Titan Quest Review

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Release Date: March 20, 2018
Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Black Forest Games
Price: $29.99

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Titan Quest is a loot-gathering dungeon crawler that was first released on PC in 2006 and was one of the main contenders up against Diablo 2. Titan Quest, and it’s expansion ‘Immortal Throne’, were both critically amazing games and ranked up there with the best of the games within the genre.  Fast forward to today, Titan Quest has been released on current gen consoles, but can it hold up to its success from 2006?

The story in Titan Quest is pretty good.  The Titans once ruled the primordial darkness before the Olympian Gods appeared and thus begun the great war. The Titans were all exiled and imprisoned whilst the Olympians ushered in a golden age all across the mortal realm. Sometime later, three smaller Titans called Telkines had managed to break the communications conduit the Olympians held between the immortal and mortal realm and thus, summoned hordes of creatures to terrorise the humans and prepared the release of the mighty Titans.

You take control of a character, which you can only customize by sex and color of their tunic, who is learning of these events. You begin by running into enemies terrorizing a horse in a field, but before you know it you will be battling with hordes of enemies across all of the land.  Through your journey, you will travel to Egypt, China, Greece and Olympus. You will encounter many different creatures of the underworld as well as mighty Titans and even Olympic Gods.

As with most games released on PC only in this genre, they were originally controlled by keyboard and mouse.  Having multiple menus and interfaces may be difficult to map onto a controller, but Black Forest Games did a great job of mapping these controls without causing too much confusion.  Navigating to the different menus is pretty smooth and easy to learn.  However, the basic movement controls of your character are not as smooth.  Pressing the stick slightly in one direction or another moves your character quite drastically, making precision movement very difficult. 

Another issue I have with the controls is that you cannot choose who you are attacking, you are simply locked onto the nearest enemy.  I found myself in multiple situations where I wanted to attack a distant enemy first with my bow, but was not able to because other enemies were closer.

Another question most people have about a game first released in 2006 that is re-released in 2018 is how well do the graphics look?  Titan Quest was remastered with updated graphics and it looks pretty good.  While you can’t move the camera around, you can zoom in and out and when zoomed in you can see the great detail put into remastering the visuals.  All of the models look very good both zoomed in and out.  

Being a loot-gathering game, there are a vast array of weapons and armor which you can pick up off dead bodies, find in chests and buy from the merchants.  With that said, most of these are purely stat-increases and don’t really make a huge difference in combat.  There is a decent selection but you will find yourself with multiple duplicate items.

Titan Quest can be played single player or online co-op with up to 6 people.  Unfortunately, there is no local co-op, which is a real bummer.  However, the online play works very well and is a lot of fun.  

Overall, Titan Quest is a good remaster of the 2006 original.  Fans of the original will likely enjoy the remaster, as long as they can get over the wonky movement controls.  Others that enjoy loot-gathering dungeon crawlers may enjoy Titan Quest, but they should understand that it is a remaster of a 12 year old game before jumping in.  

Pros

• Nicely remastered textures and environments
• Menu system and UI remapping were done very well
• Entertaining storyline

Cons

• Movement controls are not very fluid
• Cannot choose enemy to lock onto
• No local co-op (online only)

Thank you to Black Forest Games for providing us a copy to review on PS4.

Strikers Edge Review

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Release Date: January 30, 2018
Platform(s): PS4*, Steam PC
Developer: Fun Punch Games
Price: $14.99

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Strikers Edge, developed by Fun Punch Games, is basically a game of Dodgeball with weapons combined with classic arcade visuals and sound. Two or four players are put in an arena that is divided down the middle and contains barricades, which can be broken.  Depending on the characters chosen, players throw swords, axes, arrows and more at their opponents to try to eliminate them.  The gameplay is extremely simple, you control your character with the left analog stick and aim with the right. Players can also dodge, block and use a special attack. The action is very fast-paced and can get quite intense.  

