How do you celebrate the 10th birthday of one of the most successful gaming franchises we’ve come to know and love?  Release an awesome 192 page art book which contains sketches, commentary, and concept art from taken from all of the various games in that franchise.  Halo: The Great Journey: The Art of Building Worlds takes fans along a journey through the Halo universe, starting from Halo: Combat Evolved all the way up through Halo: Reach.   With art work from 30 different artists, The Art of Building Worlds will treat fans to over 400 stunning images of characters, weapons, vehicles, and landscapes.   The images are very detailed and it’s neat to see the actual sketches of things we’ve come across countless times throughout the games.

Accompanying all of the art work are paragraphs of information, giving readers even more insight into the Halo universe.  The information presented is very well written and really adds value to the already amazing artwork presented in this book.  It’s also great to see the variety of artwork throughout the book.  From early concepts, to sketches, to the final product, I found myself gaining a new appreciation for some of the little things that I took for granted in the games, especially the level of detail.   Hardcore fans of the franchise will really enjoy the character sections.  We’ve come across a lot of characters over the past 10 years, and now we get to read about them and view the beautiful sketches and concept art that started it all.

There is no doubt that the art and level of detail are amazing sites to look at, but the book offers so much that the 192 pages does feel a bit crammed.  With 10 years and a handful of games to go through, there is a ton of art to go through and the contents could easily fill up a series of 2 or 3 books.  But, putting everything into one book and slimming in down to only 192 pages does make it a more affordable collectors item for fans of the series, which is always a good thing!

Halo: The Great Journey: The Art of Building Worlds is truly an amazing compilation of artwork and information from the Halo universe.  If you’ve played any of the Halo games and enjoyed them, I would highly recommend this book.  Between the enormous amount of content, high level of detail, and dramatic full page scenes, Halo: The Great Journey: The Art of Building Worlds is packed with amazing quality and you’ll find yourself going back to it over and over.  Whether you are buying this for yourself or another Halo fan in your life, Halo: The Great Journey: The Art of Building Worlds is an outstanding art book that would be a great addition to any collection.

The Scoop: Created by the two man indie studio known as MinMax Games, Space Pirates and Zombies puts players in control of a group of space pirates, and just like the pirates of old, your goal is to explore, search for treasure, and fight against the zombie apocalypse.

The Setup: Space Pirates and Zombies (which we’ll refer to as S.P.A.Z.) is set in the near (or not so near?) future, where humans have taken over the galaxy and can travel between hundreds of stars and star systems by using the travel technology of warp gates.  You play as a member of a group of space pirates who travel between these star systems in the mothership known as the Clock Work, with the ultimate goal of reaching the center of the galaxy in hopes of finding the motherload of Rez (a space mineral used as currency).  Each of the star systems that you’ll travel to are randomly generated and are occupied by two warring factions: the civilians and the UTA (United Terran Alliance).  As you make your way through each star system you’ll have to make decisions and take on missions which will affect your relations with both the civilians and the UTA, which will ultimately have an impact on who you can buy technology from and who you can trade with or bribe.

Along your journey in S.P.A.Z. you’ll work on mining resources, expanding your fleet, and leveling up your technology.  Random side missions found in each star system will help you gain favor from each faction as well as provide you with the resources, crew, and technology to build new ships and outfit them to your hearts content.  The galaxy truly is your playground and the deeper you go, the further the game and its plot expands.

What’s Hot: S.P.A.Z. is played as a top-down shooter , you’ll use your mouse to aim the front guns of your ship, mouse buttons to fire your weapons, and the WASD keys to fly your ship.  And even though you’ll only be able to pilot one ship at a time, you can quickly switch between the ships in your fleet as well as give some basic orders to the AI controlled ships on your team.

The gameplay is  retro and is very similar to Star Command in many ways, so old school gamers will definitely appreciate the action in the space combat.  It does take some practice to get the hang of piloting your ships and effectively using their weapons, but learning to fly these ships is all part of the fun and made me realize how much I miss playing these types of games.

The RPG and customization elements in the game add a great layer of strategy as you’ll be able to choose which technologies to level up as well as which equipment to use in your ships.  It’s a fun thought to max out your weapons, but you can’t forget about your shields, armor, and engines!   Just like any RPG there are no right or wrong answers on how you spend your upgrade points, it all depends on how you want to pilot your ships and what your battle strategies are.  Another great feature of the customization options is the ability to refit your existing ships on the fly or completely change out the hull to a different ship type.

