Arkan: The dog adventurer Review

Arkan: The Dog Adventurer is a platformer with a mix of arkanoid, which is a block breaker arcade game from 1986. This game was developed by Madao Studio, and published by Sometimes You. It features around 60 levels and three locations to walk through, players will be jumping, moving around, hitting the ball, smashing bricks, attacking enemies, and dodging enemies in this super fun and enjoyable game. This game also features old school retro graphics and music.

The game features three difficulty mode that players can choose from; from easy, normal, to hardcore; which will change how the enemies will interact with players in the game rather than changing the levels in the game. I would recommend players to start on the easy mode to learn the ropes.

In order to progress in the game, players will have to defeat all enemies in each level while hitting the yellow ball to break each brick or barrier to get to the enemy; which may sound easy at first, but it is not, because the enemies will be throwing all kind of counter attacks at player, therefore, players will need to dodge those attacks.

The game also gets harder and harder as you progress, which keeps the game challenging and interesting for the most part. As you progress in the game, you gain new abilities to that can be helpful as it becomes more difficult. Another note is, if you die in the game, you will have to start all over again; so you want to pay close attention to your health gauge to see how many more hits you can take.

The ball that you are hitting to break the blocks and eventually defeat the enemies, gets stronger as progress, however, when it misses, it loses force, and the ball gets weaker; you want to try to aim the ball towards the blocks and the enemies. In addition, when you advance in the game, you will gain abilities beyond jumping and double jumping, such as teleportation and slowing down of time.

There are 180 stars to collect in the game. You earn stars for each game completed, and it is with these stars that you get the ability to open up new stages, so it is very important to earn as many stars as you can to make this possible.

What stood out to me is that, each level features different kinds of enemies and a different scenery. Overall, I’ll give this game a 7 out of 10 because I found it to be a little repetitive. Even though it offers great variety in enemies, scenery, and abilities, at the end of the day, the gameplay wasn’t that much different in each stage. I did the teleportation ability in the game, as it made it easier to play it when it became challenging, it’s just not a 10 in my opinion.

A code of the game was provided to me by the developer for review purposes only. Arkan: The Dog Adventurer is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch platform.

Dig, fight, explore, build!

International publisher of video games, 505 Games, has today announced it will be bringing the independent block-building blockbuster Terraria to Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Network.

Originally released in 2011 on PC by creator-developer Andrew Spinks’ Re-logic studio; Terraria is a side-scrolling, action-adventure sandbox game, with an emphasis on crafting and exploration set in vast and vibrant worlds. It has received universal acclaim from media and fans alike — 1.6 million “Terrarians” have struck out on their own adventures since release.

With a vast array of materials and items to collect, Terraria is far more than a mere block building game, gamers experience is limited only by their own imaginations; the world really is yours to shape and explore.

“The block-building genre has taken the world by storm and Terraria has garnered a massive following through its increased focus on adventure and discovery.” said Tim Woodley, Head of Global Brand for 505 Games. “We’re looking forward to bringing an already hugely successful experience to a brand new console audience and we can’t wait for the existing Terraria fan base to experience all-new content”.

Andrew Spinks, creator of Terraria added “I can’t say how excited I am to finally have Terraria come to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3! To see it come so far is a complete shock, especially after such humble beginnings. It’s always been my dream to have as many people as possible know and enjoy Terraria as much as I have, and this is another big step in that direction! It’s been awesome working with 505 Games, and I can’t wait for everyone to see the additional features that they’ve been able to bring to this new edition of the game.”

MonkeyPaw Games Announce Platforming Adventure Tomba!

MonkeyPaw Games today announce that side-scrolling platforming adventure  Tomba! is finally available on the European PlayStation®Network in the PS one® Classics section for £6.99, €7.99. The crtiically-acclaimed PS one® classic is also downloadable for PS Vita.

Garnering universally positive reviews and high prices due to its rarity, Tomba!   was the brainchild of Tokuro Fuijiwara, known for his creation of the  Ghosts’n Goblins series as well as the producer of the  Mega Man series. The rich, interactive atmosphere of  Tomba! elevated the title’s innovative gameplay, being one of the earliest PlayStation® games to use the Dual Shock feature.  Help our pink-haired protagonist trample the seven evil pigs and retrieve his grandfather’s prized bracelet in this PS one® classic.