Each character offers slightly different movesets, but the only way to learn each one is simply by playing as each character.  While there is a tutorial that shows the basics of the game, there is no training mode that allows you to practice.  With that said, there is a campaign mode that contains a storyline for each character.  These storylines are pretty thin, but it helps make the  somewhat repetitive single player mode a little more enjoyable.  

Multiplayer is where Strikers Edge really shines and playing with others is a much more enjoyable experience than facing the AI over and over. Online multiplayer features cross-play with the PC version, but finding an opponent can take a while. The online matches I played were quite fun, but there was definitely some noticeable lag, which is a bit of a problem in a game that has you aiming precise shots and second guessing your adversary's movements.

Local multiplayer is definitely the best experience.  Playing with 4 players on the couch, throwing, dodging, blocking and yelling at each other can get pretty hectic and fun.  I played several matches that had everyone in the room watching and yelling as me and my foe were both down to our last bit of energy and one of us would dodge just before getting hit.  Moments like that are what makes Strikers Edge fun.  Unfortunately, after a few matches, it does get a little repetitive and old.  Strikers Edge is very light on content, with only four arenas in which to fight and very few modes to try. The stages alter things slightly with different obstacles and hazards, but you'll quickly grow tired of them. 

Overall, Strikers Edge is a good, fun couch multiplayer game. The pixel art style and sound are almost perfect for this type of game since there is so much going on at all times.  The controls are easy and fluid, but the gameplay gets boring after a little while.  Having more modes, such as a free-for-all, as well as more variety in arenas would be a great addition.  With improvements, I could see this being a big multiplayer game.

Pros
Local multiplayer is lots of fun
Unique characters
Pixel art style fits the game very well

Cons
Gets repetitive after a short time
Lacks content
Campaign lacks depth

A special thanks goes out to Fun Punch Games for providing us with a review copy on the PS4.

Rive: Ultimate Edition Review

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Release Date: November 17, 2017
Developer: Two Tribes
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Price: $14.99

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Rive: Ultimate Edition is a 2D twin-stick shooter in which you play as Roughshot, a scavenger trapped in a vast, dilapidated ship from which you must escape. You’ll embark on your adventure in a Spidertank, a walking/flying hybrid ship that fittingly looks like a spider. Using your Spidertank, you’ll need to find your way out while taking out all kinds of enemies and collecting scrap metal they leave behind, while dying quite often. Thankfully you come across checkpoints quite often because you’ll need these checkpoints, considering the amount of times you will die. Most enemies you encounter don’t do a whole lot of damage, but the amount of enemies that come at you at any given time can be overwhelming and take total concentration to avoid their attacks.

The main campaign in Rive: Ultimate Edition offers 12 missions, each with worldwide and friend leaderboards.  There are also a few other modes and options to keep you coming back for more, such as single credit mode where you do not get any continues.  There is also a unique co-op multiplayer mode where each person takes control of one aspect of the ship. One person will control movement and the other will man the gun, alternating after each death.  I found this mode to be quite fun with friends and family.

The core gameplay and mechanics of moving, jumping and shooting are very fluid and smooth, and even though the rigid difficulty can be frustrating at times, I always found myself jumping back in for more.  Unlike most shooters of this genre, you won’t find random upgrades in the environment and then lose them upon dying. Instead, you use the loot you find by destroying enemies to permanently unlock four different abilities by purchasing them after completing missions.  Each upgrade has situations when they work best, such as the shotgun blasts are great for tight corridors with hordes of enemies.  Homing missiles are solid for more open areas where enemies are spread out. These abilities should be used wisely as each one can only be used once before you need to find more ammo.  In addition to upgrading your abilities, you can also boost your ships armor and range in which it gathers ammo. However, the most unique ability is the ability to hack. Early on you’ll hack computers to open paths for you to continue pushing forward, but eventually gain the option to hack certain enemies. These range from heal bots to literal trains.

Visually, Rive: Ultimate Edition look fantastic and runs at a smooth 60FPS in 1080p when docked and 720p in handheld mode.  Even with all of the hectic action happening on the screen at once, I never noticed any slow down.  The environments both inside and outside of the ship look sharp and detailed.

