Game Description:STAR OCEAN THE LAST HOPE: INTERNATIONAL continues the series traditions of soaring space opera, blending science fiction with fantasy for a unique RPG experience. The PS3 version will include the option for players to choose English or Japanese voiceovers and localised subtitles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. STAR OCEAN THE LAST HOPE: INTERNATIONAL’s refined gameplay features …four party members and team-oriented combat, while maintaining the innovative real-time battle system that has become a trademark of the STAR OCEAN series. Story The year is S.D. 10. In the aftermath of World War III, humanity voyages into the stars in search of a new home… and a second chance. Features • Choose between English and Japanese voiceovers – only available on the PS3 version • A prequel that combines sci-fi and fantasy elements, spanning multiple planets and the vastness of space itself to recount the origins of the STAR OCEAN universe. • Exhilarating combat expands upon the franchise’s famous real-time battle system, including amazing graphics and visual effects • Feature breathtaking CG movies by Visual Works, the cutting-edge studio whose previous work includes cut-scenes for the acclaimed FINAL FANTASY® RPG series • Text localised for PAL territories with French, German, Spanish and Italian subtitles and menu screens.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International delivers all of the same interstellar, RPG quality of the Xbox 360 version, with a few welcomed additions. The game still has a few inherent problems, but they are easily forgiven in light of everything the game does right

While it might not carry the same JRPG clout enjoyed by Final Fantasy, Square Enix’s repurposed galactic RPG romp, Star Ocean: The Last Hope International — a PS3 re-release of 2009’s Star Ocean: The Last Hope — , does pretty much everything it can to make the last journey through in the Star Ocean franchise (which is actually the first journey, since it’s a prequel to the other games) as memorable, enjoyable and engaging as possible. It might not be for everyone, but you’d be surprised at how close it comes.

The New Last Hope

The Last Hope follows the adventures of Edge Maverick, a classically androgynous 20 year-old lad, aboard one of the Earth’s first intergalactic spaceships tasked with exploring new worlds in the hopes of finding a new beginning for humanity. Several decades earlier, World War III essentially destroyed Earth, which forced people to live underground and eventually look towards the vast star ocean for real estate ideas. The expedition quickly turns into a search and rescue mission after the ships encounter an unknown object during warp speed that scatters the ships to parts unknown.

The only major downside of the game’s narrative is the horrendous voice acting and, at times, the redundant and uninspired dialogue that accompanies it. Three of the five female characters in your crew have voices that sound like Michael Jackson gargling fire-engulfed cats, and their acting is equally painful to endure, especially since the frequent cutscenes are so lengthy. Fortunately, the International version, unlike its Xbox 360 cousin, includes the much-appreciated ability to turn on the original Japanese voice acting. For anyone familiar with The Last Hope on Xbox 360, you’ll know that it has some of the most unbearable voice acting you’ll likely to come across in a game. The Japanese acting definitely leaves a lot to be desired as well, but as least you don’t have to listen to Lymle say, “Kay?” every time she speaks. Thank you Square Enix!

Surprisingly, for as shaky as the voice work and the script are, they rarely ruin the narrative flow. This is due mostly to the fact that the pacing is fantastic, and the story unfolds at a great clip, with each beat feeling perfectly contained and leading nicely into the next one. There are a few twists along the way, but nothing so severe that it negates what has happened leading up to them.  Despite the heavy-handedness of the game’s themes, it’s as fascinating a game story as I’ve come across in a while.

Of All the Planets, In All the Solar Systems…

Over the course of the game, you travel between several planets and space stations. The areas available for you to explore on each planet are limited to dungeon-esque layouts (interiors as well as exteriors), but there are plenty of wide-open and expansive sections as well. Unfortunately, objectives aren’t always clear, so you’ll find yourself wandering around a lot without any real sense of whether you’re going the right way.

The diversity of each planet’s ecology (combined with the pace of the story) keeps you from having to stay in one place for too long. It also doesn’t hurt that the settings (ranging from lush beaches and forests to snow capped mountains to dilapidated space stations) are all beautifully designed, and they all just pop off the screen, due in large part to the stunning HDR lighting effects.

