Review: Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)

Street Fighter IV came out of nowhere, riding high upon a strong wave of retro-themed revitalisation, and reconnecting with the gaming public in a way absent from the series since the likes of Street Fighter Alpha on Saturn and PSone. The game managed to bring the franchise into the next-generation like no other 2D beat’em up has done before, combining lavish 3D visuals with old-style 2D collision box based gameplay, at the same time redefining just what this series was about. Capcom had succeeded in bringing back the series into the limelight when pretty much most of the community thought that they would fail to do so, and in a way that did the long running series proud.

Super Street Fighter IV then, isn’t so much a sequel or drastic upgrade to last years game. But instead delivers a small bag of tweaks and subtle rebalancing, along with a host of new and returning characters. New faces are joined with new backgrounds, special moves, and the most accessible, and in-depth version of Street Fighter IV yet. It’s no surprise that SSFIV isn’t a brand-new game, but merely an enhanced version of last years popular re-birth. And whilst many hardcore fans will be drooling over its release, everyone else may be left wondering what all the fuss is about.

However, it doesn’t really matter, as either way you slice it, SSFIV is perhaps the best game in the series since the hardcore Street Fighter III Third Strike, or for me, since SF Alpha 2 and 3.


Upon starting up the game, the first thing you will notice is the lack of that ‘indestructible’ theme tune (for better or worse?) along with a brand new intro sequence and cool looking ‘super’ title screen. The entire presentation has been given a lift despite being very similar to latest year’s original SFIV, with influences from past games showing themselves in the various menus and the ‘character select’ screen. This screen in particular, now looks like a cross between the one found in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, with the art direction of SFIII Third Strike, whereas in SFIV this very same screen seemed to be based on Alpha 2 and vanilla SFIII.

The small tweaks and homage’s don’t end there, with all the intro and ending movies for every character being completely redone from scratch, looking like they fit in a lot more closely to the actual character art used throughout the game. Their actual content though, is somewhat shorter, with each character’s story only giving you a glimpse at what is really going on. Of course the SF series has never been about the story, but instead the accessible and completely in depth gameplay, which has been a constant focus for all those who continue to be involved with the series.

All the biggest changes to Capcom’s latest are concealed largely under the hood, with various character specific tweaks and crucial balancing to ensure that no one fighter stands to have an overall unfair advantage against another. Sagat for example (SFIV’s highest tier character), has had his Tiger Uppercut damage reduced and has been made more of an ‘execution’ style character, reducing his overall top tier status inline with someone like Akuma, who has his easily exploitable ‘LP’ into ‘LK’ loop removed; Ryu has had his Shoryuken adjusted, now performing two hits instead of one when activated with a ‘heavy punch’; and Rufus has had his ‘EX snake’ damaged reduced.


There are many more things that have been changed, such as each character having two ‘Ultra moves’ instead of one (though some have three or four even), whilst reducing their overall damage done, in turn making the match less about building up to a giant combo-based endgame. Also of the two ‘Ultras’ that you have available (you can only select one for use in the fight), one is a longer-range offensive type, and the other is more for close-quarters use, mainly I suspect for defence or countering. The new cast of characters also are largely more offensive in their play style than many of the ones found in SFIV, creating a balanced roster of offensive and defensive types.

From these and the other subtle tweaks, you get the idea that, as a game, Super SFIV is the most finely tuned and well-balanced instalment in the series so far. Sure there might be a few fans who think their favourite character is a little underpowered or low down the rankings, but by and large there is at this point in time, very little to complain about. Also, from the dozens of matches that I’ve played online, I can solidly say that the few complaints about some of the characters exploiting certain moves for a guaranteed effect is no longer an issue, instead being more about your own ability to deal with them.


Coming to the fray, a total of ten new characters have entered the world of SFIV. Two of which are completely new creations for this game, whilst the other eight are pulled right out from previous instalments in the franchise. Taking the spotlight is both Hakan and Juri, new to SFIV; backed up by Makoto, Ibuki, and Dudley from SFIII; Guy, Cody and Adon from SF Alpha; and lastly T. Hawk and Dee Jay from SSFII.

Every one of these characters are pretty much unique creations which play differently from the rest of the cast. Although some comparisons can be made between, for example, Dudley and Balrog are both boxers, but with very different styles that are instantly apparent when you see them in motion. The good news is that unlike in SFIV, all of these and the original cast are available right from the get go.

Out of all the new additions, it’s Hakan and Juri which are of the most interest however, especially Hakan, whose fighting style is unlike any other I’ve ever encountered in a fighting game, 2D or otherwise. Hakan is the video gaming worlds first Turkish oil wrestler, a slow beast with the ability to quickly slide around the ground smashing into his intended target, before then squeezing every last drop of life from their lungs. Everything he does is at first the cause of much hilarity, although he can be deadly in the right hands.

The second newcomer, Juri, a quick and very nimble fighter, is also somewhat different from what we’ve had before. Plenty of aerial kicks and multi-directional fireballs make up her arsenal, many moves being well suited for quick countering potential. In particular her entire repertoire seems to be based upon the game of surprise, with her moves making it difficult for her opponents to know what to expect. Her fireball, for example can be stored after being activated for later use against an opponent. All you need to be able to do is to keep one of the ‘kick’ buttons held down, and then unleashed that little present for your opponent.


There’s no need to explain the rest of the bunch, as I suspect that anyone reading this should be familiar with past Street Fighter instalments. If not, then I’ll just say that you have here some of the most diverse and most rounded bunch of characters to appear in a fighting game. Each one seems to have been well balanced against the rest, and some who were a little too powerful in SFIV have been toned down, just ever so slightly, making things even more level than before.

With 35 characters in total, there’s plenty of familiar faces and some newcomers to learn and master, all of which should keep hardcore fans playing for a long time online, and casual gamers at with a lot of variety to hold their interest.

Other than the inclusion of new characters and a re-balancing of the underlying game engine, the biggest change comes in the same of Super SFIV’s online modes, and ranking points system. In the original SFIV your overall rank was determined by how many battle points you had, and this went up or down depending on if you were winning or losing matches regardless of which character you decided to choose. Whilst it easily showed off who was the overall best at the game, it also meant that a huge amount of people playing online never changed the character they were using. Instead people refused to experiment online, and that resulted in many fights against similar characters in most ranked matches.


For Super SFIV Capcom have introduced a dual points system, one tied directly to individual characters (Battle Points) and one used to determine the players overall skill level (Player Points). This means that although your ‘Player Points’ changes when you win or lose with different characters, your ‘Battle Points’ for other characters does not, allowing you to experiment knowing that your best characters will still have their high ratings but simply at the expense of your overall player rating, if you aren’t so good with some of the others.

Put simply, this new system works brilliantly and certainly gives you the opportunity to try out different characters online against other players without ruining all of your ratings. Both ‘Player Point’ and ‘Battle Points’ are visible on the game’s leaderboards, letting you see how you fare against others, whilst also providing a solid system for high-level players to keep track of how well they are doing. It’s a system which feels like a natural progression from the one started in SFIV, and the best to grace any fighting game to date.


There is of course, a lot more to Super SFIV’s online game than just standard ranked matches, you also have the option of Endless battle and Team Battle too, both bulking out the non-ranked match options available. The Team Battle option sees you matched up for some 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 action, allowing you to watch the other opponents matches as you wait for yours to arrive.

