The Binding of Isaac

The Short


Pros
- Blend of Zelda, rogue-likes, and duel-stick shooters
- Hundreds of unlockables: items, characters, power-ups, levels, bosses, and more
- Dark, disgusting, and with a unique art style
- Incredible soundtrack
- Addicting and ideally suited for short bursts of gameplay
- Only $5 on Steam

Cons
- Can be incredibly difficult
- Success is often based heavily on luck
- Disturbing characters and themes might be too much for some
- No gamepad support
- Shooting is only four-directional rather than true eight-way

Welcome to hell

The Long


The Binding of Isaac is an indie game from half of the team behind Super Meat Boy (read: one of the two people, specifically the artist) and the creator of Gish, another PC indie game. At first glance it looks like a dark, more demented version of The Legend of Zelda but don't be fooled: beneath it's bizarre art style and gross-out, dark humor is an extremely competent rogue-like that simply screams for repeat plays.

The story behind The Binding of Isaac is...well, a more modern and messed-up take on the Biblical story of the same name. Isaac's mom, who spends most of her day watching Christian broadcast stations on the TV, hears "the voice of God" one day telling her to kill her only son, Isaac. In an attempt to escape her insane mother's bloodlust, Isaac makes his way into the basement, where plenty of dark secrets and horrible monstrosities await him.

Pictured: Horrible Monstrosities

The premise is one that many might find offensive, but it generally just serves as a background for the game's many levels of questing and item discovery. You find items that fit with the theme of a Biblical parody (or mockery, depending on how you take it) such as haloes, books from the Bible, and other weird connections. All the alternate characters are also named after Biblical "baddies:" Judas, Cain, Magdalene, Eve, etc. to further fit the theme. All in all, however, while I was a bit shocked at the game's premise at first, it is clearly taken more as satire than mockery, and again it really just exists to push the game forward.

And what a game it is. The Binding of Isaac is an extremely successful hybrid of three game types: The Legend of Zelda, rogue-likes, and duel-stick shooters. While this combination might sound a little weird, let me break it down for you.

For the Zelda aspect you have...well, a general Zelda aesthetic (as you can see from the screens). You collect silver keys to open secret doors and treasure chests. You get bombs to either attack enemies, destroy obstacles, or find hidden doors. You get your main attack an one "sub-item," and your life is measured in hearts. You collect pennies to spend at stores that have a distinct "Zelda" look about them. Because of that, you might think this game really is more Zelda than anything else, when it actually isn't.

The Binding of Isaac is a rogue-like, and it follows the staple of the genre where it has to be mercilessly punishing. Death is permanent. There is no save feature: quit and your game is over. Items like hearts, bombs, keys, and coins are dropped extremely rarely. Power-up items are given randomly (you are guaranteed at least one every floor, assuming you have a spare key to unlock the door), and a "bad run" is very much possible (i.e. getting all useless items so you are extremely underpowered by the end). It offers that weighty decision in games like these: do I risk clearing out a room for the hope of reward, or do I ignore that and simply take the path of least resistance? Once you are in a room you can't leave until all the enemies are cleared or you bomb a door to break out, and the difficulty means every room has the potential to kill you. This limiting of items and power-ups makes playthroughs of The Binding of Isaac short, but short enough that you don't mind starting over for another attempt. 

As far a a duel-stick shooter goes, that's generally how you attack. You control Isaac's movement with the arrow keys, then can either use the mouse (boo) or the WASD keys (yay) to shoot his "tears" (aka your only weapon) in four directions. Power-ups increase the rate of fire for tears, damage, range, and all sorts of other crazy things (my favorites include turning them into eye-lasers and a powerful charge beam).

And speaking of power-ups, there are loads. We are talking hundreds, and with more unlocking the more you play. The game practically throws unlocks at you the further you get, rewarding you for bombing stuff, exploring secret areas, killing certain bosses, and more. These power-ups don't make runs any easier, they just basically go into the grab-bag of items available when you find a power-up room. Which means later playthroughs won't necessarily be easier, but they'll certainly be different. 

Seriously, there are a lot of items in this game. 

While on that subject, The Binding of Isaac probably has the most incentive-rich gameplay of anything I've spent time with. In addition to items there are alternate bosses, characters, and even whole levels. The first time you beat the game is actually just a warm-up: after you beat Mom the first time it unlocks a whole new world past that (which you can get on your next playthrough) which is even harder and sports an even more difficult boss. Beat that nine times (which nets you more items) and you get an even harder ending boss, and beat that and you unlock a fifth world that is just stupid difficult and with one of the hardest bosses I've ever fought. Seriously, this game is totally packed full of stuff to get. 

Which is where The Binding of Isaac's appeal really comes from. The gross-out sections and questionable story will certainly turn a lot of people off (and many of the items are also lacking in taste), but at it's core this is just a really, really solid game. Had any one part of the game not worked - the Zelda-esque layout, the balance between difficulty and reward, or the controls - it would have been regarded as just a unique idea that failed. Instead, everything ties together perfectly and makes a completely unbeatable "quick-fix" game. I've sunk at least 10 hours into this game (with playthroughs running anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes) and I keep going back to it when I can't think of anything else to play, just to see if I can make it further than "that last run." Addicting can be a hard quality to make in a game, but like Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac holds no punches. 

Items actually change your appearance; Isaac usually looks pretty messed up by the end

Before I forget, the soundtrack is absolutely worth mentioning. It's by dbSoundworks, the incredible team behind Canabalt and Super Meat Boy, the author of which (Danny Baranowsky) is widely regarded as the best independent composer in the business. The songs differ from his usual retro-throwback tunes, instead focusing more on being creepy, simple, and incredibly catchy. It's atmospheric while still being musical, with nearly every song (especially the one that plays during the opening prologue) sending chills down your spine.