Rive: Ultimate Edition is a very fun, albeit difficult, twin-stick platformer/shooter.  While the difficulty can be mildly frustrating, I found myself wanting to play more and more, rather than giving up.  For $14.99 on the Nintendo eShop, it is a steal!

Pros
Solid, fluid gameplay
Fantastic graphics with no dips in framerate
Tons of fun

Cons
Mildly frustrating difficulty
Could use more upgrades

A special thank you to Two Tribes for providing us a review copy of Rive: Ultimate Edition.

Death Squared Review

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Release Date: March 13, 2017 (PC, Xbox One, PS4), July 13, 2017 (Switch)
Developer: SMG Studio
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch (Reviewed)
Price: $14.99

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Death Squared has a pretty straight-forward concept. You control between two and four colored cubes and have to guide each of them to their goal marker without letting any of them die. Cubes can trigger buttons that match their color, which can open paths and make changes to the level layout, and/or trigger additional hazards that may affect the path of to the other cube’s goals.

There is no real story to Death Squared, only some minor dialogue between levels.  Speaking of the levels, they start out fairly easy and basic.  Some of the later levels can be very, very difficult.   While there is no real story to the game, there is a lab technician that provides some random dialogue as you play.  Not only does he speak, he also gets more and more frustrated with you the more you die.  Every now and then he will even do something to amuse himself, such as reversing your controls or spawning dozens of cubes, just to keep you on your toes. The game also keeps a running tally of how many times you've failed, rubbing it in each time you die. It can get quite irritating, but it is fun nonetheless.

When it comes to controls, you can play the game by yourself by controlling each cube by using one analogue stick for each cube.  If you are playing with more than 2 cubes, you use the shoulder buttons to switch between cubes. I found it much more fun to give the second joycon to another player and work “cooperatively” to figure out the levels.  The coop play in Death Squared reminded me a lot of Snipperclips.  Both games require communication and patience, as well as plenty of yelling back and forth.

Every hazard is color coded, and cubes are immune to traps of their own color. For example, a red cube can block a red laser, allowing a blue cube to pass by.  The levels can be thought out and played at your own pace, which is nice. You can move as slowly as you like to try and anticipate the hazards, as well as analyze and figure out a strategy to each level before you even make a move.

The graphics and design are very well done. Levels are crisp and easy to read.  There are optional cosmetic decorations for every cube, and you can collect more patterns by finding them in secret areas throughout story mode.

There’s 80 two cube levels, 40 four cube levels and then you can also unlock the vault, which is a collection of super tough puzzles that show no mercy.  The number of levels in Death Squared provide lots of replayability, especially when playing with a group of people.  It can be fun to see what group, or team, can finish a level the quickest, as well as see what various types of strategies everyone comes up with.  The Switch’s JoyCons make it even easier to pass the game around and have some fun.  Speaking of JoyCons, the game runs equally as smooth in both docked and handheld modes.  I noticed little to no difference between the two.   

Death Squared can be fun by yourself, but it’s even better with some friends.  Anyone that enjoyed multiplayer, cooperative puzzlers, such as Snipperclips, will enjoy Death Squared.  

Pros
Great cooperative gameplay
Crisp, detailed level design
Lots of levels, providing lots of replayability

Cons
Can get too difficult for some

Thank you to SMG Studios for providing us with a review copy.

Toby: The Secret Mine Review (Xbox One)

In Toby: The Secret Mine, developed by Lukas Navratil and published by Headup Games, players control Toby, who races through levels and solves puzzles in an attempt to save his friends that have been held captive by a mysterious species. Unfortunately, players will do little more over the course of this 2D puzzle-platformer than solve puzzles and execute simple platforming segments.

