Donnasbdaybash dot com

Archive for the ‘arcade games’ Category

Consider yourself a serious fighting game fan? The third iteration of Capcom’s best-selling Super Street Fighter IV brawler is now ready for action.

• 

  Gannett

  Consider yourself a serious fighting game fan? The third iteration of Capcom’s best-selling ‘Super Street Fighter IV’ brawler is now ready for action.

Gannett

Consider yourself a serious fighting game fan? The third iteration of Capcom’s best-selling ‘Super Street Fighter IV’ brawler is now ready for action.

Called Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, this definitive version adds new fighters, better balancing between them and a few online features not found in its predecessors, such as viewing and sharing replays.

Specifically, along with the 2D fighting action — which pits two unique characters against one another in a handful of arenas — this new disc features 39 characters, including four new ones: Hong King twins Yun and Yang (first introduced in Street Fighter III), the tough-as-nails Oni and Evil Ryu.

In case you haven’t played past games, don’t expect to simply “button-mash” your way through Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. There’s quite a bit of depth to master here, including multiple kicks, punches, special moves, blocks and chained combos — per character. The single-player game against computer-controlled opponents will sharpen your offensive and defensive skills before you play against someone on the same television (or computer) or venture online for head-to-head play or tournaments. Even seasoned players will find it won’t be a cakewalk to win matches (best two out of three), as you move up the ranks.

• BLOG: Game Hunters

The game plays the same on all three platforms, but the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version might be more comfortable than a PC because of their controllers (unless you have a gamepad for your computer). If the Xbox 360 version is any indication, controls are tight and responsive, and of you like, buttons can be reprogrammed to your liking. Alternatively, you can pick up a licensed Street Fighter controller to make it feel like you’re in the arcades thanks to its authentic joysticks and multiple buttons.

So, is the game worth the cash? Yes, assuming of course you enjoy fighting games and don’t own a previous version of Super Street Fighter IV. If you do, just download one of the updates rather than buying it again on a disc for $40: a free update is available for the new characters, while beefier $15 update offers online matchmaking options to connect with other Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition players.

The new characters will be a treat for longtime Street Fighter fans. Plus, the balancing issues discussed (and debated) in online forums are addressed in this version. Those who like to play online will find a new Replay Follower (follow up to five separate player replays) and you can now distribute your recorded replays to up to 50 players. On a related note, the new Elite Channel lets you watch replays from elite players who have a rating of 3000PP or higher.

What’s more, the first downloadable content (DLC) pack for Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition is now available now via Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows Live Marketplace. Starting at $4.99, this DLC features eight new costume additions for the four new characters and is compatible with both the digitally upgraded versions and retail copies of the game.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC

Genre: Fighting

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Website: streetfighter.com

Price: $39.99

Rating: “Mature”

Score: 3.0 stars (out of 4)

Contact Saltzman atC1tech@gannett.com

Posted

One of the best things about Xbox Live Arcade is that it’s a great leveller. While big name retail games hog all the shelf space and advertising slots, on Xbox Live Arcade everyone is treated more or less equally. So you often see metaphysical masterpieces like Braid and remade classics like Pac-Man rubbing shoulders with more populist potboilers such as ‘Splosion Man.

Twisted Pixel’s frat boy style humour is definitely an acquired taste (or at least it requires an acquired skill to ignore it) but their games do have some of the best production values of any downloadable game and they obviously have a great love for old school arcade gaming.

Ahead of The Maw and Comic Jumper the original ‘Splosion Man is probably their best game. As is obvious from the title (a reference to Pac-Man sequel Ms. Pac-Man) this follow-up features a new female protagonist and… well not a lot else that’s different to be honest.

Previously you were controlling an exploding stick man, this time you’re controlling an exploding stick woman with a bow on her head. The fact that she’s escaping from a laboratory tells you all you need to know about the plot, as she runs about like an overexcited Looney Tunes character.

