Who can resist a cute robot game? Not I...

Machinarium is a brilliant, quirky little game by the independent group Amanita Design. It’s a puzzle-based adventure featuring a beautifully drawn and imagined world of robots, but which contains no dialogue. The story is told entirely through animated thought-bubbles, and describes the travails of your character – a small robot whose broken body is dumped into the junkyard in the introduction of the game – as he goes about righting the wrong done to him and his friends. This is achieved a variety of puzzles, mostly your usual treasure hunt for objects and then figuring out what to do with them, but also a few real brain teasers.

The majority of these puzzles are quite fun to solve, but a couple of them are on the extreme side (including one that requires a minimum of 72 moves to solve). Given you have no choice but to complete them in order to progress, nobody will blame you for hunting down a walkthrough. The game also features quite a few little sub-games, such as a Space Invaders clone within the quest itself, but also a cool hint system implementation whereby you play through a brief side-scrolling shooter in order to unlock a hint.

Easily the best thing about this game is its artistic design, in hand-drawn style. There’s heaps of detail in both the characters and background scenery, and the animation of the characters is really cute and endearing. The music is interesting too, very apt to the game world, and not at all repetitive or intrusive.

It’s a very short game – I completed it over a couple of sessions over the weekend – but worth every cent, both for the experience itself and also in support of indie developers.

The game retains the cel-shaded visual style from Wind Waker on Gamecube

I had a minor epiphany while playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii, and it was this: all of the Zelda titles are essentially the same game with different puzzles. About three-quarters of the elements are common to all of the games in the series: Link, the boy with the green clothes and pointy hat (mostly referred to as Link); the eponymous princess; the various races (Gorons, Zora, etc.); the weapons (the sword and shield, bombs, boomerang, hookshot/claw – which tend to accumulate from sequel); and of course the sound effects. The remainder are innovations in either the puzzle design or the interface. As the first Zelda title on the Nintendo DS, it should be patently obvious which way The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass leans.

Gorons... check.

The question is, are these differences enough to make the game fun? Happily for me, the answer is a resounding “yes!” but I now have a vector for understanding why others might not like it. Zelda is not the franchise for you if the story matters, or you find that familiarity breeds contempt. The Zelda framework here – because that’s what it boils down to – is but the thinnest veneer of gloss holding a bunch of random puzzle elements together, making Twilight Princess seem like Lord of the Rings in comparison. At least it’s better than the Professor Layton games where they make almost no attempt to hide the fact that the “story” is an inconvenience that gets in the way of the game’s brain-teasers*.

Fairies... check.

Phantom provides a fresh take on old favourites, for instance the ability to draw paths for the boomerang, and lots of drawing and tapping puzzles making full use of the stylus interface. The cel-shading graphics style borrowed from Link’s Gamecube outing, Wind Waker, is a love-it-or-hate-it affair but are at least functional and reliably consistent in quality throughout.

The puzzles aren’t at all taxing, and if weren’t for the baffling decision of the game designers to make you play through one of the key dungeons several times throughout the course of the game, would be a rather short adventure. The side quests do provide some challenge for those interested enough to pursue them (I did a few of the easier ones and then gave up).

When all’s said and done, I greatly enjoyed the light intellectual diversion provided by Phantom Hourglass, but came away from it with an empty feeling. I do like my stories, after all.

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* I’m not saying that these games are bad, by the way. I actually have both the original and the sequel, and hope to get around to reviewing them soon.

Kratos is one angry dude...

A quickie review of God of War 3 to finish off the week. This game probably deserves slightly more verbiage than I’m willing to dedicate to it, but suffice to say that there are many ardent supporters of this ground-breaking series (often literally) that blends together 3D action platform gaming, excessive violence and Greek mythology.

The game borrows heavily, but largely successfully, from other genres: there are bits of Shadow of the Collossus, Street Fighter, and even bits of Echochrome, all seamlessly integrated into the overall narrative structure. This game closes off the the storyline from the previous games, which sees the “Ghost of Sparta” exacting revenge on the Olympian gods for causing him to accidentally kill his own family.

The plot is driven along by crappy, but mercifully sparse, dialogue and finishes with a climax that leans quite heavily on existentialist claptrap. But the point of the God of War series was never the story; it’s about dishing out retribution with extreme prejudice, and in that sense the game delivers in spades. In this final instalment Kratos is not content with  taking down monsters and gods, but also Titans of such immense proportions that they form entire game levels by themselves.

By the way, was it just me, or did the lyrics for the Ominous Latin Chanting in the final battle sound a lot like “Kratos, Kratos, Kratos, ha ha ha…”?