And while we’re on the topic of ships, you’ll get the chance to unlock new ships as you defeat them in battle and collect their black boxes.  As you collect these black boxes, your Clock Work mothership will use these black boxes to reverse engineer their blue prints, eventually unlocking the ship to add to your fleet.  The toughest part will probably be actually wanting to change your ships, as you’ll have your favorites and get used to how they handle.   But S.P.A.Z. offers a great variety of ships and you should definitely try and fly each ship at least once to see what it has to offer.

The story isn’t anything ground breaking, but offers enough substance, humor, and surprises (there’s a hint in the title!) to keep you interested and motivated to keep on going.  The story is all text driven with some voice narratives, and it all works out well for this type of game and I couldn’t wait to reveal the next part of the plot as I played the game.

And if you found a bug, find something you don’t like, or have a suggestion, the guys at MinMax Games are here to listen.  The S.P.A.Z. forums are pretty active with the two developers always checking in on threads and listening to the community feedback.  They’re even checking the Steam forums for questions and feedback, so your voice will be heard!  And if you’re wondering about updates and patches, the MinMax Games team are a couple of steps ahead of you.  They have recently released a Halloween patch and are working hard on a Holiday patch.  I’ve also heard some rumors about a large free expansion that is also in the pipeline.  These guys are keeping busy and have great things planed for S.P.A.Z., and it’s great to see such support from the developers.  Much appreciated guys!

Publisher: Red Redemption
Developer: Red Redemption
Platforms: PC, Mac
Genre: Strategy
Players: Single Player
Purchase from: Steam, Official website

The Scoop: If you ever thought that you could solve all of the world’s problems caused by global climate change and make the entire planet one happy place, here is your chance.

The Setup:  Fate of the World: Tipping Point is a strategy game which uses real climate data based on the research of Professor Myles Allen of Oxford University.  This real life data is used to create over 1,000 possibilities/situations/disasters and over 100 real-world policy decisions.  In Fate of the World: Tipping Point, you are seated as the head of a world government known as the GEO.  As the President of the GEO you’re tasked with the burden of dealing with the social and environmental impact of global climate change and make the best, or worst, decisions to try and solve the the problems that arise.  You’ll deal with protestors, resource shortages, welfare issues, animal extinction, and the fun list goes on and on.

The entire game is played by using the mouse, and the GUI is pretty simple with the view of Earth being dead center, with buttons to access different global stats and charts.  From here you can spin the Earth around and select one of the 12 regions, which will then bring you then let you view news and stats for the region, as well as set policies.  Speaking of  policies, you will use a deck of cards to control which policies you have access to and want to play.  Each card has a cost associated with it and some cards will help unlock additional cards.  And cards are spread across different categories such as political, agriculture, technology, energy, and social.  So if you want to declare Martial Law, head on over to the political deck!  Most cards can be completed in one turn (which is 5 years in game time) while other cards may take longer (ex: 50 years to complete).

To play a card you have to recruit an agent for that particular region. Agents cost money to recruit and you are also limited 6 agents per region, and each agent allows you to play 1 card for a particular region.  You’re limited to the amount of funding that you earn each turn, and some global events may cause you to not bring in as much on a particular turn, so you’ll have to be strategic in how you recruit your agents and which cards you need to play.

What cards you “should” play on each turn is pretty much dictated by the news events for each particular region.  If the news feed for South Africa says that people are rioting, you should focus on playing political cards.  Or if the news feed for Latin America says there are issues with poor standards of living, you will want to focus on cards that will help make living in this region more enjoyable.  You get the idea!

When you’re happy with the selection of cards for this turn, you will big purplish button in the bottom right hand corner to play the cards and advance to the next turn, which increases the year by 5.  Each scenario in Fate of the World: Tipping Point has a number of objectives or win conditions that you need to achieve to win the game, so you will continue to play cards until you’ve reached (or failed!) your goal or reached the time limit for a particular scenario.

What’s Hot:   Fate of the World: Tipping Point is a very tricky game, and one of the important things that you have to watch out for is not just the win conditions of the scenario, but also the lose conditions.  More often than not you will find that you’ve reached your win condition, but lost the game due to a particular lose condition.  This really adds to the overall challenge of the game and will keep you on your toes through each scenario.