At an asking price of $5 on Steam (or less if it's on sale, or part of one of the previous Humble Indie Bundles), The Binding of Isaac is a downright steal. If you can tolerate the questionable content you are looking at many hours of difficult, masochist gameplay that beats you over the head but you still love it. The amount of sheer content in this title is so far beyond even the majority of full retail video games I still can't believe they didn't try to charge $10 or more for it. Add to the fact that they have already added a massive Halloween update (and have $2 DLC chock full of more items, levels, and characters on the way)

If I were to give a star rating, I'd give it five out of five. The asking price of $5 is underpriced if anything, and you can bet I'm picking up the DLC the minute it hits Steam. 

Legendary Wings

The Short


Pros
- Two-player top down and side scrolling space shooter
- Uses regular shooting and bombs ala Xevious
- Has "State of the Art" and "High Resolution," according to the box
- Lots of good powerups and secrets
- Decent music
- The cover is a picture of an angel dude with one shoulder pad holding a future space gun

Cons
- Like every other space shooter on the NES
- The whole "cross legged pink guy" thing on the side-scrolling stage is a little weird
- Limited lives and continues

DARK, the world-ruling computer has gone rogue, and so it's time to send the angels

The Long


Legendary Wings is an NES port of the Capcom arcade game of the same name, and is pretty much another space shooter. However, where Legendary Wings differs from the multitude of others (Lifeforce, Gradius, etc.) is it's unique art style as well as the clever use of power-ups and mixing overhead with side-scrolling sections.

Legendary Wings is mostly played from a top-down perspective, where you play a some pink (or blue) angel...guy. With a gun. Enemies come in waves, and power-up enemies are specifically designated. As well as being able to shoot the air, you can drop bombs (like Xevious) to blow up enemies on the ground. Power-ups also double as extra hits, and every time you are attacked you go "down" a powerup level. The exception of this is when you get five power ups and turn into some big fire bird. Then you have a couple of hits before reverting back to sucky regular pink angel guy.

And you get to kill some dragons

The "trick" to Legendary Wings is the large number of secrets. Bombing certain area unlock caves where you can go and get bonus money, continues, and powerups. On the flip side, some of these caves are bad, which forces you to go through a challenging side-scrolling section before kicking you out exactly where you were. Rude.

Bosses recycle frequently, mostly being the "shoot the weak point when it is available" variety and then in different colors. You also fight dragons on the top-down view, which aren't particularly challenging.

What is memorable about this game is how silly the angels look in the side view stages. Seriously, why are they flying with their legs crossed? Why do their wings looked tacked on? Why are they lounging back with their guns like they are on some street corner trying to pick up ladies?

That just looks awkward. 

All in all, if you like these kinds of games, Legendary Wings is certainly better than the droves of space shooter garbage that came out on the NES. It is better than it's arcade counterpart, and can be a lot of fun two-player. The game also gets very difficult very quickly (it wouldn't be an NES game if it didn't), so it can take several tries before you finally beat it.

Plus, it's state-of-the-art and high resolution! It says so right on the box!

I snagged my copy for $3, but I usually see it from $5-6. If you are a fan of these kinds of games, it's totally worth it. If I were to give it a score rating, it would be three out of five.

Lost Odyssey

The Short


Pros
- A JRPG from the original creators of Final Fantasy
- Old school, turn based RPGs with several unique twists
- A well crafted premise and story
- Fantastic music by Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy's composer)
- Caps level grinding so bosses stay challenging and fun
- Unique skill learning for Immortals vs Mortals
- 30+ hour adventure
- Some genuinely touching moments in the story
- High class voice work with a decent script
- Has a female character that isn't some sort of healer or mage
- There's a character named "Sid." Wink and a nod, Sakaguchi
- Jansen might be the greatest JRPG character of all time (with the exception of the cast of Nier)

Cons
- Four discs
- Load times are atrocious unless you install it to the HDD, and even then they are pretty awful
- Bad pop-in on the graphics thanks to the Unreal engine
- Story goes completely bonkers during the final parts
- DLC is basically just challenge rooms with no additional plot
- Follows traditional JRPG tropes (stupid costumes, save points, putting kids in your party, etc.)
- Won't ever get a sequel

Get ready to go back to turn-based JRPG bliss

The Long


Lost Odyssey is an interesting game, if only because of the dev team behind it. Hironbu Sakaguchi, the director/designer behind Final Fantasies 1-9, resigned from Square just before it merged with Enix, and founded his own studio (Mistwalker). Nobou Uematsu also left Square-Enix shortly after and joined up with Mistwalker. Their first game, Blue Dragon, had heavy influence of Akira Toriyama (famous for his work on Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragon Quest, and Chrono Trigger), and some considered it the "dream team," much like Chrono Trigger was several decades ago. Unfortunately the game didn't do as well as they anticipated, though it was very much a traditional, turn-based JRPG in the realm of the early Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior games.

Skip ahead a few years. Mistwalker was joined by a large number of people who worked on the original Shadow Hearts games (called "feelplus") and they created Lost Odyssey. It's worth nothing that feelplus along with Cavia (the makers of Nier) have since been dissolved and merged into a bigger company, AQ Interactive (which I expect is working on the greatest JRPG of all time right now). With the combined forces of the geniuses behind Final Fantasy and Shadow Hearts, you'd expect Lost Odyssey to be a crazy good game.

Guess what? It actually ended up being pretty quality.