Awkwardly, they've dropped the "4" from "Call of Duty" for this sequel

Imagine somebody put a gun in your hand, and ordered you to kill innocent civilians. Could you do it? The latest game in the Call of Duty series asks the player this, and other tough ethical and moral questions, as it propels you through a narrative of conflict in the context of today’s society. It’s a continuation of the plot originally kicked off in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which paints the US as the saviour of the barbaric ways of Russia and the Middle East.

American hyper-patriotism and ethnic clichés aside, Modern Warfare 2 isn’t merely a game, it’s another example of the new breed of games that offers an interactive experience. The main difference between the two is that while previous video games simply used story as a device to explain a game mechanic or to give the protagonist a raison d’être, these new, more mature offerings are beginning to layer in complex emotions and philosophical considerations, integrating them directly into the gameplay in a more fundamental way, than the odd rhetorical poser in the cutscenes between levels.

The example touched upon in the beginning of this review is a stage, early on in the game, in which the player takes on the role of an undercover agent posing as a Russian terrorist, and on order to progress, must participate in the slaughter of innocent civilians. Even the player refrains from firing and simply watches, he or she will still see their collaborators shooting stragglers, execution style. It’s a heavy moment, and highly controversial.

Having only recently arrived in the world of First Person Shooters through Transformers: War For Cybertron, the pedigree of the Call of Duty series is evident. MW2 takes the spit and polish up a big notch – the interface is well thought out and snappily responsive; the graphics are impressive and the sets amazingly detailed (e.g. in one scene set in an airport, you can shoot pieces of luggage that are strew around, and random pieces of clothing and underwear come flying out); and the game mechanics much more refined.

In multiplayer, there are a wealth of game modes (Free-For-All, Search & Destroy, Demolition, Sabotage, Domination, Team Deathmatch, and Capture The Flag) and several players can play together on a single TV in split-screen mode. Along with the downloadable map packs, MW2 offers exceptional replay value.

I’ve never been a big fan of FPS – especially anything war themed – but I found Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 so imaginative and stimulating that I barely noticed. Definitely one for the collection.

2D Mario up to his usual tricks...

I’ve been a keen follower of Paper Mario since the original first appeared on the N64. What’s unusual about this franchise is that it’s developed by a third party, Intelligent Systems – unusual because Nintendo is as fiercely protective of its core characters as Disney is of theirs. It’s a pretty smart move though, because the outsider’s perspective gave the designers the ability to poke fun at the parent franchise (the core Mario games), and as a result there’s plenty of hilarious references at the expense of the source material.

For those of you who haven’t heard of this series before, the basic conceit and the primary gimmick is that the characters are essentially flat 2D sprites. Therefore when Mario turns from left to right, he literally flips over like a piece of paper. It’s also different to the parent franchise in that the story plays a much more important role in the proceedings (as evident in the Japanese title of the original game, being “Mario Story”).

Super Paper Mario is the third game in the series – with a single appearance on each of the key Nintendo platforms thus far: Paper Mario on N64, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on Gamecube and now this. Sadly, third time’s not the charm here. The usual schtick has become tired, and is even starting to look a little bit cynical. For example one of the levels pokes fun at geeks – talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

The game suffers greatly from a lack of freshness and innovation – the characters are a bit thin on personality, and the plot was flat (har har). The new gimmick is that now Mario can flip into 3D – at the press of a button the flat 2D background turns into a full 3D world. Except that it isn’t full. It’s sparse, empty and largely devoid of interest or gameplay value other than to force the player to do so at various points just to get past certain obstacles. The game is divided up into sections, mimicking the original Super Mario Bros. “world 1-1″ style of level design, resulting in the majority of the game being a bland and uninspired 2D platformer.

Enemy character designs are unimaginative to the point of being downright bad, and the highly repetitive and very short background music grates after a short time. It also contains a bunch of recycled side-quests from earlier incarnations (e.g. recipes), which are completely superfluous for all except the most obsessive-compulsive fan – it’s a serious step backwards from the fresh, funny and exciting Thousand Year Door.

The "coming soon" cover with Cybertron in the background looked cooler. Oh well...

I don’t know when or why, but I took a wrong turn somewhere on my gaming journey and fell out of line with the First Person Shooter – a genre that I had sacrificed many a sleepness night to, at LAN parties not all that long ago (or so it seems). I just can’t play FPS games any more – my last attempt was Half Life 2, and I dry-retched my way through the entire game as my brain fought back the waves of nausea brought on by motion sickness. As a result, I’ve passed on some of the biggest gaming franchises in recent times such as Call of Duty, Gears of War, and their brethren.