Endless Battle on the other hand, basically replaces the Player Match option from the last game, instead queuing you up with a series of other players in a ‘winner stays on’ type scenario, just like if you were waiting inline in an actual arcade for a match. As a replacement for the standard Player Match option though, it’s mildly disappointing as you have to wait for a few other matches to finish before you take your turn, making this a poor substitute for online practice before going into proper ranked battles. It is pretty cool however, if you want to observe other players and learn more about the game engine, seeing how people play characters in a completely different way to how you expect.

Also, for those of you who like to watch a bit of SF rather than just playing all the time, there is a fully featured Replay Channel option available, which gives you access to loads of online match replays from round the world. Everything from high ranking matches to beginner bouts are available, complete with the ability to slow-down the replay speed and the option to display damage numbers to get an idea on which moves and combos are most effective in high end battles. This of course completes and complements the more developed nature of the online modes in Super SFIV, though strangely the rather excellent Championship Mode from the original SFIV is missing, with Capcom instead electing to deliver a Tournament Mode of sorts to Super SFIV later next month (15th June we have been told).


Outside of the online modes and play, you also have Arcade, Versus, Training and Challenge Mode. Both Survival and Time Attack are noticeable by their absence, although instead, you can now play both the car and barrel bashing bonus games in a separate mode selectable from the main menu screen. Other than that, there is little for the solitary player to do outside of the Arcade and revised Challenge mode. Instead, it certainly seems that with these changes, that Super SFIV is definitely calling you into its world of fast-paced online action. Now that’s not such a bad thing, since most of your time spent will be playing against others online, and really, this multiplayer focus has always been the series meat and potatoes.

Lastly, you might also be wondering about the bonuses that Capcom had promised for players that purchased last year’s SFIV and this new ‘Super’ instalment. Well, this basically amounts to two different special effect costumes available for use on any of the characters to be found in the game. Rather than kitting out the fighters in new threads, these options make the character models look a lot more the ones seen in the game’s intro sequence. A nice touch, but we could have expected at least a little more, like extra ones of those pre-order costumes that will no doubt be available for purchase later on down the line.


With all that said and done, thumbs blistered, arcade stick broken back in again, Super Street Fighter IV is perhaps the best fighting game available this generation, 2D or otherwise. It is easily accessible to beginners and casual fans, whilst being filled with enough depth to allow a degree of mastery that only a select few players around the world will ever reach. You only have to look at the huge list of unique characters, lovingly crafted visuals, and beautifully polished game engine to know that Capcom have once again come up with something special.

However, what we have here isn’t a completely new game, and many casual owners of last years SFIV are unlikely to find enough new content to justify its purchase. That of course was always going to be the case. But whereas last year’s SFIV was squarely aimed at everyone, with the hope of bringing back the franchise into the limelight, Super is aimed at the regular franchise devotees and casual fans looking for more traditional 2D beat’em up action – and boy do they get it.

Overall, Super SFIV doesn’t redefine the boundaries of modern day 2D fighters like the previous release did. Instead, Capcom have gone back and subtly re-worked what many consider to be modern day pinnacle of the genre (myself included), and have created what can only be described as the most finely tuned, well balanced, accessible and wholly exciting fighting game available on any of today’s current crop of consoles. Street Fighter IV was merely the catalyst, an opener to restart the mighty Capcom fighting game production line. Super SFIV is the continuation, and an essential purchase for fans, hardcore players, or anyone who missed out on the previous release.

VERDICT: 9/10

Review: Samurai Shodown Sen (360)

This isn’t the first time that SNK have gone down the 2D into 3D fighting game route. They have done the very same thing numerous times before, once in the mid nineties with the launch of their Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade board, and a second time a few years back with King Of Fighters Maximum Impact for the PS2 and later on for the 360. Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury both made an appearance on the Hyper Neo Geo 64 in Japanese arcades, and whilst maintaining the very familiar gameplay of the 2D instalments, neither series in 3D reached anywhere near the quality or popularity of the original Neo Geo games.

Samurai Shodown Sen (or just Sen) is the latest folly in the new SNK’s revitalised plans for their hit franchises, a spin off which not only adds another dimension to the proceedings, but also a different style of gameplay as well. It’s hard not to cast down an early judgement against Sen for doing such a thing, considering the less than stellar quality of SNK’s other 3D versions of popular titles. But sadly, my initial gut feeling was utterly correct. Samurai Shodown Sen isn’t a particularly good game at all. In fact it is decided average in most respects, and poor in others, being playable, just about, but at the same time completely forgettable in every way.

First impressions are rather poor. Graphically the game looks very much like a last-gen title briefly polished over in order to justify a 360 release. The conversion is perfect from the game’s original Taito Type X2 arcade release, though that isn’t exactly saying much, considering Sen is awash with low resolution textures, basic lighting, smooth but almost blocky looking characters, and an absolute minimum of visual effects required to be considered a next-gen (or should that be current gen?) title.


Animations are stiff, and various body parts are rather disproportionate, even for a series on which things were always a little far-out in terms of reality. A good example would be the comparison between the reasonable, and quite nice artwork, and the actual in-game models themselves. They just don’t match up at all, which is jarring to say the least.

SNK Playmore however, have seen fit to include a few 3D renditions old classic backgrounds from the original 2D games released on the Neo Geo platform; including the flagship ‘beach stage’ from the first two games, which features some wooden temple beams scaling off into the sea, whilst the waves gently stray upon the rocks; along with the ‘fields of long grass’ from Samurai Shodown II. It’s a pretty cool touch, especially for long-time fans such as myself, although their implementation is technically basic at best. Visually they look blocky like the characters, and come across as rather empty and stale, instead of lively and vibrant like in the original games.


The presentation fares a little better, and does retain some of the ‘that’ Samurai Shodown feel through authentic looking artwork, and cool old-style on-screen counters and life bars. It’s not perfect, and sometimes a little rushed, but feels at the same time, a whole lot more polished than the game’s meagre graphics offering. To be honest, this part of the game shines the brightest, feeling like a true Samurai Shodown title, music included.

In terms of characters, Sen features a total of 24, 13 of which are taken from previous games, and 11 of which are brand new creations for this latest instalment. Each one of the game’s characters fall under a Power, Skill, Speed or Tricky style of play - with Power being given to characters who favour slow, hard-hitting individual attacks; Skill for ones which favour the tactical approach to combat; Speed for quick nimble types, and Tricky for those that don’t come under any of the other play-styles on offer.

It’s nice to see so many old favourites on show, including cover star Haohmaru, the evil looking Genjuro, and French swordswoman Charlotte, all of which look a little too bulky, move rather stiffly and lack most of their trademark special moves from past games. They are still, along with the rest of the original crew, the best of the bunch, as the 11 new characters are as generic as they are bland, not holding a candle stylistically to the traditional roster.


There are four buttons to use in Sen, a horizontal slash, vertical slash, kick and one button reserved for special attacks. Pressing two of these buttons together unleashes a strong attack, much like in the first two games on the Neo Geo, whilst pressing three performs an unblockable move, which although slow to come out, is deadly if it connects. Sadly I found it to be of not much use, relying on specials, combos and Super moves in order to battle my way through the game.

So far it doesn’t sound too dissimilar from the likes of Soul Calibur or Toshinden, and the similarities don’t end there. This latest Samurai Shodown game, doesn’t actually play anything like the 2D fighters of old. In fact it plays very much like a cross between Toshinden and Dynasty Warriors on Psone, mainly being based around short three to four hit combo-strings, and a few one off powerful special attacks. Most of your time is spend juggling together a combination of vertical and horizontal attacks ending in a special for added damage.

