Now, excitement is all well and good, but why should you care? Because in celebration of the sign of life in their beloved genre, KING Art Games is putting Book of Unwritten Tales on sale! From now until March 15th you can pick up the game for 33% off. All you have to do is head on down to their website and check it out! You’ll be glad you did.

Well there's your problem! This place is infested with Hell Chickens!

I really don’t think I need to say anymore than that. However if you are part of the statistically insignificant slice of the population who demands more from games than swashbucklers and demonic poultry, there’s good news. Risen 2 boasts the sort of depth that RPG aficionados have come to expect. Day night cycles, realistic animal and NPC behavior, you name it. It even has a system in place to prevent every third NPC from looking identical, as though each city is populated by a handful of clones.

Right now a preview is circulating among the gaming press, but for those not lucky enough to get their hands on it, fear not. The release is slated for April 24^th, and it will be coming to PS3, 360, and PC. So make some room in your schedule. Now all we need to do is find ourselves a Ninja RPG and we’ll be all set.

Visuals

Behold! Cutting edge cinematics!

Zen Studios has maintained their usual high level of quality. Whereas most of their tables combine photo-realistic elements with well-sculpted characters, this table stirs things up a bit. Realism is swapped out for style, for one thing. The whole table is sort of a cross between a medieval countryside and a classical theater. Along one side is a stage, where our hero Max struts his stuff and goes through the motions. On the other, a puppet show-style theater shows off the mini-plot of various encounters. In the fleeting glimpses you can spare toward Max himself, they’ve given him animations appropriate to practically every event that happens on the table. You’ll see him do matrix dodges, chug potions, open chests, and ride his fake horse in response to the motions of the silver ball.

The ramps are extremely well labeled, this time around, and with good reason. It isn’t just a board anymore. Now it serves double duty as a user interface for a game within a game…

Gameplay

Once again, we all know how pinball is played, and this being Pinball FX 2, it continues to be as faithful and engaging as the real thing. What sets this table apart is the inception-style game within a game. You see, this table is essentially a parody of RPGs, and sure enough, various interactions with the board bring about some of the standard RPG encounters, including the ever-popular flock of bats and the mysteriously common skeletons. These are played off in a manner similar to any other miniature bonus round, with flashing bat-lights indicating the appropriate places to hit the ball, and each time you send the ball down the appropriate path a kill is tallied.

I'd feel better about skeletons always being evil in these games if I didn't have one inside of me right now.

Things get more unique when you start a full-scale encounter. You find yourself facing off against a monster, complete with attack stats, health, and experience value. Now the ramps previously responsible for earning points take the place of the action menu in an old turn-based RPG. The sword ramp and smash targets attack, shield ramp blocks. There are slots and ramps representing dodge, potion, spell. Hitting different ramps in rapid succession will combine actions into combos. Hitting bumpers will increase the action clock to allow you further attempts at attacks. Killing the foe doesn’t just earn you points, either. It earns you XP, which allows you to level up, increasing HP and whatnot in the RPG aspect and point totals in the Pinball aspect. Name a typical RPG feature and it shows up in some way, shape, or form. I’ve played a game or two that claims to combine RPG and Pinball. Epic Quest feels like you are using pinball to play an RPG, and it is surprising how well it works.

Sound

While the music is the standard generic minstrel and fanfare-style stuff you’re used to in an RPG, the real star of the audio is Max, the hero. The voice work is reminiscent of an updated version of Dudley Do Right. He takes a lot of pages out of the standard “hip and modern, anachronistic character” playbook. (Think Genie from Disney’s Aladdin.) His quips are pretty funny, though, and as far as I’m concerned the pop culture references are surprisingly clever and obscure. “This is bat country… Let’s stop here!” is a line I particularly enjoyed.

Our "Hero", ladies and gentlemen.

Story

The story of the table is roughly the same as every early RPG ever, which is part of the whole ‘parody’ aspect of the table. You are a knight. Your goal is to rescue a damsel and defeat the forces of evil. The twist, though, is that your goal is ALSO to get rich. You are unapologetically seeking loot, and your primary motivation seems to lean fairly heavily in the direction of accumulating valuables. Sure, you’re still eager to conquer evil, but why let that pile of gold that the giant rat is inexplicably toting around go to waste?

Summing Up

Much in the same way that Puzzle Quest enabled you to play an RPG by playing Bejeweled, Epic Quest allows you to play an RPG by playing pinball. It is a well executed concept that only further reinforces my wish that I was any good at pinball so that I could level-grind Sir Max the way I would in the RPGs of old.

Verdict

8.2 / 10: Building on an already rock-solid foundation, Epic Quest does a remarkable job crossbreeding pinball with an RPG.

