, but for most part they work well, with only a few mixes being less desirable to experience than the others. The fact that the likes of DJ Shadow, the Scratch Perverts and Daft Punk have all put their names and likeness to this project says it all. You can find the full track-list here.

There’s not much in the way of other real sound features, though the inclusion of Grandmaster Flash as your tutor in the training levels is a masterstroke, and it’s all very well produced.

DJ Battles
DJ Hero includes a very basic, but very playable online mode. Players can engage in simple one vs one battles that work pretty smoothly. There was no lag noted in the few games I’ve played, but a lack of modes really hurts the experience. In Guitar Hero’s online features there is a mode that let players alternate between different sections of the songs, or allowed them to hinder the other person, and these modes would have been perfect on a DJ based set-up; an odd omission to an otherwise stable online component.

Rock DJ!
DJ Hero is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the current music game market, however people bored of the genre might be more difficult to win over than I was. The price-point in this financial market is always going to be an issue for some, but if you feel you still have room for more music games in your collection and want something a little different, then DJ Hero is absolutely the game you are looking for.

How We Review Games

Computer games are allowed to be wacky; they can highlight a zany undertone and people are unlikely to bat an eyelid or drop their jaw. In some respects, videogames have become the new art-house of the entertainment industry and are allowing stories and adventures to go to new, remarkable places that other forms of entertainment wouldn’t dare to touch on. That’s why comic book writer/illustrator Steve Purcell’s vision of freelance police officers Sam and Max, a dog in a police uniform who can play the banjo, and a naked psychopathic Lagomorph respectively, works in the context of a computer game. That’s why the game has earned its place on the extensive catalogue of Xbox Live Arcade games and received so much acclaim. Yet, it is perhaps this very reason that it is one of the most underestimated and underplayed games on Xbox 360 in 2009.

When it was originally released, Save The World began as an exclusive PC project, but, since its release, Sam & Max have broadened their horizons and now feature on Nintendo Wii and Xbox Live Arcade, with rumours of a Playstation Network release continuing to hound the airwaves.

A dog that walks upright and a rabbit thing
So what is it all about you ask? Well, we have a dog and a rabbit posing as freelance police officers that are utterly adverse to the letter of the law they are practically its antithesis; they are more like freelance criminals. They are as depraved, as psychotic and as irresponsible as juvenile delinquents and love to terrorize, pillage and plunder! However, from the very beginning of the first episode, as you find your two main characters walking aimlessly around their office filled with everything from last week’s donuts to a closet filled with cheese and a calendar depicting monthly road kill, you find yourself quickly drawn into the psychological makeup of these characters, and are not so quick to categorize and pigeonhole them;  perhaps more so than any other videogame characters you’ve ever met.

Then, when a phone call comes in about a strange video hypnotizing the entire population, it seems you are the only ones who can solve the case.  You suddenly find yourself more drawn into their lives than perhaps you would like to be. Suddenly, you’re solving puzzles the way they would, using their own unique style of logic and deciphering clues and reaching conclusions in ways that will make you scratch your head and leave you speechless.

It is clear that the ‘Save the World’ subtitle is more than just a tagline and more of a recurring theme throughout each of the six episodes. Of course, it may delude you into thinking you need to save a beautiful blonde cheerleader in order to accomplish your task, but as the story progresses you realise she’s nowhere to be found and the scale of the game widens as the freelance police find themselves at the White House, in Virtual Reality and heading as far as the moon.

When concluding an episode there is a clue at the end of it that shows you what to expect from the next installment. In this regard there is a sense of continuity cross-stitching each of the six episodes together. However, while the game usually references what has happened in previous installments, there doesn’t really seem to be an overall arching storyline during the early stages of Save The World. It almost feels as if Telltale weren’t even sure themselves where the season was ultimately going to go. However, this is quickly rectified by the time you reach my personal season favourite, Situation Comedy.

Not your typical buddy story...

Point, then click!
The game is primarily controlled by the left analog stick, with occasional mini-games scattered throughout with their own means of control. As the player you are in control of a pointer which can be used to interact with certain parts of the scenery around you. When you press a button on any of the significant parts of the scenery, Sam will describe what he sees in his own inimitable way, and sometimes Max will chime in with a chilling fantasy of his own that may disturb or delight. You also have an inventory system located at the bottom left of the screen in a large cardboard box. Upon clicking on this box you can then use items you collect around Sam & Max’s crazy neighbourhood and other places they visit in conjunction with other characters and situations.

However, one of the major arguments levelled at this game is the unsuitability of the control scheme to the 360 pad. Simply put, it’s not a lovechild born of the angels. You can tell instantaneously that the game was never written or designed for consoles, and as a result you can be left vexed and frustrated as you try to control the game. No matter how hard a developer may try, an analog stick will never replace a mouse. This is especially noticeable during time sensitive situations, or when you’re hunting for the smallest area on the screen to continue your adventure. In this regard, Telltale could take some tips from Lucasarts and what they did with the Secret of Monkey Island’s Special Edition interface or even their earlier venture on the 360, Wallace and Gromit: Fright of the Bumblebees. When taking these two games into consideration, you can see what can really be done with a gamepad, and how a game in this genre can be realised to its full potential on Xbox Live Arcade.

However, my love for the crazy cast meant the experience of the analog was not enough to detract from the intelligent yet mind shreddingly insane dialogue and radical, over the top story lines. Where I may have sat and felt a semblance of tedium or frustration because the pointer wasn’t moving across the screen to my liking, I would hear one of the Lagomorph’s violent soliloquies or Sam’s rampant ramblings, and suddenly I’d be chuckling to myself again.

