Summer of Arcade 2010 Review

Posted by Steve in News, XBLA Reviews | 0 comments

Summer of Arcade 2010 Overview.

Reviews conducted by Transient Nova.

Take a look at Microsoft’s latest effort to keep you inside while the weather’s nice.

Summer is traditionally the quietest period on the annual gaming calendar. With the sun shining bright (for once) and Christmas far away, publishers usually opt not to publish their heavy hitters during this time for fear of lack sales. As silly as it sounds, they are probably right in holding back.

As such this is usually a good time for some of the smaller, more niche titles to make themselves known while the marketing machines of the big-budget titles lay dormant until Winter. The first Summer of Arcade promotion in 2008 was a minor revelation in this regard. Here we had five downloadable games of staggering quality and considerable variety, from the multiplayer beat ‘em up spectacle that was Castle Crashers to excellent modern revivals in the form of Bionic Commando Rearmed and the (underrated) Galaga Legions. They offered a refreshing, enjoyable change to the said big-budget titles that would dominate the gaming headlines later. Indeed, you could make an argument that they were even better.

Skip forward four seasons and, lo and behold, we have 2009’s Summer of Arcade, following the success 2008’s promotion. Despite the games being a bit weaker overall than last years collection (Turtles in Time Re-Shelled and Shadow Complex weren’t amazing), they were all still worthwhile purchases and a change from the usual fare on the console; the humourously kinetic ‘Splosion Man and the really, really difficult (but really, really addictive) Trials HD being the memorable standouts.

A couple of inconsistent ‘Days of Arcade’ promotions later and here we are at 2010’s Summer of Arcade. We certainly seem to have what is easily the most diverse line-up of titles of any previous LIVE Arcade promotion but, of course, that doesn’t tell us if they’re any fun to play. There’s only one way to find out: Mini-Reviews! Yes!

Each of these titles will set you back 1,200 Microsoft Points a pop. It’s slightly more expensive overall the previous Summer of Arcade promotions, but then this is what we have trials for.

Let’s dive straight in shall we?

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Limbo

Developed by Playdead

Hoo-boy. The first game in the promotion and it’ll to be a difficult one to write about. This may end up being a slightly pretentious review, so it might be worth your time making yourself a nice Frappuccino and putting on a stylish Beret just as I’m about to do.

Seriously though, before we begin I feel I need to make the following statement; especially as this relates to about what will likely be the big ‘art-house’ game this year:

Art is subjective.

What one person sees as a thought-provoking experience another may see as a somewhat pretentious mess. Where one sees a story in a painting another will just see a pretty picture. Heck, common opinion says I should see the likes of Shadow of the Colossus or Bioshock as the great gaming milestones, but eight years on and I still think shoot ‘em up Ikaruga is the video game equivalent of Citizen Kane. So perfectly designed… *lets out a dreamy sigh*

Ahem. As I say, art is subjective.

You begin as a boy who wakes up in Birmingha—sorry, Limbo. How you got there or even why you are there is never explained. All you know is that it is a very dangerous place and that, despite what common sense probably tells you, you must brave it to find a mysterious girl who may or may not be related to you (I don’t completely buy the whole ‘sister’ thing).

There are no words here; just what you see, hear and play. As such Limbo’s narrative is very much open to interpretation. In hindsight, I could probably see it as an observation on how you only truly cherish what you value in life when you are just a hair’s breadth away form death. At the time though, all I really saw was a good horror game. I rarely dwell on the deeper meaning of a game’s narrative, but I’m sure some of you certainly do.

In terms of design and presentation however, you may not see a more brilliantly crafted, finely-honed 2D work this year. It’s a clever and ponderous puzzle-platformer at heart with many atypical solutions to its conundrums. Objects and the environment are manipulated in ways you would have never thought about doing in similar games, with answers rarely (or subtly) signposted. The silhouetted, black and white landscape and haunting ambient sounds lends the game a fantastically bleak, very ‘Kafkaesque’ vibe; one that almost certainly will draw you into its world.

