KickBeat Special Edition (PS4)

Those of you have stuck with me from the beginning will more than likely recall my review of the PS3, and PS Vita versions of the original "KickBeat". I had accused the game of being too visually, and functionally complex. You had to mind too many things at once, and do so to mostly fast paced music. Features such as the rhythm based mechanics didn't really sync up with most of the songs being played out. Marilyn Manson's song, "Beautiful People", for example did not fit the rhythm based gameplay at all due to it's mostly vocal nature, and faster than normal drum play. Normally in a rhythm game developers will sync actions up to beats, or the thump of the bass to ensure that the gamer can follow the game without trouble. In the case of "KickBeat" though they chose to use everything from beats to vocals as focal points with the rhythm mechanics. Another issue I had with the original game was the fact that they started the first levels of the game off with some of the most difficult songs to follow. It was issues like these that ultimately kept me from completing a full playthrough, and recommending the game to my readers. Sadly, after returning as a next-gen rehash the game still carries with it the same issues that I found before. The only differences I noticed were the upgraded graphics, sound quality, and possibly some new unlockable content.

Abyss Odyssey (PS3)

With a hint of Harry Potter, a sample of Soul Sacrifice, and a clip of Castlevania the development crew over at ACE Team weave a dream-like tale of a slumbering warlock, and those who would dare to oppose his ever-spawning nightmares. The tale which follows a Chilean lore begins with the underground trek of a dreamt of female warrior named 'Katrien", and follows her as she travels down into an Abyss where her creator lies in sorrowful slumber for the past choices he has made. Katrien, who was once the Warlock's love caught wind of is secretive lifestyle, and turned on him forcing him to silence her. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned, and for the sins that followed the nameless Warlock submitted himself to an eternal sleep in which he hoped to escape the forever torment of his unrelenting nightmares. Despite his efforts though the Warlock's nightmares continued to occur, and began manifesting themselves into reality. A part of him, which is Katrien aims to right the subconscious wrongs that are currently taking place. This is where you, the gamer steps in ...

Crimsonland (PS4)

Crimsonland, at the core is a minimalist's top-down twin stick shooter that incorporates creature carnage on a massive scale. The indie style shmup, which was developed by 10tons takes the simplistic controls of twin stick shooters, throws in hordes of relentless enemies in varying types, and gives the player just enough weapons, and power-ups to overcome the insurmountable odds before them. Within the game you'll find two main modes of play including, "Quests", and "Survival" in which you can test your skills, or your patience as a shoot 'em up master. By playing through all six chapters of "Quest" mode you will unlock perks, and weapons of different varieties which can then be used in the "Survival" modes that are to follow. PSN trophies are also obtainable during your main playthrough should you meet the set requirements to unlock them. As important as the quest completion is though you will find that Crimsonland's true value ultimately lies locked away in the various "Survival" modes that are unlocked through an initial 'Quest' mode playthrough.

Blue Estate (PS4)

Video game comic book adaptations usually don't capture the core material like they should. Whether it be poor game design, or bad graphic representation of the characters involved something usually does not jive with these types of games. Often times such games fail significantly, and never gain the attention that the developer, or comic book artist had hoped for as a result of the lackluster craftsmanship. In the case of "Blue Estate" however I feel we have been gifted one of the PS4's finest console gaming experiences to date, and one that will likely draw attention to Viktor Kalvachev's comic book series. The game itself takes in account the wacky misadventures of the Luciano mob family, an off kilter private eye named Roy, and some sticky situations that two of the game's main characters wind up getting into. Both Tony Luciano, and Clarence (a hitman for hire) blast their way through gangs, rival mobs, and mob bosses who would each like to rid the Luciano family of it's most prized possessions. Blood feuds, kidnappings, horse hijackings, and even pot plant stealing are some of the strange things that you'll encounter as one of the Luciano family's contributing members.

Zen Pinball 2: Deadpool (PS3, PS4, PS VITA)

Since February of 1991, in the pages of "New Mutants #98" Deadpool (aka, Wade Winston Wilson) has been making guest appearances, and solo debuts within the Marvel Comics universe, video games, and even movies. This fan favorite anti-hero which has made himself known through his many superhero, and super villain encounters carries with him a signature brand of slapstick humor, killer martial arts skills, and some complimentary super powers. His gained powers, or abilities which were gifted unto him during the Weapon-X program include, but are not limited to regeneration, resistance to telepathic powers, immunity to toxins, and extremely slow aging. His scarred appearance which was revealed through the comic books, and X-Men movies came about as a result of the adverse effects that the Weapon-X regeneration capabilities brought along with it. Before undergoing a surgery slightly similar to that of Wolverine's, Deadpool's cancer overtook his body, and scarred it in the process severely disfiguring him. That is why he is always shown wearing his signature mask, and full body costume.