Speaking of tricky, limiting the amount of cards or policies that can be played per turn to the number of agents a region has really adds to the strategic nature of the game.  You’ll find that you need to balance your funds with the number of agents you have to hire as well as which disasters or situations need to be high priority.  Sometimes a particular region may have a handful of issues that just occurred, yet you only have enough resources to deal with 2 or 3 of the issues.  What do you do? Which comes first? Is it OK to sacrifice the political instability for a turn and hope chaos doesn’t ensue to take care of a critical healthcare issue?  I’ve found myself in this situation multiple times and so will you!

The news feeds and data for each region (and even on the global level) are your vitals.  Keeping an eye on these will help you reach your win conditions as well as keep you from reaching those lose conditions.  You will want to get familiar with the different buttons and know where certain data lives pretty fast.

Please note: Level Up News was provided with the Xbox 360 copy of the game and the review is based on that version.  The PS3 version differs slightly with the ability to use the Dualshock3’s SIXAXIS controls.

The Scoop: Ah, the old wooden labyrinth game.  You know the one where you need to get a metal marble through a wooden maze filled with pits and traps.  It’s the same mechanic that is used in many video games like the Super Monkey Ball series.  When Mercury made its debut several years ago on a very young PSP; it took the concept a step further where instead of a ball you used a friction-lite mercury blob that could be separated and united.  Now the successful handheld title is making the shift onto consoles with Mercury Hg.  Despite the drawbacks of porting a handheld game to a console without any significant tweaks to the gameplay, the High Def upgrade is still a solid experience.

This was the most fun you could have with a box sporting a wood veener finish until the Atari 2600.

The Setup: Mercury Hg is lumped into the puzzle gaming genre but it never gets heady.  Instead you’ll rely on your skills with the controller’s analog sticks to get you through the game.  You’ll begin each level with your blob mercury at the start of a maze that you’ll need to get through to the end.  The left analog stick tilts the maze and the right is used to move the camera.  Reaching the end will unlock the next maze but there are some other side objectives you’ll want to consider completing as well.  Each maze has a time limit, objects to collect and reaching the end with your blob completely intact as a bonus objective.  They can be done separately or all at once which adds some replay value to the mazes.  Completing these objectives will unlock bonus levels and challenge missions which come with their own set of achievements/trophies.

What’s Hot: Developer UTV Ignition Games put a lot of thought into getting the physics of the blobs movement and animations just right.  I know it is something that a game like this should do automatically, but the extra effort here deserves some applause.  I never once felt cheated by a wonky control scheme or default animation.  If my blob fell off the edge of the maze into oblivion, I knew it was my own damn fault.

The difficulty curve in this game feels just right too.  You start off simply to get a feel for the controls and the game gradually adds more elements into the mazes.   The more advanced mazes will lose walls, holes will open in the floor and you’ll eventually have to split the blob into three pieces and control them all at the same time.  Again, it never gets too heady but you will find the later levels a challenge.

What’s not: The game claims that using your own music as background plays an integral part of the game play.  I really didn’t see how.  During some levels the floor will move to the beat of the music you’re playing, but I didn’t find any difference between the game’s default music and what I had on my 360’s hard drive.  I suppose you could “cheat” and play some softer music to breeze through the level, but the experience seemed like a gimmick to get it labeled as a music game.

The mazes are short and never take longer than a few minutes to complete which is great for a handheld game; however, I would have liked to have sunk my teeth into a few mazes that offered a deeper experience.  The game never takes advantage of me sitting on the couch with my console for an hour or two.

A couple of technical things to mention:  All of the text on screen is in white which doesn’t work well on the mazes that use a white background and my 360 would sometimes experience a huge drop in frame rate when restarting levels.  It wasn’t a huge issue since restarting the level again would resolve it, but it is worth mentioning.

Final Verdict: The normal campaign or what the game calls “challenge mode” can be done in one sitting, but the bonus levels and attempting to get all 240 objectives in them will take a few more.  If you are at all interested in this game (you must be if you read this far) than by all means pay the $5 it’ll cost you on XBLA or the PSN.  The overall experience of running through the short mazes may be better suited for the PSP, but this console version is done well enough for it to be worth your time.

The Scoop: ClaDun X2 is Nippon Ichi Software’s follow up to last year’s salute to dungeon crawling RPGs from the 16-bit era, ClaDun: This is an RPG.  That game was pretty solid and although ClaDun X2 may feel like “ClaDun 1.5″ at times, it does hold its own.

