Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days is, the in most literal sense, a portable version of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, the 2006 PS2 cult hit. As we’ve discovered many times over the last couple of years, simply chopping the top and bottom off a console game’s graphics — or grabbing at both ends and stretching them the other way — does not suddenly make it fun to play on the go.

That said, Dark Hero Days happens to work surprisingly well on the PSP. More than anything, it has the pacing of a good portable game, which a lot of console strategy sims don’t. You can play it for five minutes or five hours at a stretch, or any amount of time in between, and probably find a way to have some fun and make some progress no matter what.

Of course, it’s still emphatically Disgaea, a game made for people who habitually level their RPG characters all the way to 99. Casual players will still have fun with it – especially if they’ve never encountered the series’ famously twisted sense of humor – but it’ll take some real dedication to find out how deep this particular rabbit hole goes.

Welcome to Hell

After Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle put the modern turn-based-strategy RPG genre on the map, it built a fairly loyal following of gamers who liked, for lack of a better word, to try and “break” those games. The idea was to find every hidden loophole and exploit in the equipment and character development systems, thus building armies more powerful than anything the games’ designers had ever intended to be possible.

Nippon Ichi Software created Disgaea to give those people a whole lot to break. 99 isn’t much of a level cap – might as well make it 9999. The game’s battlefields are strewn with traps and switches and variable terrain effects. Though the story revolves around a few important key characters, it’s possible to build, tweak, and toss aside as many cannon-fodder soldiers as you care to create. Every single piece of equipment has its own set of statistics, and the utterly mad can delve into randomly-generated “Item World” dungeons in order to separately build up each bit of gear.

Dark Hero Days’s gameplay isn’t markedly different from the original, but it added a few extra layers of depth to fool around with, plus the PSP version has some valuable extra features on top of that, like new weapon skills, new character classes, and more single-player combat scenarios to fight through. There’s also a speed option that lets you set the combat animations and special effects to play out lightning-quick — once again, it’s important for a portable game to waste as little time as possible.

One important thing all these games have in common, though, is that you don’t have to play them like a deranged obsessive if you don’t care to. Extremely capable players will win tons of bonus items at the end of every battle if they learn all the ways of exploiting the system. Ordinary players can still rack up victories and progress through the story — finding out how to break the game is just more rewarding (and more fun).

Are We Dead, Or Is This Ohio?

That story, unfortunately, isn’t as effective as the first game’s tale. Partly that’s because it has an actual hero, instead of Disgaea’s bloody-minded prince Laharl. Adell, the main character in this sequel, is more or less a standard-brand fantasy protagonist on a mission to wipe out an evil demon overlord.

The joke is that he’s the only hero left in the Netherworld — everyone around him is cheerfully soulless and amoral — and up to a point, it’s fun to watch him bounce off the supporting cast. Beyond that point, though, the setting and its characters aren’t as fun or fresh as they were the first time we discovered them. It’s still fun to wander across this goofy world where good is evil and evil is good, but not so much as when it was totally unfamiliar ground.

Although the English script doesn’t hurt matters, it doesn’t help much either. Going independent and localizing its own games might have been a good long-term business decision for Nippon Ichi. Nevertheless, their shop hasn’t yet produced a game with the same kind of snap to its English adaptation as Atlus USA’s version of the original Disgaea. That game never missed a chance to go as far as possible over the top. Dark Hero Days does alright in the gallows humor department, but it never seems like it’s as grim, mean, sharp, and funny as it could have been.

Give the Place a Little Color

Back on the plus side, it’s as fun to look at as Nippon Ichi’s games have always been. The PSP screen was made for their brand of big, brightly-colored sprite characters, the 3D battlegrounds have plenty of detail as well, and the cutscenes look right in a widescreen aspect ratio (which is to say that they haven’t just been cropped or stretched to fit). There’s a catchy soundtrack backing it all up, too, with a comic-spooky Danny Elfman sort of character that suits the game’s personality to a tee.