These special attacks for the most part, also look and feel completely different to the Street Fighter style gameplay which featured in the old games. Some characters do have some of their old moves, which react very similarly to how you’d expect them to, but also have a command-list of completely new Soul Calibur-esque dial a combo style sequences. Overall, the game is much more about stringing together different normal and ‘special’ moves (if you can call them that) in the same way as you do in pretty much all modern 3D fighting games, than being a modern reference in the way of a 3D visuals, 2D fighting game.

Unfortunately it really isn’t very good in that respect, with combat being rather stiff and pretty basic at all times. Certainly, this isn’t anywhere near the polished level of Soul Calbur, in which its likely to be judged. And furthermore feels largely rushed and slightly unfinished as a result.


However, Sen isn’t a total loss. There is almost some fun to be gained from the game’s somewhat stale combat system, mostly from discovering the combinations or moves which work in delivering the greatest amount of damage, or in which can counter certain moves in certain situations. Despite this, though, the game feels old and clunky, a far removed experienced from the vastly polished fighting games of the last ten years or so. You could say that Sen would be an alright PSone launch title, but for the 360, and up against Street Fighter IV, Soul Calibur and Tekken, it just doesn’t cut it.

Fans may be pleased to see the return of the ‘POW gauge, which when filled right up allows you to power up your chosen character by pressing all four buttons, saturating them in a red glow and allowing you to pull off a character specific Super move. These like in most games of this type are a series of flashy moves stringed together into an extended combination attack, although here they are pretty uninspired, and wholly devoid of any uniqueness the series is known for.

It’s also possible to pull off a series trademark ‘finishing move’ which depending on what weapon-based move you use for a well-timed heavy blow, can result in either chopping off any one of the opponent’s limbs, decapitation, or even slicing them in half. Having these included in the game helps it feel at least like it’s trying to be a Samurai Shodown title, and does add something extra to the otherwise bland experience on offer.


More importantly SNKP have added a range of modes to keep you busy, including Story, Versus, Practice, Survival, and lastly, Online. However it is only the Story and Survival modes which are likely to hold your attention (for a short while), as there is hardly anyone playing this game online. When actually getting a match, the connection is solid enough with minimal lag (on my 1meg connection, something of a running joke here at IQGamer), to have an enjoyably serious standoff, or just a few casual matches. Finding a match however, is a problem, as there is few people online playing this game.

There’s not much to recommend about Samurai Shodown Sen. It’s not the fact that they’ve changed the way the game plays to match modern fighters like Soul Calibur or Tekken, but rather, how they’ve managed to balls it all up with a lazy, under-developed rush job of a game. I imagine that SNK was simply keen to have another famous franchise out there that wasn’t King Of Fighters or Metal Slug – both of which have been overused these past few years – and thought that a wholly different, quick release version of a fan favourite was the way to go. Sadly that isn’t the case at all, and I would rather have them spend a few extra months creating a proper 2D sequel to the franchise, or perhaps look at revisiting The Last Blade instead.


Samurai Shodown Sen isn’t a completely terrible game overall, but a decided average one instead, with poor gameplay being the main spoiling factor. It’s also the most important one too. In every regard SNKP’s latest fails to excel in one area over another, being the perfect example of a playable (barely) piece of mediocrity. The basic combo system and move set, stiff animations, and blocky graphics make Sen utterly forgettable, and a resounding disappointment to all concerned. Long time fans won’t be pleased with what they find, and everyone else is far better off with the usual alternatives.

With Super Street Fighter IV finally available, it’s pretty obvious which one you’re gonna choose. Capcom have shown just how to revitalise a dead 2D franchise, using up to date 3D visuals and a refined faithful return of 2D hit-box based gameplay. All in all, making Samurai Shodown Sen completely redundant and a laughing stock of a game.

VERDICT: 4/10

Review: Splinter Cell Conviction (360)

Sam Fisher’s latest exploit is a very different beast to past Splinter Cell titles, and after five years of waiting many fans of the series trademark gameplay may not be happy with what they get, especially compared to what they might have expected. ‘Conviction’ in many ways seems more driven by its personal narrative and characterisation than by providing players with a wholly realistic setting and story in which to sneak their way through. It is however, a much more exciting game as a result.

Instead of a highly polished and mostly grounded title, in which extreme stealth and careful planning are required, what we have here is a something which has been turned into more of a 24 style blockbuster, in which cleaver use of stealth and cunning are blended into a more action-based approach to the series traditional gameplay values. Call it ‘heightened cinematic realism’ if you will, rather than the previously cold, harsh and somewhat sedate style inspired by the Tom Clancy novels.

The same thing can be said about the forthcoming ‘Ghost Recon Future Solider’, a title which although keeps its squad-based gameplay mechanics intact, also brings to the table a faster paced, more action oriented adventure, dependant on thrills rather than the familiar steady and tense action most people associate with the franchise. At the same time this more accessible nature allows the developers to widen their games audience along with providing a more interesting story outside of the ‘provide target and execute’ nature cemented in previous games.


‘Splinter Cell Conviction’ starts much like previous games, in slightly confined and larger partially lit areas, having Sam Fisher sneaking around avoiding all enemy sentries whilst looking to accumulate his intended target. Even in these opening moments ‘Conviction’ familiarises players with its fresh approach to the series trademark gameplay, seeing them take a greater role in engaging the enemy, silently if not aggressively at the same time. It’s no longer a case of waiting around endlessly for patrols to clear giving a window of opportunity to move freely around, or killing them and dragging their bodies away. Instead, the aim here, as in many places through the game, is to use a combination of invisibility and distraction to your advantage.

At first the game’s use of light and darkness, along with stealth and silent aggression works rather well, and is not too dissimilar from other titles in this series. However ‘Conviction’ isn’t a game that you can play in the same way as say ‘Chaos Theory’ or even ‘Double Agent’, instead it requires you to be a lot more proactive in your choices and abilities in taking down the various guards set around the course of the levels. The game always keeps you moving towards your next intended target, driving along the story and Sam’s thirst for revenge. In many ways, despite still being driven by stealth, the game is no longer solely held back by it, with the way you approach certain obstacles being very different, and sometimes much louder and more brash.


The way the new stealth system works is a good example of this. No longer are you waiting around looking at on-screen cues to determine your status as hidden from your enemies. Instead the entire screen turns progressively more black and white as you become more and more camouflaged from potential foes. It’s an idea that works so much better than the meters used before in previous games. You can know instantly, and subtly tell exactly how hidden you are, and move/adapt accordingly on the fly almost instantly to your situation. This real-time feedback makes sneaking around and being avoided a faster paced affair, allowing you to move through guard-infested areas much more naturally if you have the skills to do so.

Another area of the game which also aids in this ‘quick stealth’ ideology is the game’s all new cover system, which it has to be said is the most intuitive and useful cover mechanic that has been implemented in any game so far. It’s surprisingly simple. Holding down a single button is all that is required, the ‘left trigger’, which sees Sam Fisher immediately squeezed up against a wall still able to move freely around. Pressing the ‘left trigger’ when your near an object, and you’ll take cover behind it, whilst releasing it frees you from your cover point instantly, after which Sam will instead crouch down whilst traversing around his environment.


When approaching an enemy silently and unseen, the game provides you with the option of making ‘hand kill’, a mostly quick and instant kill manoeuvre which when timed correctly is one of the games most useful tools in dispatching of your foes. Be a little too impatient however, and Sam may not be quite as successful, with his attempt at quickly executing a guard becoming a small but noisy scuffle, ousting your presence and forcing you to take alternative action. It’s this element in particular which feels most like a traditional Splinter Cell game, having you carefully approaching targets with a well thought out plan; who you’re going to deal with first, how to get around any potential obstacles that stand in your way, and at what point do you finally execute all you’ve been planning for.