Scattered around each beautiful setting are plenty of goodies to reward exploration (treasure chests to unlock, minerals to mine, and food items to harvest). Between gathering the raw materials, creating recipes and building items, you could easily kill a dozen or so hours, and all of that is just one slice of the overall experience. If you plow through the story and take up a side quest here and there, you’re looking at around 40 hours. With everything else, you could easily kill more than twice that without even noticing.

Trigger the Fight!

Of course, the real star of this ocean is the combat. As in previous entrants in the series, you initiate battles by approaching enemies in the field and then fighting in real-time in a separate arena. If I had one complaint about the combat, it’s that it isn’t carried out entirely in real-time in the field, but that’s just personal preference. Hardcore turn-basers might feel differently, but Star Ocean does a great job of making sure strategy factors in heavily with the real-time combat, especially when it comes to how you start fights. There is also quite a bit of strategy involved in picking the battle approaches for your teammates. It’s just another fantastic way of giving players complete control over everything that transpires on the battlefield.

You also have the option of creating your own combos by mixing and matching up to three attacks. These combos can lead to some absolutely devastating onscreen mayhem, especially later on the game when you have four characters with three or four unholy abilities all fighting at the same time against swarms of enemies. There are times when the frame rate suffers from so much chaos, but fortunately, those instances are as rare as they are brief.

To reward you for your battle prowess, the game features a bonus board, which tracks your performance during combat. Each time you meet a requirement (kill multiple enemies, deal certain amount of damage, avoid taking damage, etc.), a new jewel is placed on the board. Linking these jewels results in multipliers that help you rack up money, experience and health/magic boosts at an accelerated rate. The board can be broken if the character you’re controlling suffers a critical hit during battle, which adds yet another layer of complexity and engagement to the already insanely robust combat system.

Final Fantasy Who? Oh, Right. But Still…

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International won’t make occasional RPG dabblers dump Final Fantasy or Fallout 3, but for fans of the genre, it’s a worthy addition to your library. Everything about the game feels massive, from the story to the exploration to the combat. It all has a fantastic sense of scope to it that really makes you feel like you are part of this universe-sized adventure. There are tons of places to go, people to meet, things to build, enemies to kill, skills to learn, sights to see, all in addition to smooth and satisfying combat. Even if you aren’t a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

Source:g4tv.com

Game Description:In this dark, atmospheric mystery game, players jump between four characters as they try to solve a case involving a serial killer known as the Origami Killer. Gameplay consists of guiding the characters through interactions and events by hitting corresponding letters that appear on screen at specific moments, making the experience more akin to an interactive movie than a traditional video game. F…eaturing stunning visuals, an engrossing story and unique gameplay, this is one storm you’ll definitely want to be caught in.

Heavy Rain weaves together an entertaining thriller, an interactive presentation, and story-altering decisions. And though it shows signs of unraveling, it comes together in the end for a gripping and unique experience.

You won’t understand Heavy Rain until the first time you do something wrong. You’ll be required to make a quick decision based on limited information or an altercation will end poorly, and instead of a “Game Over” screen and another attempt at the same challenge, the script briskly continues to the next scene as if what happened was how it was supposed to happen all along. When you wonder for the first time, “What if I did that differently?” is when Heavy Rain blooms.

THE PLAY’S THE THING

This is not David Cage and Quantic Dream’s first attempt at interactive drama. The praised-yet-flawed Indigo Prophecy laid much of the groundwork for Heavy Rain back in 2005, and it was then that Cage first attempted to rework the concepts of adventure games and interwoven fiction into something more modern. But Indigo Prophecy’s script weakened under a load of supernatural confusion and  while not entirely solved, that same mistake has not been repeated for Heavy Rain.

Like Indigo, Heavy Rain is built entirely of character interactions with the environments, with each other, and within themselves. These interactions are translated to the controller in the form of context-based motions and gestures: “half-circle up on the analog stick,” “shake controller to the right,” and “hold triangle, square and circle” are examples. The shorthand industry jargon for this type of control scheme is “QTE,” or quick-time event, and usually carries a negative connotation. The reason that Heavy Rain should avoid that negative association is that this is the basis for the entire experience — there are no jumps between different types of control schemes like those found in the finishing moves of action games like God of War or Bayonetta.