The gameplay in Toby: The Secret Mine is very straight-forward and simple. Anyone that has ever played a platformer should be able to pick up this game and play it.  Controls are very simple and that is not a criticism against the game. I usually don’t complain about a game being too simple as long as it doesn’t get too repetitive. This is where Toby lacks. After getting about half way through the games 21 levels, which you can complete in a day or less if you try, I began getting bored and tired of the same types of puzzles and levels. As stated above, you must save as many of your friends, whom are trapped in cages throughout the levels.  Unfortunately, there is no indication on how many of these friends are in each level or how many you have left to find, so it can be hard to find them all.

The graphics in Toby: The Secret Mine are by far the game’s biggest strength. The Limbo-esque visuals are amazing and change enough between levels to help keep the game fresh and interesting, at least for awhile. Backgrounds look amazing and the use of effects and lighting are honestly some of the best I’ve seen in platform games.  

Overall, Toby: The Secret Mine is a short, decent platformer. It is available on the Xbox Store for $9.99. I’m not sure I would spend the $10 on this game, unless you are really wanting a short platformer to play through. The puzzles are way too easy and repetitive and there is no real storyline to keep players engaged. There are plenty of other similar platformers out there that are better.

2/5

Spareware Review (Xbox One)

Spareware on Xbox One, developed by Rusto Games, is a twin-stick shooter with light RPG mechanics with player leveling, skill trees and a unique cell management system.  At first glance you might assume you just try to survive as long as possible against hordes of enemies. While you wouldn’t be completely wrong, you’d be overlooking the surprising amount of depth to the game.  With 4 player local multiplayer, it becomes even more fun, just try to avoid shooting your fellow comrades.

The story of Spareware is pretty simple; It’s the year 2186.  The environment has turned destructive and humans now live in protective city domes. Robots are rebelling against humans and that’s about it. Gain new abilities and destroy any human that stands in your way. Nothing special, but it does the job.

Before playing each level, the player can equip new gear in five categories: head, torso, left arm, right arm, and feet. At the beginning of the game you won’t have many options, as most of the gear is locked. You can collect new gear throughout the game, but if you die, you will lose everything. You can unlock gear permanently by earning achievements, a decision by the developers that I found interesting.  For most players, it will become a priority to earn these achievements to unlock gear permanently. Each piece of gear will increase your stats in some way, whether it be speed, strength, magazine capacity, etc.

Every level has objectives, such as: collect an item, destroy an electric barrier, or reach the level exit. Standing in your path are hordes of human enemies wielding guns, bats and riot shields that would love to turn you into scrap metal. Leveling up earns ability points that you can use to upgrade your robot. There are passive abilities such as extra health and faster movement; or you can spend on active abilities such as mines, invincibility, or even saw-drones that circle the player and slice enemies into scrap human.

Players also need to collect cells in each level. In some ways this is more important than anything else. All of the gear you collect requires cells to equip, with typically the better gear and weapons requiring more cells. Cells are earned by destroying cars and picking up the blue cells that drop. You also are credited the cell value of any gear not destroyed at the end of the level. As you take damage you will slowly break down, piece by piece starting with the head. If your guns happen to be destroyed, you can pick up new ones laying around the level.

The graphics, sound and music are all fairly generic. Like most twin stick shooters, you play from a top-down perspective. The graphics are cel-shaded graphics that are not very detailed. Pretty much every stage takes place in the same city environment, which is a big disappointment.  The music is as very plain and generic soundtrack, and it tends to repeat itself quite a bit. The sound effects are nothing spectacular but they get the job done.

I found the controls to be quite responsive and well laid out. You control your character with the left stick and aim with the right stick. Shooting is done with the left and right triggers.  Manual reloading is performed with the left and right bumpers respectively as well. Active perks such as bombs or drones can be mapped to the X, Y or B buttons. There is also a transparent map that can be called up and kept on screen using the D-pad.

While I can deal with most of the issues in the game, there is one that bothers me most, friendly fire. Yes, that is right, friendly fire.  As if there is not enough going on with 4 players and tons of enemies, throw avoiding friendly fire in as another thing to accomplish.   You might think, well I will just disable friendly fire.  Good idea, but there’s no way to turn off friendly fire.  At least you can revive fallen enemies, but the option to turn friendly fire off would be nice.