Of course all this takes place in a matter of seconds, requiring quick thinking on the fly, along with a constant change or adaptation of tactics as the scenario plays out. This is what ‘Conviction’ is really all about, especially when you cam combine these tactics with the game’s new ‘mark and execute’ system.

The use of the new ‘mark and execute’ system is perhaps the series freshest addition since removing the trial and error nature of missions found in the first two games. This sees you mark a handful of targets for a quick and lethal attack, which if successful, won’t get you noticed by surrounding guards in the area. Failure to pull it off smoothly however, and the ruckus this will cause can immediately backfire on you, sending a squad of angry guards your way. If you do run out of attempts to ‘mark and execute’ you simply have to perform a few manual stealth kills in order to bring them back up again. It’s a system which keeps you from getting too trigger happy, and allows the game to force back some of that old Splinter Cell gameplay back into the mix.


Also playing out the always active approach taken by the game, the ‘last known position’ mechanic essentially finds you initiating contact with the enemy, through either noisy distractions or mostly, if you’re anything like me, via the ‘mark and execute’ system, in which after getting their attention you have to run away and find a good cover spot or position in which you are completely hidden. Whilst running away or reassessing your cover, the game presents you with a white icon on screen dictating your ‘last known position’, and it’s from here that enemies will start actively searching for you.

After this happens you can use their change of position to your advantage, by either being able to sneak past using a route once heavily guarded, or by gaining a better position to take out a few of the primary guards which properly hinder your progression.

Sadly, on numerous occasions, I found myself resorting to cheap Metal Gear style tactics in which I would take cover whilst pot-shooting at the enemies, moving around into other dark areas before repeating the process once more. It’s in this regard that many long time fans will be pretty disappointed, that you can, when familiar with your surroundings, get away with this when all else fails. Thankfully, upping the difficulty setting makes tactics like these impossible, and the reward for clearing heavily guarded areas that much more desirable. You have to, in essence, play the game like a Splinter Cell title, and not like a duck-and-cover shooter.


In addition, the game has also been overly simplified compared to previous instalments, lacking the ability to pick up and move downed enemies, or creating a distraction by whistling, knocking on objects etc. This in particular makes the whole experience a little by the numbers at times, with on many occasions the game making you do exactly what it wants you to do, and how it wants you to do it. This does in essence help create a more exciting game as a result, being geared towards specific action scenes and story-based segments.

However, in the same respect, people like myself who have never quite gelled with the series stubbornly harsh gameplay ideals will enjoy the fact the having the odd, or regular shootout makes the game feel far more exciting, as well as being more manageable than the previous games. At the same time, the game requires you to be stealthy in your actions, as you can only get shot three of four times continuously before falling dead on the ground. It’s this mix of quick pacing, forward-moving action, and a heavy hand of stealth, that makes ‘Conviction’ such a refreshing game to play, whilst also reworking the series for next-gen audiences. The game also never descends into Metal Gear arcade style action in the stealth sections, instead providing a wholly more grounded approach to such scenarios.

Later on in the game however, you’ll be confronted with sections which amount to being nothing more than a pot-shot cover shooting gallery, in which you lure your enemies into a position where you can easily take them out one at a time. These sections are filled with trial and error gameplay, in which one mistake will see you failing, or at other times dying quickly until you get the gist of how the game wants you to handle the situation. A far cry from the cleverly thought out level design, and thought provoking tactics so strongly featured in the series standout ‘Chaos Theory’ instalment, and a blemish on the solid stealth sections that make up the bulk of the game.


Visually, a lot has already been said about the game elsewhere on this site. Our tech analysis of the demo revealed the slightly disappointing 576 sub-HD nature of the game, and the issues that prevails as a result. The final game however, in many places, doesn’t seem to suffer as much as the demo did, with those ‘issues’ being mainly scenario based. Mostly, the game has a clean and smooth look throughout, with detailed texturing (though sometimes low resolution), and some really nice dynamic lighting and shadowing. Occasionally the upscaling leads to shimmering edges and jaggies being visible on objects far away from the screen, but it really isn’t that much of a problem. However, one thing that is always noticeable, it that the colours are somewhat less vibrant due to the upscaling (looking washed out), and the game also never looks pin-sharp as a result of its sub-HD resolution, with small details sometimes looking fuzzy.

However, Tom Clancy’s latest is perhaps the best looking 576p game so far compared to others released on either the 360 or the PS3. In many ways, the 360’s superb internal scaler makes the game almost indistinguishable from some native 720p rendering games, especially when viewed on a softer looking Plasma display screen. Whereas uber sharp LCD screens and CRT PC monitors tend to show up the sub-HD nature of the game far more frequently. Either way, the fact that the game isn’t native 720p is far less of an issue for most of the final game than our initial tech analysis made it out to be in the demo. So it still holds up pretty well, and looks pretty good overall, though not particularly impressive.


‘Splinter Cell Conviction’ isn’t quite the defining game in the series I hoped it would be. In fact, whilst the game on many levels works to create the most intuitive stealth and espionage experience yet, it’s also let down by its own admission into becoming more of a blockbuster thrill ride centred on action and pseudo-sneaking rather than the hard-edged real deal the Tom Clancy franchise is known for. In one way, it’s a better game for it, allowing the title to have an intriguing edge of your seat style storyline in places, whilst also providing the player with some of the most accomplished gameplay mechanics seen in this type of game so far.

However, the sometimes overly action-based nature, and increased simplicity, of the game derails the experience, especially in sections designed solely for the purpose of providing players with elaborate shoot outs, and tension through trial and error mechanics, which we haven’t seen since ‘Pandora Tomorrow’ on the original Xbox. Other sections also find you instead taking the aggressive route to finding a solution, flushing out guards and silently disposing of them, rather than attempting to seamlessly move past, without so much of a trace left behind. This was of course the intention of the development team all along though, and they have (mostly) nailed it, minus a few stages in the second half of the game, which turn into an all out shooter.


Despite a few criticisms, ‘Conviction’ does a lot right, bringing the franchise up to modern day standards with regards to the controls and intuitive gameplay mechanics so taken for granted by other titles. In this aspect the game almost never fails to captivate, providing a fresh look at the stealth genre, and a much-needed change of pace, making whole game flow a lot more smoothly. The hard-edged gripping realism of past games is gone, as is the use of show-stopping generation defining visuals. But their absence doesn't harm the game quite as much as you might think, instead only alienating the most ardent of Tom Clancy videogame fans.

So in the end, what we have here is a pretty successful re-envisioning of a classic franchise, lacking in visual clout, and some of the important depth found in previous instalments, but not without plenty of excitement along the way. Old fans may be disappointed, but everyone else should find Sam Fisher’s latest exploits more engrossing than before, despite being a little more flawed in its execution.

VERDICT: 7/10

Review: Final Fight Double Impact (360 & PS3)

Two retro themed reviews in as many weeks, eh, not something you’d expect from a site calling itself IQGamer. However, I thought that it would be a nice alternative from the sometimes non-stop barrage of technically charged writing which can usually be found here. Also both titles were not only recent releases available on either Nintendo’s, Microsoft’s, or Sony’s online networks, but also franchises which we at IQGamer have fond memories of. So it made complete sense to cover them. Of course we’ve still managed to put in a little technical charm here and there, so overall it’s not without relevance.

Our latest retro escapade takes us back into Capcom’s world of street pugilism and swords and sorcery for Final Fight Double Impact, an XBLA and PSN release of both the original arcade version of Final Fight, and a little known title called Magic Sword, which explains the swords and sorcery bit.

