No longer enslaved to Enslaved!
Final thoughts: Pigsy is a pig, Monkey is kinda like a monkey, and Trip is... kinda hot. What, you want to know more? Well listen to the 'cast!
The Dragon Ninja returns with enough suffixes even Capcom would blush.
Like a photocopy of a photocopy, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus reproduces the content of its original source but degrades the quality. The source is Ninja Gaiden II: Team Ninja's hack-and-slash action adventure game released for Xbox 360 in 2008. A port would be released for PlayStation 3 in 2009 (hence the Sigma) and again for PlayStation Vita in 2013 (hence the Plus). What we’re left with is that third clone from Multiplicity.
Ninja Theory sure has a thing for redheads don't they?
We're digging into another game from our backlog: Ninja Theory's Enslaved. We start by getting Julian's take on backlogged games from 2012, then we talk about what kind of a game Enslaved is.
War transforms us, Snake. Into beasts.
A certain inability to walk into a normal life pervades the player’s thirst for playful violence after taking down the Patriots in the Metal Gear series. The Winds of Destruction will have to fill that void. Some, like Sundowner, claim we surround the Self with violence, because of the feeling instilled when you kill your enemies and liberate the less fortunate and able. Others maintain that we argue philosophy as a way of waking up the beast inside of the Self. Regardless of the means, these musings have persisted through the Metal Gear franchise from the beginning. With Metal Gear Rising, they mesh high and low culture together in allusions that complicate our reason for loving to play.
Metallica, Megadeth, Metal Gear?
Spinoffs can be a dicey proposition. There’s a real danger of diluting the name of the original franchise by slapping it on a bunch of games that are only somewhat related, and if the spinoff isn’t a quality game to begin with it can cause brand degradation. When a spinoff succeeds though, it can lead to an entirely new franchise that runs parallel with the source material, slicing and dicing its own path to popularity. I’m happy to say that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is just that type of game; something that can stand on its own as a great action game while still fitting into the convoluted Metal Gear universe. But this isn’t your daddy’s Metal Gear; if Solid Snake is a little bit country, Raiden is 100% metal.
Everyone's favorite Arian Ninja Returns.
As a fan of anime, I’ve played more than my fair share of iterative fighting games based off of my favorites, particularly the Dragon Ball Series. A common issue with those games is that they would often retell the same stories over and over, hoping that the changes in gameplay would warrant re-exploring the universe. Thankfully, the Naruto games haven’t suffered as much as the DBZ series since the story is still currently running. Though the games have largely been similar, the draw for me has been seeing my favorite moments from the anime and manga recreated in the beautiful engine used by CyberConnect2. Strangely though, upon getting my hands on the demo for the next title, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, I was pleased to see that there might be more than I bargained for in this package.
I can totally see the sound, man.
Sneaking silently, planning every move, and executing with absolute precision; it's not something you're going to be doing in most games in this day and age. Bombastic action, huge set pieces, and non-stop action is the flavor of the week; however, Mark of the Ninja not only encourages, but requires the exact opposite for success. Though the stealth genre has traditionally been one that most gamers do not appreciate, Mark of the Ninja boils it down to its essence and makes it accessible for everyone.
This is the one with Pizza Monsters...
When I was young, there was a pizza place near where I lived that had a bunch of arcade machines. Despite the presence of classics like Killer Instinct 2 and a 6-player X-Men cabinet, I always gravitated toward a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time cabinet. Flash forward to a few years ago and I found myself clocking hours with friends via a MAME emulator on my computer. Our first choice? None other than Turtles in Time. Needless to say, as far as beat-'em-ups go, it was always one of the best, standing shoulder to shoulder with both The Simpsons Arcade and X-Men.
AKA Nintendo Circus, depending on who you ask
Like many of you out there, I wasn’t terribly impressed by Nintendo’s press conference at this year’s E3. One of the things they touted as being a major showpiece was a game called Nintendo Land. Much like Wii Sports, the aim of this title is to introduce players to a new controller--in this case the Wii U GamePad--through a virtual theme park bursting with references to classic Nintendo franchises. At each attraction, your mii will don an appropriate costume and partake in a challenge that teaches the player a new way to use the Wii U GamePad. Nintendo’s hope is that this game will do for the Wii U what Wii Sports did for the Wii, and explain to new players exactly what the Wii U is all about.
People will remember the caterpillar boss you have a swearing match with.
Dante's next outing hopes to impress you with fast paced gameplay, fluid mechanics and memorable bosses. If you look at the game itself and past the controversial design change of Dante, you'll find an action romp not unlike the last four in the series but with changing environments, cleaner graphics and top-notch presentation.