Put simply, Limbo feels like the rare game that assumes its players are intelligent people without patronising them. This is without a doubt the game’s greatest strength.

While I pretty much expected the above upon first hearing about Limbo (hold on for a second while I adjust the angle of my Beret…), what took me by surprise here is just how well every aspect of Limbo comes together in a very violent, very unsettling whole. It can’t be easy to pull off an atmospheric horror game in 2D (I can only name Super Metroid of the top of my head), but the folks at Playdead have made such a feat look effortless. Creatures scuttle menacingly; deaths are nasty without being excessively gory; even some of the puzzle solutions are quite macabre.

As impressive as all this is though, this has all the signs of game that is generally better ‘experienced’ than played, which leads to the one possible (but very real) snag in all of this. The game is very short with little replay value. A skilled player will undoubtedly see the end in less than three hours; and it wouldn’t take a less skilled player that much longer. If you play games for fun and/or to be challenged then there is no denying that you will feel somewhat short changed once the credits start to roll. If you play games for the overall experience though then this probably won’t much of an issue. I fall in the former category myself but, you know, art is subjective…

This brings us to the score. Limbo is a good game don’t get me wrong, but as how much you enjoy (or even value) it will depend on where you stand in the ‘games as art’ crowd a little more than usual, I feel you should effectively make your own score here using my new Score Creation Equation System (patent pending). So take that seven you see down there; add a point if you happen to find art in a game’s subversive design and unique presentation, add another if you occasionally find yourself contemplating a game’s themes and narrative long after you finish it and one more if you either: (a) Buy it for less than the 1,200 point price tag (perhaps during a Deal of Week) or (b) Consider price to be a moot point if you enjoy the initial experience.

Obviously a real labour love for Playdead, Limbo will undoubtedly and deservedly be the game of the year for a lot of you out there (and not just on LIVE Arcade).

- 7/10 (personally 8/10)

Hydro Thunder Hurricane

Developed by Vector Unit

From one of the bleakest games of the year covering some heavy themes such as the fragility of life, we now move on to a racing game about transforming speedboats. Phew.

My experience with Hydro Thunder is limited to a couple of credits worth of races at the local bowling alley during my teenage years during the silver age of arcades. Ahh, the good old days! You know, back then a credit was 20p and not £1 (No wonder we have so few arcades in the UK these days). But I digress. Fast and thrilling, it was one of the highlights of Midway’s admittedly patchy arcade crown. They don’t make racers like this anymore.

Anyway fast forward ten years later and Midway, like so many others, is no more following some financial difficulties.

Following the fallout, the licence has since been rescued from the sinking boat that was Midway (see what I did there?) by Microsoft and handed over to relative newcomers Vector Unit, who have travelled the seven seas and bought us the sequel we see today in the form of Hydro Thunder Hurricane. Let’s see if it makes a splash on LIVE Arcade!

I’ll ease up on the nautical jokes now. Trying to work something like Wet Wet Wet in there would probably tip me over the edge anyway.

Most races consist of either a straight dash from A to B or your standard three laps. You drive your cool-looking transforming speedboat as fast as you can to the finish line. Its sounds somewhat standard but, as I’m sure you’ll notice, the first thing that will hit you when your first race begins is that a lot of effort has gone into recreating that classic arcade flavour.

This is immediately apparent in the way the boats handle: despite gilding over the water at some pace to keep races feeling wild, they feel responsive enough to ensure players can race with some skill. When coupled with a huge amount of shortcuts to find (not all of them easy to exploit) and a varied amount of obstacles about the tracks to work around/through, you may find that there is a little more depth to its brand of racing than meets the eye.

Even in terms of presentation, Hydro Thunder gets the feeling of a playing a real arcade racer down to a tee. Almost. Each of the eight tracks offers a visually unique ride, all of them thrilling. You could be speeding around huge prehistoric monsters one moment, blasting through an alien planet the next. It’s certainly difficult to accuse the game of a lack of imagination in terms track design: The calm and collected announcer, the punchy sound effects, the sense of speed when boosting, all that enticing water…the game is lovingly geared towards creating that arcade thrill that’s so rare in western racers these days. It’s just a shame the soundtrack felt utterly lightweight in comparison to everything else, lacking catchy hooks or any real drive.