Hence it was with great sadness that I discovered that Transformers: War For Cybertron was an FPS, because Transformers is one of the things that I love (to the point where I fought the bureaucracy to import a Megatron toy that is classified as a restricted firearm). To rub salt into the wound, the Intarwebs reported that WFC was more more than just a competent welding together of the Transformers lore with the war gaming mechanics, it was actually a decent game. So it is with great thanks to the Contagious Network that I’m able to give the game a go in spite of the fact I would never have purchased it for myself for fear of the barf monster.

When you first hear Peter Cullen say "Cybertron..." in the game's intro, you know it's gonna be good

Since I’ve divulged my shame, I won’t pretend familiarity in talking about the gameplay. All I can say is that using the Sixaxis controller to run-and-gun is more difficult than I thought it’d be. Flying in particular, is a brain-melting exercise in hand-eye co-ordination. This is also the first game I’ve played where you see the character that you’re playing in 3rd person, but they’re off to one side so as not to obscure the action, which leaves me with a “lopsided” feeling after playing, like I’ve been craning my neck to see over somebody’s shoulder the entire time. Surprisingly though, I’m not getting motion sickness from playing, huzzah!

Anyway enough whining – this is the good stuff. War For Cybertron positions itself as a sort-of-prequel to G1 (for the uninitiated, that’s the original Generation 1 cartoon from the 80′s), so in the Decepticon single-player campaign we get to see when Megatron and Starscream first meet, and why there exists the thinly veiled animosity between them. On the Autobot side, we have the story of how Optimus takes on his role as leader of the Autobots after the death of their leader, Zeta Prime.

At one point, Megatron goes "Ooh a car, I'm scared!"

The voice acting is superb, with the inimitable Peter Cullen again providing his mellifluous tones as Optimus. The dialogue is snappy, obviously written with great care by folks who know and understand the franchise. I LOL’d at this little exchange between the Seekers:

Starscream: These guys are as dumb as Skywarp!
Skywarp: I’ll show you dumb, Starscream!
Starscream: You always do, Skywarp.

While you couldn’t mistake this for G1, being that all of the characters appear in their Cybertronian modes, they still carry a very strong G1 vibe about them. My only criticism is that because both the characters and the environments are metal or metallic, everything tends to blend in and makes things hard to see*, especially when the action gets frenetic.

Speaking of which, the multiplayer action is supposed to be where this game is at. The game is able to create matchups locally or globally, and even in the late evening, there were still around 1600+ people online, so it was pretty easy to find a game to join. The good old Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes are there, plus a plethora of options that I don’t claim to understand, which probably involve some other tactical manoeuvring that I’m not yet brave enough to try (I’ve come last in every match I’ve played so far; pity the poor sods who ended up with me on their team).

Not everybody will like the aesthetic, but many agree that it's better than the live-action movies.

Sadly, the PS3 version of the game suffers from bugginess. I’ve fallen through the floor for no reason a few times, and the game occasionally crashes the system (requiring a hard reset). Hopefully, commercial success means that patches will be quickly forthcoming – even as I write the first patch has already been released, taking it to version 1.01.

Seriously, I could go on all day. I haven’t even mentioned character classes, weapons, unlockables, G1 homages, etc. – there’s a LOT here for die-hard fans and newcomers alike, and considering that the launch price at JB is $59, you’d be hard pressed to find better value for money.

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* Take a look at the thumbnail pictures of the game here and tell me you wouldn’t use the word “dark”.

A promotion for Heavy Rain done up like a movie poster

Since 1999, French musician and videogame designer David Cage has created only 3 games – Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy in the US), and Heavy Rain. Besides the fact that all of these have a plot centred around a serial killer, a common element that runs through Cage’s work is high quality, compelling stories, and a game mechanic where players’ choices affect the outcome, with each iteration making massive improvements over the last.

Despite general critical acclaim and achieving cult-status amongst gamers, one of the biggest criticisms of Fahrenheit was its ridiculous deus ex machina ending (which I won’t give away here, ‘coz it’s still worth going back to play if you haven’t already). Cage learnt his lesson well, because Heavy Rain a cinematic tour-de-force from start to finish, and will most likely turn out to be a significant turning point in interactive storytelling. I base this claim on the fact that my wife Jenny sat through 10 hours of watching me play, totally engrossed – pretty major for somebody who otherwise has absolutely zero interest in gaming.