“Tomba! is a title that completely fits the mold of MonkeyPaw Games: unique retro, fun gameplay and a rare find. It’s being sold at prices more expensive than gaming systems these days. That, in itself, is proof that Tomba! still deserves your attention after all these years,” said John Greiner, President and CEO of MonkeyPaw Games.  “We’re excited that fans will finally be able to play this legendary gem again, at home or on the go.”

Build Your Dream City in Home Tycoon, Exclusively for PlayStation??Home

Share your metropolis with the world in PlayStation Home’s first 3D city-building game

Austin, TX – October 3, 2012 – Hellfire Games is proud to release Home Tycoon™, the new free-to-play city-building game in PlayStation®Home for the PlayStation®3 system, and the first game of its kind in the simulation genre. Home Tycoon™ launches in North America and Europe on October 3, 2012.

Featuring robust city-building simulation, hours of story-driven missions and activities, 16-player online street racing, and over 50 avatar rewards to earn, Home Tycoon™ is unlike anything you’ve played before. As the new Mayor, you’ll craft and personalize your city using over 60 unlockable buildings, including luxury homes, public parks, apartment complexes, power plants, research hospitals, police stations, and much more – the only limit is your imagination.

 “We’re always thinking about how to deliver exciting new experiences to PlayStation Home,” said Jeff Posey, President of Hellfire Games. “Home Tycoon™ is the first game of its kind, and we’ve worked hard to include something for everyone. I can’t wait to see what our players do with the creative freedom to build their dream city from the ground up.”

  Key Features:

• Create your city from a birds-eye view and explore it at street level as your Home avatar
• Balance your economy to maximize income, population growth, & citizen happiness
• Build custom racetracks and race against your friends
• Make your city shine with dynamic day & night controls
• Compete on the leaderboards and visit other cities at the Train Station
• Expand your empire with mission packs, unlockable rewards, and suburb cities
• Unlock over 50 avatar rewards and more than 60 buildings

SunFlowers Coming to PS VIta

Behold America, SunFlowers is coming to you!

At last, the brand new puzzle-game created by The Game Atelier (Flying Hamster) arrives in the US!

Save the date: SunFlowers will be available on October 9th on the PlayStation Store in North America (US, Canada and Mexico) for $3.99 only!

Warm up your PS Vita and prepare to welcome 330 amazing flowers in your virtual garden. Offer the most beautiful ones to your friends or you soul mate (via near).

 

Biart announces a Depth Hunter 2 game

Delaware, North America – After the successful launch of Depth Hunter, Biart announced the second part of the game – Depth Hunter 2: Deep Water Adventures.  Additionally, this will be the first game based on Biart’s proprietary tech, biEngine 2.0, and will be available for mobile devices.

In the game you play the role of a diver, a real underwater hunter and an explorer of secrets that oceans, wrecks and lost cities hide. This is the first multiplatform game about the underwater world and underwater extreme sports. The project is aimed at people that love seas and oceans, as well as at professional and amateur divers, fans of underwater hunting and other water sports, thanks to its graphical realism.

A player comes into the game’s world as a beginning diver with standard equipment. While completing tasks, the player earns money that he can spend to improve his equipment, to buy additional services, etc. Also each player has a set of skills which he can improve to be strong in the virtual world: e.g., his experience level, stamina, health level, accuracy, agility, etc.

Depth Hunter 2 will be available for PC with Razer Hydra, Microsoft Xbox 360 with Kinect, Sony PlayStation 3 with Move, and iOS.

“After the first part of the game had been released, we studied feedback from our customers to make the sequel decent. Now players have diving equipment and can dive in unique parts of the world. We don’t implement complicated control system and try to make it work smoothly on mobile devices. At the moment we have finished the project’s pre-production and are negotiating with potential publishers. I am sure that gamers and 20 mln PADI divers around the world will love Depth Hunter 2”, says Konstantin Popov, CEO of Biart Company LLC.

Lights, Camera, Party! Review

Light, Camera, Party! is a family-friendly party game that offers a collection of mini games for everyone to enjoy; a Playstation Move exclusive, it allows players to compete with each other in a variety mini games by sharing a single Playstation Move controller. Developed by Frima Studio Inc. and published by SCEA, “Lights, Camera, Party!” is now available as a downloadable game at the PSN store for $29.99.