While I believe almost everyone will see and enjoy pretty much everything the game has to offer in a few hours worth of solid play, there are plenty of incentives for players to come back to the game. Solo genre enthusiasts (and probably a few newcomers) will relish the opportunity to tackle the Leaderboards to improve their best times and tackle the extremely difficult expert courses (as well hunting for a bunch of collectable tokens during their downtime), while those of a multiplayer mindset will happily take to an excellent (and impressively lag-free in my experience) online mode.

Actually, that’s a lie. You have two modes here: Race and ‘Rubber Ducky’. The latter is nothing of note though, as you get your team’s designated plastic avian over the line first by any means necessary. In my experience, this largely involves ramming the other team’s Duck and boats. It’s intriguing sure, but not really much fun. This might be the arcade fan in me (in fact it probably is) but I find it too ponderous and too distracting. I’d much rather blast down the waterways at full pelt, leaving others in my wake. Fortunately, this is exactly what Race mode offers; Pure, speedy multiplayer racing. Go up against similarly skilled opponents and races become what can only be described as a wild, nail-biting rush; constantly coming down to the wire during the last stretch.

Short of the above ‘Rubber Ducky’ mode and the odd presentational misstep, it’s very difficult to fault the game for what it is. A pure, unpretentious, exciting arcade racer with some depth beneath its colourful surface, Hydro Thunder Hurricane stands proud alongside Outrun Online Arcade as arguably the best racer on LIVE Arcade. Put simply, it is an essential purchase for avid arcade racing fans and well worth a gander for everyone else.

- 8/10

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

Developed by Konami

Koji Igarashi (the father of Castlevania) is either a creative genius or one of the luckiest game designers on the face of the earth.

Ever since the release of the seminal Symphony of the Night on the original Sony Playstation he and his team at Konami have struggled to really follow that game up (its also available on XBLA for 800 Microsoft points. If you haven’t played it already then go and do so now. It really is a classic). They probably don’t have much incentive to be honest, with the subsequent GBA and DS games sticking to that tried and true framework and remaining all the more enjoyable for it. They seem to know that can’t stick with that exploration based framework forever though. So, what can they do to keep the 2D Castlevanias relevant?

In Castlevania: Harmony of Despair their answer here is simply to embrace multiplayer.

If you’ve played any of the previous 2D Castlevania games then you’ll know exactly the kind of visual treat you’re in for. No, really. You’ll know exactly what you’re in for. While this won’t be an issue for newcomers, first impressions will not be very good for series veterans as character sprites, background art; even music from the soundtracks have been lifted near wholesale from previous games. It’s still most certainly a beautiful game, but as this is the most ambitious game in the series for years the obvious lack of effort in the presentation department is nothing short of disappointing.

To be fair, it probably requires some time and resources on the developer’s part to adapt the game to display in HD, but it has to be said that it would have been nice to see even one completely new sprite not seen in any previous game in the series. I’m sure there will come a time when Konami really will have to redraw its sprites and backgrounds from scratch.

Setting up or joining a game can be a chore as well; with a poor lobby system that boots entire parties should the host leave and prevents people from joining once the party enters the ‘Chapter Select/Shop’ screen. Thankfully, once we actually get a game going Harmony of Despair ends up being a joy to play.

Choosing one of five characters from throughout Castlevania’s history (the game explains this poorly; but each of them plays and powers up somewhat differently, making them great fun to experiment with) players team up to battle through the game’s six castles, eventually going up against their bosses and stealing their loot. With others, blitzing through these castles is nothing short of joyous. The excellent platorming and combat elements laid down in the previous Castlevania games are surprisingly bolstered by the multiplayer aspect. Players can co-ordinate attacks, share healing items, solve puzzles revive downed players and simply gang up on bosses in a way unlike any other game of its type. After an awkward start, those veterans will be drawn straight back in. Newcomers who make an effort will be too.