The strategy die-hards — for which this game was made, of course — may not even take time to notice. They’ll be busy setting off on the long march to level 9999. There’s plenty in Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days for the rest of us, though, even if it’s not quite all that it could have been. Stacked up against the other portable strategy games out there, it’s just about the deepest and densest around. Plus, you don’t have to get all the way to level 9999 to get more than your money’s worth out of it.

Source:g4tv.com

Get it Dirty!

Dirt 2 is here, and Codemasters has made a concerted effort to make up for the previous game’s shortcomings. The sequel certainly isn’t a complete overhaul, but gives fans more of what made the first game so good. There are hours of racing for on and off-line players across a wide array of venues all over the world.

Right off the starting line, there are two immediate facets of Dirt 2 that strike you. First, the graphics are gorgeous. The original game looked spectacular, and the sequel has enough minor refinements to make it just as impressive two years later. Deformable tracks and obstacles, a mix of dirt, water, pavement, and other road types, terrific car models with remarkable damage modeling, and great lighting are the highlights.

The second aspect of the game to make Dirt 2 stand out from the competition is the controls. In comparison to a straight-up arcade racer like Sega Rally, this game almost feels like a sim. Dirt 2 has enough customization options to give hardcore fans a run for their money, but novice gamers might find themselves sliding into everything but the finish line for the first few runs.

X-treme Driving

Granted, the game teeters between arcade and simulation, but there’s a real satisfaction in getting the hang of the controls, mastering the power slide, and taking on a variety of real-world opponents like Dave Mirra, Ken Block, Tanner Faust, Travis Pastrana, and Katie Justice, among others. How you race against them affects their attitude toward you, and you make friends and enemies based on your driving skills and level of aggression.

Novice players will especially appreciate the flashback feature, which is a limited-use rewind option for single player races. You only have a few for each race, but using them after a bad turn or monster crash can be the difference between first and last place. The game hasn’t quite ditched the arcade feel of the physics though–especially when it comes to hitting obstacles, which still feel a bit too bouncy. For the most part, Dirt 2 reaches a happy middle ground between the two driving styles.

Dirt 2 is heavily focused on the extreme sports culture, which means lots of energy drink sponsors and the ability to complete in three X-Games competitions across the world. X-Games aside, you’ll travel the globe and hit such racing hotspots as Croatia, the US, England, China, Japan, Malaysia, and several others. There are over 100 events to complete that run the gamut of Rally racing — both multi-car races and solo events that mirror the more traditional sensibilities of pure rally racing.

Live and Let Livery

Each type of event requires a certain type of car or truck, but instead of just buying a one-use vehicle you can actually buy add-on packs to modify a current car to a new style of racing. There are seven vehicle classes in total, and an amazing array of licensed vehicles that are customizable through an even more dizzying variety of liveries that you unlock as you gain experience.

Experience points are a vital part of the game as well. Winning races earns both money and experience, and you’ll advance in level, RPG-style, as you race. New countries and events become unlocked regularly, but you’ll have to be a high-enough level to access them. Another small, yet impressive, touch is the use of extensive voice work. All of the competing drivers have contributed to the game, but a few like Dave Mirra and Ken Block went the extra mile and were recorded using an extensive list of names so they actually refer to you by name — provided your name is on the list.

Finally, the multiplayer options are far more extensive this time around. You can actually race in multi-car bouts, including multi-track and mode tournaments. The frame rate in single and multiplayer is rock solid as well, and the eight-player matches proved to be very stable. For diehard competitors, the game is set up to help you network with other players by broadcasting scores, achievements, and events across the Dirt 2 world.

Mud is Fun

Though it seems Codemasters has made a concerted effort to move away from the more simulation-like Colin McRae days, Dirt 2 should prove to be a great choice for both arcade and serious virtual drivers. There are a ton of races to complete, wrapped around a gorgeous presentation, and the game is simply a lot of fun. The addition of decent multiplayer helps immensely as well, making this a well-rounded sequel.