Faux 3D?
The game’s graphics are extremely cleverly designed. Essentially, they can be described as 2.5D. They’re set against luscious hand drawn 2D backdrops, but are bustling and filled with life and actions going on that are not controlled by, but are occasionally influenced by you. Also, the character models for Sam, Max and the rest of the cast, such as Bosco and Sybil, are very well realised fleshed out, and they’re given their own environments in which to dwell on and reflect their personalities.

The game is extremely vibrant and colourful, and keeps things fresh with areas completely unique from each other. For example, the somewhat wacky depiction of the White House interior is one you definitely won’t soon forget, nor is its innovative and technically brilliant imagining of Reality 2.0.
The graphics and art style supports the unorthodox setting and draws you deeper into the game world. With its vision it’s not impossible to believe a dog and a rabbit are openly interacting with human beings and having long drawn out conversations about politics, Prima Donnas and even prunes!

Click, click, click!
The voice acting for the entire cast is well suited. There’s that slight southern husk in Sam’s tone when he wraps his tongue around insightful dialogue which somehow seems to give it an added sense of purpose; that high pitched note of  excitement in Max’s voice that runs chills down the spine when inspired by violence or his own perverted sense of justice. The rest of the supporting cast are just as excellent, with Bosco perhaps getting to give out the most variety in tone throughout the whole season. Also, just wait until you hear the voice of Abraham Lincoln!

As for the music, the sweet succulent symphony of the saxophone will keep playing on loop in the background, and stay stuck in your head whether you’re playing the game or not. You may even find yourself whistling the tunes on the bus on the way to work or cooking food over the stove. It’s a nice refreshing change from heavy metal, rock and rap music dominating the soundtrack of games, and can make you feel very comfortable and relaxed when settling down with Sam & Max.

The sound effects do take somewhat of a backseat during the game, but, when used, are usually very important in puzzle solving and setting the mood and ambience in a particular scene. Whether it is the beeping sounds of the C.O.P.S in Reality 2.0 or the Desoto speeding up the highway in pursuit of criminals or other unsavoury elements on the road, the game implements them seamlessly into the experience.

Seriously, what are you?!

So how is it? Really??
Overall, Telltale Games have done a magnificent job in recreating Steve Purcell’s vision from comic book to computer screen. At times they come close to hitting the high notes that the original Sam & Max Hit the Road set in 1993, but there are also times when the action seems is drawn out for too long. There’s no doubt the script writers understand the characters well; they have made the chemistry between dog and rabbit the highlight of the entire experience, as it should be. Also, during the second half of Save The World, the player will really start to notice just how experimental and comfortable Telltale have become with these characters, and how their creativity is represented in later cases. In my opinion, this is when the game really starts to shine and finds its voice.

Yet, there are occasions where you feel like you’re retreading familiar ground, hearing the same lines of dialogue repeated over and again and a sense of formula really starts to set in. The more you play, the more you become aware of the structure of the game, reminiscent of TV shows such as Sesame Street and 24.

As for the price point, a source of controversy among many gamers, it has undoubtedly stunted the sales of this remarkable game.  XBLA gamers flamed up a storm when the standard price point from Arcade Games went from 400 to 800, so imagine how they must feel when they see something appear at double the price. However, it’s worth every single point and more. This may be hard to believe, but 1600 points is an absolute bargain for the package you get here, and no I’m not drinking Kool-Aid, or under the influence of any type of drug. Seriously, test my blood! The tag line is not a joke; this game will last you at least 20 hours on your first play through, unless you’re a former contestant on Mastermind, you’re playing with a guide or have the hints cranked up on high just to get those extra lines of dialogue for the leaderboard (Oh yeah, I’m onto you!). Plus, if you weren’t as thorough during the first playthrough, there are additional achievements in certain episodes you can get in the second.

Sam & Max is charming; you know it’s trying to be charming, sometimes even cute, and sometimes that will force your gag reflexes, but you can’t help but be floored when your sides are hurting from laughter and you have to put the pad down to compose yourself. Once you allow the humour to take you in and draw you into its world, you can’t help find yourself swept up in it all and lose hours just clicking around and experimenting with all wild manner of combinations. This game has been criminally left at the back shelf of XBLA games and it is an absolute travesty. Certainly, there are flaws in this game, but that is true of a lot of titles on the market today, even the ones with high production values and positive reviews pouring out of their ass. There are few games with intelligent writing, a clever story and unique scenarios as Sam & Max: Save The World does. I understand these games aren’t for everyone, but you’ll never know if you’re one of the lucky few until you give them a try!

How We Review Games

It’s the beginning of the end… literally.
The game is set in the near future. It still has references to modern day events and places, but also has an alien futuristic side to the game with new technologies and weaponry. You play as Michael Ford and you are set out to destroy The Drudge before they invade Washington, D.C. Michael Ford is then enlisted by a shadow government organization called The Trust to, initially, disrupt the terrorist threat but soon gets caught up in the fight to save the capital from destruction. You start the game recovering from a blackout in the middle of a derelict subway full of The Drudge. You have all the weaponry and items and can very easily kick some alien ass. Just when you think you are getting somewhere the screen fades and it says “5 days earlier” and it makes you into your average Joe with just one gun. You then play through the whole city-protecting story until you reach the moment you were at in the beginning of the game. Then it gets really hard.