The inclusion a simple wheel-based communication system ensures a good sense of camaraderie can be kept amongst even silent players, lending the game a positive atmosphere and giving more of a social incentive to dive into the castles again and again. It’s always good to have the option to communicate now and again without having to actually talk. Not enough games do this, and it makes playing with random strangers much easier.

Multiplayer is marvellous then. Singleplayer however is infinitely less so. Lacking the sense of exploration that the previous games had, Harmony of Despair becomes an extremely repetitive, soulless, nigh on difficult affair on your own (the later levels on the higher difficulties bordering on outright impossible). It is simply just not fun. Solo players considering this should opt for Symphony of the Night instead if they haven’t already.

Despite the fact that the game only comes with six chapters to explore, there is still a very surprising amount of replay value here. Much of this comes down to the classic RPG hooks of powering up your character and plentiful amounts of looting. In a nice touch, everyone receives an item (and in some cases an ability) when a player opens a chest, ensuring no-one leaves a game empty handed. Just as well, as tackling the Hard mode requires a good selection of strong equipment (as well as pure, unbridled gaming skills possessed by yourself and your comrades). Beating it will take some perseverance, but it does pose a compelling challenge for those inclined to take it on. Dracula won’t kill himself after all. He isn’t one of these modern emo vampires.

By all rights, I shouldn’t like this nearly as much as I do. It’s very much a cut-and-paste job and in all honesty it feels a bit like a prototype hinting at a more polished, more ambitious, less lazily developed game. Yet despite the numerous shortcomings and shortcuts on display here it still remains a worthwhile purchase when played with others. The core sense of adventure, the tight platforming mechanics and the excellent combat the 2D Castlevanias are renowned for still stand strong, while the multiplayer component does just enough to convince me that this may actually be the best way forward for the series. I still can’t figure out if Koji Igarashi is either lucky or a genius though. I think I’ll flip a coin.

Just don’t buy the game with the intention of playing it on your own. You will regret it. Much like when Dracula bought a pair of designer sunglasses on a drunken dare that one night.

- 7/10

Monday Night Combat

Developed by Uber Entertainment

I’ll start by being honest here. I was getting ready to really, really lay into Monday Night Combat. It certainly wasn’t subtle about its influences and inspiration. You can see it all in there: The style of Team Fortress 2, the vibe of Gears of War, the setting of Smash TV, the design and principles of any popular team-based FPS or Tower Defence game etc.  Based on the trailers and early previews, I imagined that the final game would shamelessly pilfer from other popular games and genres.

Funnily enough it turns out I’d be right. How about that! Being of the somewhat cynical sort I should go and strap on a Hockey Mask, grab a Chainsaw, put on the ‘Halloween’ soundtrack and tear this game to shreds with the crazed frenzy of a psychopath.

…except that I can’t. Apart from the fact that I don’t have any of the above readily available to me, Monday Night Combat has actually turned out to be a surprisingly decent multiplayer game. Emphasis on decent.

This mainly comes down to how well the game’s disparate elements come together. As I implied above, this is at its heart a team-based third person shooter with some Tower Defence elements. Players begin their game mode of choice by selecting their class having possibly customised their ‘perks’ beforehand (so far, so Call of Duty), spending their starting funds and heading on out into the arena.

The game offers up two modes: Blitz and Crossfire. Blitz pits up to four players (or two offline) against wave after wave of varied AI robots who march relentlessly towards your base. Money is earned for each one you destroy. In typical Tower Defence fashion, players must protect their ‘base’, the Moneyball (a ball filled with money, naturally), by building a formidable set of sentry turrets on the available nodes. In atypical Tower Defence fashion though they can also opt for a more ‘direct’ approach i.e. a Shotgun blast to the face. Doesn’t get more direct than that.

Blitz is certainly good fun for a bit with friends (though much less so on your lonesome). In a way, it feels like how a cooperative Tower Defence game should work. Discussions take place on how best to protect the Moneyball with regards to turret placement strategies, entrance monitoring, skill upgrading and good old-fashioned violence. There are only have a limited number of difficulties though, all of which take place in a single shared arena. Leaderboard climbing may be a draw for a small while, but I can’t help but feel that the main purpose of this mode is to prepare you for its more interesting counterpart, Crossfire.