Source:g4tv.com

Designed by the company originally responsible for the City of Heroes franchise, Champions Online dons the mask, cape, and spandex again for more massively multiplayer mayhem. Chief among its standout features is the level of customization you have over your hero or heroine. Instead of merely spending hours getting just the right look for your crimson-codpiece-clad crime fighter, you can craft new items, acquire a variety of powers from multiple disciplines, tweak their (or a weapon’s) appearance and animation, and go beyond the rigid class structure found in competing games. From towering robots and hunched-over beasts to winged angels and horned mutants, you have the freedom to create just about anything you can imagine. Does the gameplay inspire the same level of creativity?

It’s Clobberin’ Time

You begin your superhero life in Millennium City, which is under attack from an insectoid race called the Qularr. There isn’t any alone time with a mentor, showing you the ropes as a superhero and letting you come to grips with your newfound powers. Instead, you are thrust right into the action with the buzzing and bustling of a city under siege. Other areas follow a similar format, offering a community-level quest that involves beating the stuffing out of enemies, collecting doodads and whatnots, and/or defending a hotspot for a certain length of time. At the end of each event, you’ll see how your superhero stacked up against others and maybe earn a reward or two.

Other quest types will be familiar to online RPG veterans. You’ll gather this many items, kill x-amount of enemies, rescue certain people, and venture into dungeons called lairs. Quest givers, called contacts, have punctuation marks floating above their heads and dole out experience points and stat-boosting loot. While the quests are hardly original, initially there are plenty of things to do to make it feel like you are moving forward with your character instead of grinding experience by killing random mobs. The seven themed regions (snow, city, underwater, desert, moon, etc.) are diverse enough to make you want to explore every nook and cranny, but truth be told, the action doesn’t deviate much from region to region. The majority of mobs, for example, can be defeated by alternating between one or two select powers and a blocking move. If you are hoping for strategic battles that will require the full use of your hero’s abilities to win, you’ll likely be disappointed with Champions Online’s combat. It is, however, very solo friendly, which some will appreciate.

Fulfilling Your Destiny

While the combat wades toward the shallow side of the pool, the game can still be fun to play. Again, the lack of traditional classes means you can create your hero the way you want instead of following a narrow tree. Champions Online offers six different frameworks to build your characters, including might, psionic, martial arts, tech, magic, and elemental, but there’s nothing preventing you from mixing and matching powers within these frameworks. Another bright spot is the inclusion of perks, which are achievements you complete by defeating enemies, meeting certain characters, exploring areas, and so forth. Perks unlock roles for your character (such as support or offense) as well as costume pieces, pets, titles, and other bonuses. Once you hit level 25, you’ll create an arch-nemesis that will become a burr in your britches throughout subsequent quests and lead to character-specific missions.

Divvying Up the Action

Players accustomed to games like World of Warcraft will be surprised to learn that Champions Online doesn’t tie you to a specific server, as regions are essentially large instances with a small population cap. Each time you visit a new area, you choose from a list of instances, which serves as a reminder that you aren’t playing in a seamless world filled with thousands of players. While you’ll be able to see which instances your friends or guild members are currently playing in, it’s possible that you won’t all be able to meet together in the same area. The limited instance size means it will be more difficult for solo players to find groups for certain quests. It also should be noted that Champions Online feels like a player versus environment game first, and a player versus player game second. The latter takes place in small deathmatch-type arenas where the goal is to eliminate the opposition as quickly as possible.

One of the more controversial design features of Champions Online is the use of “cryptic points” to purchase items on top of the monthly fee. In essence, the developers are taking two bites from the same apple, and you’re the Red Delicious. At the time of the game’s launch, this content consists of pets for 80 points apiece, which translates in the real world to $1 per toy helicopter or mini companion. Is this process a little cheesy? Yes, but if, as the developers suggest, it’s needed to ensure high quality support, then let the nickel-and-diming begin. Just keep it to the areas of cosmetic costume pieces and fluff, or the community blowback will be strong enough to create a tornado.

