WarioWare D.I.Y. is a tricky little game. While past entries were praised for their approachability, the hours of tutorials and dozens of switches in this latest edition can make anyone’s head spin. That’s Tony and Justin are here to help. The guys may not be experts – RumbleTek Inc. has only released 11 hits so far – but they’ll help you get your first few ideas off the ground.

1. Don’t be afraid of the music editor – Unless you’re already a composer, I think everyone’s first instinct will be to click on the little maestro in the corner and let him handle all of the tunes. It’s a cool a feature that is still plenty customizable, so I’m glad it’s there. Even so, give yourself a little credit! You’re not tone deaf, and you only need to come up with four to eight seconds worth of music. Experiment a little – move notes around, learn how to stack notes to make chords and try all of the different instruments. As someone who has used both methods, I can tell you that manual composition is much more satisfying than automatic. Also, the maestro is never going to be able to reproduce Super Mario Land music or the Don’t Wake Daddy jingle.

2. Make wise use of the background – If you look at any of the packed-in microgames through the MakerMatic 21, you’ll notice that most stationary elements are usually painted directly on the background. Considering that you can only create so many objects per game, you should ask yourself which parts need to be animated and which do not. If you have a character that’s prepared to throw…I don’t know…let’s say a Hot Pocket, you can probably get away with just animating his arm and designating the body as background.

Also, if you find that people are having a hard time differentiating the background from the foreground, you might want to consider changing the background outlines from black to shades of gray (or deleting them altogether).

3. Share! – Swap friend codes, visit online forums and check out contest winners. I think the easiest way to spark your imagination is to see what other people are doing first. This point may seem obvious, but Nintendo has seemingly gone to great lengths to make sure this doesn’t happen. A WarioWare D.I.Y. community will take time and energy to build, but anyone who has spent time with the GBA original or Twisted can tell you that the extra shot of creativity is well worth it.

4. Do every single tutorial – Unless you’re a computer programmer, or have that background, you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes. Sure, you can create an amazing game where a dude takes a dump by tapping on his pants. (I know because I’ve done it!) But you can also create really complex games if you take the time to understand the tools at your disposal. You have random number generators, if-then-and functionality and more Boolean than you could ever want (which I suppose is just “true or false”). The thing is, they package it all in a very comprehensible way, but it all takes time to learn; so do those tutorials. And when you’re done, do the challenges, too! It’ll take about four hours, but it’ll be well worth it.

5. If you can’t figure out how to do it yourself, steal it from someone else – In any good community, not only will the end product be shared, but the tech behind it will be shared, too. Nintendo has taken the time to make some really cool games, but they’ve also left them wide open for you to go in to see exactly how they work. If you can’t figure out how to give something gravity, then check out any of the WarioWare games that have someone jumping in them. You’ll find the answer is much easier than you could have ever expected.

6. Just do it – So your idea is dumb. Remember my aforementioned poop game? Yeah, I certainly am not a creative mastermind…at least, not yet. But like anything, creativity can be fostered by practice. So whatever your idea is, don’t discard it. It is still your idea – now you have to create it into something that you can be proud of. And when you’re done, be proud of it. You spent a fair amount of time making the AI work, getting the art just right and making the music set the mood. So tear down that apprehension and make that Faygo Chug Simulator you’ve always wanted.

We can’t afford to play all of this week’s downloadable releases, so let us know in the comments or the message board if we’ve missed a hidden gem. Special thanks to Tony for the Tomena Sanner write-up.

Master Blaster Overdrive
WiiWare/Sunsoft
1,000 Points

Let me start off by saying that I was never a huge fan of the original Master Blaster. I see the appeal – a jumping tank, a missing frog and Metroid-style exploration – but it’s obnoxiously hard, and those overhead sections are universally reviled for a reason. I think this is one of those “you had to be there” cases. That said, I came into Overdrive with an open mind. It’s a killer concept that just needed a bit more polish, and luckily, there have been enough tweaks to make this approachable for newcomers.

Fans may groan at the gritty storyline, but nobody’s going to complain about the handy map and save points. Those changes alone make this infinitely more playable for modern namby-pambies (myself included). The on-foot stuff is more forgivable as well, thanks to the multiple weapons and better controls. It’s a solid quest that’s worth the 10 bucks. Sadly, though the gameplay has mostly been enhanced, it seems that the developers were on a very tight budget. The gray and brown caverns lack the vibrancy of the original, and the remixed music sounds cheap, too. Regardless, this is decent first step toward boosting Sunsoft’s (and Gaijinworks’) nerd cred.