The collection not only features both titles replicated arcade perfectly, minus unfortunately the original rendering resolution, but also comes complete with various display modes and online network options bulking out a rather basic arcade package.


When you first start up the collection you are presented with an online mode by default, it’s actually the standard mode of play just like in a real arcade. Although you can obviously start off by playing a game by yourself another player can randomly join in at anytime, just like if they were to plunk in a couple of pence into the local arcade machine. If you’re not a fan of this wholly arcade free-for-all nature at hand, then you can customise the game to allow for a single-player only experience. Or matches via invites only, like a private game session just for friends.

The arcade experience is pretty cool either way you slice it, and makes the package really feel like a proper arcade conversion in the home.


Another thing, which does just that, are the opening menu screens you are presented with for both games, which show off the games original arcade cabinet along with some artwork created for this XBLA and PSN release. When you go to play the game for the first time the camera zooms in on the cabinet with the screen becoming the central 4:3 picture, and the artwork on the cabinet becoming the boarders that usually fill out a widescreen picture for these old titles. You can of course start playing right away, with the screen warped like an old arcade CRT monitor and the game upscaled within that screen. In addition this mode also creates scanlines and a fake monitor glow to make it look like your playing the games through a camera filming the action or something.

Whilst being pretty cool, it is possible to select a whole range of image options to change the way these games look; from soft focus upscaling, to a nice sharpening effect much like in the XBLA and PSN release of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, or even have the visuals untouched in what can only be described as a basic pixelated upscale. Personally, the full-screen ‘original’ option looked the best on my Plasma screen, and on my old Sony CRT (240p/480i native) in 480i looked the most faithful, although for LCD screens the games ‘sharp’ scaling option would clearly look better, as it does also on progressive scan HD CRTs.

Unfortunately there is no option to play either game in the original 240p resolution supported by standard def CRT TVs, and the Nintendo Wii for VC games. Neither the 360 nor the PS3 can output something that low, with PSone games on the PS3 via scart being interlaced out at 480i instead, just like what happens here with Final Fight DI. It’s not a major issue, but purists like myself will certainly feel like they’re not getting the entire experience as it should be.


Like with most Live and PSN releases of classic titles, there is an unlimited save anywhere option along with infinite credits also. This does take away most of the challenge from the game seeing as you respwan at exactly the same point in which you died when you choose to continue. It would have been better to have started off with something like five credits and having to earn more via playing the game repeatedly instead of giving infinite lives by default.

Alternatively it would a been a good idea to grant the option of infinite lives, but with fixed respwan points through the levels, making you do a bit of backtracking when you die. This wouldn’t have been ‘as in the arcade’ though, so it’s understandable why the option isn’t there. Also in Final Fight, it’s pretty damn clear as day that certain parts of the game was designed intentionally to suck up the last of any spare change you might have had. Not something that bodes all that well for a home conversion.


In terms of the games themselves, the first one on this collection, Final Fight, needs no explanation. It’s a side-scrolling 2D beat’em up, in which you walk along a path both horizontally and vertically through varying locals punching, kicking and smashing your way past a range of thuggish enemies, and tough end bosses. Weapons can be picked up and used, such as lead pipes, swords, knives etc, and health is obtained via eating turkey legs scattered around on the floors on each level. It’s basically just like Streets Of Rage or Double Dragon, but with a different cast of characters and better graphics.

Magic Sword on the other hand, is slightly different. The game is a weapons and magic based platform action game, stroke beat’em up, owing more to the likes of Shinobi than SOR or Final Fight. Using your trusty sword, you slice and dice through various enemies such as dragons, the undead, mummies etc, whilst throwing a few magic fireballs to even up the odds. As you progress along any one of the game’s 51 stages you pick up keys that free the many prisoners to be found locked away in the game. After they have been released they join you on your quest, helping out in taking out the hordes of monsters that lie in wait. Each of these prisoners has their own unique abilities useful against certain types of enemies, however you can only have one in your party at any given time, the last one that you freed.

It’s Magic Sword which proves to be the most interesting game of the collection, not least of all because this is the first time that I’ve played it – a rarity seeing as I’ve played most Capcom arcade titles released over the years - but also because Final Fight is a game that has been seen far too many times in the past, and Magic Sword is a refreshing discovery of an old style gameplay design so popular back in the 16bit 2D era. Both are completely worthy or your attention, Final Fight is still an excellent scrolling beat’em up, though not as accomplished as the last two SOR games, and Magic Sword is something different, but nicely familiar all the same.


Final Fight Double Impact is one of the best XBLA and PSN releases of a classic arcade or home title. A wealth of display options are available to suit the majority of tastes (again, sorry purists no 240p), along with a fully customisable online mode and a unique approach at recreating ‘that’ arcade atmosphere from some twenty years ago in your living room. Sure we have seen one of the games a little too much in the last ten years or so, a bit like with Street Fighter II on those many retro collections and VC releases. However this ranks up there as the most complete conversion yet, and comes packaged with another great title lost in the history of time, available for the first time at home.

If you’re looking for the definitive home conversion of Final Fight, and are intrigued by the inclusion of the unrelated Magic Sword, then this downloadable release is certainly worth picking up. Purists like myself might object to the lack or original resolution support, whilst everyone else will be more than pleased to see a fan favourite given so much care and attention. Playing side by side with a friend, or over Live or PSN, on games like this is a rarity, and one which Final Fight Double Impact does so well.

Resolution and slight display issues aside, there’s no reason not to recommend picking this up. Both games are as fun to play as ever, and the co-op online system is a great inclusion. More retro re-releases should be produced with this much thought and attention to detail in mind.

VERDICT: 8/10

Review: Castlevania Rondo Of Blood (Wii VC)

Most of you won’t be at all familiar with Castlevania Rondo Of Blood. The game was released overseas in Japan only, and was exclusive to NEC’s 16bit PC Engine, otherwise known as the TurboGrafx 16 in the USA, or just TurboGrafx for its unofficial and extremely limited release in Europe. A conversion of the game finally arrived in all territories in 1995 on the Super Nintendo. However it was a very different game than Rondo Of Blood despite sharing most of its aesthetics with that title. Levels had been redesigned, and many gameplay elements had been removed, due mainly because of the difficulty in Konami working with NEC in doing a direct conversion.

As a result the Super NES version, called Castlevania Vampire’s Kiss in Europe, had been cut down and simplified, featuring only two alternative routes to play through compared to the PC Engine’s four, as well as less frames of animation and simpler sprites for certain bosses and levels. Although the storyline and much of the graphics were in fact shared between the two games, making Castlevania VK an actual conversion as well as a reworking. Either way it was inferior in every way to the PC Engine CD-Rom original, which thankfully we have here in all its glory, available for the first time worldwide on Nintendo’s Virtual Console.

Rondo Of Blood is in many ways a traditional Castlevania game. It’s still the same side-scrolling action-adventure style platform game you’ve come to expect, which sees you running around as another Belmont, armed with his trusty whip, wading through various stages bringing death to the undead, all the while trying to save as many villagers and innocent citizens as you can. At one point in the game, saving a village maiden known as Maria allows her to become playable later on in the game, adding a slight change in gameplay for the title, which is pretty cool.


Though in Rondo there are no upgrades to your whip, various other weapons can be picked up and used through the game. These include axes, daggers and holy water, which are classed as sub-weapons and can be found by breaking open the torches and candelabra found through the levels whilst exploring. You can only carry one of these sub-weapons at a time, and have the ability to used them in something called an ‘Item Crash’, which basically allows a sub-weapon to be used in a super attack, either directing damage to all enemies on-screen or delivering concentrated blows to one specific area depending on which of the sub-weapons is used.