Overall, Spareware is a decent twin stick shooter that is fun with buddies, just don’t shoot each other, unless they deserve it.  It is available on Xbox One via the Microsoft Store for $9.99.

2/5

Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge Review

Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge is a retro-style action-platformer developed by Renegade Kid.  I haven’t had a chance to play the previous Mutant Mudd game, so keep that in mind. The story, as well as most other features of the game, is fairly minimal. Players play as Max and Max receives special intel, revealing the location of the original meteor impact site and the fact that mutant mudds are still being spawned from it. Max sets out from a secret hideout in the jungle to locate the meteor and destroy it for good.

The graphics in Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge are really good considering the style of the game. For the most part, the levels and enemies look great. It appears to be a fun, family friendly game, although the gameplay may tell you differently.  The game also features a depth-of-field effect used which allows the character to move to different layers. Any other layers are blurred just enough to pull the focus to the one where your character resides, but not enough that you cannot make out the dangers and pitfalls should you find a jump pad.  I found this feature to add quite a bit to the gameplay.

When it comes to gameplay, the Super Challenge in the title doesn’t steer your wrong.  The game is in fact super challenging.  Be prepared to die and die often.  Sometimes, it will happen slowly as your three hearts are extinguished by the Mutant Mudd, and other times it will be instantaneous, like when you are impaled on a shiny spike.  While trying to avoid these Mutant Mudds and shiny spikes, your main mission is to pick up gold tokens, one hundred of them per level to be exact.  Some are hidden behind walls with only a small crack revealing a glimpse of the treasure that lies in wait. You still have to find a way inside and some can be quite tricky.  As stated before, being able to jump into the background adds another layer of complexity to an already precise game.

While the game is very challenging, there are things along the way to help you out.  There are three different power-ups in each level, if you can find the secret room to equip them. The first is a power-shot, handy for clearing away doors blocking your way to secret places. Second, is an extended in-air hover. Last, there is the vertical boost at lets you rocket up into the air, once per jump.  You might need one or more of these power-ups to collect all the coins in each level. That means you need to revisit some levels more than once. One plus to this is that all the coins you collect each time stay will stay, as long as you reach the exit.  

If you are looking for a challenge and enjoy retro-style platformers, definitely check out Mutant Mudds: Super Challenge, but remember to be prepared to die, ALOT (the game even trolls you with a display of how many times you have died.)  It is available on PSN for $9.99 and is cross-buy with PS Vita.

4/5

Lost Sea Review

Lost Sea is a 3D strategy-action game, developed by EastAsiaSoft, that takes place inside a procedurally generated archipelago. Players must form a crew of survivors and explore the surrounding islands as they hunt for the necessary resources to upgrade their ship and escape the Bermuda Triangle.  

Lost Sea reminds me of some of the old-school action titles that you can pick up, play and beat in a few (3-4) hours. Players start off by choosing a character from a few choices, which include a mix of male and female characters. The only difference I could find in the characters is cosmetic, which is a little disappointing.  Some differences between the characters would have be nice for replay value.  The game starts off with your character getting stuck inside the Bermuda Triangle. Before long you find a machete and come upon a survivor that gives you a tutorial of the game. The entire first stage is a tutorial, which you can skip past and get to the other stages if you would like.

The game has five levels, or archipelagos, to explore that are split up into several islands that each lead to a boss fight. Players must lead their character through each stage and find stone tablets and survivors. These stone tablets are required to move on to other islands. Each stone tablet allows you to sail a certain number of islands through the archipelago and then you have to find more to continue on to other islands. Along with finding tablets, you will come across survivors. You can choose to have these survivors accompany your main character to provide assistance with hauling the tablets back to the dock area and also use one of their many skills, such as opening locked chests or repairing bridges, among other types of skills.