When one of Ape’s satellites crashes into the house of the Funzini’s family, Gus pacho, the studio owner invites the family to participate in a game show to compete for the house of their dreams. Each participant competes against one another in a variety of mini games in which the winner of the round gets a portion of the house allowing the participant to design their winning portion of the house according to their preferences. The Funzini’s family has five members, which is the number of characters you can choose from; and each character has a different style preference; there are no advantages or disadvantages to picking a specific character since they only affect the design of the house. The game can be played in the story mode which allows up to four players, and the party mode which allows up to eight players. There is a total of 50 mini games in this game. The mini games are very simple and yet unique;  they are also very short in length lasting from 30 seconds up to 40 seconds, and you will be given the instructions on what to do before each game starts. There is also an option to choose the level of difficulty of each mini game, which can add some challenge to it if you are bored, although not that challenging. Most mini games are locked and you will need to complete the story mode with all the characters or get certain awards in the game in order to unlock them, so until you unlock them, you will be playing repeats, which is most of what I did.

For those who are used to playing with the Playstation Move controller, there isn’t much to master in order to play this game, just the usual swing, move up, move down, rotate, go back and forth, etc…however I’ve found some difficulty with the controls in this game, for whatever reason it just wouldn’t move the way it was supposed to move, so often times I wasn’t able to complete the mini games. I couldn’t figure out if the signal wasn’t being picked up by the camera or it was something with the game.

For those who like to collect trophies like me, you can play in the challenge mode, which allows you to play unlocked games in order to win trophies.
The game has a very quick pace, and can be finished in less than one hour if you don’t take any breaks in between and depending on how many people are playing with you, which does take away from the value of the game.

The graphics in this game are fairly well done, crispy images and nicely drawn characters, it gives you a “game show” feeling. The sounds are mostly well done too except for the voice of the presenter, which at times was too repetitive and annoying. But I think overall the graphics and the sounds go well together in this game.

Although this a family-friendly game, and it’s supposed to be playable by everyone, I think that this would fit more as a game for kids, although adults can have fun too, I think kids would enjoy it more since adults can become bored much sooner. Despite the fact that there is a variety of 50 mini games to play in this game, they are somewhat too short, they are very interesting and fun too, but just too short. For $29.99, I think that we would expect more from this game than it can deliver, I will give them credit for working on this game for as long as they did and I do like most of how the game turned out, but if they slashed the price to $9.99, I think that it would get more sales.

Overall, I will give this game a 7 out of 10. Interesting story, good graphics, fun and interesting mini games, but not enough content. My major issue with this game is its price tag, I don’t think that it offers enough to be $29.99.  I’d recommend parents to get this game for their kids, no violence or anything parents wouldn’t approve of, and they can play with their friends.

Foosball 2012 Review

Foosball 2012 is a digital version of the classic table-top game table foosball, it was developed and published by Grip Games as a downloadable game for Playstation 3 and PS Vita with the perk of getting both versions for the price of one at the Playstation store. Featuring single and multiplayer modes as well as Quick Match gameplay where up to four players can play locally; for those who like playing table foosball with friends at the local bar, will now have the opportunity to play it with anyone online at any time, which really beats having to find someone to play table foosball with in person. Supporting both dualshock 3 wireless controller and the Playstation move; players using the Playstation move will have an ultra realistic feel for the game.

One of the unique features of this game is the cross-platform play, which allows gamers from both devices to play online together. You can also carry the game over to a different device if you start the game on one device, but decide you want to continue playing on a different device without having to start over. So for example, if you are playing at home on your Playstation 3, but need to go out and will be taking the bus, you can continue the current game on your PS Vita without having to start over.

So far since it’s still a fairly new game, it might be a bit hard to find players to play with online. I had a hard time finding someone to play with, and played by myself for most of the games. I think it was fun even though I would have liked to play it online with others.

It is fast paced game, but as you continue to play you can get used to it and become better at the game.

Overall the game is fun to play with, it’s definitely something different to add to your game collection. I will give it a rating of 6 out of 10 for originality. There isn’t enough content in this game for its price though. If you are not sure you want to buy it yet, they offer a demo, so you can try it before you decide. I think it’s worth getting it if you have both the Playstation 3 and PS Vita since you will be getting the game for both devices for the price of one. Foosball 2012 is available on the PlayStation Store for $7.99.

 

Order Up!! Review

Order Up!! is a cooking simulator and restaurant management game, more accurately described as a Sims cooking game, that allows gamers to experience being a cook and the duties of owning a restaurant; developed by SuperVillain Studios and published by Ignition Entertainment, now it is available for the first time on the Playstation console following its successful original release for the Wii console back in 2008. Featuring more enhancing and better quality graphics and a re-sampled audio, Order Up!! for Playstation has also been newly designed to be playable with the Playstation Move making it a lot easier for players to complete the tasks in the game, but it is also playable with the regular Playstation controller. Among the new additions to the game are new restaurants (including a Chinese restaurant), new recipes, characters, and music to make the game more enjoyable.