Like with previous Castlevania titles the game initially directs you down a linear path, allowing you to explore the route it has chosen for you at your leisure. However the middle of each stage is particularly open, allowing for plenty of exploration and some backtracking if need be, which is something not really seen in the series until later instalments. In fact, the overall style of gameplay to be found in Rondo is very similar to that of series favourite Symphony Of The Night, but featuring concentrated doses of multiple routes and branching paths, rather than a whole scrolling labyrinth full of them.

The levels generally start off in a linear fashion before opening up in the middle, and finally closing back up again near the end as you approach the obligatory boss battle. Somewhere in the middle of the stage, the route you go down dictates what the following stage will be. In Rondo there are eight stages in total, but you will only need to finish four of them in order to complete the game. In addition each of the stages also has more than one ‘end’ as it were, just to further expand upon the series growing beyond its original linearity.


In many ways Rondo acts as a bridge between the earlier Castlevania titles and the modern Symphony Of The Night with its non-linear progression and multiple paths. However the style apes Castlevania III on the NES the most, in which players also had a number of routes they could go down each being different linear path they could take. It’s quite interesting to see how the series progressed from straight up platform action, to a Metroid type platform adventure, later coming complete with RPG elements.

While I was playing through the game I also noticed that many of the enemies are the same one found in SOTN, as is the main character for a certain part of the game before taking on the role of Alucard (in SOTN). The visual style, from the sprite work to the overall art design contained within also match up, and act as a continuation of what began right here with Rondo. Most impressively, and this is something I didn’t know, is that Rondo is a direct prequel to SOTN. And when you eventually reach the end of the game, it sets itself up for its sequel, which plays out the same final battle against Dracula found right here. Sadly, I haven’t quite got to the end yet, instead finding my self repeatedly dying somewhere along in the third stage.


Taking all this into account, except the last part about dying, Rondo is not only one of the best games in the castlevania series, but also one of the best side-scrollers of the 16bit generation. It also happens to be, in my opinion the best Castlevania game of that particular era, with some nice sprite artwork, filled with smooth animation and intricate little details, whilst combining the series early flagship gameplay with a taste of the open-worldness yet to come. The game even uses parallax scrolling in the background plane, something not found in too many PC Engine titles.

At four levels long, you might also be inclined to think that the game is relatively short, but don’t count on it. Stages whilst being large, aren’t massively huge in size. They are however, pretty damn tough to clear, with high levels of enemy AI showing no mercy, and with Ritcher himself highly prone to taking damage. Perhaps the biggest thorn in your side comes at the expense of the game’s rather stiff jumping mechanics, which feel more like a throwback to the NES games than later instalments. In addition your attack range is somewhat limited, making combat feel pretty restrictive at times and death that little bit easier to bring upon yourself.


To be honest, this is only to be expected for a game of this age being nearly seventeen years old, and it isn’t something which breaks the game in any way, just something which shows how much of a cakewalk this series has become, and how stiff the series used to feel compared with later instalments. Although I’d like to call it ‘a respectable challenge’ rather than a cakewalk, but hey, frustrating as it can be, the challenge works rather well by providing a much needed sense of achievement.

In terms of music and effects, the soundtrack has been compressed down from its original CD format, although I couldn’t honestly say if it was of a lower quality as a result not having the original version to hand. All the effects however are accurate, and sound exactly like they did on the PC Engine version. That is to say they come across as sounding a little too much towards the 8bit side of things, despite the system being capable of vastly superior audio. Like with the gameplay issues, much less to be honest, they don’t really take a lot away from the experience. And there’s a certain charm to it all, which if taken away wouldn’t represent the game faithfully as intended.


Castlevania Rondo Of Blood in many ways could almost be talked about in the same way that SOTN is fondly remembered. This game was arguably the first to really consider branching paths and open-ended level design in a way that none of the NES titles ever could, providing gamers everywhere with a challenging, but tightly designed and extremely well animated 16bit adventure.

For most of you, this Virtual Console release will be the first time any of you will have had a chance to play what is now a cult classic amongst fans, and one which I think is definitely well worth picking up. Fans of later games like SOTN and later games shall enjoy the combination of old and new elements, and although the difficulty is arguably a little too high, and the animations a little too stiff, that shouldn’t put anyone off from diving in and enjoying one of the most impressive forgotten games from the 16bit era.

VERDICT: 8/10

Like with most Virtual Console titles, Castlevania Rondo Of Blood can be played in its original 240p resolution via an RGB scart lead, or in 480i/480p via component.

Review: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (PS3)

Can you believe that it’s been nearly six months since BlazBlue first hit stores in the United States? And in that time we’ve had a string of high profile, hardcore fighting game releases. On the list is a failed attempt to recapture the pure hand-drawn 2D market; a haggard old 3D fighter trying to carve out a new path in a ever increasing landscape of FPS’s and Western RPG’s; and lastly, a 2D fighter with authentic gameplay, wrapped up in lavish polygon graphics in a 3D visualised return to greatness.

I imagine any connoisseurs familiar with the genre will be able to name all three, but only one of which was worthy of your unrivalled attention. The rest you could leave bleeding out on the side of the street, or better still, decline the challenge altogether, as they represented a failure to not only capture, but also understand their audience. A shame if you ask me, since the genre needs more one-two-punch strikes of greatness to really bring it back solidly into the limelight. BlazBlue is one of those titles, and despite the fact that it lacks any recognised characters or fighting styles, does well to prop up the rising one-on-one beat’em up once again.

BlazBlue (BB) for the uninitiated is the latest glossy, hand-drawn 2D fighting extravaganza by ARC System Works, the creators of the Guilty Gear franchise and its long line of sequels (I’m looking at you X2). It feels very much like a spiritual successor to that franchise, with over-the-top combos, fast-paced aerial strikes, and a range of impressive counter moves, supers, and no less than three ways of guarding against attack. In short, BlazBlue has pretty much everything that Guilty Gear had, topped off with an increased simplicity whilst actually being deeper at the same time. There’s no doubt in my mind that giving Guilty Gear a rest, and instead starting a whole new saga with BlazBlue was the right thing to do.


The basic fighting engine is pretty straightforward, easy to learn but with loads to master and sink your teeth into. Essentially there are only four basic attacks to learn, A B C and D, which are light medium and heavy respectively, with D standing for a ‘Drive’ attack, which is specific to whoever character you are playing as. Most of the light and medium attacks correspond to either a punch or kick for most characters, whilst heavy is usually reserved for weapons, and drive, for a combination of all three – depending on the character - in a form of special move.

Basic moves can all be used to chain into combination attacks, or combos if you will. Done by pushing a series of light, medium and heavy attacks, along with the drive attack to build up a long and impressive offensive of moves. However, the larger the combo, the lesser the damage it will do, giving the opponent a fair chance at retaliation. Holds can be integrated into combos by pressing the B and C buttons together, then followed up, or finished off with either normal attacks, specials or even Distortion Drives, BlazBlue’s equivalent of Supers.

Using a combination of these moves, along with the obligatory SFII-esque quarter-circle special moves will only get you so far though. You would be missing a whole part of the game without at least stumbling into some of the advanced techniques that ARC have based the game around. The various Cancels, Drives and Finishers all use something called the Heat Gauge, which is basically the BB version of SF’s Super bar. Each of the different techniques use different amounts of the bar, labelled in percentages to make things easier, but also to allow a greater range of option.