Tomena Sanner
WiiWare/Konami
500 Points

Tony says: “Late for work? Well, so is the little business man running across your TV. At least I think he’s going to work. Regardless, it’s your job to help him dodge all of the obstacles in his path on his way to break-dancing Valhalla. Based on my experiences with the iPhone version, the game has one-button controls – but that one button does a ton of stuff. Hop over Torii, steal presents from Santa and beat up the devil in what ends up being a very crazy running platformer. With nine unique stages, Endless mode and a WiiWare exclusive Turbo mode, Tomena Sanner ends up being a fair amount of wacky content at a decent value. What it comes down to is whether or not you have an iPhone or iPod Touch. If you do, pick it up on the App store for a buck. While you might be missing out on Turbo mode (a faster version of the main game) and multiplayer, the core experience of finding out all the ways you can interact with what you come across is easily done on the iPhone. Otherwise, $5 is more than fair for such a unique and zany experience.”

Link ‘n Launch
DSiWare/Nintendo
500 Points

Though this isn’t the space-themed Lincoln Logs game I had hoped for (yeah…sorry), Intelligent Systems’ tile slider still continues the streak of strong first-party software. Here, the object is to rotate and flip pipes so that fuel can reach your rocket ship and propel it upward. There are often upgrades and additional time scattered throughout the pipeline, so you have to figure out the most effective routes while keeping an eye on the clock. The only problem is that I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the tile rotation. There are tons of tutorials to teach you how to use pivot points and sides of other panels, but this is a bit more esoteric than the average Art Style game. The presentation is really colorful and you get a lot of content as usual, so I recommend downloading it and seeing if it clicks for you faster than it has for me.

As  a brief aside, I can’t believe Nintendo didn’t plug in the Pikmin franchise here. Given how much the rockets resemble Olimar’s ride, this pairing would’ve been preferable to the Snorks wannabes that award you with post-level trophies.

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
Virtual Console/Hudson
500 Points

When it comes to food-themed games, I have exceedingly low expectations. From my childhood hatred of Spud’s Adventure on the Game Boy to my adult hatred of Yo Noid! on the NES, I’ve learned to keep my hobby and hunger away from each other. However, the one notable exception would be Hudson’s Princess Salad, a bizarre adventure game in which you and Percy the persimmon help other anthropomorphic produce in peril. I’m not the biggest fan of the genre – doubly so when we’re talking about the NES – but the world and dialogue are too nutty to pass up.

Coign of Vantage

Well, it takes a while to put a million pieces back together!

Made by two guys named Markus and Philipp based out of Vienna, Coign of Vantage has the player adjusting his or her mouse to line up pixels in such a way that a 2D image is formed. The twist is that the pixels are scattered in 3D space, and the only thing you can control is the camera. Did I mention the time limit? Time begins to count down from thirty seconds as soon as the first pixels appear. However, with each image you complete, you gain more time to complete further images. Still, as the clock winds down, your mouse starts flailing more and more as you try to find just where the hell you need to put the camera. What’s the goal? Points, baby, points! Finish as many as you can to earn the high score and gloat to your friends about your more worldly perspective. Or don’t and just enjoy the game and the soothing piano accompaniment.

Starlight

Seriously, those squiggles mean something…

As you may have concluded from the name, Starlight has you manipulating the heavens themselves — bending them to your god-like powers, all in the name of pretty 2D pictures. Imagine looking up in the sky, connecting the dots to make a pretty picture, and then your jerk brother comes up and spins the stars around in 3D so that you can’t tell what you are looking at anymore. It’s now your job to spin those stars back into place so that the world may marvel at your celestial vandalism. The game has three difficulty settings, meaning you can choose just how casual you want your casual gaming experience to be. Take all day with the easy difficulty and tie thousands of others for the high score. The middle difficulty provides a higher score for faster completion, but you can still take all day to finish them should you choose. Pro mode, on the other hand, comes in with a fistful of whoop-ass and gives you 30 seconds to finish as many of the 64 puzzles as possible. Even with the two second extension per completed picture, it is still quite a task. Also, I’m not sure what it is with these perspective gaming guys and their fetish for piano music, but the music does provide a nice calming background for whichever mode you feel like playing.