Hero or Zero?

Champions Online is a colorful, action-packed title with the finest character creation system yet seen in an online RPG. The repetitive quests, instance population caps, and dearth of group-oriented content are disappointments. There are also the expected issues for a new game, including balancing problems, powers that aren’t doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, frame rate issues, and some content gaps. The good news is that these titles always improve over time, and during its first week, the developers have already announced significant patches to address some of the shortcomings. In its current state, Champions Online improves upon the City of Heroes franchise but lacks the all-important “addictiveness” factor to propel it to must-have status. A few more months of polish are needed to convert nagging doubters into true believers.

Source:g4tv.com

Professor Layton & The Diabolical Box, Level-5’s follow up to last year’s Professor Layton & The Curious Village, continues the tradition of giving players challenging puzzles to solve and compelling mysteries to uncover. The puzzles are varied and plentiful, the cinematics are even more stunning than before, and there are a host of new mini-games. In other words, it doesn’t take a world-renowned detective to realize that this game is fantastic.

Professor Layton & The Diabolical Box, Level-5’s follow up to last year’s Professor Layton & The Curious Village, continues the tradition of giving players challenging puzzles to solve and compelling mysteries to uncover. The puzzles are varied and plentiful, the cinematics are even more stunning than before, and there are a host of new mini-games. In other words, it doesn’t take a world-renowned detective to realize that this game is fantastic.

Our Story So Far…

In their latest adventure, our titular professor and his trusty apprentice Luke embark on yet another whimsical and brain-twisting journey to uncover the truth behind a mysterious artifact that is rumored to kill anyone who opens it. When one of Layton’s colleagues ends up dead after locating and opening said box, an investigation ensues into the nefarious item’s whereabouts, the truth contained within it, and its unsuspecting ties to a powerful and influential family.

Since one of the most enjoyable aspects of the Layton games is uncovering the twists and turns of the story, I’ll refrain from going into further detail about it. Needless to say, expect the unexpected, and always keep your eyes and ears open as clues abound around every turn.

Riddle Me This

Murder mysteries are fun. They always have been, always will be. And while I definitely enjoy the stories in the Layton games, the puzzles are really the stars of the show. If you played Curious Village recently, then chances are you will recognize quite a few of the puzzles in the new game. It isn’t a game-breaking issue, since the new puzzles contain different values and such, but if you remember the “tricks” to solving them, then you’ll definitely have an advantage. However, there are so many puzzles that any prior playthrough doesn’t take away from the overall experience that much. Plus, you can download new puzzles via Nintendo Wi-Fi once you’ve somehow managed to solve all the puzzles in the game, which means you’ll be playing this one for quite some time.

In addition to the ridiculous amounts of brainteasers, riddles and puzzles, Diabolical Box features several new mini-games as well. There’s a broken camera that you need to find the parts for in order to unlock hidden puzzles. There’s a tea set that lets you mix and match various herbs that you find during the game and then brew teas, which you can then serve to people to access story info and special items. And finally, there’s your chubby pet hamster that you need to help get into shape by placing various objects around a map, and getting him to walk a certain number of spaces to shed the pounds.

The mini-games add even more variety to an already varied and lengthy experience, and the way they are woven into the fabric of the main quests makes them much more than simple distractions thrown in just for the sake of it.

Layton’s Got The Look

One of the most impressive aspects of Curious Village is its cinematics. In fact, they are still some of the best I’ve seen on the DS. Well, this time around — if you can believe it –  the game looks even better. The style is identical to the previous game, but there are tons of great details that just make the scenes pop even more, like the occasional inclusion of 3-D elements mixed in with the 2-D animation (i.e. a fully 3-D train moving across a 2-D background), or the animated backgrounds when you’re investigating aboard a speeding train. Sometimes it can be hard to make out tiny objects on screen, but overall, the game looks terrific.