Configuration Confused
The gameplay, to me, was a little hard to grasp at first, as the buttons on the Wii remote were slightly hard to reach. Apart from being spread apart, the controls were pretty easy to get to grips with. The nunchuck has a very sensitive control, too. To throw a grenade you have to flick the nunchuck forward, but due to it reacting to my slightest movement, I have found myself accidentally throwing them due to scratching my nose or adjusting my seat position. Putting this aside, the rest of the control system was spot on; this game was truly built with the Wii in mind. Another unique aspect to this game is what’s knows as the All-Seeing Eye. This is used to hack into computer systems, find secret passageways and messages hidden on the walls. It also uncovers stealth Drudge from their invisible armour. You bring up your ASE using the + button, aiming is pointing at the screen and moving is with the nunchuck stick, just like your basic shooter. To change you weapon you use the arrows, but the most awkward is your pause button. To pause the game you have to press 2, which is all the way down at the bottom of the remote. The way the game is paused is possibly the most fustrating issue. While playing, my phone rang, and naturally I wanted to pause and answer it. Unfortunately, to pause I had to move my thumb off the A button and tilt the controller so that I could reach the 2 button. This resulted in my aim going off and getting shot just before I paused! Then after un-pausing I had to get back into the position I was in and the frustration went on. On a lighter note, aiming the cursor is a hell of a lot easier than Call of Duty: World at War’s aim system for the Wii.

Oh look, it's War of the Worlds!

Michael Ford is Master Chief!
Whilst playing the game, it reminded me of a few older games I used to play. The Conduit felt like a cross between Goldeneye and Halo 2 with a bit of Metroid Prime 3 thrown in there for good measure. A lot of people don’t like the way Nintendo went with their graphics, including myself. They stopped at the Gamecube, and didn’t seem to progress. However, The Conduit seems to improve on that slightly, especially playing through HDMI. High Voltage Software has spent the time and effort to iron out little graphical issues and bugs and the textures are beautiful and shiny. The only bugs I noticed were because my sensor bar is next to my window, so when the sun shines in the connection gets interrupted. The cut-scenes in this game don’t exist. What you have instead is a Metal Gear style videophone section with text underneath. This can easily get annoying because you can’t skip these “codec moments” either. Everything else about this game was sweet as a nut. The story flowed nicely, all the scenes were nicely pieced together, the secret messages on the wall gave you subtle hints to the grand finale of the game, and when you get back to the subway from the beginning of the game, you feel like you have achieved something; you feel like it’s the end of the game.
A little word of advice, never presume you’re at the end of a game because nine times out of ten, you’ll be wrong.

Headshot!

Could do with more tracks.
This game has a very definitive theme tune, and you always know when you’re at a critical moment when you hear that theme. It is, however, played a little too much in the menus. I didn’t notice much more music in the game apart from the main theme. All I noticed was a variation on the main theme, and your basic atmospheric music used in all shooter games. The sound effects for the Drudge weaponry are certainly unique. My favourite is a gun called The Shrieker. Every time you fire a bullet it makes a sinister screaming sound, like a shriek (maybe that’s where the name came from). The Trust weaponry I can’t make much of a comment about The weapons may be named differently, but they all have the same properties as guns of today. Some are even very similar to Halo weaponry. One of the Trust weapons is called The SCAR and it has the exact same properties as a Halo Battle Rifle; three round bursts, zoom mode and similar sound effects. I do love the sounds of the ASE too. When hacking a computer, it makes an electrical recharging noise, sounding like it’s about to blow up. Then, just as it finishes, it makes a slight pop noise.

Involve the community
My all-time favourite part in the whole game has to be the multiplayer mode. The matchmaking is a little slow, but the process it goes through is fantastic. Every time I played I was matched with people who were actually at my skill level, even if they were ranks higher due to XP. It also determines your skill level by how many kills you get per game, then it matches you based on similar statistics. The map choosing, weapon set and game mode is not chosen by the servers like Call of Duty or Halo, but is chosen by the players. Each player votes for a map they want to play, then a weapon set and a game mode, and when it’s time to play, they are all shuffled and randomly picked out of the votes we chose. Most of the time the one with the most votes gets picked. You can also choose where you want to play; either regional or worldwide. Worldwide gets you more players, but it’s always fun to play against people in your area. During gameplay, I did experience a few lag issues where people would seem to teleport from side to side. Multiplayer also features Wii Speak capabilities. I do not have Wii Speak myself, but I know you can communicate with other players through this peripheral only if you have exchanged friend codes and you are on the same team.

Go on, you know you want to!

Final thought…
In conclusion to all this, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It’s by far one of the best Wii games ever made. You may disagree or say Nintendo isn’t for true gamers, but with more and more games coming out with this style of gameplay, the Wii could really take off with the more elite gamers of the world. The Conduit is a definite purchase if you have the Wii.

How we review games

No more heroes anymore…
So let’s start at the beginning. Travis Touchdown (yes, you read that right) is an ex-Mexican wrestler and wannabe assassin who splits his time between sleeping and lounging around in his dilapidated motel room watching porn and drinking. Oh, he also swears a lot, and would probably be serving time in the local prison for being a pervert if this was the real world, which it isn’t. Instead Travis lives in Santa Destroy, a mixture of Sin City and Venice Beach where it’s almost perpetually daytime and everyone is either beautiful or very weird looking. After winning a beam katana (a strip light/lightsaber hybrid) on the Internet, Travis bumps into sexy young thing Sylvia, a representative of the United Assassins Association. Skint and bored, he accepts a contract to kill the eleventh badass on the UAA list, in order to take said badass’s place. Defeating number ten locks Travis in a sticky situation; for some reason no one cares about you unless you are in the top ten of all assassins; now he’s claimed his place on the list, he must battle through to reach number one before he’s taken out himself by a young whippersnapper. This extreme flip in roles is jarring and confusing, but has little effect on the gameplay. The rest of the story is reasonably written and colours the game somewhat, but its obvious from the start it’s there solely to break up the violence. No bad thing, considering how fun the violence is.