Hitting A, B and C together during a move unleashes a Rapid Cancel, which stops the animation of your current attack returning your character to his or her neutral stance, and allows them to immediately execute another move to integrate into an existing combo. Useful if you know that the move you were doing would effectively end a combo. Alternatively, whilst the heat Gauge is filled to certain levels it is also possible to perform Distortion Drives (character specific Super moves) or something called an Astral Finisher, which is move that results in a single one hit kill if it connects.

Pushing back on the d-pad whilst holding A + B together performs a Barrier, a stronger version of your regular guard. A Barrier cannot be broken, but can only be held for a limited amount of time indicated by the Barrier gauge. If it empties whilst blocking the player will receive 150% damage until the gauge becomes at least half full during regeneration. You might also consider performing a Barrier burst if you’re being hammered constantly by your opponent in a corner of the screen. It’s a move which repels the opposing player across the screen, giving you some room to compose yourself and then retaliate. However the penalty for such a bail out is pretty severe, requiring you to not only forego the use of your Barrier Block, but also making you take 150% damage for the rest of the round. So you’d better know what you are doing when you use it.


Lastly, it is also possible to counter your opponent’s attacks by striking them at the same time as they attack, cancelling them out and opening them up for a combo.

Of course, you don’t actually have to use any of these techniques, instead sticking to basic attacks and specials. However the game is more difficult as a result, especially online, in which the rather niche nature of such a title quickly breeds experienced players. Thankfully the inclusion of the character specific Drive attacks negates this to some extent. Drive attacks are basically one button special moves which can be factored into any basic combo, or used on their own, giving inexperienced players or button mashers a chance to have fun with the game.

There are a total of 12 unique characters in BlazBlue, each with their own strange design and set of moves. Everyone of the fighters in BB is pretty different to most of the fighting games I’ve played before, being more off the wall, or bizarre than even the ones in Guilty Gear. Some of the characters even have specific attacks or functions, which are completely absent for others, and fit outside the standard range of moves. For example, Rachel has a separate gauge which controls how many times she can control the blowing wind in each stage, which is pretty cool, but also provides a greater level of depth than most fighters. Many of these individual nuances are tied into character specific Drive attacks, but not all, giving players much to learn.


Each of the character designs are typical ARC System Works creations. From silver haired, gothic-inspired ‘Ragna The Blood Edge’, to the giant red Hellboy look-alike ‘Iron Tager’. The style can be described as post-apocalyptic neo-punk, meets Victorian-gothic, steam-punk influences. It’s pretty weird to say the least, but will be familiar to anyone whose played Guilty Gear before. The mixture of darkly, eclectic character designs, cute and psychotic personalities are incredibly well designed, and bring an altogether different feel to most recently released 2D beat’em ups. Though Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom is the exception to that rule.

Visually, BlazBlue is a lavishly designed mixture of hand drawn 2D sprite work and 3D backgrounds, with painted textures. All the game’s sprites are drawn in 720p, unlike in KOFXII, and have been intricately detailed. Shadows are cast on characters when moves are performed; clothing sways to and fro during battle; and lots of subtle details are visible on all aspects of the characters, from facial animation, to the small pins located on a character’s belt buckle. The backgrounds are proper 3D creations, complete with dynamic lighting effects and painted textures, which match the art style used for the characters and interlude artwork.

There’s no doubt that BB is the best looking 2D sprite-based fighting game available. It’s a truly beautiful game to behold. Sure it doesn’t feature the Disney quality animation of KOFXII, or the precision mapped, pixel perfect shadowing and shading on its characters. But then again, it doesn’t really need them, showcasing a lovely mixture of both 2D and 3D graphics; all polished in high definition with a finished and succinct art style. If anything, SNK could learn a thing or two from theses guys.

In terms of modes, BlazBlue provides you with the usual, Arcade, Versus, Training, Replay, Gallery and Online. There is also a ‘Story Mode’, which fleshes out each of the characters, and contains quite a well thought out, albeit confusing narrative. Playing through this mode with all the characters unlocks more of each character’s story, and slowly fills in all the gaps, explaining what the hell is going on. Short animated cut-scenes, and hand-drawn stills, break up the battles, complete with voice acting and text dialogue.

The Online Mode, touted on the back of the box as being ‘lag free’, comes dangerously close to doing just that. Even on my 1 Meg broadband connection (I still haven’t been upgraded yet) there was virtually no lag in most of the matches I played. Quite often I would encounter some slight lag at the beginning of a match, for only the game to seem to catch up with itself providing a responsive environment in which to fight. Occasionally I did encounter some laggy matches, but nothing to the extent of what I’m getting in SFIV at the moment, in which there is hardly any players with a good connection available. BlazBlue seems different in this regard, and is a welcome proposition considering the disappointments with other profile fighters in this area (yes, I’m talking about you Tekken 6).

One thing that is disappointing about the game though, is that after waiting for the best part of half a year for it to arrive on UK shores, we haven’t received any of the extra characters than we were promised. Instead ARC SW is including them in a sequel of sorts with the release of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, which I guess is the updated game we were expecting to get in the first place. Continuum Shift will be available on import this summer in Japan and the United States. Expect us Brits to be waiting a lot longer for it to arrive over here.


As you can tell, I rather liked BlazBlue. The mixture of gothic, neo-punk art styles, the in-depth combo-based gameplay, steeped in simplicity, and beautifully created 2D/3D combination of visuals. Really, it is one of the most refreshing beat’em ups I have played in a while, adding TvC to that list from back in February, and one which any self respecting hardcore fighting fan should at least check out.

Granted the game isn’t quite as accessible as the likes of Guilty Gear, featuring more bizarre fighting styles, and unusual characters. However there is plenty to play through and master, and once you get acquainted with a character you like, then your enjoyment of the title will really pick up. Getting to that point however, will take a few hours of well-versed gameplay. Learning some of the advanced techniques - which aren’t that hard to pick up at all - whilst coming to terms with the fact that with BB ARC have purposely created designs and play styles which are meant to be different from those of regular weapon-based 2D fighters.


BlazBlue is a great addition to the 2D fighting game roster, and despite its initially unfamiliarity and somewhat bizarre nature, is well worth picking up for any hardcore fighting fan. Not everyone will like the off-the-wall fighting styles, and I for one, found it much harder to get into than Guilty Gear, Last Blade or TvC. However that shouldn’t deter the die-hards out there, who like to get lost in learning the ins and outs of whichever character they choose. Certainly, as a hardcore player myself, I did enjoy what the game had to offer, especially online against a range of players, both ones mediocre in their delivery, and some which are arguably so much higher in their game than me.

VERDICT: 8/10

A Limited Edition of BlazBlue is available in small quantities at launch for the same price as the standard edition. It contains a two-hour long combo training DVD, with character specific strategies, showcasing many high level moves and specials; a 96 page full colour booklet, with art and illustrations from the designers at ARC System Works; and the regular version of the game. This is the version we picked up at IQGamer, however our review and score is based solely on the standard game, and not the extra content contained within the Limited Edition.

Review: Perfect Dark (XBLA)

I was pretty excited to find that Microsoft were releasing the original N64 version of Perfect Dark for XBLA. Having played Golden Eye relentlessly for the best part of a year back in 1999, the chance to finally have a playable version of its spiritual successor was too much to pass up, and an opportunity Rare should have taken advantage of a long time ago. Not least of all because the first Perfect Dark was a superior game to the 2005 sequel and 360 launch title - a game which felt barely like PD or Golden Eye at all - but also because it had so much potential, simply marred by an uncontrollable framerate held back by the constrains of the humble 64bit hardware it was running on.