Undoubtedly the main draw of Monday Night Combat, Crossfire is 6-on-6 competitive mode where your team must attack and destroy the enemy’s Moneyball while defending your own. This is effectively the game in full, riotous Team Deathmatch swing here. Using the funds earned by killing opponents, turrets and robots (as well as occasionally tormenting the mascot with many, many bullets); players upgrade their skills, erect turrets, summon class-specific robots, activate shortcuts and traps… whatever it takes to gain an advantage and push their team to victory.

As the pacing is usually much quicker than in Blitz (the only time you really get a breather is when you die) there is little scope for strategic planning. Frequent decisions have to be made on the spur of the moment based on the current flow of battle. What is remarkable about this (and what will earn Monday Night Combat its following) is that, unlike most other multiplayer Third or First Person Shooters out there, you have a considerable array of game changing options available to you at any one time. Perhaps you should build a ShaveIce turret in order to make an Assassin-heavy team easier to spot? Perhaps you should upgrade your Flak Grenade ability to keep the enemy team out of a tight spot? Perhaps you should bring in a Gap Shot artillery ‘bot and have it shell the enemy turrets? Perhaps your opponent will do the same to you. How will you deal with that? These numerous options ensure that matches remain consistently dynamic, frequently surprising and enjoyable for the most part.

There is no denying the game still feels quite unpolished and uninspired in parts though. Despite the whole ‘Running Man’ theme it has going (one that isn’t unique in games), the game still feels like a poor man’s Team Fortress 2 in terms of both style and humour. There are some technical hitches that mar online play, namely the odd bout of slowdown and some grapple attack connection issues. Longevity is also a concern as the game only has the two game modes and four Crossfire maps (all of which feel very similar to each other), with little real reason to level up and earn money, save for unlocking a few custom class slots and tags. Some of the classes feel a bit overpowered at times as well, as I’m sure many of you will come to realise when an Assassin stabs you in the back for the umpteenth time.

Monday Night Combat is in itself a jack of all trades and a master of none, a game that is quite literally the sum of its parts. Fortunately for Uber Entertainment they decided to choose the right parts from the right games and, most importantly, managed to piece them together convincingly. While this results in a game that lacks a genuine identity, it does ensure that the game remains interesting and fun for a good while.

Despite my misgivings, this is still an easy ‘mainstream’ multiplayer recommendation to make. More so than Blacklight anyway.

- 6/10

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Developed by Crystal Dynamics

I wish I had a time machine right now.

I can just imagine how it could make my life infinitely more amusing. I could impress Neanderthals with a Kettle! I could start Celtic folk legends about a terrifying forest monster by hiding in a tree with a Vuvuzela! I could travel one month into the future and actually test the online co-op of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light! Unless I found out that world of the future would end up being run under the brutal dictatorship of Noel Edmonds following all my temporal hijinx. That would be a little less amusing.

Whether it’s through a terrible bug infestation or a just a case of sudden misfortune the game has had to launch without online co-op. Its irritating considering that the multiplayer aspect was to be this game’s main focus but at least it will be sorted when the on-line modes are patched in on the 28th of September (at the time of writing). Until then, we will all be playing the offline modes. Hope you have a nice couch for those co-op sessions. The fluffier the better. Throwable pillows are a bonus.

The plot goes a little something like this. There’s this evil god called Xolotl who was defeated centuries ago by an ancient warrior going by the name of Totec, who trapped him in an artefact called the Mirror of Smoke. Fast forward a few millennia and we see Ms Croft recovering the artefact along with a group of not entirely friendly mercenaries, who are then promptly written out of the story thirty seconds later when the newly released Xolotl kills them all. Totec is also conveniently revived for some reason. So begins an epic adventure where Lara and Totec must stop Xolotl before the sun rises (why before then I don’t know).