Visuals

Don't stop firing until the enemy is an orange smear on the catwalk!

This game, by design, has extremely retro visuals. Models are simple and boxy, sprites and UI are pixelated, etc. As usual, retro does not mean bad. It is a style choice, and if put to good use as it is here, it does the job just as well today as it did when it was pushing the limits of current hardware. The player characters are four roughly identical marines, moving in tight formation and launching colorful bullets and creative grenades. The targets of the bullets, aside from the standard crates and power up containers, are a handful of bugs, worms, robots, and robot buts, with the occasional zombie and turret thrown in for good measure. Extra variety comes in assorted accessories and palette swaps that indicate strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors. Levels are techno-hallways of various colors and levels of repair.

Either that's a sensor blip, or the traffic cones have turned feral.

The UI is slick and minimal, giving you exactly what info you need, usually in more than one place. Health bars float above heads, along with icons indicating active grenades, with larger and more detailed indicators underneath the action. Color coded arrows point out the locations of exits and level goals, etc. It is everything you need and nothing you don’t. One little touch I really liked was the fact that enemies you have detected but not seen are displayed on the playing field as little blips, requiring you to actually spot them once to know precisely what they are.

Gameplay

The medical grenade. It is an idea whose time has come.

The gameplay is in some ways just as retro as the visuals, but in others fresh and new. At the core, this is the same game you’ve played a dozen times before. WASD moves you around, and guns fire at the mouse pointer. Blow up everything that moves and most things that don’t, and work your way from room to room. We’ve been playing this game since Smash TV and Robotron. However, the differences quickly become clear. In addition to their gun (which is always the same, no weapon variety there) each member of your crew can carry one grenade, and the grenades are exceptionally varied. They handle everything your standard gun doesn’t; healing, area attack, shield, shoot through walls, you name it. Some act as short-term turrets that you can use to keep yourself from getting flanked. Others can be redirected and sent rocketing. Since you can only carry four (though the grenades that you haven’t picked up yet remain on the ground, so in most cases you can back track to reload) you really have to make some decisions about how you want to progress. Do you want to hang onto a shield and a heal to be able to patch yourself up if things get sticky? Do you want to stock up on lasers and try to clear the level through the walls? Each grenade has its own unique applications, but many are also highly flexible.

Adding to the complication is the fact that, though your team moves as a unit, each member has his own health bar, and can die individually, costing you a grenade slot and firepower. They will be replaced, sure, but… then you’ll lose one of your guys! You can only name the first four, and I got pretty attached to Hork, Fwomp, Sluggo, and Doug. Aside from sentimental value, the crew levels up to get tougher and more bad ass looking as you collect blue cubes. It would be a shame to work so hard to level up your original crew and then have to get a new recruit, wouldn’t it? So keep your men alive! The team as a whole levels up as well, earning you a larger variety of grenades as you go, and you get to hand pick which one will be added at each level.

Crab Class, eh? Sure, I'm in the mood for sea food.

The game takes place on a series of discrete ships, and they are classified by danger level, generator level, damage level, etc. Believe it or not, all of those values have an impact on gameplay. Danger level is obvious, but damage level determines the condition of the floor, and thus your mobility. Generator level determines lighting and how functional certain hazards like laser fences are. Realizing this gives you a good idea what any given level will throw at you.

Sound

The sound effects of the game are a retro-match for the visuals, but the real claim to fame of the game audio is the soundtrack, which is an assortment of high quality chiptunes provided by Syphus. The music is a perfect fit for the action, particularly on the later levels that are fast paced, bullet-slinging sprints through monster packed rooms.

Story

There, see? Story. Can I go back to blowing things up now?

On the surface, the story of the game is minimal. You are a group of marines who trop into ships to rampage through them, collecting cash and finding data, eventually hoping to find your way to the mothership, a veritable bonanza of a vessel that will allow every member of your crew to retire wealthy. However, each level has at least one data terminal. If you access it, you’ll get a paragraph or so of text to build the world just a bit deeper, Marathon style. It works.

Summing Up

Even if you ignore the incredibly small development team (I believe it was one guy), Pineapple Smash Crew is a fun game with plenty of replay value. Aside from AI that is a little naive, I could find no issues worthy of complaint. Good work, all around. Head on over to Steam and check it out.

Verdict

8 / 10: A quick in, quick out shooter with some interesting gameplay, clever presentation, and decent music, making for a solid, enjoyable game.

