*PLEASE NOTE: this was written while internet was down, so full online features were not accesible*
As those of you that read the store update will have seen, a closed public beta for Mod Nation Racers was released on thursday, and i jumped on it straight away. It looks nice, all shiny and cartoony, but this beta was aimed primarily at letting you fiddle with the ‘creation zone’.
Gunstar Heroes is an example of how to correctly redo a classic. For those who don’t know, Gunstar Heroes was originally a SEGA Genesis game, released in 1993. The game consists of three different types of gameplay. On-foot shooting parts, hoverbike shooting parts, and spaceship shooting parts. Basically, you’re shooting the whole time, in three vastly different environments. The whole game can be completed solo, or with a friend locally, or online, although very few people were playing. Thankfully, you can save anywhere, and continue from that point at anytime.
The first level is a rapid killfest. You can just aim your weapon around the screen and bet you’ll kill everything. The second level gives you a taste of the hoverbike portion. You go along a set of rails, on either the top or bottom of the screen, and shoot everything. The third level has the same premise of the first, yet the action never seems to get old or repetitive. 
The fourth level presents you with a game board of sorts, where you roll a dice, and you’ll most definitely and on a mini-boss fight. After a few of mini battles, you beat the final boss for that level, and move onto the spaceship sections. The game took me around 3-4 hours to complete, and I enjoyed almost every second of it.
The game also has a unique weapon system. You’re able to carry two different types of weapons. You can pick up different weapons scattered about the levels. Each combination produces a different outcome. For example, some combinations make a very power, short-range laser, while others make long-range fireballs. If you’ve never played Gunstar Heroes before, I would give it a shot. On sale for $2.99 until Thursday, you can’t go wrong. Even at $4.99, I would recommend it for anyone who hasn’t experienced this classic game before.
Blast Off may be a mini, but it packs a major punch. Released on November 24th by Halfbrick Studios, Blast Off is a game with a simple concept but with ad added twist, gravity. In the game, your objective is to maneuver your spaceship to rescue little astronauts floating around in space, and then travel to an exit. You launch your ship into space from a rotatable planet Earth. The longer you hold down X before you launch, the more thrust your launch will have. You then must retrieve a certain number of astronauts to open the exit portal. The challenge come in with the gravity factor. The larger the planet, the more gravitational pull it has. So, if you’re trying to grab two astronauts around a giant planet, chances are you’re gonna get sucked into it in the process. Thankfully, if you screw up mid-flight, you can simply hit L to reset the level, which you will find yourself doing very often in the later levels.
The game contains four difficulties, with an average of twelve levels per difficulty. Which brings me to another point, This game is HARD. You’ll most definitely be throwing your PSP against the wall in rage once you get into the Hard and Insane difficulties. Some of the levels are a cakewalk, though. 
If you’re determined, you could probably complete the game in about an hour. But, you can always go back to rescue every single astronaut in a level to get a gold medal. At $2.99, Blast Off is a bargain for the amount of content it has. Plus, it works great on the PS3. If you have a few dollars laying around in your wallet wondering what to buy, I have to say that Blast Off is a must buy.
Since the release of the revolutionary Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, the kart-racer has grown into an incredibly popular genre. Even today, while other games provide deep meaningful storylines and futuristic gameplay, many would much rather dive into the easy to play, hard to master experience found in a kart racer, and with new kart racer IPs like ModNation Racers for the PS3 being created, it is still clear to see that the genre is thriving.
After the resounding success of the Mario Kart series, many other companies were keen to get a piece of the action and make games in the same vain. With the Mario games being exclusive to Nintendo’s consoles, the genre was open for challengers on the Playstation 1. Crash Team Racing proved to be a standout after its 1999 release, with solid gameplay and clean visuals. However, a game developed by Funcom Dublin was to steal the limelight in the eyes of many. Funcom was behind titles such as the critically acclaimed PC adventure game ‘The Longest Journey’, as well as the online MMO ‘Anarchy Online’. The Dublin branch of Funcom released Speed Freaks in September 1999 in the United Kingdom, with the American version, renamed Speed Demons, arriving early in 2000.
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1998 was without a doubt a very important year in video game history, as some of the most well-known, and well-liked titles of all time were released for the very first time. Final Fantasy Tactics, Parasite Eve and Tekken 3 were all released for the Playstation 1, with other massive titles such as Starcraft, Pokémon Red/Blue, Half Life and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time being released on other consoles, including the recently launched Gameboy Color. For any game to stand out during this period would rightly be seen as a massive achievement, and Hideo Kojima’s ‘Metal Gear Solid’, a follow-up to the original Metal Gear games created many years prior, is seen by many as not only the best game released on the Playstation 1, but one of the greatest games of all time.
Well let me start by saying this game is confusing and frustrating… to begin with that is. Yes, it is extremely overwhelming and without help it is very difficult to understand what is going on and on top of that it isn’t graphically stunning to say the least. Luckily, however, I found someone who was willing to show me the ropes and before long I found myself completely immersed in the loud and over the top gameplay. Unfortunately I have only been able to play one game mode (as the others are locked) and this is 128 player game. Continue reading »
In 1995, a company based in Yorkshire, England named Team17 released a game under the simple name of Worms. A lot was expected of the game, after the company had previously released several highly regarded titles, starting with beat-em-up, Full Contact on the Amiga. This was followed by other successful games on the system throughout the early 90s, such as Alien Breed and Assassin. Worms was Team17’s first multiplatform release after initial Amiga exclusivity and featured turn-based gameplay, where one team of worms aims to kill the opposing team, until there is only one team standing. The game featured an array of weapons, such as shotguns, bazookas, and grenades, but what the series ultimately gained its popularity and cult following from was its bizarre and unusual weaponry, such as the exploding sheep. These trademark weapons continued to be included in the games’ sequels, like Worms Armageddon – the first game in the Worms series to be released on the new generation of consoles (Dreamcast, Playstation 1, and Nintendo 64). One of the stranger weapons added was the infamous Holy Hand Grenade, which triggered a ‘Hallelujah!’ sound effect when thrown, in homage to the well-loved film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
1987 saw the Street Fighter arcade game released for the first time, as well as another Capcom project which would go on to be extremely successful, Mega Man. Namco also released Wonder Momo, their last 8-bit game, as the new 16-bit era beckoned. Amongst a year of many big gaming releases and announcements, a project known as Bionic Commando (Top Secret in Japan) was also put out by Capcom. Whilst the likes of Mega Man and Street Fighter would become instant classics, Bionic Commando also found a large following, with the innovative bionic arm and grappling gun combination and a notoriety for its lack of a ‘jump’ button.
Gamers nowadays might turn a blind eye to a game in any way related to the word ‘retro’, instead favoring a next-gen HD experience (no matter how bland!). While undeniably terrific games, masterpieces even, have been created over the last 3-4 years on the latest consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo respectively, it is still important to look back at the games that inspired many future generations of developers. Sonic, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage are just 3 series’ included within Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in PAL regions), a collection of games previously on the Genesis/Mega Drive, available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The package is available at a bargain price, with the MSRP standing at $29.99, with many outlets offering it at an even lower price.