So that’s it for this week. I told you, very niche, but I feel as though there is a lot to be had here. Now I’m not going to make any promises about what you will get from me next week. Do you remember paragraph one when I told you I was switching up the game plan? You got so mad, I thought you were gonna throw something at me. You know, you should probably see someone about those rage issues. Or go play some Starlight. Seriously, that piano is MAXIMUM relaxation music. Check you next week, dear readers.

After a long silence, here I am. Once again back is the incredible, not-so-rhyme animal, Incredible T. Or perhaps the incredible, inedible Tony. ‘Lo what could stir the Tony so strongly that he found it necessary to write again? The answer, my esteemed friends and colleagues, is Flash games.

I’d like to begin with a discussion of the qualification of a Flash game. A Flash game can be made using Adobe flash, but I really use this as a general term for browser based gaming. There are slight variations between engines used, but the point is that the code is compact enough to be downloaded and then run within the confines of your browser window. A Flash game is typically an independent production from a single person or a small team. However, there are known contradictions to this, in particular the Dragon Age Journeys game put out by EA2D. So as you can see, there has been a large amount of evolution to the Flash game genre. Now take my hand and join me on a trip to visit a couple of the latest and greatest residents of the magical world of Flash.

Canabalt

CHEESE IT!

Ah, here is a game marvelous in its simplicity. Known as an iPhone app from a group called Semi Secret Software, Canabalt really has its roots in the hands of two prolific indie designers; Adam Atomic in charge of the game and its visuals and Dan Baranowsky in charge of the music. As some sort of perfect storm of simplicity, the game is highly addictive. In fact, these guys keep it so simple that your only means of control is a jump key! Originally mapped to the x and c keys, as an iPhone app you find yourself frantically trying to tap the screen (or click for the browser version) to jump over all the obstacles dumped in your path. And what, pray tell, are you running from? Who the hell knows! I just know it must be scary as hell because the more obstacles you miss, the faster your little man books it from the left side of the screen to the right. The game also derives a lot of its atmosphere from the fast retro-esque music and sound design, as well as the carnage ensuing in the background. If you enjoy this fantastic work that was first constructed on the flixel engine, be sure to check out another fav of mine called Gravity Hook.

The Company of Myself

“I’m Sparticus!” “No I’m Sparticus!”

This game, created by Eli Piilonen (known as 2Darray), features the “these are my clones” style of gameplay that has recently been showcased in major titles like Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. While you navigate with the arrow keys like you would in any other platformer, the main mechanic of the game is restricted to a reset button which starts the level over with a shadowy clone enacting what you just did. On certain levels, you need many “yous” in order to complete your objectives. But on other levels, this mechanic is abandoned. You are given an assistant that you swap between using the same key as the reset button. Otherwise, you’re trying to jump over chasms and off of your clones in an attempt to reach a door that you would not be able to get to yourself. Not only are the mechanics of the game sound, but the art style (provided by Luka Marcetic) and the music (from David Carney) provide a melancholy atmosphere that fits perfectly with the game’s story displayed through on screen text.

Continuity

Not for the weak of mind

A current entrant for the 2010 Independent Games Festival for the student competition, Continuity is definitely one of the best twists on the traditional platformer I have seen in a long time. Created by a group of students that live in Gothenburg, Sweden who call themselves Ragtime Games, Continuity gets a little bit of your sliding puzzle in its platformer. Or is it a little bit of its platformer in your sliding puzzle? Either way, players have to navigate their little stick dude through 32 levels that become both increasingly complex as a platforming maze and as a puzzle. The aesthetic is kept to simple shapes with solid color backgrounds which allows you to more easily see which pieces line up correctly and in what fashion. The sounds design takes an interesting twist with a very calm, quiet and melodic tune while zoomed out, which stands in contrast with a fast-paced steady electronica rhythm to accompany the zoomed in platforming. Your goal? Simply to scarf up all the red keys in a level and then make it to the door. There is no time limit, so the game lets you take it at your pace. Just don’t be surprised when you find yourself checking the time and a couple hours have passed.