Visuals

Those familiar with Telltale will know what to expect from the visuals in this game. Style is substituted for detail. You won’t see massive textures and sky high polycounts, but that sort of thing isn’t really called for in a game like this. In the instances where you have to scrutinize a crime scene you are investigating, they did an excellent job of throwing in enough details to make it tricky, while at the same time giving you enough of a peek of the important stuff to keep it from being impossible. They paid for the likeness rights of a few of the major actors in the series, and one glance is usually enough to know who you’re dealing with. Animation is sufficient, though nothing special, and now and then stumbles a bit. (I swear there are times when a character is sort of sliding along when you can’t see their legs, like they stuck Lenny Briscoe on a skateboard or something.)

Olivia! What are you doing here! I didn't hear anyone say "signs of sexual trauma."

Aside from the standard parts of the game, there are little “Law and Order” flourishes that, though minor, really help set the tone. The ubiquitous white-on-black time and location cards, coupled with a faithful reproduction of both the opening and closing credits, really goes a long way to making you feel as though you are experiencing an episode of the show with each episode of the game. Characters and settings are recognizable, but certainly not photo-realistic.

Gameplay

Like the show, the gameplay is broken up into essentially two parts; the investigation and the trial. Each half of the episode is divided up into an handful of minigames, organized as scenes. On the investigation end, you’ll be interviewing and interrogating, which mostly boil down to sifting through statements to find provable truths and provable lies. Whether you’ll like this or won’t really boils down to how you did on the reading and comprehension tests back in school. You’ll be presented with a statement, and be asked if you believe it or not. If you choose correctly, you get a star, and you’ll be asked why you believe it. Remember, you’re a cop. You can go with your gut, but when it comes to testimony you hope to use, you’ve got to be able to back it up. Each question will tie into previously established facts or theories, sometimes with maddening subtlety. You really have to pay attention to what has been said if you want to get some of the questions right, but if you’ve got a touch of the ADD, the game gives you a transcript of everything that has been said so far, which you can sift through to find your answers. It isn’t exactly exciting, but it is interesting, and it makes you feel like an investigator. In any given scene of this type, you’ll have a number of stars necessary to pass the scene, and you’ll be able to screw things up a maximum of three times before you fail.

Yeah, death by dying. You can't go wrong with that one!

You’ll also be given crime scenes to search through, and these take the form of a large, detailed scene. You can pan the camera, and when something seems interesting, you can circle it to investigate further. Each circle costs you one of your limited number of guesses, and while you often know exactly what you are looking for (DNA under fingernails, for instance), sometimes you’ll have to use your brain (like finding a source of avian blood.) As I said in the visuals section, the design and layout are really well done, with a closed garbage can or a hastily pulled aside suitcase indicating that something may have been concealed without any direct attempts to highlight things.

Once you’ve got enough evidence to arrest, it is time to pitch things over to Jack McCoy and the rest of the prosecution for the trial. In my opinion, this is where the game shines. The trial is practically a strategy game. You need to ask only the questions that strengthen your case, and avoid any topic that can validate points made by the defense. When the defense is speaking, you get to learn all about the wonderful world of objections. Badgering? Hearsay? No Expertize? I know what these things mean now! During the trial, every correct application of proper tactics, either asking the right question, avoiding the wrong one, or preventing the defense from manipulating the legal system, swings the scales of justice in your favor. The stronger your “lead” in the game of law, the more likely you’ll convict, and thus the more willing the defense will be to plea bargain.

Jury duty would be a lot more fun if they let you keep a score board.

In all scenes, if you really screw up royally, or just want to give it another try in order to achieve perfection, you can replay a scene, so failure is seldom an issue. When all is said and done, each episode will probably take you as long to beat as a real episode will take you to watch.

Sound

I see what you did there...

The audio in the game is hit and miss for me. On one hand, the music is spot on, from the TUNG-TUNG at the beginning of each scene, which I learned from the credits is called the card sting, to the opening and closing theme, it sounds precisely like the show. The voice work, on the other hand, is a little more spotty. Some of the soundalikes do a respectable job. Others, if not for the fact that the characters were rendered so recognizably, would have left me wondering exactly who was supposed to be talking.

Story

My hat is off to the writers of the game. The wit and banter that helped make the show so entertaining is absolutely present. (There was an exchange with a geek in the first episode that made me laugh out loud.) Not only that, but the episodes throw in the same swerves and twists that sometimes throw the show for a loop, with lies coming to light too late, etc. It easily stands up to the high standards of the show.

Murder one, I tell you! Don't settle for anything less!

Summing Up

What can I say, if you are a fan of procedurals in general, and Law and Order in particular, then you’ll like this game. Telltale once again illustrates that it can be trusted with a well-respected license.

Verdict

8.3 / 10: An extremely well executed transition from procedural show to procedural game, that does credit to both Law and Order and Telltale.

Visuals

Now I'm going to have to look up and see if there is actually a Broom Kata.