Cartoon violence for the win!
The main words that come to mind when actually playing No More Heroes are; monotonous, fun, repetitive, fantastic, boring, crazy. Ok so those words contradict each other, but so does the game itself. It’s split into two distinct parts; the first is the meat, the beef in the sandwich; the combat. Playing like God of War if it was made by a hyperactive child, it consists mainly of hitting A until an arrow appears on screen, then flicking the Wiimote in that direction. There are kicks, throws and special moves thrown in for good measure, but the bulk of the combat is repetitive, sometimes monstrously so. Spicing up the mix however are the bizarre ‘Dark Side’ bonuses, activated by lining up three slot reels at the bottom of the screen. Explaining this will go some way to getting across just how odd this game can be. You do a finisher (the Wiimote flicking I mentioned earlier) which starts the reels spinning. If all three match up, you get a bonus. This can be anything from bullet-time to instant kills. When it activates, a small, pixelated tiger which sits constantly in the top right of the screen begins to move left, to reach a newly created goal symbol. When the tiger gets there, the bonus is over. That’s just a small example of how eccentric No More Heroes is.

Lightsaber vs Crowbar. Take a wild guess who's winning this one...

Despite what I’ve said, the combat is actually a lot of fun. Hacking and slashing through an army of suits is more exciting than it sounds and the range of specials and bonuses keeping it fresh, for the most part anyway. Hitting the A button over and over again inevitably gets old, but the boss battles serve as a reason to endure. Each one is unique, in both character and fighting style. Some require lightening fast dodges and blocks, others quick combos or power moves. The variety of these battles go some way to rescuing No More Heroes from drowning in its own monotony juice. Shame then, that the other half of the game pushes its head down further.

When you’re not on a mission to kill another assassin, you are forced to do menial tasks to earn money. This money can be used to buy trendy new clothes, upgrade your beam katana and, most importantly, buy your way into the next fight. If collecting coconuts and cutting grass for a grumpy employer wasn’t enough, you’re hindered further by the size of the city. With only around 20 places to go, why did Grasshopper put them all over the city? Riding Travis’ oversized motorbike is the only effective way to get around, and I got tired of riding across the city over and over again to earn a pittance. The mission office is on the other side of the city to the actual mission. In games like Grand Theft Auto, travelling is fine because there’s stuff to see and do. In No More Heroes, it feels pointless and annoying. Hit other cars or people and nothing happens. The city reminds me of the Truman Show; it appears to be bursting with life but look a little closer and it’s all just for show. The amount of time I had to spend driving to and from jobs and shops almost made me put the game down for good. I only continued because I had to finish it so I could tell you guys how annoying it can be.

Walking on the beaches, looking at the peaches…
Instantly you can tell that No More Heroes has had a lot of care and attention put into its looks. Brightly cel-shaded and vibrantly animated, every frame explodes with life and eccentricity. The concepts are typical Grasshopper, and the art style and twisted designs seen in their previous hit, Killer 7, are more than present here. The city of Santa Destroy does beautiful and grimy in equal measures and the general look of everything screams cheap-but-great 70′s cop show chic. The character designs are a car crash of East and West, combining Manga tradition with Western retro styling’s. Even the identikit bad guys are stylized, albeit not as much the stars. While much of it feels unnecessary, it adds polish and sheen. Unfortunately the technical limitations of the Wii are very apparent, with jagged edges, poor renders and even graphical tears evident on closer inspection. Despite this setback, Grasshopper have done a great job with the mediocre tools they had, and No More Heroes manages to achieve a unique style that’s instantly recognisable.

I'm recharging my sword! No really, I am!

Nice ‘n sleazy
No More Heroes soundtrack is a bizarre mash up of typical J-metal silliness, the likes of which proudly adorn the F-Zero games, and Oriental hip-hop. Sometimes combining both in one song, other times switching between the two, it sets the scene brilliantly. It also, at times, gets on the old nerves. The range of actual songs is small, playing the same chuggy rock track for every single fight. The looped hip-hop didn’t really do it for me either. The game’s charm renders this forgivable, but there’s still no need for a shitty soundtrack. The characters are voiced well, if a little woodenly with some genuinely funny lines. The beam katana ‘vrrrums’ like the lightsaber it blatantly is, sparking and crashing when it hits enemies and lending the game some solidity in the combat sections. While offering nothing special, No More Heroes audio is functional, although it suffers from the repetitiveness experienced in other aspects of the game.

Walk on by
Ok so it’s fun, but is that really enough to make me care? Unfortunately in this case, not really. I get the distinct impression Grasshopper found a winning formula, made it look very nice and then copy-pasted it ten times over. The story is engaging but only on a superficial level, the between-mission boredom grates very quickly and the simplistic combat will bore most people in the first ten minutes. It feels like No More Heroes was conceptualized by a four year old, then written by an eight year old before being passed though a committee of ten year olds who decided it was ‘way cool’ and published it. Problem is, there’s something about it. Unusually for me, I can’t tell you exactly what it is. It could be the charm, the style or the swagger. It could be because I like cutting things up. Whatever it is, it kept me playing until the end, despite the game’s sometimes infuriating shortcomings. Far from a classic, No More Heroes sits in a niche carved by its stable-mate Killer 7 before it; a game that is full of annoying ‘WHY?!’ moments, that you will enjoy for a reason you just can’t place.