The graphics in Lost Sea are presented very well. The environments look great and is presented with a 3D top-down sort of view of your character, with the ability to move the camera with the right analog stick.  The environments are full of color and the characters are all unique. Every island you explore is randomly generated, so you'll never truly play the same island each time you play the game, but I found the islands to have features that seem to repeat quite often, such as the same bridges or arches.  Each archipelago have different types of environments, such as a desert island or a snow covered island, but as I stated, many of the features on these islands will be the same.  The randomness of each island make the game replayable, but I think it would be even better if there were more features instead of repeating features all of the time.

The gameplay in Lost Sea is very simple.  As I stated earlier, Lost Sea reminds me of some of the old-school action games from my childhood.  One of the main reasons this game brings back those memories is that there is very limited saving in the game. Upon dying and restarting, you get a certain amount of coins and experience based on your progress during your previous play-through. There is also a stage select where you can choose between which archipelago to start at based on the areas you have reached in a previous play-through. There are no in-progress save files, so you have to worry about dying and losing much of what you have. At some points of the game I wished there was a one-time save where you could stop playing and then pick up progress later, but the game is just the right length to not be a necessity.

The combat system in Lost Sea is simple, but effective.  As I mentioned before, while exploring the islands you will find fellow survivors that you can have join your crew.  While they are helpful in many ways, combat is not their strong suit.  Your crew members actually hide and cower in fear, instead of helping you in battle.  I found this to be a little irritating at times.

Overall, Lost Sea is a good game to pick-up and play when you have a few hours to spare and want to feel some nostalgia from the days of past when there was no saving your game and coming back later.  The game is fun and a great concept, I just wish the developers had put more environmental features in the game to avoid so many repetitions.  You can purchase Lost Sea for $14.99 on the PSN Store.

I give this game 3/5

The Magic Circle (PS4) Review

In today’s world of console gaming, it seems that a majority of games that come out are “broken” or unfinished.  Developers have to push out patches at, or shortly after, launch to fix glitches and bugs and have to continue pushing out these patches for a good amount of time after the game has released.

Developer Question took this practice of releasing unfinished games to a whole new level with their game The Magic Circle.  In The Magic Circle, you are the hero of an unfinished fantasy game. You have all of the powers the developers of this game have, including the ability to trap their creations and reprogram their behaviors and swap their body parts.  This allows you to uniquely solve puzzles and make your way through the game, ultimately finishing and “releasing” it, being as creative as you want.  

In The Magic Circle, you have no weapons or ways to attack, so when you are attacked by one of the many monsters in the game, you have to trap them and change their code to make them your allies, which makes them follow you.  Doing this makes for highly flexible interaction with a simple interface. You can make one creature enemies with another and have them battle it out, or make every creature your ally with no enemies and have a huge army following you.  With this being said, there are puzzles to solve and obstacles to overcome, many which require some creativity without much help from the game. This makes for a nice ‘Aha-experience’  when you realize what you can do to solve some of these puzzles.

The graphics in The Magic Circle fit the game very well.  It contains a nice open-world style map that really gives off the unfinished look.  The soundtrack really keeps the game interesting and gives you an idea what it is like to work on a game development team.  The “developers” of the game, represented by floating eyeballs, are working on the game as you play.  Most of their work amounts to them bickering loudly with each other, which you might expect in a game about an unfinished game. The “developers” joke about crowdfunding, development, game tropes and media, providing some insightful and funny observations on those fronts.

I’ve always been interested in game programming and development and The Magic Circle gave me a very unique perspective on the topic.  I found it fairly easy to pick up and go and the “programming interface” of the objects in the game is simple but very flexible.  I found it very entertaining to try different methods of solving puzzles.  Overall, I found The Magic Circle to be very unique, fun and entertaining.

4/5

1 Up Box - January 2016

I recently got subscriptions to 1 Up Box, Loot Crate and Arcade Block, which are all boxes that get delivered to your door each month and are filled with nerdy and gaming related items.  I will be posting unboxing articles each month of each service to give our viewers an idea of the items that each service sends out.  

The first box that I received for January 2016 is the 1 Up Box.  1 Up Box costs roughly $20, including shipping.  If you are interested in subscribing, click here.