The visual style of Dustforce is striking. Everything has an anime inspired look to it, which fans of the genre should know translates to a relatively low number of frames, each one of which is absolutely gorgeous. Characters and enemies move in animations of only a few poses each, but they are more than enough to give the motions personality and distinctiveness. Rather than simply palette swapping for the four main characters, you get to pick from a young man, and young woman, a little girl, and an old man. There are major differences in all of the animations and appearances aside from color, such as the old man being armed with a vacuum in contrast to the little girl’s twin dusters.

You are a member of an elite cleaning force... the Dustforce.

These characters will scrub their way through four different environments ranging from a forest, to a lab. Each has not only an extremely appropriate atmosphere, but basic differences in enemies and grime. The forest, for example, will have you cleaning up leaves and bashing leaf-infected animals, while the castle is dusty and littered with gargoyles. Regardless of where you’re doing your cleaning, the visual effects as you brush away the filth are extremely well done, animating fluidly and beautifully. I particularly liked the way the leaves would flutter and disperse as you clean them up. The DBZ-esque area attacks and trailing energy charge you get from high combos were striking as well.

Gameplay

Dustforce is vaguely similar to a number of different games out there, which comprise a genre I tend to call “Precision Platformer.” Games like Super Meat Boy and N+ are prime examples. Rather than the traditional “Get from point A to point B and pick up some collectibles” format, Dustforce refines the formula. You have the usual level of acrobatic prowess, including dash, air-dash, double jump, wall run, ceiling run, and ground pound. However, sections of the floor, walls, and ceiling are coated with level-appropriate grime. Your goal is to clean up as much of it as possible. Each interaction with dirt will tick up your combo meter. The combo keeps building until you either hit spikes or fall off the screen, ending your combo (and your life), or until you don’t clean anything for a few seconds or get hit by an enemy. Ideally, you’ll want to clean up the entire level and reach the end in one continuous combo. Doing so earns you a key which can be used to open additional levels. Failure to perfect the level nets you a letter grade in completion and finesse.

I will not stand idly by while woodland creatures are covered with leaves!

It is worth pointing out that you aren’t only dealing with piles of dust. Enemies of varying levels of dirtiness and sturdiness are scattered throughout the level, and you have to clean them up to get 100% completion. To do so, you are given a swift weak attack that simply brushes them off and a slow heavy attack that actually knocks the grime off of the enemy and onto the level, forcing you to clean it up from there. Knowing which one to use and when is no simple task, because frequently knocking the dirt off can provide a stretch of muck that you can use to bridge two more distant ones and keep that precious combo going. If your combo fills up sufficiently, you can also do a screen clearing attack, which can be an essential tool when you are going for quickest time to completion. There are also breakaway floors and walls that can only be safely traversed once.

These many elements, combined with subtle differences in the characters, combine to produce a surprisingly tactical game. You need to plot out a course that keeps your momentum up, takes you across all of the filth on the level with no long gaps, and provides you with enough space and combo meter, at the right times, to wipe out your enemies without getting touched. Perhaps most motivating of all, though, is the fact that the game keeps track of your performance, and allows you to review your run and compare it to other players from around the world. This should be plenty of motivation to keep the average score-hound coming back to try to one-up the other players, but multiplayer modes like king of the hill and survival extend the play time even further when you’ve got a few friends around the house.

Yes, I clean at night as well, because DUST NEVER SLEEPS!

The gameplay isn’t perfect (I occasionally had difficulty differentiating navigable parts of the level from the background, for instance), but most of my complaints mostly center on the UI. Naturally I was interested in playing this game with a controller, and though it is supported, it isn’t as turnkey as many other games make it, requiring you to do your own mapping. This is a plus in that it allows you to pick what buttons you want to use for what actions, but once they are mapped, those buttons take over the menu as well. I kept trying to restart a botched level only to realize that up and down on the keyboard couldn’t navigate the menus anymore. I NEEDED to use the controller. It is a small foible, yes, but it bugged the heck out of me, because I botched levels a lot. Also, the multiplayer is local only, which might seem a bit odd for some, but it is nonetheless enjoyable.

Sound

The music in this game is suitable, and as good game music should, it fades into the background while providing the appropriate mood for its setting. If you find yourself enjoying it, by the way, you might want to check it this site.

Story

You are one of an elite group of janitorial acrobats, dedicated to cleaning up the world in the fastest and fanciest way possible. Also, the dirt makes animals hostile. I’m not sure where that fits in, but it must, otherwise I was running around beating bears and racoons with a broom for no reason.

Summing Up

Dustforce is definitely a fun game, and one that will inspire you to perfect the mechanics and replay the same course a dozen times just to see if you can trim a few precious seconds off of your time. Games like this provide you with effectively unlimited replay value. Once a few of the rough edges of the UI are smoothed out, I’d be hard pressed to find anything to complain about.

