Summer of Arcade 2011 Overview

Posted by Steve in Arcade, Genres, News, XBLA Reviews | 2 comments

 Summer of Arcade 2011 Overview

By Transient Nova

 

Your backup plan for when the typical British summer inevitably rolls around.

Did I ever tell you that the Summer of Arcade is quickly becoming one of my favourite spots on the gaming calendar?

Over the past few years I’ve always been getting a little giddy when those five titles are announced.  As the market is slowly starting to favour the ‘Indie’ and ‘AAA’ game developers at both ends of the spectrum, downloadable platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade are proving to provide the perfect home for those increasingly neglected ‘middle-tier’ titles, games with quirky ideas yet still possessing some production values that would struggle to find an audience in this day and age.  As is usually the case, the Summer of Arcade exemplifies all that makes these games so intriguing.

With publishers and developers alike trying to make their titles worthy of a spot in the Summer of Arcade line up now (not least for all the extra promotion that such a standing offers), it’s almost a guarantee that the games released in this period will be a cut above than the usual fare.  2010’s feature was one of my favourite writing ventures of last year, so it should come as little surprise when I say that I have been looking forward to tackling this year’s eclectic selection of titles.

As is pretty much the norm now, this year’s titles will cost 1,200 Microsoft Points each with the exception being Fruit Ninja Kinect, which will only cost 800 Microsoft Points (not counting the £100 Kinect sensor required to play it of course).

Now then, there are games to be played! Onwards!

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Bastion

Developed by Supergiant Games

Published by Warner Bros. Games

Imagine you wake up one morning and you find out the whole world has been completely decimated by an unforeseen catastrophe.  Everything you know and love is gone, remnants of the world are floating around ominously and it’s generally turning out to be a terrible start to the day.  Then you hear a disembodied voice that seems to comment on your every move, no matter how trivial, in a bizarrely pleasant manner.  You think to yourself that your predicament seems to resemble that Stranger than Fiction film you once saw a while back but with a more reassuring tone of voice and fewer Will Ferrells in sight, and then suddenly the whole end-of-the-world thing doesn’t seem as bad as you thought.

You’d never think that a narrator would ever end up being a game’s single greatest selling point, but that’s exactly the case here with Bastion.  Logan Cunningham, the man who plays the role of said narrator with a serious yet reassuring voice not dissimilar to the likes of Ron Pearlman and Morgan Freeman, oversees proceedings as he follows and comments on the actions of the protagonist (known simply as The Kid) as he comes to explore the aftermath of the game’s own curious end-of-the-world scenario, appropriately referred to as ‘The Calamity’.

He gives the game a very distinct flavour in terms of both the story and style of play, lending dulcet tones and real gravitas to it as he talks about an intriguing back-story and adding meaning to even the to player’s most incidental actions as they explore the world at hand.  It’s similar to the approach taken by Remedy’s semi-recent horror title Alan Wake, but far more successful on account of having a superior script and a lot more personality.  That only ends up being half of its appeal though; when paired with its painterly visuals and lovely soundtrack Bastion becomes one of the most compelling and inviting game experiences Xbox Live Arcade has had in a long time.

The attention to detail given to the world and narrative is both admirable and resolutely staggering, yet it is with some surprise that the same holds true for its combat to a considerable extent as well.  With traits gleaned from the likes of hack-and-slash RPGs and twin stick shoot-em-ups, battles often show a considerable amount of depth.  With no two weapons behaving exactly alike, there’s plenty of scope for experimentation.  Indeed, trying out various combinations and perfecting counter attacks as you battle against the game’s colourful cast of foes is all part of the appeal.  Despite that though, it can still get repetitive on occasion (particularly towards the end of the game) and it definitely isn’t as polished as some of the other areas of Bastion.  The rare moment where the narrator keeps quiet for an extended spell does much to reinforce the fact that the game could never really stand on its action alone.

Outside of combat and exploration, you’ll spend much of your time on the titular Bastion, a peaceful little floating island that also serves as the game’s hub.  Facilities are added as progress is made, offering classic RPG services such as the sale of assorted goods, the ability to forge and upgrade weapons, pointing out extra side challenges and providing statistic-boosting alcoholic beverages (because it’s a well known fact that booze can transform a man into a demigod).

In general the game’s RPG elements, while adding a bit of variety to proceedings, are still lightweight compared to its peers.  I could argue that they make the game easier than it should be in the latter half, but this is offset by the ability to adjust specific aspects of the difficulty on the go by making offerings to various sinister gods at Bastion’s temple, which is a nice touch.