So there you have it, a quick introduction to some of the most recent cool cats to enter the Flash Gaming scene. But this is definitely only the tip of the iceberg that is the Flash games community. In fact, there are now several communities that make their living as portals for thousands upon thousands of browser based games. I hope you enjoyed this first foray into the World of Flash and look out for the next installment where I’ll talk about where many of these games make berth. (Yes, I used a nautical term.)

Yes, you heard me right, you get to play as both characters, but unlike driving an SUV (and kinda like handling a Lambo) experiencing both characters is a blast. Dante is as familiar as ever…and apparently following DMC and before DMC2 (remember: DMC3 = prequel) he has become a GOD. When you first handle him, it will be like a reunion with an old friend. But, as with all things, Dante has changed with time. Seriously, this man is beefed up and ready to destroy anything or anyone in his path. Yes, you can switch weapons on the fly still. But they added something even better; now you can switch fighting styles on the fly as well. While that may not seem like a big deal, as you begin to get accustomed to how it works, switching styles and weapons end up becoming incredibly fun. You also get some Devil Arms as Dante, the two coolest being Pandora and Lucifer. Pandora is a box with 666 different forms; in game you use about 7 of them, all of them being ridiculously powerful. Lucifer is a melee weapon that sticks exploding spikes into your opponent; it also provides Dante with the opportunity to make jokes about his male member. Either way, playing with Dante has become even better and more badass. However, the star of this show is Nero; and let me tell you, this star shines bright.

Ok, so Nero looks much cooler than depicted above (although how cool would that be if he were in Mario Galaxy?). But what sets him apart from Dante (aside from being the whiny Raiden to Dante’s badass Solid Snake) is his arm, the Devil Bringer. This demonic arm not only looks awesome, but drastically changes gameplay. In fact, how you fight with Nero and how you fight with Dante are two drastically different styles. Basic move sets are similar yes, but the Snatch ability that Nero gains early on means that you no longer have to run down enemies, you can bring them to you! Even if they are too big to pull near you (for example, the GIANT BOSSES), you can use it to pull yourself towards them. Either way, this allows you to string up massive combos in no time. Also, the devil bringer is unbelievably powerful, allowing you to punch and throw every demon in your path…EVERY DEMON. But enough about Nero, let’s touch a little bit more on the pace of the game and the visuals.

While the gameplay has experience some very refreshing changes, the story very much follows our traditional DMC formula. Boy has demonic power. Boy progressively unlocks true potential of demonic power. Boy becomes involved with some sort of girl. Boy runs into ridiculous amounts of evil spooky scarecrows. Boy pounds the crap out of giant boss demons. Boy fights other variety of lesser demons. Boy pounds the crap out of giant boss demons again. Boy finds out about greater plot to destroy/take over/both the world with even giant-er demon/person with demonic powers. Boy saves the day with ambiguous ending leading to further titles??? DMC 4 is no different, but it does this much better. The cast of characters you meet along the way has never been so good. The relationships these people have make you feel for them, both the good and the evil.

It also helps that DMC 4 sticks you in rich, colorful environments that appeal to the eye and provide great context for your battles. Also, the character models are very well polished and look great during gameplay. The only disappointment are the movie visuals. While the don’t look as good as they absolutely good be, I believe this is because they were rendered with the same graphics as the gameplay. The game is also completely voice acted, and voice acted very well. You feel the characters, and their personalities shine through their voices.

So a game with excellent gameplay, great visuals and good sound, what’s downside? Well, one of the most notable is difficulty. Overall, the game is not terribly difficult. However, there are times where you are stuck in a situation where you are entirely flooded with tons of baddies. Yeah, you can fight your way out, but it really becomes a pain when you can’t see your character because enemies are all around you on one side and a wall is in the way on the other. DMC 4 also has refused to fix a couple of it’s old problems as well. Platforming is still a huge pain and the cause of a countless number of thrown controllers and roars of anger. The camera will still choose really inconvenient ways to switch and lock into position, causing you to run back and forth in place for 4 minutes till you figure it out. Oh, and if you lose your way…good luck on finding where to go next.

Still, even with all the bad, overall Devil May Cry 4 is a spectacular game. Flawless work of art that deserves all the Best Game awards this year? Ehh…maybe not, but I would be offended if I saw it walking away with maybe one or two. Let me tell you this, as of right now, this might be the best hack and slash game out there. You should definately play it at least once, if not own it and play it multiple times. Even if you can’t buy into the story, the gameplay is worth it all.