Verdict

8.5 / 10: Dustforce is a fun precision platformer that will bring a smile to the face of N+ and Super Meat Boy fans.

Our story begins in the traditional way, a quest for bounty. Today, as always, the treasure I sought was a granola bar. I head to the machine but- What ho, what is this?

Popcorn, that most elusive of snacks.

Now, many of you will look at this miserable snarl of snackery and think, “Well, that guy got screwed out of a lot of money.” This, however, is no longer true. Allow me to give you a lesson in modern vending science. A vending machine now has a sensor below the food. When you choose an item, it turns the screws the prescribed amount, dropping an item past the sensor. If the sensor does not detect an item, it assumes there was an empty slot and turns another increment. If nothing is detected this time, it assumes the item is sold out, and asks you to try a different selection. Our popcorn seeking friend had simply been forced to settle for his second choice.

Where he saw an obstacle, however, I saw a challenge. Let us see if we cannot lend logic to the problem, shall we? Clearly the popcorn is stuck, but only slightly.  What is required here is something to dislodge them. Situated directly above the popcorn blockage is a hefty bag of pretzels. I inserted my dollar and made my selection. Once and twice the machine tried to give me my salty twists of dough, but the nefarious popcorn proved too mighty a foe, and so the blockage remained, plus two additional snacks. The machine asked me to make another choice. By now the mass of items had swollen in size, and was under-hanging the potato chips. These were the logical choice. Once and twice the machine eagerly endeavored to provide, but again the popcorn, though loosened, held its ground, and my chips with it. I was asked to make another choice.

I do not think I can be blamed for losing heart at this point. After all, my clever attempts to use the laws of physics to my advantage resulted in nothing but a pile of snacks three times the size, and none of them in my hands. I chose my precious granola, watched as it cheerfully leapt into the bin, and solemnly retrieved it. When the bin’s protective cover came down, though, the mountain of crunchy treasure shuddered and slid. With calculated force, I tapped the glass. The result?

Victory!

SUCCESS! Though three of the bags of popcorn rigidly refused to be vended, two bags of chips, two bags of pretzels, and a granola bar were mine! I had won the day! So great a triumph over the forces of chaos surely deserved a beverage of equal worth. I forewent my usual Diet Coke. Today, I would feast on a Lemonade Iced Tea! I sought out the machine, inserted my money, made my selection, and…

Snack gods, why must you mock your humble worshiper?

Yes, this too I was denied! But did I despair? NO, because I knew the secrets of these deceitful machines now! All told, my $2.85 earned me a bottle of Sweet Tea, two bottles of Lemonade Iced Tea, a bag of popcorn, two bags of chips, two bags of pretzels, and a granola bar!

Like all achievements worthy of myth, legend, story, and song, this victory will be doubted by some. As for the rest of you, take this knowledge of my mighty victory and use it well, should ever there come a day that the keeper of the chips would deny you your rightful confection! Wisdom and guile will always overcome the forces of evil!

Visuals

Who is driving? Oh my god monkey is driving, how can this be?

Joe Danger has a highly distinctive visual style. The characters and environments are very smooth and cartoon-like. Joe himself reminds me of a more confident and competent Leisure Suit Larry, for some reason, while his surroundings are reminiscent of the Mushroom Kingdom, with large, colorful blocks with smiling faces, anthropomorphic moles, and things of that nature. Everything has a very upbeat personality to it, even the angry little bombs and mysterious stomping totems. Different levels spice things up a bit. Though you’ll spend most of your time on a very excite bike-style motorcycle track, you will run through old west and even laboratory settings, depending on what point in the game or mode you are playing.

Aside from your main character’s Knievel-inspired outfit, you’ll have various different “costumes” unlocked as you progress, each of which affects more than just the person sitting behind the handlebars. Choosing the chimp, for instance, changes the collectibles from stars into bananas.

Gameplay

The loop might be fun, but it won't win you the race, that's for sure.