How We Review Games

It’s one shell of a story.
Loosely following the basic structure of the movie (which I thoroughly enjoyed), TMNT is told from the point of view of our four heroes reminiscing over their latest adventure. Between them and Splinter, they tell of how Leonardo returns from an extended soul-searching exile in the jungles of South America to find that his brother’s lives have fallen into disarray. In the early part of the game you follow each Turtle in solitary missions bearing slight relation to how they are now living their lives; Raph is moonlighting as the ‘Nightwatcher’, Donnie has started offering technical support to PC users over the phone, and Mikey has become a children’s entertainer. A multi-millionaire CEO called Winters is behind the re-emergence of the Foot Clan and the appearance of monsters roaming the city.

Here is where TMNT breaks one of my golden movie tie-in rules by not sticking to the source material and taking the story in its own direction, with only few key plot points tying in with the movie. The reasons for being in the various locations are not well explained, and leads to the telling of a pretty disjointed storyline. The pacing in particular is dire, and you’ll be pretty much two thirds of the way through the game before you even get remotely into anything that resembles the plot from the movie. You can forgive this in games sometimes, providing that the rest of the game makes up for it, and unfortunately for Ubisoft, TMNT is certainly not in that bracket.

I don’t love being a turtle…
To be honest, TMNT has so many flaws that I’m struggling to even decide where to begin the slating. I’m probably best to start with the fact that they have tried to use the Prince of Persia formula as a template to some degree, and at first glance it might not seem that bad an idea. In practice and this poorly implemented however, it’s the worst idea they could have had. While taking the princes range of moves to navigate the levels, it’s a huge shame they haven’t copied any of his finesse along with it. Movements are clunky, animations are weak and the levels themselves are very badly designed. This is made even worse by the fact that the fixed camera is of little help. Platforming and combat are kept at arm’s length, with combat clearly separated taking place in open areas, announced by the word ‘FIGHT’ scrolling across the screen. This system can work if the combat is a pleasurable experience, and guess what? It isn’t.

With main attacks mapped to one button, and only a stun attack another, you can probably guess that the combat is incredibly simple. The very basic beat ‘em up approach lacks any kind of combo or upgrade system, and is deeply unsatisfying. I am not exaggerating when I say that you can complete all the combat areas in this game by mashing the slash button. There is simply no incentive to try anything else unless you can count pure boredom as an incentive. When adventuring alone your turtle has a meter that builds up and can allow him to unleash a slow-mo barrage of attacks. When levels are meant to feature all of the turtles, you begin as one character and by acting ‘all ninja-like’ can earn the others one at a time.

Once a new Turtle is added to your party, rather than having them fight alongside you, you can switch to them at any time. Should you stop being ‘all ninja-like’ and mess up, one of them will disappear. You can also do ‘family moves’ by either holding the relevant button or pressing it as you are in the air. Alongside this the turtles each have an individual special move, which may as well be labelled as ‘press this button to progress’. Leo can teleport through bars that glow blue, Raph can scale surfaces that glow red, Mikey can use his nun-chucks to glide over large gaps, and Donnie can pole-vault. None of these really act as the puzzles as they are portrayed as and add nothing to the game apart from minor annoyance. After finishing a level, if you achieve an A ranking (dependant on a number of differentials on each stage) you can unlock a speed challenge, however I doubt that replaying the game will be a part of many people’s plans after experiencing this the first time around.

Being a turtle has never been so dull.

Turtely awful presentation (and pun)…
TMNT is easily one of the worst looking games I’ve ever encountered on this or even the last generation of consoles. Character models are ugly, environments are dreary, and animations are appalling. Worst of all the game suffers from severe frame-rate issues and is incredibly choppy. This pitiable frame-rate doesn’t just affect gameplay as in the few moments the game uses footage from the movie, an almost slideshow effect appears there too.

Cowabunga dudes!
It’s amazing to me that in a game that has got so much wrong can at least get something right somewhere. The voice acting in the game is excellent in spite of a woeful script, and that is mainly down to the fact that the top four characters are all voiced by their movie counterparts. That is until they keep repeating the same phrases over and over in gameplay, but every other piece of dialogue is well produced. There are some technical issues here, occasionally characters would repeat themselves immediately after beginning to speak, giving an awful echo effect. The other characters that appear (which oddly don’t include April or Casey, despite playing a major part in the movie) are voiced by sound-a-likes who, to be fair, do a fine job of mimicking their superiors from the movie. Again, typical of the game, the rest of the audio effects fail to excite and drags one of the game’s few plus points back down again.

Shouldn’t there be four of us?!
This is usually around the point of the review we talk about the multiplayer aspect of the game in question. TMNT has no multiplayer; neither local nor online. So why am I bringing this up exactly? Namely because if I was asked to think of a classic popular franchise that would be absolutely perfect for a four player co-op experience, one of the answers somewhere near the top of my list would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now usually I like to review games for what they are, and not by the ideas of what I wanted them to be, but the omission of multiplayer in a game that features four main characters is completely beyond me. Hell, until recently the TMNT arcade game was still one of the most played XBLA games ever, something which many refer to as a perfect co-op game. Surely that proves my point?

This game belongs in the sewers.
I think this is the easiest ‘Avoid It’ award I’ll ever have to give. TMNT is short, ugly, devoid of fun, full of technical issues and has absolutely no replay value (I’m thankful!). Achievement hunters out there might find it a nice easy way to gain 1000 gamerscore points over the space of an afternoon (I’m ashamed to be in the 1000 club with this, at least I can blame it on journalistic integrity), but for everyone else, spend your money on anything but this.