Though the whole "bare midriff on a dude" thing isn't exactly my cup of tea

Lost Odyssey follows the story of Kaim, an "immortal" who is several thousand years old. He serves in the army for his country (the game starts with him fighting on a battlefield, unable to be killed) which is on the verge of a magical/technology revolution (think Final Fantasy VI). When he and another immortal are sent out with the mortal Jansen to fix some issues in the magic...producing plants (or something like that), they uncover a plot that (obviously) puts the whole world in trouble and off they go to save it.

Lost Odyssey's core story isn't that different from most JRPGs. Rag-tag group of heroes, including girls that really should put more clothes on and some random kids, go out to fight the big-baddie who keeps messing up the world. Basic stuff. Where Lost Odyssey excels, however, is in its short side stories that branch off the main quest.

For example, Kiam is married, but he hasn't seen his wife in decades. He also has a (mortal) daughter, who he believes died many, many years ago. The idea of an immortal person living in a mortal world (and making social ties with some people who, unlike them, grow old and eventually die) is a promising one, and the game manages to put some very emotionally driven, well-crafted scenes based around these ideas. While I do wish they'd taken those themes and better woven them into the main story, it's the little things in Lost Odyssey that make the story shine.

Now I'm going to ignore all that and talk about Jansen, who is amazing.

This guy is freaking hilarious

Jansen as a character is actually pretty JRPG cliche. He's a big-headed womanizer (who is assigned to your party at the beginning and shows to the rally point drunk and with three prostitutes) who finds love and that the real joy in life is helping your friends, etc. etc. I'm guessing had the voice actor just played it straight with the script, he wouldn't have been as memorable.

But he doesn't play it straight. In fact, I'm pretty sure the voice actor just did whatever the crap he wanted, because there are parts where Jansen talks and the other characters seem to completely ignore him. Jansen is basically the annoying younger brother in this game, and it is hilarious, especially considering he's basically a mortal amongst immortals and is totally outclassed.

His complaining and wisecracks drop down near the end (where he "finds the true meaning of friendship" or whatever), but for the most of the story Jansen is easily one of the most realistic, entertaining JRPG characters I've seen. In a genre filled with rote, stilted performances, Jansen is a breath of fresh air. And he's a pretty decent character in battle, too (our designated "black mage.")

You show 'em, Jansen. 

The combat in Lost Odyssey is a familiar affair. At it's core it's basic, turn-based combat with little frills. You issue commands, and then they execute in the order the "speed" stat designates. One rather big problem I found right away was the fact you don't know the order characters go in, especially relative to the enemies. In games like Final Fantasy X, it provides a handy bar on the side to let you know when your moves will go off, how you can push an enemy's turn back, etc. It added a lot of strategy. Lost Odyssey doesn't have that feature, and it's unfortunate.

Actually in battles, as stated before it's pretty standard. The only real "twist" is the "Ring System." Basically you can equip all your characters with offensive "rings," that either bestow elemental powers or status effects, that sort of thing. These only apply to melee attacks, so it's sort of useless on your mages. When you rush for an enemy (see the first screenshot), a ring appears, and if you release the A button at just the right time you get a small bonus. It's a little thing, but it keeps the battles from being pure button-mashing affairs, and finding out which enemies are weak to which rings keeps the strategy going.

Another interesting feature is the XP/Leveling, as well as ability leveling. For XP, you are essentially "level capped" in each area. You level normally for a set number of levels, then after that XP growth drops substantially. This is a way of basically reigning in your levels so the bosses will stay a challenge, and it works. There are ways, once you get a boat, to get to areas and still XP grind your way to easy victories, but until that point the bosses are very challenging and the game makes sure you don't just play for an extra two hours and then cakewalk past the boss.

Abilities also grow in interesting ways. The four immortals you get don't learn abilities through leveling, while the mortals do. The immortals instead have to learn the moves from the mortals, and they can only learn them if they are in the same party. Mortals cap out on abilities at around level 40, so after that there is no point in using them instead of the immortals (who can learn every ability and have higher stats than the mortals). This makes characters like poor Jansen useless by the end of the game, but at least the mortals have a slight advantage up until then.

Sorry buddy, that's just how it works. 

Graphically, the game looks pretty good, and by that it looks like a game made in the Unreal 3 Engine (like every other freaking game this generation). Bitmapping is there full force, the art design is your traditional JRPG variety, and as a whole it's completely passable but nothing too special. Texture pop-in is a problem, but it lessens if you install it to your 360s hard drive. Which you should because the load times are atrocious. It can take anywhere from 15-30 seconds just to go to a new area. If you are running through a city, that's more time than you actually spend in each area. Installing it drops the time to about 5-10 seconds, which is much more manageable, but since the game has four discs you either have to have a big hard drive or swap installs (which is what I had to do). I don't know why these load times are so bad (Gears of War is a better looking game on the same engine and it hardly ever has to load) but they really could have optimized that better.

Music is fantastic throughout. Uematsu doesn't really reach the same level as some of his previous Final Fantasy offerings, but still produces a soundtrack heads and tails above most other video game soundtracks. Music is atmospheric and fully orchestrated and works quite well. It also has one of the most awesome boss songs in the business. 

Overall, Lost Odyssey is a fantastic JRPG that doesn't stray far from traditional conventions, but it doesn't have to. If you like old school RPGs from the NES and SNES era, this game is perfect for you. If you've never liked JRPGs this won't change your mind, but it is still an excellent example of how the foundations of the genre still can work in a modern game setting. Just be prepared to get all the other conventions of the genre, the majority of which aren't really on par with current video game standards.

Stupid costumes are a must. 

If you are looking to buy it, I'd say $30 or below would be totally worth it. It isn't a game that particularly ages, seeing as the fundamentals are from way back in the NES era, but if it's your thing you are looking at a good 30+ hours of fun. If I were to give it a star rating, I'd give it four out of five.