Joe Danger is one of those games you can describe via an equation, but the longer I play it, the more complex that equation gets. At first glance I thought, “Oh, it is a new Excite Bike,” and there is certainly that aspect to it. You are riding a motorcycle on a multi-lane raceway scattered with ramps and hazards, you can control your speed with a limited boost ability, and you can control the bike’s angle. You can even edit the obstacles on a level to create your own board. Then I played for a bit and I realized there was a bit more to it. The obstacles were tricky and over the top, and if you wiped out, you had to go back to an earlier checkpoint, and the physics are a bit more complex than simple Excite Bike style physics. “It is Excite Bike + Trials HD,” I decided. Then I started paying attention to the point system. Aside from wheelies, endos (stoppies), and flips, you can tap the bumpers in various combinations to do tricks. Each new trick in adds points to your running score and ups your multiplier. Not only that, but you can keep a wheelie going between jumps to maintain the combo, just like the manual in Tony Hawk. The boost, for that matter, is refilled by doing tricks, like a special meter. “Okay, it is Excite Bike + Trials HD + Tony Hawk.” Then I noticed the collectibles, which are scattered through the level, and the loops and pinball bouncers, and the far greater than average air-control. “Right, Excite Bike + Trials HD + Tony Hawk. + Sonic The Hedgehog.” Oh, and sometimes you hit an item that makes coins appear that you have a limited time to collect, and certain levels have one or more hidden collectibles. “Excite Bike + Trials HD + Tony Hawk + Sonic The Hedgehog + Super Mario.” Oh, in those races, you can punch other racers off their bikes. Excite Bike + Trials HD + Tony Hawk + Sonic the Hedgehog + Super Mario + Road Rash.” You get the idea.

Really, there comes a point when, if you need to add that many different classic games together to get this one, you just have to draw the line and call it its own game, which Joe Danger absolutely deserves. Every gameplay mechanic that is borrowed from or inspired by something else is explored and played with in great detail. There are some levels that require you to enter the sandbox mode and adjust ramps before you can complete them, adding a puzzle component. Various levels have any number of different goals, such as collecting all collectibles, beating a certain time, or completing the level in one unbroken combo. There are even compound tasks, like completing the level under a certain time limit while hitting every target. Each task completed earns you a star, which are in turn used as currency to unlock additional levels. Some levels will give you a special token if you complete all tasks in a single run, the coveted Special Edition token.

Rocketcycle: When a regular motorcycle just isn't dangerous enough.

Regardless of you are playing themed levels, multiplayer, or laboratory, or any of the other different spins on levels, the game is fun and well crafted. Plus, the high score mechanic and varied goals will keep you coming back to old levels again and again, first to beat them, then to complete their tasks, then to beat the high scores set by your friends. There is something rewarding about completing a level once with a score of 2,300, then coming back later to replace that score with 26,000,000. As you come closer to completing the career mode, you’ll find your skillful racing and stunt driving earning you avatar rewards, new costumes, and other unlockables. Good work.

Sound

Not much to say about the sound in this game. I was a tad more interested in getting a few more front flips into the current combo than paying attention to the soundtrack. The general presentation is the sort of “SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!” announcers that we’ve come to expect from monster races, tractor pulls, and stunt shows. So that does the job, I’d say.

Story

Back to the drawing board, Joe.

Joe Danger was once the greatest daredevil in the world, but his ambition and hubris led to a ruinous fall from the top of the sport. Imagine Icarus, except with a rocket-boosted motorcycle instead of wax wings. This game details his climb from the very lowest rung of the stuntcycle ladder to the pinnacle of the sport once again.

Summing Up

Joe Danger may have elements of a dozen different games, but all of those bits and scraps have been assembled into a unique quilt. It is slick, varied, and downright addictive. I heartily recommend it.

Verdict

9.1 / 10: A fun and diverse tribute to some of the most entertaining aspects of some of the most entertaining games in memory that somehow manages to be unique.

Visuals

Any game that launches my ball with a trebuchet, while the mighty mjolnir is nearby, gets my approval.

I’ve reviewed enough of these tables for it to be clear by now that Zen puts together some pretty snazzy pinball tables, and these are no exception. The designs of each table are radically different, but unfailingly well done. Thor’s table, for example, depicts the fantasy realm of his origin, dense with Norse Mythology. Ghost Rider’s table plays up his stunt-rider roots, combined with his hellish origin, by showcasing a dark and twisted stunt extravaganza with plenty of fire, rusty metal, and revving engines. Moon Knight’s setting is a gritty city at night, showcasing to a remarkable degree the almost plageristic similarity between Batman and Moon Knight, what with all of the themed gadgets hideouts, and vehicles. (Oh, Marvel and DC, constantly with the borrowing of each other’s ideas.) The X-men table, interestingly enough, is practically a vanilla pinball table, but that all changes once you take Magneto into account.

Oh no! Look out behind you!

Which brings us to the characters. Like all of the Marvel tables, every one of the Vengeance and Virtue tables features at least one hero and at least one villain, rendered in excellent detail and milling about the periphery of the table until called into action. Moon Knight particularly shines in the sheer number of villains you can duke it out with, while Magneto’s tearing apart of the X-Men table with his magnetic powers is pretty awesome, too.