The voice acting is spotty at times, but it fits in well with the overall tone of the game, so it’s kind of easy to forgive its occasional cheesiness. Also, the theme that plays whenever you are solving a puzzle (the same theme from the previous game) is a solid enough tune, but having to listen to the same tinkling melody over and over for hours on end definitely gets on your nerves — I actually only kept the volume on for the first five or six puzzles, and then I just lowered the volume every time I had to solve a new puzzle. That’s a shame too, because the rest of the music in the game is great, and really helps set the mood for every area and situation.

This Should Do the Trick!

Despite a few very minor issues, one thing is quite clear: if you’re in the market for a DS game that provides dozens of hours of gameplay, an engrossing story that will have you guessing to the very end, and will seriously put your wits to the test, look no further than this fantastic puzzle-filled adventure.  Professor Layton & The Diabolical Box delivers the goods.

Source:g4tv.com

While it may not be the most technical or balanced game in the Capcom canon, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is certainly a fan favorite. After many years of requests (and no doubt some impressive license-wrangling on Capcom’s part), U.S. gamers can finally get their MvC2 on against online opponents.

While it may not be the most technical or balanced game in the Capcom canon, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is certainly a fan favorite. After many years of requests (and no doubt some impressive license-wrangling on Capcom’s part), U.S. gamers can finally get their MvC2 on against online opponents.

Battle of the century

For the handful of people who have never played it, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is a “dream match” fighting competition between Capcom’s characters and the Marvel Universe. Each player chooses a team of three characters, who can be swapped in and out of play at any time. Off-screen team members can additionally be called in for an assist attack, or used to beef up a super attack if there’s enough super meter available. Unlike the more standard fighting titles like Street Fighter II, the Versus Series is all about frenetic action and over the top screen-filling super attacks. It’s not perfectly balanced, and probably doesn’t need to be. If you’re playing MvC2 to win every time, you’re doing it wrong. Just pick out three of the whopping 56 playable characters and have fun smacking your opponent. If you’re picking Magneto, Storm and Sentinel every time, lighten up already.

Each player chooses a team of three characters, who can be swapped in and out of play at any time. Off-screen team members can additionally be called in for an assist attack, or used to beef up a super attack if there’s enough super meter available.

It’s still thinking

The downloadable version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is pretty much a straight-up port of the Dreamcast version. All the idiosyncrasies have been preserved, although major bugs like Gambit getting stuck in his super move animation seem to be fixed. To adapt the game to modern televisions, the backgrounds have been extended out to 16:9 ratios, filling the screen but not actually expanding the gameplay area. For the most part it’s not noticeable, but some animations and moves get cut off at the 4:3 boundary, which looks a bit weird. Still, it’s better than having black bars on the sides of the screen, and doesn’t actually impact play in any way. You can also choose between two new display modes for the character sprites, which smooths them out for HD displays. If that looks too weird, there’s always the unaltered classic mode that leaves them exactly as you remember from ten years ago (or, in the case of Morrigan, 15 years ago…somebody redraw the poor girl already).

Online play is similar to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix’s, also developed by Backbone. Matches take place in “winner stays” lobbies that can hold up to six players at a time. Extensive win/loss stats are kept, and you can spectate matches between other players in your lobby while you wait. As was the case with HD Remix, online play is smooth and does a convincing job of emulating a side-by-side match. That’s especially impressive here, considering how fast Marvel vs. Capcom 2 moves. Outside of slight stuttering at the beginning of some matches, I never felt like I was out of synch with my opponents. It’s truly impressive how well Capcom has managed to implement online play into their current batch of fighting game releases, both new and old.