The Set Up: Like the first game, your character is trapped on the island of “Arcanus Cella”.  The only way off it is by battling through a series of dungeons which are unlocked in sequential order.  The experience is designed for gaming on the go with each dungeon consisting of three or four levels that mostly take between two and five minutes to complete.  For the days when you have a longer bus ride into work, you can explore the larger dungeons called “Ran-geons” or “Tri-geons” that will stack 25 or so random levels.  They can be difficult but they do yield greater items and equipment.

Believe it or not, there is a way out of this.

The other inhabitants you meet on Arcanus Cella are not interested in leaving and they spend most of the game trying to convince you to stay.  In one cut scene, two of the female inhabitants lifted their shirts as they were convinced the sight of their sweater meat would have me forget about leaving.  Needless to say, Nippon Ichi’s humour is in full force here and if this was Gilligan’s Island I definitely would have.

Serves them right for lookin'!

Instead of enlisting the “boob twins” for help I had to build my own party from scratch.  There are some preset options you can use to quickly get one together, but for those you love to customise, this game is your wet dream.  Their look, animations, speech, and how they interact with other characters can be customised.  I made my main character look like Travis Touchdown from the No More Heroes games.  It took me almost two hours, but it was worth it.

If challenge had a taste, you'd be quite delicious.

Once you have built your party, each one will be the leader of its own “Magic Circle”.  Magic Circles are set ways to organize your party in the dungeons.  Party members within a Magic Circle assist the leader by taking damage and giving boosts depending on which items are carried.  Only the party leader is playable but every member gets experience points once a level is complete.  You unlock better Magic Circles with boosts and slots for additional members as your characters rank up.

What’s Hot: ClaDun X2 holds to the mantra of what makes old school gaming great by being easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master.  You control your character much like you would in an old Zelda game with an over-the-head perspective and the gameplay does vary depending on what type weapon you are using.  Sometimes I would be getting spanked in a dungeon with my main character’s sword abilities, but trying again with a sub character and a bow would have me breeze through to the end.  Add another layer of Magic Circles and their different effects on your party, and you have many hours of experimentation to explore.

There is a ton of the good kind of level grinding where you unlock a bunch of items and abilities as you rank up.  The characters max out at level 99, and then there is some equipment you can find that will jump them to 999.  The amount of weapons, equipment, magic spells and items in this game is staggering.  There is plenty to be found in the dungeons, but also a bunch of unique ones at Arcanus Cella’s store that you will be saving up your gold coins for.

Kratos wannabe

The game’s music is completely customizable as well.  The soundtrack can be switched back and forth between orchestrated music and the same tunes in 8-bit midi.  New midi tracks can be created and played at any level you wish.  You can also save screenshots which is a pretty cool feature.  Every picture in this review was made by yours truly.

Endbosses, like this one, are challenging but fun.

What’s Not: For most fans of the original, ClaDun X2 will feel very comfortable, but to a fault.  The developers went out of their way to add a ton of customization to the look and sound of the game, but didn’t bring anything new to its gameplay or feel.  Also, the original’s multiplayer co-op mode is dropped which is pretty bizarre considering how popular of a feature it was.

That's what you get from exploring some random dude's house.

I was excited to see after a little ranking up that a gateway to a “wireless dungeon” opened up.  I was hoping it would be Little Big Planet kind of online hub where I could see what others have created and show my Travis Touchdown off.  But the connection is for other PSPs within wireless range only.  I know it is not fair to knock a game for not adding a bonus feature, but with the level of customization involved in this game it almost like a World War II FPSer coming out today without any multiplayer levels.

Although gameplay wise ClaDun X2 is easy to pick up there are some elements, like the Magic Circles, that are deep and require a lot of an explanation on how they work.  There are characters you can visit on Arcanus Cella that do just that but with wordy text and no visual aids.  Having a bit of a walkthrough through to show how the Magic Circles work would have been more effective.

Final Verdict: ClaDun X2 is a better single player experience than its predecessor, but its premise and gameplay is very similar.  It lacks the enchantments you would expect from a sequel and drops a popular multiplayer mode.  They are two big exclusions, especially when the game is asking you to shell out $20 for it.

If you haven’t played a ClaDun game before or sunk a ton of hours into the original without touching the multiplayer, then X2 will be a wise investment.  It has all of the same solid gameplay as the original but with a deep amount of customization added in.  Just steer clear of the boob twins.  They can be hypnotic even in 16 bit.