Gameplay

The pinball continues to be excellent, and the unique spins put on the game keep getting more unique. I think the best example in this pack is the X-Men table. The theme of the table is teamwork, as it features Professor X coaching the X-Men against Magneto. Different ramps are associated with different heroes, with Iceman, Jean Grey, and Cyclops in the mix, just to name a few. One battle mode involves Magneto magnetically locking the ball (representing Jean Grey) to the table, requiring a second ball, representing Cyclops, to be deployed to the table to rescue her, with visual effects indicating which ball is which in the ensuing multiball. Another involves Magneto tearing free one of the metal ramps from the table, and you need to hit the Iceman ramp a few times in a row to freeze a replacement bridge, but attempting to roll the ball across the damaged bridge before the replacement is completely frozen will break it.

Shotguns, pinballs, and hellfire, together at last!

The other tables are enjoyable as well, each adding its own little innovations. The Moon Knight table, for instance, allows you to “improve” certain aspects of your lair, effectively selecting a short-term modifier for how much different scoring mechanisms payout. Thor had me fighting the Destroyer armor, and Ghost Rider had me making jumps and carefully timing shots to avoid moving bumpers. My only regret is that I don’t have the skill to even REACH every different play mode, let alone beat them.

Sound

Since Wolverine is on his own table rather than this one, one sound you WON'T be hearing is "snikt"

The voice work for the heroes is excellent, as always. I was particularly fond of the banter between Moon Knight and his skull-headed cohort. The flippers and bumpers all conjure to mind the physical tables. Basically, the audio continues to maintain the high standards of the series.

Story

I could go through and detail every story for each table, but you’ve watched the movies, you’ve read the comics, you’ve played the games. By now the story should be pretty clear to you. These are heroes fighting villains, it is as simple as that. They are PINBALL tables. The fact they have a plot at ALL should be more than enough. As far as I’m concerned, for this particular game type, if a crescent moon-shaped airship is dropping pinballs on the board, I don’t need to be told that I am fighting my sidekick-turned-nemesis Midnight. The story is a delicious garnish, and quite sufficient.

Summing Up

I don’t know how many different ways I can put it. If you like pinball, get these tables. If you like Marvel, get these tables. If you like pinball AND Marvel, why are you still reading this?

Verdict

8.8 / 10: Another four excellent and creative pinball tables that should easily satisfy Pinball fans and comic fans alike.

Visuals

Starlings, natural enemy of the mighty dragon.

One of the first indications of whether or not an Indie Game is going to be worthwhile is the quality of the visuals. With the exception of retro-styled games, there is a strong tendency for Indie games to look amateur. This game manages to tread the thin line with its art. It is head and shoulders above what most Indie Games achieve, with artwork that is reminiscent of storybook illustrations. I wouldn’t stay that they achieve the same level that a game backed by a big publisher might, but if anyone you know could produce images half as good as we see in this game, you’d refer to that person as, “My friend the artist.” They lack the crispness and precision that we’ve come to expect from sprite based games, but they have a charm all their own. I especially like the way the dragon looks, but what can I say, I like dragons.

The story is told in what I would call pop-up book fashion, where a slideshow of images slides back and forth to focus on the person speaking. The game is played as a top down shooter, with the dragon and its various enemies and environmental hazards as sprites. Spicing up the visuals are point lights and particle effects, here and there highlighting things and casting fancy shadows. Animation is a little limited, but for the dragon protagonist it includes flapping wings and subtle tips to one side or the other. Occassionally I ran into something I couldn’t identify, such as what I could only assume was some sort of massive winged pie, but that was the exception, not the rule. I wasn’t floored by the visuals, but they certainly weren’t a weakness.

Gameplay

Combo Fire ended up being my primary weapon when things started getting hairy.

In its essence, this game is a shmup. You play as the titular dragon, flying along in one constantly scrolling direction, heaving various breath-related ordinance at the hordes of enemies that are hurled at you. Now we will for a moment ignore the fact that you, an epic mega-dragon of divine origins, spend most of your time being poked to death by starlings and flies. The enemies are variations on the standard kamikaze creatures, dangerous pieces of landscape, and kamikaze creatures + projectiles. Your job is to spit one of your three primary attacks at them until they are no longer a concern. The attacks are the standard fireball, a twinkly fireball that bounces, or a fast but narrow weapon that does heavy damage if you are accurate. In addition to those, you’ll get spells that cover the spectrum from standard utility spells (healing, speed increase), to spells that take the place of traditional shmup powerups (auto-firing buddy, or ‘option’ for you Gradius devotees), or unique spells, like the telekinetic “blind wanderer” or the immobilizing “light prison.” The quantity and variety of these spells allows you to adopt any number of play styles, and since they are hot swappable during gameplay, and mappable to the four primary buttons, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one or two. These spells and attacks are gradually unlocked or powered up by the application of skill points, earned by gaining 1000 experience. The experience is gained in the usual way (mass murder) and the spells are limited in the usual way (a mana bar).

