By
Edge_
posted April 25, 2006
Tuesday 25 April 2006
The challenge for PSP developers has been one of scale, a struggle to shoehorn console-quality gameplay into the more limited capabilities of the portable hardware, so it's interesting to see Sony itself taking precisely the opposite tack, and making good on the industry's tried, tested and long-overdue love affair with simplicity.
That simplicity is evident in every aspect of LocoRoco. Apart from the obvious control scheme, which utilises little more than the shoulder
PSP ports of PlayStation 2 games have been hit-or-miss so far; a few have been good, most have been crap and nearly all of them suffer from terrible camera controls. Monster Hunter's camera was kind of terrible to begin with, though, enabling us to see past the technical limitations of Monster Hunter Freedom and appreciate it for what it is: a kickass action-RPG that seems to fit perfectly on Sony's handheld.
Monster Hunter Freedom hits stores late next month, but we've been playing a nearly
If you're relatively new to gaming, chances are you've never had the pleasure of jamming a one-man spaceship through an endless ocean of alien monstrosities. Back in the day, the shooter genre could define a system. R-Type, Viewpoint, Gaiares - each exploded a mass of laser-blasting baddies on the screen at once, all in an attempt to stop your one-man mission to save the universe.
But they all owe allegiance to Gradius, the king of scrolling shooters. Its customizable battleship, the Vic
If you were much of a puzzle game fan in the '90s, you probably came across Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo at some point. A combination Street Fighter parody/Tetris clone, it had players arranging falling gems into giant, similarly colored groupings and then smashing them for points. The bigger the groupings you smashed, the more gems would rain into your opponent's side of the screen, forcing them to deal with your runoff as they tried to keep their side from filling
The PSP's been out for more than a year now, and there's still no back-and-forth, military strategy game for us bloodthirsty dictators to test out. Well, if you can hang on just a few more weeks, chances are the turn-based action of Field Commander will sooth your battle-ready senses.
The basics are well covered. You start with so many units (in ground, air and sea varieties), the bad guy has a similar army in the wings and then you start pummeling each other until the smoke finally clears.
This ghoulish, side-scrolling action title has a very simple premise - you're a knight given the task of running constantly to the right (and sometimes up), fending off the fangs, claws and death touches of a metric ton of creepy-crawlies. You start out in a full suit of armor, but each time an enemy hits you with its death touch, you lose some. Eventually, you're re-slaying the undead while wearing only heart-covered boxer shorts and a beard.
That's the basic set-up, as it has been since this
Considering that about 70% of modern fighting games rip it off wholesale, it's kind of surprising that Power Stone is relatively unknown. A simple, 3D one-on-one fighter with simple controls, devastating super attacks and fast, easy action, it all but ruled the Dreamcast launch. Of course, that and about $3.50 will buy it coffee at Starbucks.
Still, Power Stone was awesome for its time, so it's good to see that Capcom's breathing new life into it with Power Stone Collection. Due out around the
This June, gamers will finally be able to play as pirate captain/drunken Keith Richards impersonator Jack Sparrow when the game adaptation of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest hits the PSP. A 3D slash 'em-up adventure, the game pits players against traps, cannibals, pirates and zombies as they battle to save Jack's soul from the ghost pirate Davy Jones.
The single-player mode in Dead Man's Chest looks to be an average-y hack-and-slash brawler. Playing as Jack, you'll be able to use
Wednesday 5 April 2006
Ludicrous plots, spiky haircuts that would shame a Wella Shockwaves ad and fights upon battles after punch ups. But then what were you expecting to see in a Dragon Ball Z game? True to form, this is all beating the crap out of each other as flamboyantly as possible.
It'll probably come as no surprise to learn that it's not the deepest of scrappers either. The fighting, while doubtful to worry the likes of Virtua Fighter, packs a fair amount of variety into a simple two
Is sliding around on drab, dusty/rainy/gravelly rally courses your idea of a good time? Are you really into European indie music? Awesome! Then WRC: FIA World Rally Championship is for you.
To be fair to the game, rally racing - where a lone driver battles the clock on a winding course - is a little drab by definition, and it doesn't help that the sport is especially popular on the mud-drenched backroads of rural Europe. So far, though, WRC does a bang-up job bringing rallies to the PSP,