Bastion is the closest Xbox Live Arcade will likely ever get to its own Disney-esque fairy tale.  It has obviously been a huge labour of love for Supergiant Games, with their ambitions set in stone from the start and a clearly unified approach in achieving them.  Despite some repetitive combat towards the end and a few questionable design choices, the game’s clever method of storytelling, backed by one of the most enticing voiceovers ever to grace a videogame, ensures that it remains a fascinating adventure that deserves to be experienced at least once.  At the very least, it’s a cold heart that isn’t won over by the many charms and merits Bastion has to show here.

            - 8/10

 

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From Dust

Developed by Ubisoft Montpellier

Published by Ubisoft

Arguably the highest profile game in this Summer of Arcade line-up, From Dust marks the return of famed developer Eric Chahi, the man who was responsible for the memorable nineties classics Another World and Heart of Darkness.  Interestingly, the release of From Dust marks the fact that it has now been ten years since the man has worked on a new gaming IP.  This must have been in planning for a while.

The basic concept goes something like this: your righteous, godly self is summoned by a nameless tribe on the brink of extinction.  Essentially trapped, they need you to lead them out of their struggles and help you find a land they can truly call home.  Now constantly watching over them, you’ll end up parting the waves and moving the earth itself like all the popular deities do to ensure they reach their destinations safely.  There’s the suggestion of a deep and spiritual story in there somewhere, but when you decide to tell most it with awkward text dumps that are usually hidden off to the side somewhere then it becomes difficult to pay it much heed.  You’ll be too entranced by that ever-malleable game world anyway though, so it’s okay.

The screenshots you see for this game don’t do justice to how truly breathtaking it all is.  While not quite photorealistic, From Dust captures the wild, fluctuating heart of the natural environment in a way that so few games do.  Vegetation sprouts and covers the land with bright green hues.  Water flows in a realistic fashion with the waves forcefully crashing over the land and rivers carrying earthly sediments downstream.  Volcanoes erupt with a ferocious beauty before ponderously sending lava downhill, burning down everything in its path before cooling into solid rock.  It’s vivid and lively, and it can all be played with.

See, as you’re just that kind of god, you have the power to manipulate this environment at will.  Using these abilities, your main goal is to create safe passages the tribesmen as they cover the land and build villages at inconveniently placed areas of worship, which will in turn give you even more godly powers and expand your terraforming options.  The game takes a while to really pick up admittedly, with the first half of the game feeling like an unusually longwinded and occasionally tedious tutorial/tech demo, but once you start having to actively think about how you’ll have to shape the land in more complex terms later on it becomes an engrossing strategy game with many an epic scenario.

Similarly, some of the game’s best moments are found in the game’s unlockable Challenge stages.  These are unique in that they take out nearly all semblance of strategy found in the main story and replaces it with an addictive puzzle element instead.  In being less grandiose, the developers are given much more leeway in how creative (and less ‘grounded in reality’) they can be with their design, showing players just how complex their digital ecosystem actually is by encouraging them to try things they wouldn’t think of doing elsewhere with clever moments such as dumping earth into a small pond as a means to displace the water inside it or creating a makeshift water-slide to allow a distant tribesman to cover ground more quickly (which is as cute as it sounds).

This is all certainly very impressive and From Dust often inspires real awe, but unfortunately there are lots of small technical faults that frequently get in the way of your enjoyment.  Alongside a number of bugs and glitches (with the game crashing on me at least three times and a case of the game thinking I finished a challenge stage the moment I started it), I had issues with the AI of the tribesmen and in particular how they behaved when travelling from place to place.  The pathfinding is usually quite good and often elegant, but it is prone to failure when it lapses, being stubborn at best and flat out broken at the worst when a command to reach a distant totem doesn’t even register.  Additionally, interactions with the environment that are a little too finicky at times and you may find yourself grabbing a clump of the wrong natural substance in the heat of the moment.

It’s a shame the above issues happened as frequently as they did, getting in the way of what is otherwise an excellent game.  Ubisoft have an enjoyable, intelligent and technologically groundbreaking title here, yet From Dust is bought low by coming across as being hastily thrown together in a number of key respects, which I shouldn’t be complaining about considering how long the game has been in development.  Really, what it needed to become a classic was a little more finesse.