As a bonus, here is Jansen being an idiot. Great character introduction. 

3-D World Runner

Video Review/Episode

Text Review

The Short

Pros
- 3D Platformer on the NES
- Created by Square (as in, the Final Fantasy guys)
- Music by Nobuo Uematsu (aka, the Final Fantasy composer)
- Eight worlds, but to quote my friend Davy "Nobody makes it past level 3!"
- Easy to play, extremely difficult to master
- If you press select and have red/green 3D glasses, you can play in REAL 3D!
- Can pick it up for about $2-3

Cons
- Gets really difficult really fast
- Some cheap deaths
- Shooting enemies kind of sucks and takes away from the platforming
- Only has two songs for the whole game
- Is really just a ripoff of Space Harrier with a platforming emphasis

Milking the power of the NES

The Long

3-D World Runner (yes, the dash is part of the title) is one of my favorite NES games. Back in my freshman year of college, my neighbor Davy had an NES hooked up to a really old TV, and a whole suitcase of NES games. After playing through a handful of them I finally got stuck on 3-D World Runner, a simple 3D platformer that was really easy to pick up and play (unlike most NES games). After several months of trial and error (and roommates/hallmates cheering me on) I finally got past the hell that was Level 3, and made it all the way to Level 6 before finally being unable to go any further. It was quite the accomplishment.

3-D World Runner is an extremely simple game that still manages to have the same addicting, "one more go" pull of great platformers like Super Meat Boy. Essentially, you hold forward to run, press A to jump, and the longer you hold A the longer you stay in the air. That's where the trick to 3-D World Runner come in: it gives you massive pits you have to traverse, and you have to figure out the exact timing of your jumps. It has liberal checkpoints (at least in the first couple of levels), lets you do the whole "hold A when pressing Start when you continue to pick up on the world you died on" (ala Super Mario Bros.), and is really just a blast to play.

Play...IN 3D! Roger Ebert, eat your heart out. 

It's lack of direction, however, can screw you up the first couple of plays. You are always going forward (the rate just increases as you hold forward...be prepared to hold forward the entire time you play) and the way to get items is to ram your face into poles and hope a present comes out. It's also worth noting that, unlike Mario, Mushrooms in this game instantly kill you. The crap you want is the rocket (gives you the option to shoot with the B button), the potion (gives you one more hit from enemies), the heart (extra life), and the little atom symbol (gives you the most useless invulnerability in any video game: it only lasts like 5 seconds, not long enough to recover your momentum from ramming the pole).

There is also a trick in World 2 where, if you are patient, you can essentially get unlimited lives. In one area you can pick up two extra lives by going to secret warp zones. Then you just die, start at the checkpoint (one life richer) and repeat. If you really hate yourself, you could do this for hours until you had 99 lives, but I can't recommend it.

The bosses really look like Space Harrier

At the end of the level you fly into the air and have to shoot some big beastie (or multiple big beasties). These fights are quite easy, even when the bosses are "invisible" (you can still figure out where they are because of their shadows), the only problem happens when there are like six of them and you are on a timer.

It would be fair to say I'm biased against this game because I really caught on to it during my freshman year of High School. In all honesty, most people probably won't get past Level 3 (Even though levels 4 and 5 are a lot easier), and the general repetition of the game will probably turn a lot of people off. It does introduce things like springboards that are required to traverse the longer pits (they are the reason Level 3 is rough), and the game was good enough to merit a Japan-only sequel, but considering Square released this the same year as the first Final Fantasy, I think it's safe to say which series took off.

The full title is apparently "The 3-D Battles of World Runner." Even though there aren't many battles. 

So...should you buy it? Well, I found it at my overpriced retro gaming store for $3, and they always seem to have extra copies. It is personally one of my most favorite NES games (and the first one I got when I got the system last year), and while it isn't exactly a well-known classic, it will provide at least a few hours of fun.

Plus...IT'S IN 3D! What more do you want?

If I were to give it a star rating, it would be Four out of Five. 

As a bonus, here is the main song in the game (the only other one plays during bosses...and I guess there is an ending song). I learned how to play it on the piano, and proceeded to bug the crap out of all my roommates for years to come.

Limbo

The Short


Pros
- Presented in only black and white with a charcoal dinge about it
- Complex platformer/puzzler with clever puzzles
- Creepy and quite terrifying at times
- Builds a unique type of suspense often absent from other games
- An excellent example of doing less with more

Cons
- Extremely short
- Low replayability
- Loses some of the suspense in the second half
- Story is relatively nonexistant

Limbo is a creepy game that isn't like anything you've played before

The Long


The premise behind Limbo is a simple one. A boy wakes up in a forest, and must find his sister. As he ventures deeper into the dark woods he finds he is not along, and each progression forward only increases the danger. Along the way he'll encounter more and more complex puzzles, some of which will prove disastrously fatal. It's a pretty basic idea, and that alone probably couldn't carry the game.

What Limbo excels at is taking a basic concept and making it extraordinary. First off you have the graphics. The game is cast in complete black and white; no color, ever. The whole thing looks like it was drawn with charcoal on paper, a very blurry vision of the world. The minimalistic view is extremely striking, especially in motion, and makes i look more like a piece of art than a game.

The second thing it does is cuts almost all sound from the game unless completely necessary. The woods are often deathly silent, as is the city and factory you eventually reach. No voices are ever spoken. There is never any actual music except perhaps a chord played for dramatic effect on very rare instances. Most of the time all you hear are your echoing footsteps as you progress forward, not knowing what horrors await you ahead.