Each 1 Up Box has a unique theme and this month's theme is Legends.  Now let's check out January 2016's 1 Up Box!

Every 1 Up Box contains a T-Shirt, which you specify the size you would like when you subscribe.  The shirt I received is a bit smaller than normal, so if you are going to subscribe, I would recommend choosing a size larger than you normally do.  This month's t-shirt is a "Pugs of Legend" shirt.  It is a pretty cool shirt that features pugs dressed as game characters.

The next item in the box is a Deadpool "Dorbz" vinyl figure.  Just in time for the Deadpool movie!

Next, we have a patch featuring Link from The Legend of Zelda.  This would look pretty cool on a gaming backpack or something.

The next item in the January 2016 1 Up Box is a "Zero to Hero Coffee" koozie.  This will work great to keep my beer, I mean beverages, nice and cold.

Next, we have a Super Mario mystery dog tag.  This is the same mystery bag that you can find in stores such as Wal-Mart and Gamestop.  I got a Koopa dog tag.  There are rare gold tags that you can get and each pack contains a dog tag, card and sticker.

And last, but not least we have a Valentine's Day card featuring Thor dressed up with his hammer.  It states "Whoever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess my love."  It's something kind of cool that I can give to one of my kids to give to a friend for Valentine's Day.

There you have January 2016's 1 Up Box.  It contained some pretty cool and interesting items.  If you are interested in subscribing, please use the link above!  Loot Crate and Arcade Block unboxings will be posted as soon as I receive them, so stay tuned!

Nihilumbra Review (Wii U)

Nihilumbra is an atmospheric puzzler/platformer developed by Beautifun Games.  In Nihilumbra, you control a strange creature that was created in (and escaped from) the “Void” to adventure through our world while running from the Void.  The story of this creature is told throughout each level by text that appears around the environment along with optional narration.  

The controls in Nihilumbra are very easy to use and the developers made great use of the touch screen on the Wii U’s gamepad.  The game is played much like a standard platformer, left and right move your character through the level and A and B make your character jump.  The L and R buttons change what “color” or ability you are using.  These colors are obtained throughout the game and allow you to do different things with the environment, such as using blue on the ground makes you move faster and green makes you bounce.

There are many different "colors" or abilities that you can use in Nihilumbra.

These colors play a major part in making Nihilumbra a great puzzle game. The puzzles start out pretty simple, such as using blue to move faster and jump further than normal to reach an area you couldn’t normally reach.  As you progress through the game, these puzzles get more difficult, which keeps the game interesting.  There were a few times that I had to take a step back and really look through a puzzle to figure out the solution.  These puzzles make the game different from most standard platformers and keeps it interesting.

The graphics in Nihilumbra are very nice.  They are very simple and dark and the previously mentioned narrative text does not distract you from what you are trying to do.  The backgrounds and environments are beautiful and very detail, which help make the movements and fluidity of the game wonderful. The sounds and music in Nihilumbra sound great and fit each level appropriately, which is essential in a platformer.

Overall, Nihilumbra is a great puzzler/platformer.  The graphics, controls and overall gameplay is wonderful and it is one of the best and most interesting platformers I have played in a long time.  The puzzles start out a little easy, but progress in difficulty and really make the game enjoyable.  You can download Nihilumbra now on the Wii U eshop for $9.99, and it is well worth it.

4/5

Funk of Titans (Xbox One) Review

Funk of Titans is a fast-paced, side-scrolling platformer developed and published by the indie group A Crowd of Monsters.  In Funk of Titans, you take control of Perseus, son of Zeus, and try to protect the Funk.  You will venture through 3 different "worlds", Pop, Rap and Rock, each with its own unique level style and Titans (bosses). 

Funk of Titans is a very fun and simple game, but can be very addicting.  The concept is simple, run through the many levels, pick up as many "vinyls" as you can, try to find the hidden Pegasus and make it to the finish.  I will explain what the vinyls and the Pegasus are used for later in this review.