An apt comparison given one too many detentions leave her looking like Daffy Duck after smoking an exploding cigar. Apart from exploding three times in a row you have no other abilities, but the mileage the game manages to get out of this apparently self-destructive superpower is impressive.

The game’s essentially a 2D platformer and at first the primary use of the explosions is solely as a means to propel yourself through the air. There’s also a lot of wall-jumping and other old school tricks of the trade.

Later levels are more puzzle-based and there’s some inventive use of gaming stalwarts such as the exploding barrel. There are some new ideas too, with a number of chase sequences where you grind along rails. The most significant addition though is Donkey Kong style cannons that can shoot you across a level, although there are a few different types and they’re not clearly distinguished visually.

The separate co-operative mode for up to four people also returns in expanded form, as you use each other’s explosions to get around.

But there are still some noticeable schoolboy errors, with stodgy controls and often frustratingly sparse use of checkpoints. The level design also seems less organic than last time, with lots of impossible-to-guess deaths that can only be avoided by rote learning.

The graphics are even better and more varied than last time though, and well up to the standards of most retail games – if there were any cartoon style 2D platformers to compare it to on the Xbox 360.

The game’s greatest asset is its humour, but it’s inconsistent no matter how attuned you are too it – although if you find beards to be intrinsically funny you’ll enjoy yourself more than most. The live action cut scenes, something that Twisted Pixel have been experimenting with more and more each game, are particularly inspired but a lot of the more incidental stuff is where the misses start to outweigh the hits.

There’s a worrying air of casual sexism about the whole game, from the main character’s obsession with shoes and shopping – to a strange jibe about ‘cheating’ if you want to skip a level. Ms. Splosion Man herself is a likeable sort though, with some fun animation and the habit of singing random Spice Girls lyrics as she goes.

But much like its star’s musical repartee the game does run out of ideas long before its otherwise generous running time is up, which was a failing with the original too and does little to really justify this sequel.

It’s fairly cheap though – the concept of 1200 Microsoft Points as standard for new games seems to have largely disappeared of late – and as unrefined and, arguably, unnecessary as this sequel may be it’s still far more interesting than anything retail games have offered up in the last few weeks.

In Short: Not a sequel that seemed desperately necessary, and it’s arguable if the end result is any real improvement, but still an enjoyable – if quickly disposable – download.

Pros: The basic concepts aren’t quite as original as they were but they’re still exploited well. Decent co-op. Some of the cut scenes are genuinely hilarious.

Cons: Runs out of ideas (and clichés) well before the end. Inconsistent platforming and checkpoints. Worryingly sexist at times.

Score: 6/10

Formats: Xbox Live Arcade

Price: 800 Microsoft Points/£6.80

Publisher: Microsoft Studios

Developer: Twisted Pixel Games

Release Date: 13th July 2011

Age Rating: 12

Thoughts? Email
gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
or leave a comment below

Luke Plunkett
—It may not have the pulling power of bigger shows, but California Extreme remains one of the best arcade events on the gaming calendar, luring in attendees from the Bay Area (and beyond!) to play hundreds of great old coin-op machines.

Held over the weekend at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California, the 2011 event saw around 400 arcade games (full list here) and pinball machines from all eras and generations on-hand to play, some of them rare, some of them modified, some even being unreleased prototypes.

The best part? Every machine was set on free to play mode, so your quarters were safe from harm.

You can see a walkthrough video of the show floor (as it’s being set up) here, while KLOV have a great gallery of pics up showing the weird and wonderful games on display.

Each year a panel of game industry experts grant free floor space at Penny Arcade Expo to ten indie games they deem worth of the attention.

This year the panel picked through 100 titles to settle on these 10, the PAX 10. Some might look familiar if you keep an eye on the indie scene, or saw this year’s Indie Game Challenge.

Word Fighter (iOS Android) – Feel Every Yummy – A one-on-one word battling game that mixes rules from popular word games like Boggle and Scrabble and wraps them around a competitive fighting environment. Think “Street Fighter” meets “Words with Friends”, or word games mashed together with “Super Puzzle Fighter”.