As far as battles go Deadpool has seen his fair share of fights both onscreen, and offscreen. The Hulk, Daredevil, Cable, and Wolverine are amongst the unlucky ones to have encountered this lunatic assassin, and lived to have told their tale. At one point in his timeline Deadpool had his head bashed in by the Hulk, and was even decapitated by Wolverine. Even with these mortal wounds though he was able to regenerate, and continue doing what he does best. In the early years of Deadpool's comic book history you'll find that he was more of a serious character with a bit of psychosis, and didn't develop his unique brand of humor until later on. It is this latter iteration of the anti-hero known as Deadpool that you'll find in Zen Studio's kid friendly 'Deadpool' Pinball table. Even with the "E" rating though you'll be pleasantly surprised to know that Deadpool works his way around the rating system quite nicely, and that in doing so his sarcastic charm never fades as the pinball bings around the table hitting the intended targets triggering his wacky actions, and reactions as it does so.

Magical Beat (PS VITA)

Magical Beat is a delightful little pixelated puzzle game filled with five modes of play, a wacky cast of characters, a unique beat based gameplay system, and an underlying story about the world's inhabitants who were left in the wake of a great world war. At heart it's a game not unlike 'Tetris', or 'Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo". The only real difference between it, and the previously mentioned puzzle games lies with the applied art style, the Japanese songs that are included, and the beat based gameplay that helps the player to decide when it's best to drop the current block ...

Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi (PS3)

Whether we want to acknowledge it, or not the world of gaming was built upon a gender biased foundation. Game developers either exploit the human anatomy in order to make characters such as that of females more appealing to a male audience, or take a purely girly approach not taking in account the fact that female gamers would love to see a strong willed female protagonist. There's even the fact that there are gamers who are gay who would be willing to support games more if only their own gender preference was deemed as important as everyone else's. I think in a haphazard sort of way Aksys Game's/Ideal Factory's "Hakuoki" series actually goes out of their way to provide such an outlet for both the female audience, and gay gamers alike. With a shojo artistic style, and a story geared towards giving the feminine characters an empowering voice the game sheds a unique light on the samurai era. One that's unlike any other. Not only does it contain plenty of historically true elements in it's fictitious storyline, but the game also includes a romantic nature with some reverse harem activity for the gamers who are into that sort of thing. While it is geared more towards a female, or gay audience you might find as I did that it's enjoyable regardless of it's feminine appeal.

Mugen Souls Z (PS3)

Spanning across multiple universes, and multiple world groupings NISA/Compile Heart aims to continue their wacky series about female gods, demon lords and their quests to rule the multiverse. Having won over the "Seven Shining Worlds" in the last battle against Belleria, the undisputed god of the universe 'Lady Chou-Chou' sets her eyes on an even bigger prize. This prize just so happens to be 12 other worlds ruled by demon lords. During her trek across space with her peons, Belleria, and her hero partner Ryuto, Lady Chou-Chou runs into a once slumbering goddess with a huge rack as well as a recently acknowledged female hero named 'Nao'. Through some interesting events, and a ton of dialogue the unusual group finds themselves in dire need of each other's help. The once powerful, and undisputed goddess Lady Chou-Chou is turned mini-sized compliments of a mishap with Syrma's (The Slumbering Ultimate God) special coffin. The coffin which is meant to recombine the Ultimate Gods into a single form unfortunately drains the power from Lady Chou-Chou, and forces her to side with those she initially wanted to conquer. Thus is the story so far ...

Daylight (PS4)

I love horror. Cinematic blood, guts, gore, and scares is all I need in order to be properly entertained. Nothing more, and nothing less. In fact while growing up I've spent most of my teenage, and adult life watching scary movies, and scary television shows for the sole purpose of the thrill it provides. Whether it's a movies about ghostly hauntings, sick individuals, or creatures that nightmares are made from I always find myself returning to them for the scares that they offer. Nothing quite gives you the proper jump start to the heart like a Hollywood horror flick. When it comes to scary video games the same thing could be said. Very rarely does a proper scary video come to fruition though, so you'll understand my anxiousness when I heard that Zombie Studios, and ATLUS were going to release a gaming horror experience that was ever changing.

Being the horror enthusiast that I am I was totally psyched for ATLUS's upcoming randomly generated horror game. Not only do I have a mad love for ATLUS releases, but the thought of them publishing such a game had me anticipating the potential gaming greatness incorporated. The hype was built up from the moment the game was announced, and even I helped build that hype on my blog as well as through various social media outlets. I'm sure some of you even took note of this hype. Building up hype can be a dangerous thing business-wise though. If you build it up too high everyone will expect an "AAA" title, and will not give it mercy when they experience if for themselves. Such is the case of "Daylight".