- 7/10

 

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Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Developed by Fuelcell Games/Gagne International

Published by Microsoft Game Studios

The silhouetted look is hot, hot, hot right now in the downloadable 2D gaming scene!

That’s a slight exaggeration of course, but there will undoubtedly be a few of you out there that are beginning to tire of the black-over-coloured-background aesthetics used in the likes of Limbo, Outland and Nin2-Jump over the past year or so.  As odd as it sounds, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet has entered a crowded niche of sorts, competing the previously mentioned titles in that specific artistic field.

Fuelcell Games have a few trump cards to make their game stand out though, not least the presence of skilled animator Michael Gagne, a man probably best known for his work on the film The Iron Giant.  He lends the game (alongside the developer’s in-house art team) a great sense of fluidity and motion whether dealing with organic or mechanical backdrops, with peculiar creatures undulating as they move about and machines that buzz and whirr with menace.  It’s a captivatingly alien and varied environment to navigate, further complimented by the largely muted ambient soundtrack present throughout.  In fact, it’s all very minimalist even down to the game’s unobtrusive plot, chronicling the simple journey of an alien and its UFO as they battle a shadowy viral infection that has warped his home planet.

That restrained nature comes across in the game’s design as well (which is unfortunate for reasons I’ll get to in a moment).  Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet takes its cues from the likes of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Shadow Complex and the Metroid series; 2D action games that have an unusual emphasis on exploration and discovery.  Players will poke around the nooks and crannies of a large, singular game map, gradually uncovering power-ups and abilities that will allow them to open up further areas that were previously blocked off to them and find secrets they may have otherwise missed.  The key difference between this and its inspirations is that it layers the framework of a twin-stick shooter over it and features more logic puzzles than it’s peers (albeit simple ones).

It all sounds good on paper (goodness knows I wanted something like this), but it doesn’t count for much when the game comes across as soulless in its design.  Despite being an expansive world, the progress you make through it is linear, with little scope in straying from the beaten path and clearly defined goals that are just a bit too black and white for my liking.  Giving the player a small indication as to where to go when they’re a bit lost is fine, but heavily implying the route to take in getting there ends up sucking much of the fun out of the journey.

There’s really just a lack of excitement running through out the whole thing.  New tools are located and acquired with little fanfare, feeling as if they were simply dumped in their respective locations by the developer for their convenience.  The use of these tools in exploring the map fails to engage when side paths and secrets seem tacked on with one or two exceptions.  The act of shooting things feels lacklustre with a muted arsenal, some loose controls and boss creatures that don’t really test the player like they should.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with taking a minimalistic approach to making your game of course, but that line of thinking does not benefit a sub-genre that relies heavily on exploration.

Unexpectedly, things pick up when you play the game’s cooperative multiplayer.  Called the ‘Lantern Run’, it sees up to four players aiming to tug along as many of the aforementioned lanterns as far as they can along an everlasting corridor while being chased by what can only be described as a massive Lovecraftian horror or horribleness.  The further they go, the higher their overall score will be (while cooperative, there’s still a competitive element if you so wish to follow it).  It’s an exciting marathon to undertake as players work together in clearing out enemies and frantically pulling out clumps of debris or other obstructions blocking their path so as to not let their looming pursuer catch up to them.  A good adrenaline rush to be sure, but being as limited as it is it won’t hold your attention for long.

And that essentially sums up Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet in a nutshell: there just isn’t enough to it.  It’s not just in terms of length (I wrapped nearly everything up within five hours), there’s that lack of punch in the game’s action, there’s that lack of discovery in exploring the game’s linear map, hell there’s a generally noticeable lack of grace throughout the entirety of its design when you compare it to its contemporaries.  Still, it’s competently made and has the capacity to entertain in spots, with flourishes of brilliance in its puzzles, an unexpectedly good multiplayer and a striking art style.  It’s just that said flourishes don’t excuse a game for being as flat as this.

            - 6/10

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Fruit Ninja Kinect

Developed by Halfbrick Studios

Published by Microsoft Game Studios

 

Under normal circumstances I would be the one to look over Fruit Ninja Kinect with a high quality magnifying glass.  The fact that I do not own the Kinect sensor required to play it though makes doing so a very difficult endeavour.  Thankfully, ScottishSteveo happens to be in possession of one of those magic cameras and has kindly stepped in to write this portion of the feature.  As such, he deserves the credit for the following words you’re about to read through. – Nova

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I’ll be honest; I haven’t really used Kinect since I purchased it earlier this year.  I was hesitant due to the size of my living room.  After some careful rearrangement I managed to at least have some fun with Kinect Sports, Adventures and even Dance Central.  Sadly if I wanted to play these games I had to move my couch every time and that quickly became a chore.  Now, however, that’s changed.  A game for Kinect has finally arrived that doesn’t seem limited by space as other titles.