Everyone remembers their first job. Hoping you don’t mess up while learning the ropes. The pride of getting your first paycheck. Being punched in the face by a fellow employee who’s violently afraid of men. Okay, so you may not have experienced that last part, but it’s part and parcel for 16 year old Sota Takanashi during his tenure at the Wagnaria family restaurant. After being recruited by Popura Taneshima, a 17 year old high school girl short enough to pass for a grade school student, Sota soon finds himself embroiled in situation after situation with his wacky co-workers.

Originally titled Working!! in Japan, Wagnaria!! is based on the four panel comic manga by Karino Takatsu published in Square Enix’s Young Gangan magazine. A wonderfully cute comedy, Wagnaria!! brings the laughter in quick succession with a similar short form format as hit anime Azumanga Daioh.  The title draws humor from the personalities of it’s lovably off-beat characters as they deal with each other’s unique quirks and traits. Sota’s interactions with those around him range from the saccharinely cute affection he shows Popura due to his obsession with small things (he gleefully compares her to a water flea in the first episode); to the horrible beatings he suffers from Mahiru Inami, a seemingly shy girl who’s terror of men causes her to react violently whenever she is near Sota. As more players are introduced into the mix, their relationships continue to grow more emotionally, and amusingly, entwined. Being a “slice of life” style comedy, there isn’t much of an overarching, unified story in Wagnaria!!. Refreshingly concise plots do show how the characters grow and change over the course of the series, but without tying viewers to the weight of a massive tale. Once you have a grasp of the basic who’s who and who likes/loves/fears who, you can reasonably pick up and enjoy the series at almost any point.

A-1 Pictures once again lives up to it’s well deserved reputation as one of the best studios around with some superb work. Wagnaria!!‘s artwork is crisp, clear, and fresh, featuring a lively color palette and smooth animation. The character designs are particularly well rendered and expressive, avoiding the noticeable trend in some moe/harem anime where character faces all end up looking somewhat the same. The lack of an English dub track didn’t bother me nearly as much as I expected, since Wagnaria!! eschews overuse of jokes based heavily on Japanese language puns and idioms. They do crop up, but not nearly so often as some anime.  The subtitled dialogue is all excellently translated, efficiently relaying all the humor and heart of the original script.

Along with the complete series, US publisher NIS America released a special edition bundle which includes a slipcase box and hardcover artbook. While some fans may not be interested, I found it an awesome callback to the halcyon days of the early 2000′s anime industry. The character and background concept art was particularly nice to see as I love the occasional peek behind the scenes of production. With a second season scheduled to premier in Japan this October, I look forward to spending more time with the erratic employees of the Wagnaria restaurant pretty soon. So until then, sit down, grab your fork and dig in! Because, no matter which course you order, Wagnaria!! still delivers a full helping of entertainment in thirteen fun-sized servings.

The Scoop: Ninjamurai is a stylish 2D action platformer with beautiful hand painted animations and a killer soundtrack.  It is a complex game that can be challenging but rarely is frustrating.  Above all, the most impressive element of this game is where you can buy it.  Fledgling developer Open Emotion’s salute to Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden from the 16 bit era can only be found in the PS Mini store; and a niche little title like this it couldn’t be more at home.

Thanks for the advice.

The Setup: You play as Takezou whose Sensei is killed in an attack on his village by the evil militia known as Black Armour.  Your journey starts shortly afterwards and Takezou is set to deal the Black Armour leader a heavy dose of corporal punishment.  (Do Ninja’s believe in an eye for an eye?  Maybe the samurai do… who knows?)  Of course, this leader isn’t readily available for a chat and you have to get work your way through is fortress to reach him.

Takezou owns a mix of ninja and samurai abilities (Ninja-murai.  Get it now?) and switching between both play a large part in the game’s complexity.  Takezou’s ninja skills allows him to run by enemies undetected, but can only be used for a limited time.  Switching over to samurai allows you to use your sword but you can be seen by enemies.  With only a limited amount of health, hacking and slashing you way to the finish line will not be possible.  Ultimately, you will need to find the right balance of using both to make it through the game.

What’s Hot: As mentioned before, the game is beautiful.  It uses hand painted animations with water colors which lends a cool vibe to the overall presentation.  It is stunning to see on the PSP screen, but if you are planning on playing this with PS3 you maybe a little disappointed.  Although the art style still has its appeal, the game losses some of its characteristics when blown up on a 50” LCD screen.