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So when Activision made the decision to take on Metallica’s story and bring it to the popular Guitar Hero series, they may have not realised just how much of a responsibility they had taken on. There was always going to be a danger that it ended up just being a regular Guitar Hero game with Metallica licensing ungracefully shoehorned in, while it should be more of a celebration of the band themselves. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be on a massive stage playing some of the best thrash songs around, and now I have my chance! Fair enough, the stage is more of a bedroom but we all have to start somewhere.

The Pick of Destiny (Well, it might as well be)
Guitar Hero: Metallica, developed by Neversoft, is the third spin off title in the Guitar Hero series after Rock The 80′s and the frankly lame Aerosmith title, in which you’ll be picking up the axes, sticks and mics of the most popular thrash metal band in the world, Metallica. Interestingly, you won’t spend the entire game controlling Hetfield and Hammet’s fingers, as the campaign is told from the perspective of your own personal guitarist, who is part of a Metallica influenced band that are supporting them on their latest world tour.

The story is really pretty minimal, although I don’t expect anyone would be craving a Some Kind of Monster style sobfest in between every song. There are short cartoon cut-scenes which act as links between the different venues, and also detail little subplots like your band being signed and a rivalry between yourselves and a glam rock band who want to be on the tour. The style of these scenes is identical to other Guitar Hero games from Legends of Rock onwards, with no dialogue and lots of devil horns being thrown around willy-nilly. Essentially they look like they were scripted by Jack Black, but they’re actually quite charming and funny, and so short that they don’t break up the flow of the game in the slightest.

Master of Puppets
The core gameplay of Guitar Hero: Metallica is identical to any game in the Guitar Hero or Rock band series. You’re given the choice of selecting lead guitar, bass, drums or vocals (although disappointingly no rhythm guitar, they’re a thrash band for goodness sake!). Apart from the vocals, most instruments act in similar ways, with notes falling towards the bottom of the screen, while you have to strum or hit the corresponding button on the guitar or drum-kit when the note reaches a certain point on the screen.

Nothing new there, although Guitar Hero veterans will probably be in for a bit of a shock when they discover the difficulty has been ramped up a fair bit. I usually start off by playing on Hard, but as the game started off with the riff-heavy For Whom the Bell Tolls, I found my fingers frantically flailing around the guitar and the crowd were booing me off the stage in about twenty seconds flat. It takes a bit getting used to, but there’s something about playing metal songs in Guitar Hero games that just gets my adrenaline pumping, and GH: Metallica on hard certainly delivers on that aspect better than any other game in the series.

"Prepare to have your face melted off by our metally awesomeness!" (Actual quotes)

Once you’ve played the first couple of songs, you get to create your own character who takes to the stage every time you play a song by one of Metallica’s many supporting acts over the years. There’s an impressive deal of customisation on display, although most of the clothes are laden with spikes and skinny jeans, which makes it a bit difficult for you to create a character that doesn’t come across as a bit of a pleb. Nonetheless I managed to create someone that looked vaguely acceptable, and my band’s (Rasta Metal Boogie) career supporting Metallica started to gather momentum.

The career is split up into around 8 tiers of increasingly difficult tracks. Within each tier is a set of support songs followed by three or four Metallica tracks. To unlock the next tier of songs you have to achieve a set number of stars (which are collected by playing songs well). It’s a perfectly logical and effective system of controlling the content and difficulty levels, although you usually only have to complete a couple of songs at a time to unlock the next tier, which could encourage some players to ignore earlier songs once the next tier has prematurely opened up.

Graphics Inc.
Since your eyes will be focused on the incoming notes while playing through songs, the level of detail in the visuals of GH: Metallica isn’t too important. However, a lot of effort has still been put into the artistic design and it really pays off. The menus in the game all have a very bootleg feel, as if they’re scrawled on a notebook by the band themselves.

The character models of the band are for the most part pretty good. They still follow the style of previous games, with exaggerated facial features and the like, but the resemblances still hold up well to scrutiny, although James Hetfield looks a bit like a zombie at times. One thing that Neversoft have absolutely nailed is the way the band moves on stage. James, Lars and co. also stopped by the Neversoft offices to get dolled up in funky jumpsuits and record the motion capture for the songs, and it makes it feel like you’re actually watching a live gig when you see the finished product. Hetfield’s mannerisms shine through when he’s singing, Rob Trujillo stomps about the stage like some kind of troll and Lar Ulrich, well, just goes absolutely mental for the duration of the song. I’ve seen Metallica live twice now, and it really surprised me to see how well they’ve managed to recreate how Metallica actually act on stage, it really improves the quality of the game as a whole.

Hetfield... want... braaaaiiiiinns!

The venues themselves are also pretty impressive to look at, with Donington Park in particular looking very accurate. Neversoft have clearly taken a good long look at a few DVDs of Metallicas live shows, with pyrotechnics and props all showing up right on queue in songs, all of which makes the experience a lot more satisfying to play through. My only real complaint with how each gig looks is the crowd, who only change the way they behave depending on how well you play, regardless of the song. Fair enough if the crowd are going crazy if you absolutely nail Battery, but it doesn’t work so well when you’re playing Tuesdays Gone by Lynyrd Skynrd.

Greatest Hits (Give or take a few)
As you’d expect, GH: Metallica give you plenty of opportunities to thrash out like it’s the 80′s. The soundtrack is essentially a “Best of” Compilation of Metallica’s hits and fan favourites throughout the years, and there’s something in there that all Metallica fans will be delighted to see included. All of the albums have been covered in the soundtrack, including the recent Death Magnetic. Even St Anger has been included (which I didn’t think was all that bad), and it’s even more satisfying playing those songs when they’ve had a little bit of production time applied to them (The drums in St Anger famously, and deliberately, sounded like someone smashing a wooden spoon off of a biscuit tin).