Art Direction: Very pretty environments and great character models earn it praise. However, I would have like to see more out of the movies.

Sound Design: Fully voice acted, and done very well for that matter. The music of the game is the typical pipe organ followed with thrasher metal during combat, so nothing new and exciting there. Also, at times Nero comes off sounding like a whiny little bitch. Though, if he was meant to be one, then the voice actor got it down pat.

Gameplay: The best I’ve seen in a long time. Sure the platforming kinda stinks, but who cares when you’re playing a game known for it’s combat? It will be really hard for the DMC boys to top themselves when DMC 5 is release (you know they’re gonna make it).

Engagement: This game definately keeps you in there and wanting for more. Not only do the things you do look awesomely badass, but as you do them you feel like a badass yourself. It also helps that you can end up caring about your mission, and for the characters and their relationships. The new weapons and aspects to the combat will make you come back to see just how long you can keep that SSS rating going. This game will have you engrossed while you play it and will make you want for more. Especially more Dante. Wasn’t nearly enough Dante.

OVERALL: 4 STARS

The story, first of all, is atrocious. While some of it may seem fresh at the start (you are rescued from a death sentence only to find you have to work for a mercenary group you once “betrayed”) it eventually turns into another tepid tale of revenge. That’s it…the only reason you continue on, revenge at all costs. Oh yeah, and your character is a despicable human being. Real bad. So bad that you really don’t care about your character or his well being at all. In fact, most of the main “protagonists” are so vile that you may end up hating them more than your villains. This game is also killed by the fact that there are major holes left in the story after completion, and all of these holes lie within character development. You wonder things like “Why does Kane have a Scar?”, “What is the story with that Japanese guy?” and “What did happen on that fateful day that you betrayed your group?”. None of these question are ever really answered, leaving your characters as superficial and loathsome as before. After experiencing rich stories like CoD 4′s or being immersed in an environment and scenario of grandiose proportion like in Bioshock, the story of Kane and Lynch is so banal it makes it makes The Great Muppet Caper seem like an epic Heist and revenge story by comparison. I’m sorry that was mean of me…The Great Muppet Caper deserves much better treatment than that.

The only thing that can redeem this story is that Kane and Lynch form a group of “Dead Men” who don’t suck nearly as much and seem to have much richer character, even though you heard them talk for about 4 minutes total in the game. They also provide a little bit of humor and freshness to a story that at the point of the game that they are introduced, is well needed. There is one more character, your daughter, and she is the most loathsome, angry, emo bitch ever. Not that some of her reactions aren’t undeserved, having grown up without her daddy and all…still annoying. So I suppose storywise, if you’re into cliches, then you’ll love it. Now let’s roll into gameplay.

Ok…so if we thought graphics were bad…just you wait. Let’s first begin with the staple of any shooter, combat. The combat style is very similar to that of Gears of War, only much much worse. First, you have no choice about when you edge up next to cover; all you can do is run up next to a wall and hope it snaps you into place. This auto-detection system becomes really frustrating not only because it doesn’t work most of the time, but sometimes you’ll snap into place when you need to be mobile. Second, shooting from the hip is worthless. Shooting while stopping and aiming is only SLIGHTLY less worthless. In fact shooting in general is just an exasperating mess. The accuracy of weapons doesn’t seem to change whether you burst-fire or you continually fire. I’m sure that it does, but you miss so often when you burst fire that it is almost easier to just spray the field with bullets and hope that one hits. Now before people come out to say “Well Kane and Lynch aren’t trained soldiers so of course their accuracy will be worse than what you’re used to,” that’s bull. If you believe in the lame excuse of a story at all, then Kane is some what of a successful mercenary and part of what is essentially an elite crime/merc organization. He should know how to shoot a gun.

That all being said, there are some amusing parts to the game. Neither of these are the club or the bank robbery, both of which are really just annoying or poorly thought out. The two moments that stood out the most as exciting to me were the prison break (it actually felt like you were staging a prison break/riot to “liberate” your crew) and when you repel through a window to take out a board meeting. Those were two novel experiences for me and I think that they were pulled off very well.

The remaining aspects were mediocre at best. The visuals of the game were nice, but definitely not up to par with some of the great stuff that has been coming out. The sound was present, and the story was completely voice acted, but nothing spectacular was put together. And the multiplayer? There’s only one mode and it becomes repetitive and a bit annoying at it’s finest. There may be some fun to be had in the multiplayer, but I never found it.