I get it; you're angry.

Ninjamurai’s punishing old-school style of platforming gameplay won’t be for everyone.  You have a limited amount of lives to get through a level and you will need to do some memorizing of their layouts to get through them.  Thankfully, they are small and meant to be played in short bursts so you won’t have to keep too much in the noggin for long.  It is a perfect set up for gaming on the go.

What’s Not: The level design is a mixed bag of awesome and frustration.  While the buildings and background look great, a lot of their elements are repeated.  For the most part you are jumping over large death pits from platform to platform as you zig-zag your way down to the finish line.  The problem is a lot of the times you are unsure of what is a death trap and what is a way down.  I think the game would have been better suited to have you work your way up instead; but I am only a simple reviewer; so what do I know?

Is this the way down or a fall to death?

Final Verdict: The game is short, and can be finished in a few hours; but if you do like unlocking costumes and grabbing achievements there is plenty of reason to keep coming back.  Ninjamurai is deal for the asking price of $1.99 and one that I highly recommend to those that love a good platformer.

Take a dash of dash of high school drama, add a couple teaspoons of urban action comedy, then season freely with supernatural mystery.  Stir vigorously, then bake for 26 episodes…and voila!  Your Durarara!! is ready!  Based on the light novel series written by Ryohgo Narita and illustrated by Suzuhita Yasuda, Durarara!! begins when young Mikado Ryugamine, longing for an exciting life in the big city, moves to Ikebukuro, Tokyo.  Mikado’s best friend and smooth talking charmer, Masaomi Kida, tries to warn the naive high school student away from some of the city’s more dangerous elements.  But, despite his efforts, Mikado still winds up caught in a series of events involving supernatural intrigue and a mysterious gang known as “the Dollars.”

Much like Narita’s other major work, Baccano, Durarara!! is a series that is hard to easily classify or summarize. The plot, seamlessly blending elements of several disparate genres, is a huge web of intersecting lives and events supported by a massive cast of characters. Episodes leap freely admidst multiple points of view, weaving a complexly engaging tapestry of story. Impressively, this multifaceted approach never becomes overly difficult to follow or understand. Each individual mystery, twist, and revelation merely serve to help build the larger narrative as they are all connected in some fashion or another. Even when watching the series for a second time, you still pick up on small details and moments that add to such a well constructed storyline.

Durarara!! couldn’t pull off this delicate juggling of plot elements without a ridiculously engaging cast, which Narita delivers in spades. Mikado Ryugamine is just one of several main players in Durarara!!, who’s big city naivitte often serves as an introduction and vantage point on certain events. Equally as important to the narrative is Celty, Ikebukuro’s legendary “Black Rider” who never speaks, communicating soley with a PDA, and is widely rumored to be not quite human. You see, Celty just so happens to be a dulluhan, a mythological irish spirit, searching tokyo for her lost head. The diverse variety of dramatis personae include a super strong street brawler named Shizuo; hardcore otaku couple Walker and Erika; and Simon, the big black Russian sushi chef. Everyone with a role to play has a uniquely interesting personality and watching them interact with other, equally quirky, characters is a real treat.

As their first self published North American release, Aniplex assembled an all star cast for Durarara!!. Several famous voice actors lend their incredible talent to the show in more than a few unexpected ways. Typically heroic Johnny Yong Bosch plays against type as Iziya, the information broker, performing with a sinisterly Machiavellian attitude that I’m not used to hearing from him. Kari Whalgren once again proves why she is one of my all time favorite voice actresses with a fantastic turn as Celty, bringing believable emotional depth and character to someone who lacks a face. And Yuri Lowenthal’s vocal range allowed him to go completely unrecognized for half the show while playing Celty’s roommate, the goofy lovestruck doctor, Shinra. Those three aren’t the only amazing performances in Durarara!!, just a few of my favorites. The credits read like a who’s who of the anime industry, with names like Crispin Freeman, Steve Blum, Carrie Savage, Michelle Ruff, Spike Spencer, Liam O’Brian, Kirk Thornton, Kyle Hebert, Stephanie Sheh and Laura Bailey all showing up in various roles.