Antichamber (PC) – Alexander Bruce – Journey through the depths within a non-Euclidean labyrinth where geometry and space follow unfamiliar rules, and many obstacles are a matter of perception. Players must create, destroy and manipulate matter in this mind-bending psychological exploration game.

Atom Zombie Smasher (PC, Mac, Linux) – Blendo Games – The zombie apocalypse is upon us! Take strategic command of mercenary forces to conduct massive rescue operations using military forces such as snipers, artillery crews, and orbital bombardments to hold back the undead while the civilians escape.

Fez (XBLA) – Polytron – Guide Gomez, a 2D creature, on a voyage of discovery into the mysterious third dimension. Change his perspective and look at the world in a different way.

Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (PC) – Final Form Games – A neo-classical top-down shooter for up to 4 players set on 17th-century British Colonial Mars with a new twist on the genre. There are no shared pools of health or lives; so long as any player survives, the team can be brought back from death.

Snapshot (PC) – Retro Affect – Pic, a robot camera, can actually absorb objects into photographs, removing them from existence! By pasting pictures back into the world, captured objects – everything from doors, light, even copies of yourself – can be used to solve puzzles.

Solar 2 (PC) – Murudai – In this open-world, sandbox game set in an infinite abstract universe, players are the planets. Play constructively: grow your system, nurture life and attack enemy life in huge battles. Play destructively: crash into objects and cause chaos, use orbiting objects like wrecking balls and steal planets.

Splatters (PC) – SpikySnail – You play as a group of semi-suicidal, liquid filled Splatters that get their kicks by igniting in colourful confetti bombs of liquid. Crash into spikes, ride the slides, Air-Strike into bombs or do just any stunt-combo you can think of. With every new manoeuvre learned, each show becomes more spectacular.

Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix Her Nightmare (PC) – Bad Pilcrow – Standing between Vanessa and freedom are platforming mechanics. The twist? Her two-dimensional world lies on the surface of a three-dimensional cube, and players must rotate each face to find clever solutions to a wide variety of problems.

A Flipping Good Time (PC) – Digipen Institute of Technology – Players will have a flipping good time in this fast-paced free-flowing 2D platformer as they flip and fly through an expansive underground world using the fluid nature of gravity to avoid hazardous terrain.

The PAX 10

Arctic Monkeys’ Suck It And See is up for best album at the Mojo awards

Sheffield rock band Arctic Monkeys have been nominated in two categories at this year’s Mojo honours awards.

The band’s Don’t Sit Down Because I’ve Moved Your Chair is up for best song with Suck It And See up for best album.

Meanwhile singer/songwriter Rumer, who played at Glastonbury this year, picked up three nominations for best breakthrough, album and song.

The rock magazine’s annual awards party takes place in London on 21 July.

Other nominations included Arcade Fire, who are up for best album and soul singer Aloe Blacc, whose I Need A Dollar is up for best song.

Arcade Fire are also nominated for best live act alongside Foals, while The Vaccines and Miles Kane will challenge Rumer for best breakthrough act.

Mojo magazine’s editor Phil Alexander said: “To me, these nominations are a victory for music that is built to last.

“They reflect just how much quality there is out there right now, so much so that each category is too close to call.”

Breakthrough act

1. Villagers

2. Miles Kane

3. The Vaccines

4. Josh T Pearson

5. Rumer

Best album

1. Rumer-Seasons Of My Soul

2. John Grant-Queen Of Denmark

3. Arctic Monkeys-Suck It And See

4. Josh T Pearson-The Last Of The Country Gentlemen

5. Arcade Fire – Suburbs

Song of the year

1. John Grant-I Wanna Go To Marz

2. Rumer-Slow

3. Aloe Blacc-I Need A Dollar

4. Grinderman-Heathen Child

5. Arctic Monkeys-Don’t Sit Down Because I’ve Moved Your Chair

Best live act

1. Seasick Steve

2. The Jim Jones Revue

3. Foals

4. John Grant

5. Arcade Fire