And an experience like Heavy Rain wouldn’t be possible without such a structure. There’s a very simple link between the controller motions and eliciting a similar mental feeling that corresponds with what happens on screen. Holding down three buttons at once tests your hand dexterity as one character tries to maintain his balance on a muddy hill. The translation is not even close to direct, but it’s enough to trigger the empathetic reaction that you’re somehow participating in the scene. In the beginning, the simple motions of a Saturday morning routine prepares your “gamer” side for the far more intense scenarios to come, but it also builds required emotional links that give the inevitable tragedies their punch. Playing with your kids in the yard, for example, doesn’t just teach you how to play, but  also means you’re playing with your kids in the yard. That’s an equally important bond to establish, and Heavy Rain does this well throughout.

Context-based control is equally important in redefining the idea of an action scene. Going with a a cinematic presentation requires that a certain amount of direct control must be surrendered by the player. That’s true with Heavy Rain, but the trade-off is more effective here than it would be in games with a traditional 1st- or 3rd-person perspective. A car chase or a fistfight can be exciting no matter what the vantage point is, but there’s a unique tension and excitement that can only be brought out by a director with a plan. That’s not to say there’s right or a wrong way of doing things; Heavy Rain doesn’t invalidate other methods of gameplay as much as it validates its own method as a viable alternative. It can be called a game, but it’s more of an interactive drama. And to call it that is the furthest thing from a slight.

THE GRASS IS GREENER

There’s no dominant philosophical statement in David Cage’s story apart from “it’s important to have (or be) a good father.” Much was made about who this game would appeal to, and as it turns out, it’s the same people who enjoy movies like Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, or Zodiac. Cage borrows from such influences and infuses his own experiences as a father to create a gripping crime drama, and the only requirement to relate to the story is that you either have a father, had a father, are a father, or grew up without a father — which should account for  everybody. His driving question of “How far would you go?” puts the responsibility of divining a theme on the shoulders of the player, as it’s those dynamic decisions that decide Heavy Rain’s ultimate resolution. Using the game as a mirror works, just as long as the player is interested enough in holding it up — and using a straightforward story about a serial killer more than suffices as incentive.

And it’s absolutely vital that these decisions are presented as irreversible. The absence of a fail state — the traditional “Game Over” screen — and knowing that key characters of the story can die and not return generates a genuine sense of danger when those characters find themselves in deep trouble. That trickles down into smaller decisions and conversations where you need to make a choice, and what ends up happening more often than not is going with your gut instinct and accepting the consequences. Feeling that you made a “wrong” choice shouldn’t be construed as failing at the game, nor is it reinforced by the scenes that result — you’re just seeing the story march on a different path. The flexibility of the script allows for multiple conclusions, and multiple variations on how you arrive at those conclusions. Though there are “good” and “bad” results, the endings can’t really be defined as “good” or “bad” — there’s ample resolution in both, and the dissatisfaction you might feel with what you end up with only compels you to explore the story again following a different path.

But not everything is perfect. With such an emphasis placed on the story, the plot quirks and logical inconsistencies that might be brushed aside in other games stick out here. Characters sometimes behave irrationally for the sake of plot convenience; red herrings lead too far in one direction without any explanation to justify it; important revelation scenes are skipped over depending on player decisions; the game’s shocking twist was well-hidden in retrospect, but also contradicts itself upon review due to dishonest misdirection and unconvincing voice work. Depending on your path, it’s possible the game can end in a disappointing way because of a double-whammy plot contrivance and “stubborn, stupid cop” cliche. But it’s also possible you never see that happen.

Weaving such an open story leads to such unique narrative-related problems that Cage was unable to avoid. Some of which are evident through the initial playthrough, but others that reveal themselves only after you already know what happens. To use a spoiler-free example, in one scene Character X makes Decision A. But later in the game we see Character X in a state where it assumes Decision B was made.

 Having access to the characters’ inner thoughts, for all of its benefits, also poses a problem. Heavy Rain does a great job of keeping you true to your outward decisions and performance, but frequently you’ll be able to choose from a wide range of inner thoughts, and you aren’t forced to commit to one way of thinking like you are with one course of action. That will lead to weird mood swings where characters contradict themselves internally as you explore their current state of mind. If we’re supposed to be playing the part of these characters, it would have been more effective and in line with the game’s action scenes to choose one train of thought as a gut reaction and commit to it.