The animation quality of Durarara!! is truly top notch, with Brain’s Base bringing their A game to the project. Action sequences pop and sizzle with a true sense of dynamic speed and excitingly stylish camera angles, especially anything involving Celty or Shizuo. But while it’s always fun to watch the knockdown, drag out fights when they happen, the devil in Durarara!! is truly in the details. Character designs stay faithful to Yasuda’s art, giving everyone a unique look and feel that provides ample expression and personality. Even the backgrounds in Durarara!! often serve as testament to the skill of it’s animators, making the stylized streets of Ikebukuro a character in and of itself.

Just in case the double exclamation points built into the title don’t give it away, Durarara!! is a wildly fun roller-coaster ride of a series. From start to finish, the show kept me engaged in trying to puzzle out it’s mysteries, cheering for it’s heroes, and booing it’s villains. Amidst everything I watch on a regular basis, this title stands out as one of my favorite new anime releases of 2011. So if you’re looking for a great show to get hooked on, make sure you join the Dollars and give Durarara!! a shot.

Publisher:

The Scoop: After last year’s War For Cybertron, High Moon Stuidos brings us their second Transformers title.  This time, it’s a tie-in prologue to the upcoming Michael Bay movie of the same name.

The Setup: Dark Of The Moon is set three years before the events of the movie.  Both the Autobots and Decepticons are waging war against each other on Earth.  However, the Decepticons are trying to resurrect on of their own, Shockwave, as a great and powerful weapon against the Autobots.

The campaign of the game is separated into seven chapters:  The first three chapters revolve around the Autobots, the next three around the Decepticons, and the final chapter as the epic showdown that sets up for the upcoming summer blockbuster.

If you’re familiar with War For Cybertron, then the control scheme and feel for the game will be very identical to what you played in that game.  You have two special abilities tied to your bumpers, you can switch weapons with the Y button and reload with X, and you can switch from robot-to-car and vice-versa with a click of the left thumbstick.  There’s also a new driving mechanic that you can activate, allowing you to hold a button down to boost to pull off drifts while driving through levels.

Each character that you play as during the game has two weapons and two special abilities.  Some abilities allow you to deal extra damage to foes or help you deactivate force fields while progressing through the game.  Any time you head into vehicle mode, you’ll have the ability to use a lock-on ability for firing.  Also, being in vehicle mode allows to you take a bit more damage as opposed to your normal robot mode.

In the campaign, levels take place all around the world.  These frantic third-person levels will pit you up against enemies of all shapes and sizes.  Unlike a majority of what War For Cybertron, you’ll be going at it against these foes solo.  While an occasional comrade at points will join you during the game, you have to rely mainly on yourself to take on all comers.

Outside of the campaign, there is multiplayer in Dark of the Moon that supports up to ten players in solo and team objective modes.  You can progress through multiplayer as one of four classes, leveling up and earning new perks and abilities for your rigs.

The Scoop: Duke Nukem 3D helped to add on an extra few years to my virginity.  It was released in 1996 during my teen years when I should have focused on doing something cool like learning the guitar or how to be nice to girls.  Instead I was busy saving my pennies to get my hands on a PC sound card just to hear Duke Nukem.  At the time, aiming up or down with a PC mouse and hearing the protagonist speak during gameplay, where still revolutionary elements in a FPS.  I was glad I was sitting when I ran into my first “Pig Cop” that ducked to avoid a blast from my shotgun, then hear Duke affirm this was cool with a “Come get some”.  My knees surly would have buckled if I had been standing.

Duke Nukem Forever is the sequel to DN3D and the story of its long development has become a joke in the gaming world.  That was until last October when publisher 2K Games freed it from legal troubles.  Veteran FPS developer Gearbox Studios (Brothers in Arms, Borderlands) were put in charge of bringing together scattered chunks of an unfinished game from the past 15 years together.  As it turns out, not even they could save DNF from being an unfocused mess.

The Setup: DNF’s premise is simple.  Since he last “blew up aliens good”, Duke has become a fulltime playboy living in the penthouse of his Las Vegas casino.  When the aliens return to earth but initially does not attack there is some political debate on how to handle the situation.  It is believed by some, including the President, that Duke was the cause of the last attack by striking first.  Just as it looks like DNF’s story might be getting heavy, the aliens launch an assault, Duke punches of them in the nads, and we’re back to killing anything that isn’t human.