The third thing it does is present some of the most horrific video game deaths I've ever seen. This is a "T for Teen" rated game, but honestly I'm surprised it got that low a rating. You play as a child, but deaths are long, painful, and often gruesome. Your first death by a giant spider is horrific. Your first death by a hidden bear trap is absolutely shocking. And by the time you reach puzzles that have giant saw blades, your hands begin to sweat and your grip tightens on your controller. This game is playing for serious, and it isn't afraid to show it. All with the slow, quiet, minimalistic way Limbo presents every small detail.

Mess this up, and you'll see it in your nightmares

Limbo is, first and foremost, an experience. It is dark, violent, harrowing, and suspenseful. The first area - a forest that may not be as empty as you first think - contains some of the most tense moments in any game I've played. The game knows when to give you long segments where you just walk, stringing out your anxiety as several screens pass without anything happening. It's a hard timing balance between suspense and overdrawing it, but Limbo manages to pull it off.

This suspense, unfortunately, doesn't last throughout the entire game. After the forest you enter a city, and then a sawblade-filled factory. Here the game switches from being atmospheric to being a raw puzzle game, filled with plenty of smart tricks that fit right alongside other puzzle platforming greats like Braid. While there is no doubt that the puzzles in the later sections are clever and satisfying, the fact that almost all the horror and anxiety is gone sort of bummed me out. This is especially noticed simply because the first part is so good with its atmosphere, that when you take even a little bit away the contrast is (if you forgive the pun) black and white.

It's a pity most of the creepy backgrounds disappear late in the game

Another issue with Limbo is its length. Now, since you'll probably be on edge the entire time you are playing, it'll feel like 5-6 hours as you carefully make your way through Limbo's dangerous world. In truth, I beat the game in under 3 hours which, for a $15 game (on release) was a bit of a pricy experience. You can go back to try and find secret collectables, and there is a near-impossible achievement for beating the game in one sitting, under and hour, and without dying (all in the same run), but other than that there isn't a lot to return to. Once you've seen Limbo's chilling setpieces and creepy monsters, it just isn't the same the second time around. It reminded me a bit of Portal, where the first, blank-slate run is amazing, but all the runs after that lack the "first timey" awe and wonderment. Portal made do by embedding the whole world with secrets about its story. Limbo does no such thing, and thus replayability hurts.

Speaking of Limbo's story...there really isn't one. The XBLA description, "Searching for his sister, a young boy ventures into LIMBO" is pretty much all you get. The game makes no attempt to explain anything about his sister, why he's in Limbo, or what anything that is happening means. Compare this to another puzzle platformer, Braid, which wove its story deep into both the world and the puzzles. Braid has one of the most clever and satisfying endings of any game I've played, mostly because it knew how to present information and how to withhold it. Limbo just withholds, and it suffers for it.

The quiet moments in Limbo cannot be overstated

As an experience, I highly recommend Limbo. As a puzzle game, it is well crafted and an honest brain-stumper the first time around. However, it must be remembered that this game is extremely short, and once you burn through it once you'll probably never revisit it. I've had several friends come over and simply play through it at my house, and then they get the whole experience for free. If you have a friend with the game, by all means play through it. If not, you'll have to decide if the current asking price of $10 is worth it. For me, I'd say it's an instant buy at $5, if only because the experience is so unforgettable. It'll be up to you to decide if it's worth another $5 to experience this wonderful, if woefully short, indie masterpiece.


If I had a star rating, I'd give it a four out of five. It is available on Steam, XBLA, and PSN.

Rayman Origins

The Short


Pros
- Fantastic art design
- Absolutely beautiful graphics and animations
- Precise platforming control
- 2-4 player co-op that is actually not frustrating
- Amazing soundtrack
- 60+ levels including secret and bonus levels
- High replayability
- Good difficulty curve; appeals to both beginners and the hardcore
- Lots of characters, skins, and bonuses to unlock
- Lots of variety in the levels

Cons
- The final level is freaking impossible
- Only three unique character models for a four player game
- Only the first player gets achievements
- Nobody bought it so it'll probably not get a sequel

Rayman: Origins is a really good looking game

The Long

I'll get this off my chest right now: I love this game. Rayman: Origins is one of the weirdest, silliest, and most straight up bizarre games I've played in recent memory. It's a straight-playing 2D platformer (like New Super Mario Bros or Super Meat Boy) that somehow manages to trump most everything else on the market and deliver a perfectly crafted single and multiplayer experience.

So let's get to the details, hmm?

First off, as you can see from the screenshots in this review, the game looks fantastic. It's published by Ubisoft under their new "UbiArt" engine, which means it is chock full of hand drawn animation, backgrounds, and characters. Just because something is hand drawn doesn't mean it's good, but Rayman managed to look fantastic. You can see the amount of detail they put into this game because of their dedication to keeping the whole thing looking consistant. For example, most platforming games have spikes of some sort in them. Often they are a bland affair, with just little pokey things coming out of them. Not in Rayman! In Rayman, if you are on the air level (which has a distinct "bird + musical instrument" theme for some reason), all the spikes are actually spiky birds. In the food world (which covers both fire and ice variety), you have to watch out for angry forks and pots of bubbling soup. In the underwater/dock levels, swordfish and sea urchins are poking out at you. It's a small thing, but seeing such dedication put into the design really makes the title stand out (and you can see in the picture above that even the charcoal slabs have eyes with varying expressions).

This level of dedication goes on to the music, as well. I remember in one scene where I was collecting Lums (the game's collectable and the equivalent of coins in a Mario game), and as I collected several in a row I realized that each "ping" they were playing when I grabbed them was forming a song that perfectly was in synch with the background music. The music is heavy whimsical, with lots of mouthharp, kazoo, banjo, and silly voices. When you are in the first grass levels, the music has a sort of southern feel to it. When you then get to gourmet world, in the fire/oven levels you hear an italian chef tenor singing along with the weird cha-cha music. It's hilarious and fantastic. 