Apart from Metallica’s tracks, you can also play songs by a collection of artists who influenced, been influenced by or supported Metallica over the years. There’s an impressive variety of artists and songs here, although I was a bit disappointed that you have play through them at first before you get access to Metallica’s songs for that tier. Especially in the early stages of the game the supporting songs are pretty mellow. I mean, I bought this game to rock the f**k out! In the later stages of the game the calibre of supporting acts improves exponentially, with particular highlights for me being War Inside My Head by Suicidal Tendencies and Am I Evil? by Diamond Head.

The soundtrack is essentially pure fan service, and even though everyone will be disappointed at certain songs being missing (“What?! No Ride The Lightning!?”), Guitar Hero: Metallica features an impressive catalogue and playing this game has actually got me right back into Metallica after a period of listening to other things, as well as introducing me to a few songs from other bands that I’ve never even heard of.

Multallica
As fun as the single player campaign is, Guitar Hero games are always going to be party games at heart, and this instalment is no exception. Guitar Hero: Metallica provides the players with a plethora of multiplayer options, both locally and online. You can get a few mates and go through the campaign together or just jump into single songs. It’s fantastic fun when you can get a full band together, as a lot of the gameplay mechanics allow naming and shaming for band members who can’t hold a tune, and also gives a lot of data at the end of a song to allow for bragging rights to be had.

There are also a few competitive multiplayer modes which, although fun, aren’t really what the game is all about. There are straight up points scoring competitions, matches where players alternate between different parts of the song, and the Battle Mode, which brings power ups into the contest. Making the notes on your opponents screen Fade to Black (that’s the actual name of the power-up, come on, my puns are at least marginally better than that), or flipping their notes to left handed style can turn the match on its head, and certainly spice things up a bit.

Buy it, try it, avoid it?
Overall, I’d say don’t expect this to be a drastic departure from the other games in the series, this is a Guitar Hero game first and foremost, and a tribute to Metallica second. In terms of features there isn’t anything new and most of the multiplayer modes are just the same with a new coat of fiery metal paint. For hardcore Metallica fans, I’d say this is a definite purchase, as it contains a plethora of songs that will have something to please everyone. Despite there being a lack of unlockable live videos, backstage interviews etc. there is quite a lot of unlockable Metallica themed content that will flesh out the longevity a bit. For regular Guitar Hero players, I’d say this is a rental and nothing more. While this is definitely the strongest spin-off based on the set-list, it is no more than a spin-off. Once the novelty of playing Metallica’s hits wears off, you’ll find yourself struggling to think of anything to distinguish it from any other Guitar Hero game. That’s not entirely a bad thing of course, but I think Metallica are a band that could have licensed a lot more investment and risk taking in shaking up the way the game actually plays.

How We Review Games

The basis of Nintendo fan fiction!
For the benefit of anyone who’s been unfortunate enough to have never experienced the sheer joy of Smash Bros, here’s the premise in a nutshell. Random Nintendo characters have been collected together for one purpose; to kick ten bells of crap out of each other. Simply controlled, the idea is to hammer your opponents until you knock them out of the ring, eliminating them from the game. Last man (or woman) standing wins. It’s not quite that simple, as I’ll explain, but that’s the general idea.

For this latest instalment, the premise hasn’t changed much. The true genius here lies in the range of modes on offer. As well as your standard local multiplayer japes, there’s an extensive single player experience the likes of which is rarely seen in a fighting game of this type. There’s the basic arcade mode, where you pick a character from about thirty-five choices and fight the other characters until you’ve beaten them all. Characters range from the standard Nintendo staples such as Mario and Kirby to some surprising new additions like a suitless Samus, Pit from the forgotten classic Kid Icarus and even Solid Snake. Then there’s the amazingly packed out adventure mode, entitled The Subspace Emissary… How about I just go through them one by one?

Let the battle begin!
Firstly, the aforementioned arcade mode. This plays out like you’d expect, except that each opponent fights you in his or her own themed arena, which keeps things constantly fresh. Some even have special conditions, such as your opponent being made out of metal, making them harder to ring out. This mode is good to kill a few minutes with and is a must for the completionist in you. Then there’s the event mode, which presents you with certain conditions and challenges. There are over sixty of them, with just over twenty of those kept aside as special two-player events. If that’s not enough, there’s Stadium, which has a selection of tea-break friendly mini-games. Of course, you can work for hours honing your skills and getting the top score, but I found they lacked the depth for that sort of continued play.

There’s also one more thing worthy of mention before I give away the top prize. Hiding away in the Vault are some short but sweet demos of ancient Nintendo games, some you’ll have heard of and some you’ll probably never get to play the full versions of. The stingy time limits prevent any real enjoyment of these bite-sized chunks, but it’s a nice addition nonetheless. Now, the main event; The Subspace Emissary. Sounds like an episode of Star Trek I know, but it’s in-fact the name of maybe the best adventure mode of any beat ‘em up ever.

Samus always took volleyball a bit too far...