Art Direction: Nothing incredible done here. Some of the environments are nice and pulled off much better than others, but overall the graphics in the game fall in line with what I feel should be a standard for FPS now and in the future. Designs were well done, but nothing terribly creative or striking to make the art a big factor.

Sound Design: The voice acting for this game is actually rather good. Nothing ever sounds forced, but there can be issues where the characters say something at times that don’t make a whole lot of sense. For example, when I kill a guard and then he yells “HEY! What’re you doin’ here?” I dunno, it just feels a little unrealistic, ya know?

Gameplay: There are soooo many annoyances that I’m surprised that this game wasn’t delayed to fix some glaring issues. When my pistol is more accurate long range than my assault rifle, we have a slight problem. Also, locking into cover is frustrating and seems to occur only when you don’t want it to. There was a lot of potential there, but I feel that it lived up to none of it.

The Story: This was possibly the most disappointing aspect of the game. There was a lot of great potential, but it fell apart as the story became a trite tale of revenge for a character you could care less about. In fact, I didn’t want to get revenge because I felt the bastards deserved it.

Overall: Two Stars

You are Nathan Drake, unknown descendant of Sir Francis Drake, and you have just exhumed your great great great great something or other from his watery grave. That’s how the game starts and it only gets more exciting from there. The story-telling in this game is easily the best part, and it is phenomenal. It is set up like any other treasure hunting/salvage story (you’re out to find a treasure but some dirty playing jerk is out to get it first) but has plot twists and surprises that make it fresh and exciting (if not a little cheesy). Character development and interactions provide such a rich cast that you are sad to see anyone go, even some of the “bad guys.” To add to this were amazing environments that would change through out the game. While you would generally find yourself in a jungle setting, you could at any moment be thrust into a (mildly) raging river or dropped into a dank cave. These environments have been put together so beautifully that more than once did I find myself stopping everything to just stand and move around the camera to take in the glorious view. To tell you how great it is would be to ruin the story, so now about the gameplay.

If this game has any one downside, it lies within the gameplay. While by no means do I feel that it greatly detracted from the overall experience, some of the gameplay handling left much to be desired. To begin with, while running around and platforming was usually a seamless activity, poor Nate Drake simply cannot figure out how far he can jump. Sometimes he’ll only be able to jump about 2 feet and other times he can leap across a 20 foot crevasse. This usually doesn’t bug me, until I find out that I just over shot my leap onto a floating plank the width of a quarter.

Gunplay also has a few issues with it. I get it, Drake is your average guy (that can run faster than a speeding bullet and conditionally leap tall buildings in a single bound). However, when compared to your enemies, who seem to scurry from out of nowhere like roaches in a wall, he’s a girly man. He can shoot, not great, but he will usually hit. The fact remains that when your bullet hits, it has to hit about ten more times. Also, the grenades they have must be WWI left-overs because dodging one means simply taking two steps away from it, and then you get away damage free. Also, melee combat is a bit tortuous since it is harder to pull off a power combo than it is to watch Theodore Rex in one sitting. Still, none of this proved bad enough to really detract greatly from the game.

In total, this game is everything a PS3 owner needed to hold him/herself over to 2008. Whether or not it is a rent or a buy is debatable. While the game has sported some of the best graphics and story I’ve seen in a long time, there is not a whole lot of draw to go back and visit the game again, at least not so soon. This game may be the very best out for the PS3, but there are still many titles out there that beat it. Still, after time I could see this as a game to revisit fondly and just get lost, maybe even literally, within the adventure that is Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Art Direction: This game might have given me the prettiest world to look at ever. And even when seeing the same environments would begin to get repetitive, it never got dull. In fact, the game was so beautiful I proposed to it. Come to the wedding, July 23rd.

Sound Design: The game is completely voice acted and at no point does it ever sound incredibly hokey or forced. The people sound and react as they genuinely would. The ambient sounds to each environment were also immersive enough to make me buy in (particularly in surround) , but were nothing extra special. I’ve heard better, but not a whole lot.

Gameplay: If there was a weakpoint to this game, here it is. However, for as much as I may complain, it is really only nitpicking. The gameplay and control is smooth enough that I never feel totally hampered by it; maybe just a little frustrated.