The return of the trololo guy

But all this outside stuff aside, what about the game? Is it really that great? Should you bother? It was originally slated as an episodic XBLA release, but after seeing how many episodic games failed on the platform Ubisoft decided to release the full game as a disc product. This pissed off a bunch of gamers for some reason (because gamers are cheap) who felt like (without having played it) that it was overpriced at $60. It further didn't help the point that Ubisoft, determined to screw this game over, released it the week after Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 and on the same day as the next installment in their powerhouse series, Assassin's Creed. Needless to say, nobody bought this game, which is too bad, because it is certainly worth $60 for the amount of content you get. 

The game has four major worlds and two minor ones. The first run through the major worlds gives you about 12-15 levels on each. After you beat them, however, it unlocks another 12-15 levels on these four worlds, where you use the powers you've been accumulating throughout the game (power to hover, run up walls from a sprint, dive, and shrink/grow) back in familiar settings. After you beat all of these you unlock the final area, which is balls hard and incredibly satisfying when you beat it.

But that isn't all. As you beat levels you collect these little purple things that I can't remember the name of, and these unlock alternate costumes and (more importantly) the incredibly difficult Treasure Chest levels. These basically consist if you (and your friends) running down a fast-moving chest as the world around you gets harder and harder, the screen at your back ready to catch you if you make just one mistake. With four players its frantic, fast-paced, and totally insane. These are some of the best and most challenging levels in the game, though none of them compare to The Land of the Livid Dead, a one level world unlocked after getting all the treasure chests. I have beaten every level in this game except this one, and I have no idea if it is even possible (and I beat Super Meat Boy!).

Oh, and after you beat each level you unlock a "Time Trial" version, which challenges you to go through as fast as possible for even more rewards. Which is also really fun (and total mayhem) with four people.

The game also has side-scrolling shooter levels, ala R-Type or Gradius

So you are getting boatloads of levels, a beautiful art style, and a game that controls near-perfectly and scales from "easy" to "impossible" in terms of difficulty. And I haven't even talked about my favorite part: the four-player co-op.

This game essentially lifts the co-op from New Super Mario Bros on the Wii and improves on it immensely. For anyone who hasn't played that, know that it's basically four-player 2D Mario, with lives, coins, and the ability to shove your friends off cliffs. In my experience playing NSMB, adding more players only adds to the game's stress, because every character in that game takes up physical space. So if you had a small platform, it was very easy to accidentally knock somebody off, or jump on them, or steal their lives. I honestly didn't think it was very fun and much rather preferred to play alone.

Rayman fixes all of this. You have four players, but you can run on top of or next to each other without shoving. The only real way to interact with the other players is to physically attack them, which can be used to mess them up, but at least in that case you know they are doing so intentionally (smack your friend off a cliff if he stole your Lums!). You can also work together to lift each other up or punch each other up in the air, making the harder to get collectables a lot easier.

But what Rayman really does right is the fact that there are no lives. None at all. New Super Mario Bros sort of tries this by giving people limited lives but infinite continues, but then the lives are more like another annoyance to keep up with rather than incentive to not die. Rayman encourages you to die in attempts to get tricky coins, find secrets, and generally enjoy exploring their beautiful world. When you die you turn into a bubble (much like New Super Mario Bros) and your friends have to either jump on you or smack you to revive you. That's it. No headaches, no real frustrations. And, with generous checkpoints, even if you all die at the same time you won't have to go too far back. It's the Super Meat Boy approach to platforming: rather than put in arbitrary game lives to limit you, instead focus on short, difficult bursts and instant restarts. That encourages the whole "One more try!" thing without having to choose to "Continue?" every half-dozen deaths.

Grab your friends and start slappin'

That being said, it is worth noting that playing this game by yourself is substantially more difficult than playing with friends. It still manages to work because of it's generous checkpoints and excellent level design, but you can tell they intended the game to be played co-op. Four players is total chaos, which makes getting through the levels easier (more people to revive you) but collecting all the secrets harder (you always have that one guy who keeps running forward and leaving stuff behind in his attempt to beat you to the end reward). We found that two players is the sweet spot if you want to both collect all the Lums (each level has a goal of 150 and 300 collected, where each nets you more points for unlocking stuff) while still staying alive.

Not to diss four-players, though. We played through the entire game the first time four-player (and with different batches of players) and it was a laugh riot. Playing with friends makes the more difficult levels more manageable, both for revives and general group support. My only complaint with four player is the fact there are only three unique character models: Rayman, the big blue guy, and the Teenies (the dudes with blue noses). Sure you can get different costumes, but why didn't they just make a fourth guy so it was easy to tell them apart? It's like how New Super Mario Bros had two toads instead of...oh I don't know, Wario? Daisy? Peach? Donkey Kong? Anybody except another Toad? As if it wasn't confusing enough.

You really should go buy this game

If I haven't somehow sold you on this game, then I probably won't ever. The fact of the matter is this is one of the best co-op games I've ever played, and it is certainly one of the best platformers. The idea of multiplayer Super Meat Boy is awesome, but since that doesn't exist we'll take Rayman instead. The game is beautiful and silly, the music is fantastic, the level design is top-of-the-line, and the multiplayer is just another layer of hilarity and fun stacked on an already complete package. This is one of the best platformers ever, and I'd go so far as to say it trumps any 2D Mario game I've played since the Super Nintendo. 