Take the ride

The only real thing to be wary of is that the game is a competitive title only. If you’re not going to be playing this extensively against friends on the couch or opponents online, this version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is not for you. A single player won’t find much to do, as only the standard solo modes are included and there’s nothing to unlock, as everyone and their numerous colors are available from the start. It’s all very sensible considering the nature of the game, but it should still be noted for players expecting a story mode on the level of a Guilty Gear or BlazBlue.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is unquestionably one of the high points of Capcom’s golden era of fighting games. It’s accessible, vibrant to look at even today, and online play alone makes it a must buy. Sure beats paying $80 on eBay for the PlayStation 2 version.

Source:g4tv.com

Odds are that if you’ve used a personal computer, a video game console, or even a graphing calculator in the past 20 years or so, you’ve played Breakout. Or Blockout. Or Block Smash. Or Block Smasher. Or Arkanoid. Or the thousands of other boilerplate executions of the same idea: bounce a ball toward some breakable bricks without letting it get past you on the rebound. Shatter is another such variant, but the good news is that developer Sidhe is following the same successful path that many other classic game remakes have recently taken: examine the formula, update it so that it makes sense by today’s standards, and dress it up in beautiful HD explosions.

I Want to Break Free

Like we saw with Pac-Man: Championship Edition or Galaga Legions, all it takes is a few little twists to reinvent the game. While one can easily breeze through most of the game’s traditional level structure, Shatter’s primary motivation is something that most successful games of this type utilize: the high score. When blocks are broken, they emanate little floaty bits — think of Geometry Wars 2. Using your bat’s powers of sucking and blowing (Sidhe’s terminology, not mine), you can collect these bits and increase your score multiplier. The key is to do this as early and often as possible in each wave, because the multipliers don’t carry over and it’s a wasted effort saving high multipliers for the last remaining blocks at the end.

The risk in doing that, though, is that almost everything on the playfield can be sucked or blown, including the ball and loose blocks. Letting the ball go by results in a loss of a life, and getting hit by oncoming debris knocks the bat out for about a second, which is just enough time to completely screw you. But the smart thing about Shatter is that everything has a check and balance. You can send out multiple balls to clear out the area quicker (you get a time bonus at the end), and while you’re likely to lose them more often, the game is generous with extra life bonuses to compensate. To counter the blocks that get in the way, your bat has a shield that quickly destroys them. But using the shield drains the energy you’d otherwise need to activate the Shard Storm power, which unleashes a devastating attack on the playfield. It’s this combination of small strategies plus the pursuit of the high score that gives Shatter that needed extra twist.

Sidhe thought of the little details, too, like how the ball has a laser guide to show you how the gravity is affecting the direction. That’s especially handy for when there’s only one or two blocks left and you need to be precise with aiming, which is probably Shatter’s biggest (unavoidable) weak point. Most of the game’s random energy is front-loaded when there’s plenty of breakable stuff left on the screen. When there’s only a handful of blocks left to clear and the danger has more or less subsided, the pace slows down as you try to steer the ball(s) exactly the right way. It’s especially evident in the circular stages where the ricochet angles are harder to predict, and those stages pop up a bit too frequently. There’s definitely more room to be creative with field designs, given that you have some control over the general direction of the ball.

Electric Boogaloo

Shatter looks and sounds great, as is somewhat mandatory for a classic game remake these days. While the aesthetics aren’t especially stylized (it’s more Super Stardust HD than Everyday Shooter), the effects are still pretty and colorful, while mostly restrained enough to keep you focused on the action. There’ll be times when the ball can get lost in the chaos, but its contrail is unique enough to prevent this from being a repetitive problem.

The soundtrack — composed by Jeremiah Ross, aka “Module” — is best described as guitar-driven 70s technofunk, simultaneously reminiscent of games like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Geometry Wars, and Rez. It’s one of those soundtracks that stands well on its own outside of the game, and it’s a great test of your next-door neighbor’s tolerance for the low end.

At $7.99, Shatter is a great value. Sidhe followed the retro-remake gameplan and executed on pretty much everything they needed to.

Source:g4tv.com