You, know. I never actually played Perfect Dark when it first came out on the N64, instead sampling it’s flawed delights a few years later, after the Dreamcast had died and during a period in which I was hell bent on expanding my ‘retro’ collection, picking up titles I’d missed along the way. I first played PD around a friend’s house, and was left with distinct flavour of distaste in my mouth afterwards.

Although the game featured much larger level designs and more involving mission objectives, it was also almost completely unplayable for the most part. Slowdown seemed to occur within the slightest hint of more than two enemies appearing on screen, whilst at the same time, the developers though that it would be a great idea to include all kinds of nifty transparency and reflective effects, all to the determent of having a remotely smooth experience.

For the 2010 XBLA release, Perfect Dark has been given a full HD make over with a number of small graphical tweaks and upgrades. The game is rendered in 1080p and now runs at a solid 60fps, without incurring any slowdown or damaging framerate drops at all. It does this in all modes, including the rarely seen 4-player split-screen multiplayer mode lacking from most FPS’s of today.


Some of the game’s textures have seen a resolution upgrade, looking cleaner and clearer as a result, but not so much so as to take away from the slightly blurry look associated with N64 titles in general. The visual effects have also been given a small dose of polish, using more accurate shader effects for all the game’s reflective surfaces – real-time reflections and specualr highlights, rather than just the moving textures seen on the N64 game – whilst also adding in a few other subtle graphical touches. Like in the N64 original, lights can be shot out, gunfire and explosions illuminate areas dynamically, and lights can be shot out to create darkened areas.

What you have here is a fully authentic conversion of the original game, but with all the graphical improvements necessary to make it a completely playable experience – for the most part anyway. The framerate in particular, makes running around and gunning down baddies really good fun for the first time, whilst also bringing to your attention the sometimes dated game design, which has a real tendency to grate on you at various points through the game. This sometimes ruins all the hard work Rare have put into the title in creating a larger and more complex design, fearuring more thought provoking mission objectives, which require a greater degree of planning to overcome compared to those in their previous N64 FPS.


Perfect Dark’s gameplay is comfortably versed in the old-school nature of game design. There is a slightly open-end feel to the whole thing, leaving you free to roam around the levels making your own way to mission objectives, whilst at the same time, the game stubbornly refuses to tell you how they might be accomplished. You won’t find any hand-holding, instead often finding yourself meandering along various rooms and corridors either trying to find the item or person required to trigger the next objective, or just trying to actually find out how to complete said objective without mercilessly killing everyone who gets in your way – which leads to failure many a time I can assure you. Locked doors and dead ends are a plenty, which might leave anyone unfamiliar with the mechanics of decade old first-person-shooters rather lost and confused.

It’s not unusual for the game to require you to keep certain enemies alive in order to make progress through certain stages. However they are never pointed out to you, and in many cases you will probably kill one of the few people required to open a select door to progress, or who holds the item or information you might be after. Most of PD’s mission design is largely trial and error, requiring lots of repeat playthroughs in order to sometimes figure out what is going wrong, or how you should be approaching a certain situation. It is unforgiving and frustrating at the same time, but also slightly refreshing in the sense that it feels more realistic to be dropped inside a foreign complex without any sense of direction, having to track down you intended target based on pretty meagre intel.


Sometimes though, the game will fail your mission due to you accidentally blowing up an item needed to complete it, or because you failed to defend the right target from being assassinated, despite the fact that the target in question, nine times out of ten, is barely recognisable from all the other civilians.

It’s these things which frustrate, showing you how old and creaky the game’s tired and worn design has become. However when these sections are played through again, perhaps for the second or third times, it becomes a wholly more enjoyable experience. Like to a lesser extent with Golden Eye, once you know what to do, and how to do it, you can spend more time in having fun completing mission objectives than instead wondering around working out what they are and why you just failed them again for the third or forth time.

A lack of a directed nature hurts the game badly, but that doesn’t mean to say there isn’t a lot of fun to be had from it. It just means that you are going to need a much greater amount of perseverance to get to that point. At the same time the varied mission structure – which changes the level significantly depending on what difficulty setting you choose – keeps things interesting, especially when an empty room on the ‘Agent’ setting becomes a secret laboratory on ‘Perfect Agent’, which you are then tasked with destroying.


The physics and overall gameplay mechanics whilst dated are still pretty cool to look at for the most part. When shooting enemies in the leg, they will limp around the level until you decide to pop them off; shooting someone in their arm will make them drop their weapon, sometimes putting their arms up and allowing you to give them a good smack around the head; shoulder hits will disable enemies, whilst a shot to the head yields an instant kill. They can also get staggered from being hit, clutching their wounds, or simply kneeling over and dying right in front of you.

In terms of Multiplayer options. Perfect Dark is loaded with modes for both Online and local action. Every mode that supports more than one player is also fully playable online, making the deal so much sweeter. In total there are 6 different game modes, 16 maps, and 43 weapons, with the option to include bots to make up additional players if there aren’t any around. This can be done for both online and local matches keeping things interesting and upping the intensity by having more players on the scene. Split-screen makes a triumphant comeback in XBLA PD, with up to four players battling it out on a single console and TV screen, all the while the framerate doesn’t drop from it’s original 60fps update.


Now if that sounded good, PD also goes further than most FPS’s today with its range of multiplayer options. Along you the campaign and a competitive modes, you also have a Counter-Op mode, which sees one person take control of the enemy characters as the other player attempts to complete the game. You also can play through the standard Campaign mode in two players co-operatively, which can make working out what to do in the missions easier, but also thinks harder at the same time, as if one of you makes a mistake it’s mission over for both of you.

Disappointingly online play comes with a hitch. In all game modes and matches I played online there was noticeable lag. Sometimes this wasn’t particularly bad, and in these cases it worked really well for the most part. However, I was unable to find a single match that didn’t have some form of lag attached to it, which is a bit of a let down considering that it’s by far the biggest draw with this updated version of perfect Dark.

For the most part, Perfect Dark is an antiquated shooter with some particularly clever level design, hindered by the trial and error nature of many of its objectives. Having said that, it is still a highly playable fast and frenetic shooter, tense and particularly involving, it just requires you to adjust and adapt to its decade old gameplay to properly enjoy what it has to offer. Still, this is the first time that the game has been in any kind of playable state – outside of emulation of course – and whilst it isn’t as solidly constructed a game as Golden Eye, particularly with regards to the single player campaign, it is a pretty competent shooter which excels greatly in the multiplayer stakes.


If you’ve been longing for some repeat action in the same vain as that N64 classic, Golden Eye, than look no further. But be warned. Parts of the game have aged badly, and the confusing nature of the level design and mission structure will seem off-putting at first, certainly to those with a rose tinted view on what these games were like. Despite this, Perfect Dark manages to be a better all round package than its 2005 sequel, with original mechanics which feel like they should do with the reworked dual analogue controls, and a still fantastic multiplayer mode. Whilst not perfect, it is perhaps one of the last flagship titles, along with Banjo Tooie, in which Rare still showcases some glimmer of greatness, before sliding down into mediocrity.

Overall, Perfect Dark is worth picking up for fans of the original N64 outing and their other FPS success story Golden Eye. However anyone without prior experience of those titles and their stubbornly old-style method of trial and error progression, should probably avoid as they are unlikely to enjoy what they find. Multiplayer aside, which for a great offline experience, is worth every one of those 800 Microsoft points.

VERDICT: 7/10