This game is very much worth the $60 asking price, but the fact it was a commercial flop made the price drop super fast. I'm fairly certain the standard price for it now is $30 on Amazon (might be less for the Wii version), which is a complete and total steal to say the very least. If you get it for $30 on Amazon you get free shipping, so now you have no excuse and should go buy it right now. 

If I were to give it a star rating, it would absolutely be 5 out of 5. 

And as an added bonus, here is a video of somebody doing the final impossible level from the game, complete with its awesome music. I can't even get past the first section.

Edit: BEAT IT, with four players too. This game is so good. 

Viking: Battle for Asgard

The Short


Pros
- Visceral and bloody, hits feel heavy and register as such. Satisfying combat
- One-on-one combat gets very complex and deep by the end
- Takes ideas for many sources and combines them in a unique way
- Above-average graphics, quick loading times
- The water graphics look super snazzy
- Open world viking game combined with an adventure game and a massive battle game
- Surprisingly good stealth options
- No penalty for death; simply respawns you at the warp point
- Case sleeve is super shiny!
- Super cheap now (~$5 at Gamestop, used)

Cons
- Tries to do lots of things, but does them all only decently
- Battles against multiple enemies are a massive pain
- Short, but the game still feels too long
- One of the worst and unfair final boss fights I've ever played
- Cheap enemies/deaths near the end
- That easy respawn/checkpoint system can screw you over at times
- Feels like it could have been great, is only mediocre

That guy's not going to walk that off

The Long


Viking: Battle for Asgard is a difficult game to sum up in just a few paragraphs. Created by Creative Assembly, the group behind the fantastic Total War RTS games on PC, it is an attempt to blend genres and present something both unique and familiar to gamers. On paper, this game covers many unique ideas. You adventure in a world similar to Fable, questing in caves and towers and fighting battles in camps and open fields. As you go about you liberate captives in various camps (for example, liberating imprisoned vikings in a lumberyard or stone quarry) by either bashing your way in or sneaking in and busting them out (and getting to watch with satisfaction as your recently-freed companions murder all the baddies). After you gather enough troops and siege machines, the game switches to a massive-battle simulator, where you fight alongside hundreds of allies and enemies in these huge fights that basically are giant wars of attrition. Stacked onto that is a deep one-on-one combat system, a hefty amount of stealth (especially if you want to get all the achievements/trophies), loads of sidequests, and tons of secrets (in the form of cash money) to find.

On paper, this sounds like a dream. In form, however, it falls a distance short of its lofty intentions.

Viking starts this forte into mediocrity with its worst foot forward, specifically the early-game combat. At the beginning of the game you only have two moves: a weak strike (which is surprisingly slow and clunky) and a strong strike (which is more slow and clunky). You also have the (awesome) option of performing an instant-kill finisher if you are lucky to lop off any limbs of your enemies (which leads to me abusing this in the later levels). At the start, that's all you get: a weak, a strong, and a finisher. No jump combinations, no parrying, no block (as far as I could find at first), no button combinations, nothing. The combat is clunky, extremely difficult (I played through the whole game on Hard) and really obnoxious.

At the start, even one dude can seriously mess you up

After doing a handful of starter quests, the game allows you to buy moves from a move trainer (who won't shut up about Valhalla), and after that the game's combat gets...pretty fun, actually. It is still quite difficult, with enemies being particularly relentless and dealing high damage (again, playing on Hard; on Normal they drop health on death. On Hard they only drop health if you yourself are near death). But unlike at the beginning, you are quickly given more and more tools by which to counteract. You get a specials system, where you spend points gained by landing successful hits to strike with special moves. You get magic (which you only should use Ice, by the way; two hit insta-kills on just about everything including the boss-like Champions) which makes the annoying enemies more manageable. Just as they get shields, you get shield-smashing moves. The escalation works pretty well, and I'm reminded more of games like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta rather than God of War, if only because your damage never really goes up, just your options. So you have to actually get better at the game in order to take full advantage.

Another Bayonetta/DMC similarity is the fact there is no XP gain in the game. Killing enemies gains you nothing save progression towards Achievements or the fact that you won't have to deal with that jerk again (which isn't true either; I'd had people respawn in areas that I'd killed just a few minutes before). Money is acquired by finding random bags of cash that are everywhere in the world (you can buy maps that put them easily on your minimap, making treasure hunting a cinch and strangely satisfying), but killing dudes...nothing. At least it's brutal, I guess. 

And it is brutal. Arms, legs, torsos, heads...this dude isn't afraid to lop stuff off. You are fighting agents of Hel, the goddess who is pissed off at your goddess, Freja, and they basically look like your guys only blue and sort of uglier. Yeah, great character design. There's also some plot going on that was completely boring and uncomplying, which is too bad because Viking mythology is some of the most interesting I've come in contact with. They also don't mine the mythological creatures bank as well as games like God of War; you basically just fight dudes, bigger dudes, and giants (which are, honestly, bigger bigger dudes). So expect tedium to kick in during the second of the three main areas you'll be liberating throughout the game.

Making an army and watching them kill stuff is pretty awesome. Too bad actually playing it isn't fun at all. 

So the general point of the game is to liberate these camps which, once you free them, their leaders force you to do some sort of fetch quest before they'll follow you. Yes, it isn't enough that I had to fight my way through like forty crazy enemies and a freaking champion in order to free your stupid vikings, you still want me to go recover your secret recipe from some random shack before you'll help me overthrow your oppressors. Awesome. This maybe would have worked if every other settlement I liberated (and there are lots) had required it, but when every single one in the whole stupid game requires me to run somewhere, pick something up, and then run back I feel like I'm just wasting my time. 

Once you have your army assembled it's time to kick Hel's dudes out of your main fort. Most islands have two you have to conquer in order to clear the area. Two forts, three islands equals six big battles. And let me tell you, that's about five battles too many.