The story has something to do with a Subspace Army breaking into the wildly varied Nintendo world and blowing up large chunks of it with crazy, blue super-bombs. Due to the nicely rendered cut-scenes having no dialogue, the intricacies of the solid if not original plot escaped me, but it’s enough to keep you interested. The key thing to stress here is the sheer size of the mode. Considering the fact that most modern single player campaigns clock in at around 5 hours, it’s astounding that a side mode in a fighting game could last almost twice that. It has properly laid out levels with enemies, puzzles, switches and secret rooms. It has bosses that aren’t just recycled Smash Bros characters. It has a developing story with brand new characters, it’s genuinely funny and it keeps you interested. Compared to some of the dross that’s been churned out on the console recently, it’s a little nugget of joy.

It’s not all wine and cheese though. Whether the controls work depends on what control method you use. With a lone Wiimote, pressing up on the D-pad to jump just feels plain wrong, and it caused me to shuffle the controls around so much that executing a decent Special Attack became a feat of thumb-wrenching awkwardness. You can plug in the Nunchuck to get more buttons, but this doesn’t help matters much. It’s only when I plugged in an old GameCube controller that things improved; it’s obvious Nintendo had problems cramming the controls in, they might as well have put ‘GameCube controller required’ on the box. I’m sure the Wii Classic controller would work just as well, so if you have either lying around I implore you to use them.

While I just gave the Subspace Emissary campaign a glowing write-up I do have to say that those of you looking for a deep, story-rich experience may not be satisfied by the similarity of the levels and gameplay throughout. Gratingly, the single player arcade mode got very old very quickly for me; doing essentially the same thing over and over. Don’t let these minor cracks spoil your view though, Super Smash Bros Brawl is a fantastic gameplay experience, and it looks great too.

Shiny, happy people…
Being a Wii game, I wasn’t expecting much from Super Smash Bros Brawl’s visuals but I was pleasantly surprised. The character models are smooth and colourful, the battles fizz and pop with life and light. The stages are superbly designed and all look beautiful. The cutscenes and specially created levels for Subspace Emissary are well presented and visually interesting. It’s obvious Nintendo have squeezed every drop of graphical oomph out of the Wii for this, and it goes some way to allowing Smash Bros Brawl to outshine almost every other Wii game in the visuals department.

"That'll teach you to nab my mushrooms, you bounder!"

FALCON PUNCH!
Sound is important in any game, but more so in a fighting game. If the sound sucks, the impact is lost. Good job Smash Bros lives up to its name with a plethora of satisfying noises to accompany the day-glo violence. Along with the expected slashes and thumps, each stage comes complete with a range of theme music. These catchy tunes are based on the music of the game the stage is taken from, and always feel appropriate.

Often I started a stage only to spend the first few minutes racking my brains trying to remember where the tune was from, finally leaping out of my chair in a happy ‘eureka!’ moment as it brought back fond memories of playing on my battered old SNES when I was a kid. Very rarely have I seen nostalgic game music so well handled, so top marks to the soundtrack people on this one. Also worthy of mention are the cool and sometimes hilarious character catchphrases, which range from the typical ‘Not this time!’ stuff to some genuinely funny quips from the likes of Solid Snake.

BRAWL!
At the core of every beat ‘em up worth its salt  is a solid multiplayer, and Super Smash Bros Brawl is no exception. Previous Smash Bros games have been party favourites, and Brawl continues the trend by entertaining anyone who cares to pick up a controller. Despite the aforementioned control issues, the game itself is incredibly easy to play and once you grasp the concept of smashing opponents off the stage, it ranks as one of the most casual-friendly games I’ve ever played.

I expect most people will stick closely to the local multiplayer, but there are some other interesting things to do with friends that enhance the experience. Along with the aforementioned co-op events, the entire Subspace Emissary campaign can be played with a friend, which enhances the experience somewhat despite the fact that the limited lives available are then shared by the both of you. So basically, if your friend sucks at the game, you have little to no chance of success. There’s also online multiplayer, and it’s here that one of my pet Wii hates rears its ugly head.

Both of the other next-gen consoles have sophisticated online frameworks that allow users to play with people all across the world, and make friends easily in the process. Nintendo have, for some bizarre reason, neglected to include this feature on the Wii. So, while you can play with random people, there’s no way to find out who those people are, make them your friends or interact with them in any other way. There’s also no matchmaking to speak of, so most of the time you’re paired with hardcore Smash Bros veterans who batter you in a matter of seconds, making the random opponent option almost useless unless you’re the Zen master of Brawl. Then there’s the friend code travesty.

If I want to play against my friend, I have to first find out what my friend code is, then find out what theirs is, then tell them what mine is and then we can play. The logic behind this escapes me. The fact that I have a different friend code for each game means that when I get a new game I have to go through the whole process again. I think this is a cheap trick to get people to play together in the same room, which is a little deceitful on Nintendo’s behalf. Either way, the fact that playing with friends is actually more difficult than playing with strangers defeats the object entirely. You have to already have other means of contact with said friend so you might as well invite them round. Poor show Nintendo, and I don’t see them improving it anytime soon.

Winner!
Super Smash Bros Brawl has succeeded in changing my mind about the Wii somewhat. It’s the first complete, well-constructed package I’ve played on the console and a refreshing break from Mario games and terrible ports. The single player experience was full and rich, and had me occupied for hours. There’s so much content that I never got bored and there was always something to do. The multiplayer, while annoyingly difficult to set up, works very well and remains an essential part of any party.

This is a tough one, because game-wise Smash Bros Brawl is well below other fighting games in most areas, but as a Wii game it’s a cut above the rest. I think it’s only fair to assess the game in context, as a Wii game, and for that reason I implore you to buy it. There’s so much fun to be had, and alongside the majority of the Wii catalogue Super Smash Bro Brawl stand out as an achievement many will hopefully strive to beat. Just make sure you’ve got a couple of GameCube controller handy…

How We Review Games