Storytelling: This game has one of the best stories ever to be put together. I realize that you have to take me to my word on this, but there are only a few parts that felt cheesy. The story does decline near the very end, but it is so consistantly phenomenal up until that point that there is no great loss.

OVERALL: 4 STARS

I’ve never been a Jak and Daxter fan. Hell, if you ask me the plot…I’ll tell ya it has something to do with precursor orb collecting, and I figure that is way off. That being said, I know that Jak and Daxter are a pair. A dynamic duo. A terrible twosome. That being said, sidekick spin-offs usually are about as much fun as Spring Cleaning (Luigi’s Mansion anyone?). Daxter is no different than any of these as far as the plot is concerned; Jak is abducted by the bad guys and Daxter’s mission is to get him back. Yeah, there’s no Emmy quality writing in this plot, but as my expectations were already low, I wasn’t too disappointed. But my experience with this game wasn’t for plot, it was for some next-gen handheld platforming, and here it actually delivered beyond some of my expectations.

Daxter is like any platformer, you can run, jump and you take care of baddies with a rudimentary melee weapon. In this case, you’re exploring a small section of a metropolis (again, story so lackluster I cannot remember the town) working for an independently own bug extermination business (Furry thing’s gotta make a living somehow). So as you jump and platform your way through construction sites, boats, hotels and bars, your beating up buggy baddies with your handy dandy electro-flyswatter doohickey and your combination bugspray/flamethrower/shockwave gun that can double as a jetpack. For the better part of the game, the platforming remains mostly fresh, and beating up bugs can be just as fun as whacking a goomba. However, the whole experience began to get a bit repetitive as the game drags on a little by making you revisit each area for a new stage. The game does mix it up by including a couple of vehicle levels, one being a rickety crop duster and the other a souped up hovercar with attached turret. Still, you greet the end of the game with open arms as it persists just a little longer than it should.

SO, if I have all of these complaints about lack of story and repetitive gameplay, what was it then that made me give this game more credit than it seemingly deserves? Well, just look at it. No really, the graphical display of the game is something that really wowed me as I went through. While it’s not in HD, the quality of the graphics were so high caliber for any handheld I’ve ever experienced that I found myself impressed with what the PSP could really do. The title screen itself is impressive when they show Daxter in such detail that you can pick out each individual hair and watch it move independently of the other ones. Then, particle effects and graphics during gameplay were only slightly below that. This game has shown me the true power of the PSP, and it has done so with vibrant and colorful levels and smooth sexy cutscenes. My one gripe, the cutscenes are such nice quality that they require loading, but they don’t warn you of this fact. This causes the game to “Freeze up.” So as you mash on the x button in desperation to make it work, when it begins running again, you realize that you’ve just skipped a cut-scene to show you your new weapon. It kinda stings a little, but I quickly get over it as I become re-immersed in the beauty of my surroundings.

In summation, this game is just fine for what it is, if not a little longer than it should be. Gameplay is fairly standard for a platformer, and a free 360 degree rotation of the camera ensures you know where you’re going. The plot is…well barely existent, but if you come in expecting coal, you’ll leave with cubic zirconium. Where this game will get you is in the environment it drops you into. If you see this game as nothing more than a sophisticated demo, at least give it a rent or pick it up for $10 used somewhere so you can give it a play. It’s worth at least an hour of your time…heck maybe even three.

Art Direction: This is the shining aspect of the game. The graphics are pretty. Real Pretty. Definately a showcase of the processing power of the PSP. Good thing for them to bundle with it.

Sound Design: On the bright side, the game is FULLY voice acted. That is nice, but I also feel like it should be a prerequisite of the game. At the end it is nice to hear the baddies mutter a few things, but overall the sound meets the current standards I come to expect from games.

Gameplay: Again, it meets the standards of the industry. The character is easy enough to control, and the controls are intuitive. The jetpack is a neat addition, but can give you delusions of grandeur which make your crash to reality all the more saddening. The only real complaint…that it wasn’t so good that I never became bored with it.

The WOW Factor: Graphically, I am very much impressed with this game. Otherwise? It’s somewhat shallow. The ooos and aaahs are still inside of me, but will I be revisiting it any time soon for the purpose of stellar gameplay? Not really. Not to mention a lackluster multiplayer (so lackluster I haven’t even mentioned it till now).

OVERALL: 3 STARS