It’s as contrived, poorly acted and just plain awful as it sounds, yet it actually works in the game’s favour. Like sharing a good B-movie, the plot contrivances and hammy voice work is a joy to poke fun at with friends. I personally love Xolotl’s frequent ‘empty threat’ sessions. Some of that fun is lessened on your own, but I’m sure it will still raise a smirk here and there.

What the game lacks in narrative nuance, it more than makes up for in some excellent co-operative game design. Crystal Dynamics have crafted an excellent multiplayer adventure here; one part traditional Tomb Raider style platforming and puzzle solving, one part twin-stick shooter. Players have to work together in order to get past the many traps and acquire the many collectables they will come across with plenty of head scratchers in the later stages. Spears will be thrown, rings will be grappled and players will realise how badly they can co-ordinate with each other when they really need to. Good stuff.

Combat is also great fun in a mindless sort of way, with a varied set of foes to go up against and take down in a suitably visceral fashion (the boss fights are a bit too cumbersome mind). Add to that the frankly bewildering number of awards and unlocks to earn and you have a game that could potentially last a very long time should it grab you.

Unlike Harmony of Despair the game also makes an effort to cater to solo players. The difficultly is appropriately adjusted and the puzzles are rebuilt to allow them to be solved on your own, to the point where it feels like playing though a new game at times. It’s a good way to add some replay value, but as this is still a multiplayer game at heart you may find that repetition sets in sooner rather than later.

Really, it’s the platforming that’s the weak link here. As is the case in nearly every isometric platform game out there, you will die unnecessarily due to misreading the angle or distance of the jump. The Guardian of Light is no different, but it is a little more forgiving than its contemporaries in this regard.

The game is easily the most technically impressive one of the five here, although looking at the massive size of the download I wouldn’t expect anything less. It is a beautiful game to look at, with some atmospheric Mayan vibe and excellent animation work throughout. The many guns and weapons are also visually and aurally thrilling, all of them feeling as if they pack a punch. It’s a little too dark in places though, and the music is mostly your standard, generic orchestral score affair though.

If by chance you happen to be reading this on 28th of September or later, then by all means download this. The on-line modes will make it much easier to rope in another person and get a good co-op game going, which is really how the game needs to be played. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a decent game when played on your own, but with another person it’s in a league of its own. I’d also like to remind you to sing your praises to our leader Noel Edmonds today (sorry, The Great and Benevolent Leader Noel Edmonds), else face death by firing squad.

- 8/10

———-

…and we’re done. You can breathe now.

Here I was thinking the reviews for the games of the 2010 Summer of Arcade promotion were going to be small! I think it’s the fact that these five games have been much better produced when compared to the previous years. It’s obvious that a considerable amount of talent and money was put into these titles (well, maybe not money in Castlevania’s case). While you could argue this flies against the spirit of the whole ‘smaller games for lower budgets’ thing, there’s no denying that (as what seemed to be case earlier) we do have the most varied lineup this year.

At the very least, Mircosoft chose the right games to highlight what LIVE Arcade has to offer for 2010. Limbo will undoubtedly be this promotion’s ‘winner’ and may well end up being this year’s Arcade success story (with 300,000 downloads the last time I checked, definitely an impressive figure). The other titles will likely develop some fervent cult followings as well, in particular Harmony of Despair and Monday Night Combat. I wouldn’t say we’ve received anything that will as popular or as awe-inspiring as Castle Crashers or Trials HD though.

So, here we are. Once again we have a five titles somewhat out with the norm and once again they are all enjoyable in their own right. Considering that 2010’s selection has shown itself to be more diverse than in previous years though, I can honestly say that there really is something for everyone this year. Odds are that there will be something you’ll like.

…

But we can’t end this feature here! What if you only have 1,200 Mircosoft Points to burn? You need an authoritative opinion; one which will allow me to express my own personal highlight (because I’m selfish like that). So here is a tasty (yet generic) quote to put on the back the box. The non-existent digital box.

So, if you are only going to buy one game in this Summer of Arcade promotion…

…I’d make it Hydro Thunder Hurricane.