Chances are you’ve already heard of Halfbrick’s fruit slicing game, it’s graced the iPhone and iPod touch for well over a year.  Now that fun game has been turned into a Kinect title.  Test your fruit cutting skills in a variety of modes that involve you standing in front of your TV while pretending to be a ninja (or at least I did!).

The basis of the game is simple: cut fruit using your hands (or feet if you’re flexible enough and don’t mind kicking your TV) and gain as high a score as possible.  Throw in a variety of different fruits, bombs, combos and you’ll have the most fun you’ve probably had on Kinect.

Slicing fruit in quick succession will earn you combos providing you can cut three or more in one go.  Accumulating these combos will quickly multiply your score and get you up those leaderboards.  You will, however, need to watch you don’t hit the bombs spontaneously bouncing all over the screen.  You’ll also have the option to slice power ups that randomly appear as three different funky coloured bananas.  These power ups have different capabilities including one that will slow down the screen allowing you to slice more fruit in one go, while another will give you double score on any fruit you slice and also the last enables a fruit frenzy which will fill your screen in quick succession with tons of fruit.  One achievement is to get all power ups at once (the only achievement left for me to get, and it’s proving difficult!)

Game modes include the straightforward classic mode that involves you slicing as much fruit as possible without making any mistakes.  Zen mode has you slicing fruit while trying to get a high score within 90 seconds.  The arcade mode gives you 1 minute to get as high a score as possible through slicing fruit, combos, bananas and avoiding the bombs.

Other than the standard one player games mentioned above, multiplayer is also included.  Again, due to my limited space I was thinking that I wouldn’t get the full opportunity to test this out, but I was wrong.  I’ve had a blast on multiplayer mode with friends, slicing fruit and getting massive scores and also a broken light in the process.  Flailing your arms about in close proximity is a recipe for disaster.

The presentation of the game is also very slick, with the colourful fruits bouncing all over your screen, the addition of the power ups slowing down the game and filling your chopping board quickly.  Add this to your multiple backgrounds and blade colours, the graphics provide a vibrant environment for an XBLA title.

I have noticed a few niggling things with the game though and they include a very sluggish menu system that takes a few seconds to respond to my commands.  The slicing of specific game modes or options hangs and then quickly jumps through, seemingly trying to catch up with my previous request.

Also, the perfect slicing of a fruit seems completely random and something that you cannot master.  A perfect slice gives you 10 bonus points in a game and this is quite a lot when you’re trying to beat a score so it can come in very handy.  It’s just a shame that there doesn’t seem to be a set way to achieve this other than luck.

Other than these two minor issues, Fruit Ninja is the best experience I’ve had on Kinect since I’ve purchased the hardware.  People who might find it gets slightly repetitive you can mix it up with different backgrounds or blades through varoius unlocks.  Alongside the random facts given at the end of each game, these neat little additions freshen up the game.

Fruit Ninja is a fun and enjoyable game that should be picked up by anyone who has Kinect.

- 9/10

 

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Toy Soldiers: Cold War

Developed by Signal Studios

Published by Microsoft Game Studios

I don’t envy anyone who has to review tower defence games on a regular basis.  They seem to nearly all follow the same formula: place defensive towers along a set path to stop the enemy advancements that trundle along it.  Enemy types and defence options rarely change between them, and I’d imagine it’d be easy to repeat yourself from review to review.  Thank goodness for cross-breeds like Toy Soldiers that give me something more to talk about then.

It has to be said that I was never a fan of the original Toy Soldiers.  A mix between tower defence and modern action games, I felt that it couldn’t do justice to either genre, let alone mix them well together.  The strategy bits were barebones, the combat bits were often clunky, the online was patchy and the whole thing just felt lacking.  That it saw well over 400,000 downloads is something I’ll never be able to get my head around.  The sequel I’m reviewing here isn’t really that different to its predecessor save for the obvious change in theme from World War I to the Cold War and the accompanying eighties kitsch it provides (naturally), but it takes great steps in sorting out the issues I had with the earlier game.