The controls for this game are very simple.  You do not control the direction in which Perseus runs.  He runs all on his own, so there is no going back to grab any vinyls that you might have missed or to look for the Pegasus.  The A button is used to jump and B, Y or X can be used to attack.  It doesn't matter which attack button you use as every enemy takes only one attack to defeat it.  

Speaking of enemies, there are only a couple main types of enemies.  Enemies that wear white helmets can be attacked or jumped on for a boost.  At certain parts in almost every level, jumping on one of these enemies helps you get more vinyls or access certain parts of the level you cannot reach any other way.  There are also enemies with red, spiky helmets on.  These enemies must be attacked and cannot be jumped on.  Certain doors or barricades must be attacked to open and there are also spikes, fire and other obstacles that you must jump over in order to not take damage.  

When it comes to damage, there is no life meter or anything like that.  You can only take 2 hits of damage from any enemy or obstacle before you "die" and must start the level over.  After you take one hit of damage, you will become "naked".  Perseus loses his costume and continues running through the level. If there are any more hits from enemies or obstacles, you lose.  

The vinyls you save up from each level can be used in the "Shop". The Shop contains many different weapons and consumes you can use in the game.  Since it only takes one attack to defeat any enemies in levels, the different weapons don't make any difference when it comes to attacks.  In certain levels, you are required to have certain weapons equipped in order to break down doors that have Pegasus behind them.  This is about the only use the different weapons have. When it comes to costumes, they are mostly used for looks, not much else, except when wearing a certain costume for a set number of levels in a requirement in order to level up.

During the game you level Perseus up, which unlocks more weapons and costumes that become available in the Store.  In order to level up, you will be given 3 tasks that you must complete.  These tasks range from defeating a certain number of enemies to jumping at least a certain number of times in one level.  I found that there was a good variety of requirements to level up, which kept the game interesting.  

Whenever you find a Pegasus in a level, you get to play the Pegasus Bonus Round.  This mini-game is a "Flappy Bird" type game.  You hold down the A button to make Pegasus fly higher and let go to fly lower.  It is fast-paced and you have to try to fly as long as you can while picking up vinyls.  If you die during the level that you found the Pegasus, you have to get it again in order to play the bonus game.  I found the bonus game to be pretty fun and give the game as a whole some variety.  Finding all of the Pegasus' in the levels can be tough too.  

The "Worlds" in general remind me a lot of the Mario games.  Each world has a boss in the middle of the world and a Titan boss at the end, just like the Mario games that had the castles in the middle of the world and the big castle at the end.  In Funk of Titans, the boss battle in the middle of the world happens in a boxing ring.  The battle consists of a pretty easy quick-finger mini-game.  Once the battle starts, random buttons will appear on the screen and you have to press that button faster than the computer does.  The Titan boss levels are dance-offs.  When you enter the battle, the computer will do a dance and receive a score.  After that, it is your turn.  Buttons will randomly appear on the screen and once again you must press them before it's too late.  The Titan boss levels are a little harder than the middle, but I found both to be very easy.  I had no problem getting perfect scores on either of the mini-game boss battles.  

Most of the levels are pretty short.  You can pass most levels in 1-2 minutes.  I was able to complete the game in around 4 hours, but am going back through to perfect each level.  You can get up to 3 "awards" after each level.  One for completing the level without taking any damage, one for collecting at least 100 vinyls in the level and another for finding the Pegasus.  If you don't complete all 3, it will turn green and let you move on the the next level, but if you do the level will turn yellow.  Trying to "perfect" each level will keep you coming back for more. 

If you enjoy side-scrolling platformers and are looking for something different, try out Funk of Titans.  It can get a little repetitive at times, but the variety between levels is enough to keep it interesting.  It is definitely worth the $12.49 on the Xbox Live Store.  

I give the game 3.5/5

Funk of Titans Gameplay on Xbox One. Indie developer A Crowd of Monsters gave The Gamers Lounge a pre-release copy of Funk of Titans for review. Here is some gameplay from one of my play sessions. Sorry for the change in commentary volume. Will get that fixed in my next video.