It’s impossible to say much without giving away the storyline, but the game gives most Hollywood scripts a run for their money. Ethan Mars is a father already having difficulty coping with the loss of a son in an accident 2 years ago, when his other son Shaun is kidnapped by the “Origami Killer”. In the quest to find the culprit and save Shaun, we’re also introduced to: Madison Paige, a journalist; Norman Jayden, an FBI agent; Scotty Shelby, a private detective; and a large supporting cast. In the whole time throughout my first run of the game, the suspense and tension never let up, and the twists and turns kept coming right through to the very last moments. It’s all the more impressive when you consider that many movies fail to deliver this in their mere 2 hours.

Ethan Mars, one of the game's four main protagonists

The “acting” is lifelike and realistic, having been created using motion capture techniques, although occasionally you do get the uncanny valley effect where they look somewhat artificial and creepy – particularly for bit-part roles. There’s also plenty of what Jenny calls “the treadmill”, where characters walking up against a wall continue to move as if they are still walking, but go nowhere. As a seasoned gamer I’d never have noticed this if she hadn’t pointed it out. Otherwise, the graphics are as real as you’re ever likely to see, and both characters and scenery are amazingly detailed.

A "quick time event" scene

Besides the story and the graphics, another major improvement that this game has over Fahrenheit is in how the “quick time events” (button presses during action sequences) no longer appear in the dead centre of the screen, obscuring the action and forcing the player’s focus away from the action. Instead, indicators appear near the action itself – throw a punch, and the icon appears next to – and moves around along with – the character’s arm. It both looks and feels intuitive, as well as greatly contributing to the immersion – like when the character is agitated or nervous the icons will twitch and quiver, or when the character is confused many thoughts will be swimming around his or her head.

The other thing that bears mentioning is that there is no way to save – it automatically locks in your progress as you reach certain milestone events, which means no going back if you did something you regret. This forces you to think through decisions very carefully, because if you make a mistake you can’t simply reload (to a certain degree anyway. You can restart the scene again if you’re quick enough to catch it before the next automatic save point). Just another way that the game forces you to build an emotional commitment to the story (in a good way).

Because of your emotional attachment to the character, some scenes, like this one in the shopping mall, can be quite traumatic...

This isn’t gaming like you remember it. It’s very adult, containing graphic violence, nudity coarse language and strong adult themes. I’m not talking about the stylisted graphical violence like that of the God of War series for example. Because these are realistic events happening to realistic people in realistic settings, they hit much closer to home. Jenny even thought that because of the player involvement, some who are susceptible might even suffer vicarious trauma when things happen to their on-screen alter-ego. This isn’t something that cinema will ever have to deal with, because there’s always a clear distinction between the movie and the audience.

There’s an easy segue here into the discussion about both whether video games are art as well as the relationship between video games and real-life violence, which only goes to reinforce my earlier point about why I believe this game will play pivotal role in the history of the medium. Those aside, Heavy Rain is a truly exceptional experience that anybody in any way serious about gaming must not miss out on.

That's a really awkward pose...

As Hollywood continues to plunder the intellectual property goldmine of video games and doing a shoddy job of it, let me try to stem the tide of negative perception by showing you the richness of the source material.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, will be released some time around May, and if the trailer‘s anything to go by, it’s not going to be very good. That’s a huge shame, because the game of the same name was actually very good. Besides a novel new game mechanic (the ability to “rewind time”), Sands of Time reimagined the prince from the 80′s game and turned him a gritty, witty character. Add a decent storyline with a compelling twist, and some gorgeous visuals, and you have a game that spawned two sequels, with yet another one in the works.

The "prince" and Elika

In 2008, the series was rebooted yet again with the release of the rather inconveniently titled Prince of Persia. I’m gonna dwell a little here, since this post is also going to serve as a review for the game. Here, we have an entirely new prince who is not really a prince at all, but a vagabond and thief who gets caught up in the plight of a (real) princess, Elika, and her people the Ahura.

The prince’s gravity-defying acrobatics make a welcome return, but this time he has Elika as his constant companion and helper, using her magic to help the prince perform feats beyond his normal abilities and saving him from death (yes, which means that you can never die in this game). While you never get to control Elika directly, she’s always present, and it’s amazing to see how they interact, both in terms of the banter between them as the game progresses as well as how the game handles situations where the characters need to move around each other in the environment. It’s hard to describe but a joy to watch, and is – in my opinion – an astonishing feat of game design.