Many spells to choose from.

To give you an idea of how these spells come into play, one of the early boss fights is against another dragon with a fearsome but strangely familiar roar. At first I was frustrated, since I could only fire forward, while he randomly wandered around the level, requiring me to spend most of the fight waiting for him to move into a position where I could shoot at him. Then I remembered the light prison spell, and quickly froze him in place where I could unload on him.

I definitely like having a health bar instead of the standard “one hit by anything, anywhere, ever will kill you” policy of most shooters like this, although now and again you’ll find something that will sap that bar to nothing in a heartbeat. (Darn you burning cart!) The mana bar is nice, too, because it slowly regains on its own, but also can be restored by mana balls found on the board. Even better is the fact that said mana balls, and their health bar equivalents (animals on sacrificial altars) can be stored until you need them, rather than being applied as soon as you touch them. On the other hand, while you don’t have a limited number of lives, you do have to start the level over every time you die, so you’ll get pretty darn familiar with the first part of the more difficult boards.

This time the victory is mine, rotating tree of doom!

Much as I enjoy these unique elements, there are many aspects to this game that just baffle me. There are puzzle levels, for instance, that obviously need to be solved by manipulating objects with your telekinesis spell, but other times there are puzzles that require the same spell, but there is little to no indication of what you need to do. Likewise, now and then a button will flash on screen, and pressing it before it vanishes will trigger a helpful lightning bolt, but there is nothing to suggest that would happen. Overall, the lack of useful tips made the game more frustrating than it needed to be. (There are actually tips on the load screen, but the game loaded so fast for me that I basically couldn’t read them. A rare case of two rights making a wrong.) Remember the dragon boss I mentioned? Well, after killing him the first time, a portal opened, but I had no idea what that meant. Then a few seconds later, the bad guy’s health bar filled back up and he killed me. It turns out, there was a final step to defeating this guy, making him a puzzle boss, but there wasn’t any feedback to suggest that there was a puzzle to be solved.

There are attempts to break up the action with an obstacle avoidance level, where your goal is to avoid killing storks, but I found those levels more irritating than refreshing. Levels are navigated by selecting your next destination on a map, but rather than just allowing you to pick a prior level and play it again to level up, it requires you to effectively work your way back to earlier levels by playing each intervening level in reverse order. Also, though you might not run into it, I found at least one level that I was able to cause to crash fairly consistently.

Sound

Oh no! There goes Tokyo!

As I sit here writing this, I honestly can’t remember a single note of the music, but that isn’t a mark against. Unless it is spectacular, the music usually exists simply to set a mood, and that was done quite well in this game. The vocals are a little strange, featuring an accent I can’t identify. (Every now and then, the game warns you of incoming danger by saying “Be careful,” but the accent turns it into “Bee Carfool,” which is now a catch phrase around BLHQ.) This isn’t bad either. I actually felt like it helped to build the setting of the game, and there are plenty of retail games with bizarre accents and phrasing. (Powerstone’s “Are you ready/Ah-ooo Reh-ee?” is still a staple among the staff.) The one thing about the audio that totally yanked me out of the game was the presence of Godzilla’s roar. No, not something that sounds like Godzilla’s roar, his actual roar. The very same sound effect used for the films. I love that sound, but it is far, FAR too recognizable to be used as a boss noise unless said boss is Godzilla himself. I’m sure Toho’s lawyers would agree.

Story

A tale as old as time.

The plot of this game is certainly head and shoulders above the story you usually get for a shmup, which traditionally is of the form “Here is why you are shooting everything. Now go shoot everything.”, and often not even that. Your player character is a dragon, servant to the god Perkunas, summoned to perform a deed of great importance. Initially, this deed seems to be killing a bunch of birds, which even the dragon itself remarks as a strange reason to summon a dragon. Naturally, your task is a bit more important than that, but you’ll quickly notice that practically everyone you encounter has an odd job for you to do, and they typically focus on killing a certain very large thing, then finding someone who will tell you to kill a different very large thing. Things get deeper, but the only real impact that the story has on the game is to let you know what route through the map to select in order to progress further.

Summing Up

There are an awful lot of really clever ideas in this game, from little things like the level scrolling differently depending on the direction you were heading on the map, to major things, like the RPG elements and spell based strategy. The visuals are more than adequate, and the audio wasn’t terrible, but in the end I just had too much trouble grappling with unclear gameplay to really get hooked.

Verdict

6.8 / 10: Perkunas’ Dragon has a tremendous amount of potential, and some very clever concepts, but stumbles in execution.