The general idea behind battles is simple. You have a bunch of infinitely spawning dudes. They have a bunch of infinitely spawning dudes. Since you are the one dude who actually has a brain, you have to go murder their spawners (called "Druids"). Once you kill enough of them, you move a little into their fort/city/whatever it is you are taking over and repeat it. Do this about 4-5 times and you'll fight a boss (which is usually just a champion with a different model) and you've won. Hooray!

Except not hooray. While these battles are cool, the biggest issue with Viking rears its ugly head here: you have no moves for group fights. All your moves are designated for one-on-one battles. So, when you are out adventuring and have to fight only one to three guys at a time, usually you can manage. When you are surrounded by fifty enemies and none of your stupid soldiers bothered to follow you to kill the druid, things get frustrating very fast.

Luckily the game offers no penalty for dying, aside from having to respawn a distance away. The same goes for the adventuring part: if you die, you spawn back at your home base teleporter, ready to warp away and give it another shot. This helps with some of the frustration, but after I died 5-6 times trying to kill the same stupid druid on the final battle, I was ready to call it quits. In fact, I began dreading the army battles, since I'd much rather run around the world killing people in fair fights rather than endure those awful group fiascos. 

You DO summon some dragons to fight for you, making this game pretty much a reverse Skyrim

Something neat, however, is how the game does stealth. Yes, that massive burly viking you see in the screenshots and on the box is actually pretty dang good at sneaking up on people. Essentially how it works is this: the minute you are near enemies, your character will go into an automatic crouch so long as he hasn't been seen. This little feature also doubles as a great way to know when enemies are nearby. So long as you aren't seen, you can sneak up on enemies and (when you buy the move) do a MIGHTY LEAP from a good distance away for an insta-stealth kill that is really satisfying. If you aren't seen after that, you can keep on stealth killing to your heart's content.

A lot of game sites dissed the stealth, probably because it was really simple and sort of tacked on. But I honestly thought it was one of the best parts of the game. Before you invade the enemy forts you can actually go inside them (and they'll be chock full of bad guys) and sneak around. There are secret skulls that are impossible to find without a guide (but necessary if you want all the Achievements) that require you to sneak around this really well guarded fort, stealth killing people and being super careful. These parts are difficult but quite well designed; the forts are laid out in such a way that there is usually a clear path through them, and if you are sneaky you can get through undetected. It's surprisingly satisfying.

Probably the reason why I liked the stealth so much (tangent here...) is the reason most stealth games bug me is the fact that in these games your character is totally useless when he isn't in stealth. Get seen even once and enemies will blow you away. Another annoyance is the fact that your character might not sneak when you want him too, or pop out from behind something stupidly (like no secret agent would) and then proceed to get gunned down.

Viking fixes these problems by giving you a badass viking to play as. If I got caught it was annoying but ok; my guy fought these guys normally out in the world and so I was more than capable of taking them down. He was always in stealth if it was possible, automatically sneaking so long as he hadn't been seen. Stealth kills are easy and can be done from a distance away without worry; a big button prompt pops up when you can get an insta-kill, and the game strikes a good balance between smart enemies and a fair difficulty. These were my favorite parts of the game, and they were optional.

That HUD looks exactly like God of War. What a surprise. 

The last major issue I had with the game is the final boss. Now, I can rant and rave about this for hours, but I'll try to keep myself contained. Basically how it works is like thus: you have to destroy four totems of power (or something) in order to lower a flame barrier surrounding Hel so you can kill her. The totems are each in their own little section of the room, and between them are big flames you can't walk through. Enemies will continuously spawn FOREVER until these totems are blown up, and then the middle flames will lower and you can fight Hel for realses. 

Sounds decent on paper, but in concept it's awful, especially on Hard. The flame walls between the totems go on and off randomly, and are only off for a short time. Since it is completely random (I found no discernable pattern) when they drop, you could miss one entirely, or have one totem left that is right next to you and the stupid fire blocking you will never go down ever. Remember: during this time the game is continuously spawning groups of four progressively harder enemies, and remember above where I said the group combat is total balls? 

You resort to knocking enemies with your push move into the fire and praying that they die. Since they each can take off 1/6 - 1/4 of your heath in one swoop, and the game provides three healing potions that go away if you die and reload the checkpoint, you have to basically do a perfect run. Needless to say, it is frustrating. 

As an added bonus, after you blow up the totems it doesn't let you fight the boss right away. I had to fight through another 5-10 minutes of infinite spawns, praying I didn't get killed, before finally the game let me fight the final boss. It was tedious, unfair, and incredibly frustrating. I seriously only finished because beating the game would give me every Achievement in the game, and I didn't want to quit so close to completion. It was one of the worst gaming experiences of my life. 

Seriously, Hel, you are the worst.

But even before that Viking is just a game that is "ok." The ideas are unique, but repetition quickly grinds them into the ground. The overall feel of the game is good, but never strives to be exceptional like games like God of War. The main bullet points on the box (the group battles, exploration, etc) are decent at best, and the whole thing just feels like it was rushed out the door. Despite all this, I did play it pretty fervently for a weekend, and actually put aside other games in order to finish it. It's an easy 1000 for Achievement hunters (if you can beat that stupid final boss), and the visceral combat actually made up for a lot.

Overall? For the current $5 asking price, I'd say that's fair. I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it, though, and that's only if you are an action junkie and you've already beaten Gears of War, Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, and all those other, better action games. If I were to give it a star rating, it would be 2 out of 5. 

Also, I made it through this whole review without a "Viking: Battle for Ass-guard" joke, though oh wait I just said one there CRAP.