Castlevania: LoS2 - "Revelations" DLC (PS3)

In this latest "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2" DLC release titled "Revelations" Konami aims to test your mettle, and your patience with a handful of ridiculously hard boss fights, and only a small amount of level based platforming puzzles. The main protagonist this time around, who will be going along for the ride is none other than the weakling vampire Alucard, and I stress the word weakling. During Dracula's, and Alucard's last encounter we found (assuming you have beaten the game) that these two lead vampires had fooled Satan with a plot to end the dark lord's return. All Dracula wanted was for his eternal life to end, and all Alucard (aka, Trever Belmont) wanted was for the family's suffering to end. Just before the final fight with Satan Alucard let Dracula (aka, Gabriel Belmont) in on the secret between them, and in doing so had shed some light on the events that had taken place prior to their current day reunion. The sword placed in Dracula's still beating heart was no accident, and the near fatal wound was merely part of the ploy to get Dracula in good terms with a certain enemy (Zobeck). Together the two vampires thwarted Satan's plan ultimately killing him, and his demon spawn off for the second time since the beginning of this all inclusive mini-series.

Skullgirls Encore (PS3): "The Good, The Bad & The Sugar Coated"

If you missed it a couple of years back a developer by the name 'Autumn Games" co-produced a fighter titled, "Skullgirls" with another development team known as 'Lab Zero Games'. Together these two studios got on board with 'Konami' to bring to the fighting game community what was suppsoed to be a fresh, and innovative take on the 2D fighting game genre. The teams working on the game incorporated impressive hand drawn character animations with a somewhat mature theme, and a fighting system that mirrored that of previous MvC (Marvel vs Capcom) offerings. While there were definitely nods to other fighting games via color palettes, and fighting styles the game did one important thing differently. That thing of course was a way to fight back against spammers. This innovative mechanic allowed spam assaulted players to break free of a combo if the player dishing out the attacks repeated the same combo twice. In essence it did work out properly, but in an unfortunate turn of events exploiters found a way to perform infinites despite the applied mechanic, and in turn ruined the game's intended experience.

Dustforce (PS3)

Retro gaming FTW!!! Any time a game developer (particularly an indie studio) takes an old idea, or ideas and makes it their own in a successful manner I become ecstatic as a gaming enthusiast. While it's often times hard not to come off seeming like someone ripping off another idea I think "HitBox" did good with "Dustforce". This indie-like title which contains elements of the classic "Prince of Persia", and "Sonic the Hedgehog" did good to stray away from any blatant misuse of such clone worthy material. In the end what they created was an offline, and online experience that caters not only to the gamer who is looking for something new, but also an experience that caters to the more competitive gamer. Through simple controls, and challenging arcade style gameplay HitBox, and their publisher Capcom aim to capture your attention with one of the more noteworthy gaming experiences of early 2014.

OlliOlli (PS VITA)

If you've ever wondered what a Tony Hawk's 2D side-scrolling skateboarding game would be like the developers at Roll7 have the perfect answer for you. OlliOlli which happens to be the name of their creation is in essence what Tony Hawk's Pro Skater would have been if it were made back in the retro gaming era. It features highly interactive, and layered 2D landscapes filled with plenty of skateboarding obstacles. At the helm of this radical action game is a generic pixel constructed skateboarding protagonist whom the gamer guides throughout the various courses. There's plenty of variety in the way of level layouts, and a wide variety of challenges that are setup in a mobile gaming format (i.e., Angry Birds) for this manly master of skateboarding stardom to trick, and grind through. At the core of it the protagonist (you) will be grinding, flipping, and performing advanced tricks via your applied left thumbstick, and "X" button inputs. The real trick though lies with your timing, and landing of each maneuver. As with Activision's Tony Hawk's skating franchise you'll find that your score comes from completing level specific tasks, and the combination of tricks/grinds that you land. Thrown in for good measure you'll also find that collecting certain in-game icons as well as doing certain tasks during a skate through will help you to unlock the more challenging level difficulties for later playthroughs.

Doodle Devil (PS VITA)

Before "Doodle Devil" ever made it's jump over to the PS Vita it was actually a mobile game for such formats as iOS. The game's layout, and gameplay mechanics are of the simplest kind, and use simple point and click icon/element combinations to sway the outcome of mankind's fate. Doodle Devil itself takes in account the devil's job to end mankind, and his goal to bring about the final war. As the gamer you play as the devil, and combine various elements in order to create the things necessary to bring about the end. The elements range from your basic fire, wind, and water elements to various forms of life itself. Mankind, it's ideals, and it's inventions also play a crucial role in getting the devil what he wants. On the devil's side there's also the influence of various sins which change the eternal balance in his favor. By simply clicking on, and combining certain groups of two elements you can in essence ruin creation.