You start out in the game working in a burger joint restaurant where you will be flipping burgers, frying french fries, pouring drinks, and learning time management, which serves like a tutorial to help you learn the basics before you own your own restaurant and become a chef. Once you are done with the tutorial, you will come across an old run-down restaurant which you will be purchasing, and where you will begin your career as a chef and have the task of turning this restaurant into a 5-star restaurant. Once you turn this restaurant into a 5-star restaurant, you will be able to move on to a new restaurant and start the process all over again. Along the way, you will have opportunities to hire cooking assistants to help you with the prep work in order save time and to help you with other tasks in the kitchen; some assistant chefs also offer specific specialties that you can use to improve the food in your restaurant. You will also be able to update your cooking tools and other kitchen equipment, getting a new faster over for example will help you shorten the cooking time. Among other updates to your restaurant are buying new menu items to add to your current menu and buying different spices to give your food a little extra “kick”. These updates and changes though will help you earn more money in your restaurant, they won’t really help you earn more coins to achieve the 5-star rating; but they add a little something to the game making it less repetitive. To break the monotony of the game, you will occasionally deal with rodent infestations in your kitchen, and the once-in-awhile visits from the health inspector; which are issues that real restaurants deal with.

The main goal of the game is to achieve a 5-star rating restaurant which is done by earning a certain amount of coins, impressing a food critic with your food, maintaining a clean restaurant, and purchasing daily menu items and chef specials. By making sure that your food is good enough before sending it out to a customer, you will avoid upsetting your customers which will affect the grading of your restaurant. The game also allows you to please the customers by seasoning the food according to each customer’s preference, which will help you earn more tips and help you to achieve the 5-star rating faster.

The graphics of the game, as described earlier, are crispy and of high quality especially if you compare them to the original version of the game. I personally loved the graphics! Simplistic and yet very detailed. The sounds are also very good, they complement the game perfectly.The only complaint I have about the game is that sometimes there are glitches in the game that make it more difficult to pick up certain items in a timely manner, and that also make it more difficult to move to a different kitchen station. Other than that, it’s a very good game.

Overall I think that this is a very fun game; simple and yet it offers fun for a person of any age. I Will give it a rating of 8 out of 10, it is a little pricey, but a very good game especially for kids. Parents should definitely get this for their kids, I am sure they will love it!

Dyad Review

Dyad is a very unique and hard to describe “racing puzzle shooting” downloadable game developed by Right Square Bracket Left Square Bracket Games for Playstation 3.

This mind-bending psychadelic game will take you on a very stimulating sensory journey full of colors,  beautiful visual effects, and sounds while you “lance” enemies in order to master its 27 levels. Definitely a first of its kind, this very unique game will give you a very intense audio-visual experience unlike anything else out there. People who enjoy a “high” will love this!

Dyad blends arcade tunnel shooter, puzzle, racing, and even music, making it a very unique game. The gameplay: you will be leading a glowing shape forward or upward by latching onto enemies in front of you, which pulls you forward, as you pass by an enemy you will be building up an energy meter which will let you propel forward in your attack. Every level on this game will present new types of enemies, new techniques for the player to learn, and each level has a goal to be completed in order to unlock the next level. Goals include completing certain tasks in a time limit, destroying a given amount of enemies with only a certain number of button presses, and earning a number of boosts; by completing these goals you will earn up to three stars depending on how good you play it, and that can unlock the next level, unlock the remix version, or unlock the trophy challenge. It does demand skills in order to go to the next level, and at times the game will get very fast, so don’t expect to just button mash your way through the levels. If you are into collecting trophies like me, then this game will definitely give you a challenge; but you can still have a lot of fun even if you find yourself stuck on a level.

The visuals of the game were very impressive, in my opinion anyways, it reminded me a bit of the visuals in the game Wipeout. All the colors and shapes in the game were perfectly contrasted with the music. A very nice work of art!

I loved the game, the visuals and the sounds were very impressive and well done, I had a lot of fun playing the game. I loved the music too! For me it didn’t feel like it was just a game to be played and completed, it was a unique experience for all my senses, although the game does demand good skills in order to move to the next level, it was very fun and I loved playing it. Definitely a mind-bending experience! This game would also be very good for parties! I think that even people who are not very much into video games, will find this game very fun to play with. I will give this game a 10 out of 10, and I’d definitely recommend it!