What’s hot: An hour into DNF I was having a rocking time as the first few levels are a fun, campy ride.  Like Adam West’s Batman from the ‘60s, Duke is self aware of his legendary status and the writers run away with this.  Duke’s face and name is used to endorse more products than Krusty the Clown and some can be interacted with to increase Duke’s “Ego” which acts as the game’s health bar.  It is a great way of including these elements into the gameplay rather than simply having them exist.  The more complicated interactions, like clearing the pool table or winning at air hockey, is a clunky experience, but I did have fun with most of them.  I got a kick out of getting Duke’s “Ego” to increase from looking at himself in the mirror or flipping through a dirty magazine.  Pinball machines, weight lifting, and even microwaving popcorn for a stripper can increase “Ego” and I liked having the freedom to skip these if I wanted too.

Unfortunately it appears that Gearbox focused a little too much on these distractions because little can be said for DNF’s core gameplay.

Killing this guy twice was fun, but there needed to be more of it.

What’s not: DNF very much attempts to do what Goldeneye Wii did with its own counterpart,  the N64’s classic Goldeneye 007.   Goldeneye Wii was able to recreate that experience in a modern way by blending in elements from the original that were worth keeping and dropping the other dated material.  Having the option to play Goldeneye 007 by using stealth or guns blazing was a big part of what made it a classic and this element was kept in the Wii version.   The dumb enemy AI was dropped for a smarter one that use a cover system and so it made sense for James Bond to have regenerating health.

DNF borrows a lot from modern shooters, like regenerating health and only carrying two weapons at a time but doesn’t mesh it well with the old school elements leaves in.  There is no tension in fighting aliens who stay out in the open on the other side of environment when I can heal by hiding behind a rock.  And I never sweated over which weapon to bring because I knew the enemies were dropping them like f-bombs out of an angry Mel Gibson.  The whole experience adds up to a bizarro game of “Whack a Mole”, where Duke is the only mole who sticks his head out for a second, takes a few shots, and then hides again.

Getting Duke's 4X4 stuck on nothing was the most exciting thing I did with Duke's 4X4.

DNF does break up its monotonous gameplay, but only with ancient ideas that bring nothing new to the genre.  There is some FPS platforming that is frustrating to get through like most FPS platforming.  Some levels have you drive around in Duke’s weapon-less 4X4 truck so you can platform in bigger environments with a third person view.  But the best example of how DNF has a dated mentality is its use of the gun turrets.  Gun turrets still pop up in modern FPS, but I have found that they have become an optional tool instead of a center piece for an action sequence.  DNF still treats these relics to a large build up like it will be the first time you eat ice cream.

At the beginning of one level, Duke is thrown from a crashing helicopter, into the side of the Las Vegas Stratosphere tower.  As I started down the tower, I came across the helicopter’s gun turret that was now stuck on one of the large alien tentacles wrapped around the tower.  The game throws Duke behind it and after all of this build-up I was expecting something great to happen, like the reintroduction of a classic boss or something completely new.  But, after shooting down some of the same enemies I have been seeing countless times already, it was over.  Duke was forced off of the turret as it fell off of the side of the tower.

The graphics are surprisingly bland, too, considering the number of engine overhauls this game went through.  The first few casino levels aside, the majority of the game looks like unfinished portions of Half Life 2 with a lack of any texture or detail.  Take a look at the inside of a helicopter Duke is being escorted in:

Who puts a gun on a pole?

It adds up to nothing more than a square box.  There should be a look inside of the cockpit, or a bench or something.  And what is holding up that Gatling gun?  A pole?

DNF multi-player is the standard fare but I didn’t get much out of it.  I am completely fine with games adopting Call of Duty 4’s upgrading system where you can earn points from playing; but you do need a sophisticated match making mechanic to go along with it.  Watching the bullets from my entry level pistol bounce off of an opposing player while he uses an upgraded perk to turn me into wall paste is not my idea of fun.  I understand COD games have a large pool of players to draw from, but at least give me a choice to enter a room full of experienced players instead of just throwing me in.

Is that a missing level from 2004's Half Life 2? No, it's 2011's Duke Nukem Forever.

Final Verdict: This is not the solid reboot of the Duke Nukem franchise you were looking for.  The first few levels do have some campy fun and I did enjoy a couple of the boss fights; but these are sparse moments that do not make up for the game’s overall arid gameplay.  Duke is a classic character in video gaming history and does deserve much more than this.  Hopefully the next effort (and you know there will be one) will be a focused reboot of what made the original games great and not a celebration of what wasn’t.