Resogun (PS4)

When it comes to indie shmup concepts I think "Resogun" easily earns it's place amongst the best. This eye-popping spectacle of a twin-stick shooter will either put you into a seizure induced spasm due to sensory overload, or will have you staring at the screen in amazement as next-gen special effects fill the screen in front of you. The idea behind this shooter is a simple yet effective one. As mankind's last hope you are piloting their only way off of the cylindrical cities. For some reason, or another humanity is about to face Armageddon several times over, and they are slowly waking from their suspended cubicles only to be dropped out on the street, and blasted/abducted by the robotic alien life forms who are attacking. You, and your ship will not only aid these poor helpless human beings in their time of need, but will also fight against wave after wave of alien spacecraft in the process.

First Impressions - "Blacklight: Retribution (PS4)"

PC owners were the first to get their hands on this futuristic FPS multiplayer experience known as, "Blacklight: Retribution, and will no doubt have already turned away from the PC version seeing as it is old news. For all of us PS4 owners, and dedicated console players though this Scifi inspired shooter is a new thing, and one that should definitely not be overlooked. The fact that it's free-to-play gives you no reason to skip it, even though you may not be inclined to spend actual money on DLC content. From a personal point of view I can tell you that the game definitely has it's pros, and cons. The gameplay which can be described as run & gun friendly is a welcome addition to the FPS genre due to the fact that you can actually run & gun. The standard issue offerings that require no money to use also make for a welcome addition to gameplay. If you are a gamer that is looking to impress though, and wish to show your online prowess with your weapons loadouts, and perks then Zombie Studios does offer a payment plan for such things. You merely have to exchange your PSN credit for some Zcoins, and you are ready to shop.

Zen Pinball 2 (PS4)

By now you know that I'm sold on Zen Studios' pinball related arcade games. I've covered nearly every table, and every set released on both the "Pinball FX2", and "Zen Pinball" formats. While last generation's offerings are still good to this day I have to say that next generation's is even more impressive than that. Not only are the graphics enhanced, but the gameplay itself is more fluid than ever before. Scoring high is now an easier task due to the next-gen upgrade, and the complimentary PS4 controller (which is truly a spectacle in itself). Sadly though not every table from the previous "Pinball FX2", and "Zen Pinball" iterations have made their way over to the new consoles. Sony ended up limiting the amount of tables Zen Studios could include. As such the developer had to pick, and choose the best from the lot.

Strength of the Sword 3 - The War Golem (PSN)

When I first saw the trailer to "Strength of the Sword 3" there's a couple of things that immediately popped up into my mind. One of those thoughts was "Where the heck are the first two games!?", and secondly "Why have I never heard of this game before!?". The game looked really impressive to be from an indie studio (Ivent), and definitely looked worthy of a review. The fact that the game was boasted about as being a truly hardcore experience that only skilled gamers would enjoy definitely caught my attention. I knew that if the hype were true that "Dark Souls", and "Demon's Souls" players would definitely be interested in knowing about it. Even though games with such a hard learning curve usually turn away a majority of gamers, there's actually a select group of truly hardcore gamers who love such a challenge.

Super Motherload (PSN)

Russian cosmonauts, Dig Dug, Resident Evil, and DOOM are some of the things that come to mind as I play "Super Motherload". As with those games, and subjects there's a lot of gameplay, and plot material included that seems oddly familiar. Whatever your take on this mining strategy game is though there's one thing for certain, and that is the fact that "Super Motherload" is one of the more interesting indie titles you'll experience this year. Xgen Studios, the developers behind this Dig Dug inspired strategy game will have you investing hours upon hours literally trying to get down to the bottom of things. With a chosen character, and a helicopter drilling machine you will be doing the bidding of a shady corporation as you try to strike it rich with the combination of minerals that you gather. The deeper you dig into the martian landscape that the game takes place on the closer you'll get to the bottom of it all, and in more ways than one.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (PSN)

If cutesy anime girls with oddly perverse dialogue oriented scripts are your forte then "Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory" might just be the RPG experience you've been longing for. This latest chapter of the ongoing saga featuring the goddess-like CPUs brings to the table yet another otherworldy dilemma set in the fictitious lands of the GameIndustri. Neppy (Neptune), and all her kawaii little girly pals get lost in their lazy daily activities while paying no attention to the duties they should be tending to. In the heat of the moment Neppy parts ways from her GameIndustri CPU friends only to be spirited away to another dimension where the GameIndustri is less evolved than the one she came from. With the Seven Sages up to their usual antics it is once again up to Neppy, and her old friends as well as her newly found friends to set things right and thwart a plot to rid the GameIndustri of the CPU's authority.