You’ll know how Toy Soldiers: Cold War works if you’ve ever spent any time with a tower defence game.  You’re tasked with defending your toy box from waves of plastic soviet soldiers keen to spread ideas of plastic communism over to plasticAmerica.  With plastic nukes.  You do this by placing a series of turrets along their pre-determined path to gun them down and earn resources, which are in turn spent on more turrets and further upgrades for said turrets.  Each turret works better against different attackers: Machine guns mow down infantry; Anti-air guns swat aircraft out of the sky etc.  It still feels simple in the grand menagerie of tower defence games, but a slightly more varied enemy set helps to make it a little more engaging.  Of course, one of the reasons the game keeps things simple is that it expects you to get your hands dirty and do a bit of work in the battlefield yourself.   No time for distractions.

The big story here comes from the efforts made by Signal Studios to improve the combat side of the game, which was really my biggest problem with the original.  You can actually use vehicles this time round for one thing, with far better controls for the tanks, helicopters and planes you’ll be blowing away everything red with.  Commandeering your own turrets for manual use becomes a more worthwhile endeavour with more pronounced advantages for doing so.  Earnable bonuses for performing well also prove to be entertaining, as blasting away with a totally not Rambo inspired commando who repeats his four lines ad nauseam and raining down fire from a totally not Call of Duty inspired AC130 gunship proves. It’s so improved all round that it justifies the existence of the extra minigames that come alongside the main package, which prove to be nice little distractions.

The online side has been given a massive overhaul too (not least in the fact that I can actually connect to another person now).  New to the sequel is the ability to play through the main campaign missions or separate survival maps co-operatively online with a friend of your choosing.  The game doesn’t change to accommodate for another person, but it’s a fun social experience regardless.  The Versus mode is also considerably better than I remember it being in the first game as players compete to farm resources and send attack waves to their opponent’s toy box while erecting defences to defend their own.  Find an equally skilled opponent and these matches become brilliant games of wits alongside your vehicle piloting skills.

It all adds up to a game that’s absolutely loaded with content for those after a bit of value in their games.  It helps that the game looks and sounds the part as well, with battlefields, soldiers and vehicles all possessing a strange toy-like charm and a catchy soundtrack that riffs on all kinds of eighties songs and films.  All that’s missing is the appearance of Tom Cruise and any number of montages.

This is essentially the same game you played last year, only bigger, badder and better (as cliché as it sounds).  It’ll easily please the many fans of the previous game, but the refinements and improvements are so significant that Toy Soldiers: Cold War will likely end up drawing new fans into the fold, as well as convincing detractors to give the series another go.  Enjoyable, substantial and recommended.

            - 8/10

 

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So ends the overview of this year’s big hitters.

I feel I should have been dusting off my long-neglected beret while writing this year’s feature considering how artsy most of these titles felt.  The first three releases: Bastion, From Dust and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, each obviously strived for something more than being ‘just a game’ to varying degrees of success.  I suspect From Dust will gather a strong following as a result of positive word of mouth while Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will see strong sales due to the level of hype leading up to it’s release beforehand.  Bastion will get (and in fact has gotten) both a strong following and strong sales, and rightly so.

The other two decidedly non-highbrow titles will also likely perform well.  Fruit Ninja Kinect has the virtue of being both (a) the first Kinect title released for Live Arcade and (b) a genuinely brilliant one if ScottishSteveo’s praise is anything to go by, and will see a favourable reception from Kinect owners who have been waiting for a worthwhile, non-gimmicky game to play (though admittedly I can’t really predict how well it will sell).  Toy Soldiers: Cold War will undoubtedly be this year’s great success though, springing off an already popular prequel to considerable critical acclaim.

Ultimately this year’s selection wanted to showcase innovation above all else, games that capture the imagination but feel less fun and ‘gamey’ overall than the Summer of Arcade rosters in previous years.  Still, it’s actually a close run thing in trying to decide on the best game in this year’s list.  There are two games that I feel stand out: one for it’s depth of content and superfluous amounts of fun, and the other for its remarkable distinctiveness, style and ambition.  I’m actually struggling to choose the one game to recommend above all games this year, so I’m going to take the easy way out and insist you look at both of them.  Non-committal opinions for the win (as the kids might say).

Really though, my mind says that you’ll get the most out of Toy Soldiers: Cold War, but my heart says you should give Bastion the attention it deserves.  Which do you listen to on a regular basis?