ARE YOU FROM AROUND HERE?

One last quirk that you have to force yourself to accept is that Heavy Rain is a game about Americans written and cast by French developers. This wouldn’t be an issue had Quantic Dream been able to fully maintain the illusion that everything is happening in an area heavily inspired by Philadelphia, but there were too many instances of poor voice acting, particularly in the children characters, that definitely did not come across as originating from the Eastern United States. There are frequent slip-ups with pronunciation, cadence, and inflection that suggest an effort to suppress European accents. Much of the voice work is passable, but when it’s not, it eats away at the all-too-important immersion. As does the awkward, almost alien-like way the characters move around in anything that isn’t a cut-scene (which, in contrast, are executed quite convincingly).

But credit must be given to Quantic Dream for creating an environment — a proper stage — that’s soaked in the grime and depression needed to underscore what’s really a sad and terrible story. You can be walking through a crime scene at 8:14 in the morning and feel like it’s 3:00 AM and you’ve been up for 72 hours and you really don’t know what time of day it is…which doesn’t really matter because the constant rain makes the days bleed together anyway. The soundtrack, too, accentuates the mood. Whether it’s simple piano notes providing a noir tone to a lonely private eye’s investigation, or strings screeching alongside the tires of a car about to crash through a police blockade.

YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

Quantic Dream has improved and refined the template they created with Indigo Prophecy, and it’s an example that hopefully other developers will consider following, especially if they have an idea for a game that might not be suited for a genre with more established conventions. But there’s still room for improvement, and it’s going to take a skilled and attentive group of people to avoid common game mistakes, cinematic mistakes, and new hybrid mistakes that we’re just now discovering exist when the two are blended.

But in the frequent moments when it works, the unpredictable nature of the story is a special thing that’s unique to games. Instead of talking to someone else who experienced it and both of you recounting the same scene, you might end up excitedly saying, “Wait…that’s not what happened to me…”

“Should” you play Heavy Rain? If you enjoy a good story, then yes…especially because you get to take part in it.

Source:g4tv.com

After some a few misfires and some relatively okay attempts, the Smackdown series returns to form with WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010. With a heavier push on user-generated content, it’s the first game in the series to truly embrace sharing of fan-created wrestlers, finishers, and now, your own storylines. Although there are some misfires and unaddressed long-term issues, it’s among the best wrestling games this generation.

The Smackdown series has seen its fair share of ups and downs, with the games seeing some stagnation during the transition from the PS2 era to our current HD generation of gaming. Yukes made some decisions that felt a bit regressive when it came to feature sets, and gameplay adjustments were minor at best in many regards. Enter WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, which shakes up the franchise with some much-needed updates to reflect the capabilities of this generation.

Welcome to the WWE!

The first noticeable improvement in SVR 10 is the presentation. It’s evident that Yukes has studied other sports games to create its inviting in-game menu. Now, like EA Sports titles such as NBA Live and FIFA, SVR 10 starts up in a training ring, where you can test drive the new movesets, or brush up on gameplay if you haven’t picked up the series in some time. It’s a smart move that helps drive home the improved accessibility.

SVR 10 carries plenty of subtle touches that lend authenticity. Pull off enough “Whoo”-worthy Ric Flair chest chops and welts will start showing up on your opponent’s chest. If you open up your opponent’s face, his blood will eventually show up on you if the action keeps dragging out. They’re small but effective features that, like the end-credit Smackdown and Raw moments during Road to Wrestlemania — complete with color commentary sign-off and a fade to black mid-brawl, help sell the credibility of the WWE experience.

Slimming Down Is the New Bulking Up

But, like many sports sims — only the uninformed would lump the series in with fighting games — the devil’s in the small details, and SVR 10’s new systems are arguably the biggest improvements to the franchise in years. For starters, the counter-reversal system has been remapped to a single button, rather than “grapple reverse” and “strike reverse” buttons. It really streamlines the process of protecting yourself from attacks. In addition, the grapple system has seen some big improvements. If you lock your opponent into a strong grapple, you can hit a few buttons to keep the grapple going while you move around him/her. For example, if you lock in a front grapple but want to perform a belly-to-back suplex, you can tap a few buttons and shift the right stick to move yourself into position. These two elements maintain the complexity that wrestling fans want without convoluted mechanics.