I also really appreciated the cel-shaded art style and the beautifully designed levels featuring an open-ended level design that allowed you to traverse the entire game world seamlessly, although certain areas have to be unlocked before you can reach them. Sadly, this is the one area where the game faltered: getting to certain areas requires the use of energy “plates” which result in pointless wandering through the environment (whether jumping, flying or running), along a predetermined path which is often quite ridiculous – e.g. flying huge loops around the whole and having to avoid obstacles, when the destination was very close by in the first place.

The success of any fictional work relies on the ability of the storyteller to get their audience to become emotionally attached to the characters and the story, and Prince of Persia managed to do that as well as any movie that I’ve seen or book that I’ve read. In spite of the limitations presented by the non-linear game design, and as long as you take the time to activate the optional dialogue, you get to learn a lot about both the Prince and Elika, what drives and motivates them and their respective strengths and failings. After I finished the game I had a lingering desire to see the characters again (which is why partly why I’m playing through the game a second time).

Shame how unlikely it is that the movie will generate the same kind of feeling. In that regard, I strongly recommend that you have a go at the games before seeing the movie so that your first experience of the franchise is a positive one.

Woohoo! A new 2D Mario game!

It took me a couple of months, but I finally finished New Super Mario Bros: Wii (all coins on all levels) and had a fantastic time to boot. That’s no mean feat, since I’ve been playing Mario games since the first Super Mario Bros on the NES. The fact that Nintendo has been able to keep this franchise alive, fresh and relevant for 25 years is an amazing achievement that could be too easily overlooked.

While technically an expanded version of the original New Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo DS, NSMBW features new power-ups such as the propeller and penguin suits, and a vastly improved game mechanic, including the ability to save at any time, rather than only when you complete a castle or spend coins, and the removal of the branching world system so that you don’t miss out on significant chunks of the game because you don’t have the skill to complete the level as tiny Mario or something.

The control system is fairly basic: you hold the Wii Remote sideways and use the d-pad and the 1 and 2 buttons to grab/run and jump. Shaking the controller while Mario is in mid-air will make him do a little spin that causes him to hover in the air just a teeny-weeny fraction longer – it’s hard to underestimate how important this little move is! Occasionally, the tilt function will also be called upon to affect certain parts of the environment, such as the angle or direction of a platform.

Each of the 8 main worlds (and 1 secret world) is based around usual themes like fire, ice, sky, jungle, etc. As an old-school fan, I took great delight in seeing levels pay homage to previous Mario games, from the flying airship levels to the little yapping piranha plants, it’s like getting towards retirement age and discovering that your wonderful wife has suddenly turned into a sexy teenage version of herself, and everything that you love about her has become new and exciting all over again (sorry if that analogy sounds a bit creepy!)

Many little touches like those above show Nintendo’s minute attention to detail – they’re not just cranking these out to cash in on the character’s popularity and have really set out to create new and fun experiences. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is another feather in the cap for Nintendo, except that the cap is looking a lot like a full-blown American Indian headdress!

I gotta say though, World 9-7 is the work of the devil.

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Related posts: It’s-a me, Charles Martinet (on cyberseraphic)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the Nintendo DS doesn’t fall too far from the tree anyway, since within its interactive nature lurks a linear narrative. It’s not exactly a recent release either, considering that it was originally released in Japan way back in 2001 (isn’t it funny that the early 2000′s seem so long ago now?) More recently, it was updated for Nintendo’s new touchscreen platform and translated into English. The game consists of 5 loosely inter-related cases, where the eponymous lawyer must outwit his opponent and out the truth.

The graphics are simplistic, with each character having only a few frames of animation to show emotions such as triumph, remorse, shock, etc. The bulk of the storytelling is left to the dialogue, which is surprisingly competent, even with some of the lines and jokes which must have been quite difficult to translate well from the original Japanese version.

It should be no surprise that the experience is nothing like a real courtroom trial. Progressing through the game is mostly a matter of deduction, matching up various clues with holes in the witness testimonies and calling them out as “Objections”. Sometimes the game’s linear nature can make for frustrating play, as what might seem logical isn’t expected to unfold until later in the storyline and you’re left to figure out exactly what it is that you’re supposed to be discovering.

I found the stories just entertaining enough to keep me plodding through the game structure, but I could see how others might prefer to just read their stories unfettered by a game mechanic that, ultimately, is designed to impeded progress. If that’s you, maybe you should just stick with books. Then again, this game is nearing 10 years old – an eternity in the medium, and newer titles in the series (including a follow-on starring a different lawyer, Apollo Justice) may have improved on the forumla. Well worth picking up if you can find it on the cheap, purely for the novelty value of yelling “Objection!” into your DS and getting a reaction.