The More Things Change…

The overall grappling and reversal mechanics have seen some big changes, but some of the problems that have plagued the series from the beginning are still there. Collision detection is still awkward at times. I watched as Triple H put his entire hand into The Big Show’s belly during an abdominal stretch. Rope physics aren’t so hot, either. At times, feet clip through the bottom rope, yet other times, it’s a weapon. Although SVR 09 put a heavier focus on tag teams, it still has brain farts — if the Undertaker has me in a suplex and is walking around the ring to my corner, shouldn’t my partner bum rush him to break the hold? That’s a problem when you’re dealing with specialty brawls such as six-man tag matches. AI inconsistency has been an ongoing problem for the series, and although it’s better about certain elements, it’s still a long-term work-in-progress.

Are You the Next Stephanie McMahon?

Outside of the ring, sim-focused misfires like 24/7 Mode have been flushed down the memory hole in favor of WWE Story Designer. It’s here that hardcore wrestling fans will sink hours upon hours into the game. Ideally, not only are you the GM of your show, you’re also the booker. You can micromanage feuds, match types, and conditions for matches. If you’re anal retentive enough, you can even tweak cinematics down to whether your superstar ends up in a brawl after cutting a promo, or whether you’re going to escalate tension in other ways. It’s ridiculous in scale — you can theoretically book up to a decade’s worth of programming — but a little myopic in scope. For example, if you want to book your created superstar to fit within your stories, you’re very limited in the number of times you can use him or her. Otherwise, it’s a deep mode that’s designed to satisfy the urges of fans looking for that extra degree of personalization.

Character customization is vastly improved, as well. The depth of create-a-superstar extends beyond prior games and nears the anal-retentive detail seen in Neversoft’s games. You can even create alternate outfits for your created talent. In conjunction with last year’s Create-a-Finisher, you can also edit the movesets for current superstars. If anyone on the WWE roster changes a specialty move or finisher, you can go in, tweak his moveset, and adjust accordingly. The level of detail for what the user can do is quite impressive.

Millions of Comic Book and Anime Characters!

The biggest additions to SVR 10, overall, come through user-generated content and how the game distributes it. Make no mistake, wrestling games have been at the forefront of fan-creation for over a decade, but developers have been slow to capitalize on community-based creation. With WWE Community Creations, you’re now able to not only upload your superstars and highlight reels (added last year), but also finishers, screenshots, and most importantly, created storylines. It’s a huge leap (albeit one we should’ve seen years ago) for the franchise. I can’t vouch for the total quality of what’s been uploaded at launch (the user-uploaded plot I test drove was hilariously awful), but the technology is finally there to share.

It seems like SVR tradition that online has its ups and downs. SVR 10, for all of its offline fun, seems to clunk along when you factor in Xbox Live or PSN. Is it because the inherently imbalanced nature of the game breaks when you put it into an online environment? Is it because the canned move animations (a Smackdown staple) break up the flow of the action when you’re staring at someone putting you in an unbreakable move for several seconds? Or the lag that creeps into matches at inopportune moments? There’s certainly an audience that loves playing against other people online — and they’ll love wrestling in SVR 10’s numerous online match modes, warts and all — but at this point, that audience knows who it is, and if you’re not willing to put up with it, you’re better off playing on the couch with in-the-flesh friends.

On This Day, I See Clearly…

After years of awkward development on HD consoles, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 is a matured game. Despite some persistent annoyances — clipping and collision detection problems, dumb AI, and spotty online — the amount of care that’s been put into refining the grapple system and counter-reversal mechanics is more than evident here. Plus, WWE Community Creations updates the series to the demands of today’s consoles. SVR 2010 is the Here Comes the Pain of this console generation. It’s a huge leap for the series, and one well worth playing if you’re a hardcore WWE fan. Just spellcheck your story dialogue before you upload it, please.

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