Game Review: Plants vs Zombies

If I were to make a “50 Games to Play Before You Die” list, this would be towards the top.

Plants vs Zombies (will now be abbreviated to PvZ) was originally released on the PC nearly three years ago, but was then released on a multitude of platforms including the iOS, the Xbox 360 Arcade, the Nintendo DS, Playstation Network, the Nintendo DSi, the Android phone and the Windows 7 Phone. I have played both the PC and Xbox 360 versions, the latter being released nearly a year and a half ago. This review will predominantly covering the Xbox 360 version. Popcap are the publishers of PvZ, who also have made other excellent quirky and cartoony titles like Peggle, Bejeweled and Zuma. I’ve reviewed Peggle on this site, if you’re interested in reading that click here.

PvZ is a tower defence strategy game, a genre that despite not being that new is not very popular. The purpose of this game, like most tower defence games, is to stop an enemy attack invading your base. It sounds quite boring when you explain it like that but trust me; PvZ is not a boring game. It’s not a game for people who are purely into strategy games. It’s a game for everyone, even kids, as its difficulty levels start of easy and develop from there, and the visual style of the game is open to everyone. Most importantly, PvZ is a very, very funny game, and that’s one of its best features.

All the zombies want to do is party! Honest...

So what is different from this game than from the ‘boring’ and ‘mastermind’ strategy games? Well your ‘enemy attack’ is zombies, and your ‘base’ is, well, your house. This is a zombie invasion, and the zombies want to come into your house and eat your brains. And what are you using to cancel out the zombie threat? Plants. Yes, plants. It sounds barmy and it is. It’s bonkers. But it’s absolutely brilliant.

The bizarre concept of Plants taking on Zombies and the battlefield being your garden sounds like someone had too many mushrooms, but somewhere in that curiously thought out storyline is a small amount of logic. The plants all have different purposes. And for the most part, they are real life plants. Your main source of firepower is a peashooter. A peashooter, well, shoots out, erm, peas, as you’d expect. These peas hit the zombies and damage them, after ten shots from a standard pea a zombie will be defeated. This is the basis of the game. But there are 51 different types of plant (although they’re not all plants, some are vegetables and mushrooms) and 26 different type of zombie (in the main game, there are other variances too).

The main mode of gameplay is “Adventure” mode, and, you cannot play any other game mode until you have played through a certain amount of the main “Adventure” mode. So you start off with a peashooter but as I said, there are 51 different types of plant in your arsenal. To use any of your plants you need to something called sunlight. Sunlight is gained in quantities of 25 once in a while from the sun itself (if it’s daytime, there are night time levels). But your main source of sunlight comes from another plant, the sunflower. You get the sunflower on your second level. Sunflowers also give you quantities of 25 sunlight at a time, at a more rapid rate than the sun itself. This is where the game starts to really unfold. You’ll slowly start unlocking more and more plants that do diverse things to battle more zombies that have different qualities.

Eventually you'll get all sorts of different plants to kick zombie butt with.

What other plants are there? You start off with a peashooter, then the sunflower, then the cherry bomb. The cherry bomb is a bomb, naturally, and explodes zombies in a certain area of the garden). Then, you get a wall-nut. What’s a wall-nut? Well it’s a play on words, from the walnut plant. It serves as a wall to block the zombies from advancing on the garden grass. It’s this excellent wordplay that makes the game so much fun. There are many real life plants (and other things like mushrooms as I said earlier) that play on the words and make use in the game. Other great plants available in the game are the Jalapeno, which is a chilli, and he explodes across a horizontal area of the garden and the garlic, which makes a zombie go towards a different lane in the garden. But the best in my opinion is the butternut squash, which, hilariously, squashes a zombie. It’s just brilliant. The humour and play on words are what really sells the game.

The zombies as I said also vary and get tougher as you go through “Adventure” mode. You start of with the standard zombie, who walks across the terrain and eats any plants that are in its path. The zombies come from the right side of the screen so the idea is to place your plants on the far left so the zombies are hopefully disposed of before they get to your plants. Later on zombies start wearing protection, first road cones that protect their head for a longer amount of time, and then a steel bucket. Then we get hilarious gimmick zombies, like the American Footballer zombie, who wears full head and body gear and runs instead of the sluggish walking the standard zombies do. Later on you also get silly zombies like the “Newspaper” zombie, who is reading a paper and when your peashooters or other plants that attack shoot the paper from his hands, he runs at you in an angry fashion. There’s also a pole vaulting zombie who also runs at your zombies, but then jumps over the first plant it comes across. Certain zombies are difficult to dispose of, but usually have a weakness plant. The pole vaulting zombie for instance, is opposed to the wall-nut; the zombie pole vaults over the wall-nut but then runs at a very slow pace, giving you ample time to dispose of it. The American Footballer zombie is weak against the Snow Pea, which is a peashooter that also freezes the zombies. So the Snow Pea slows down the American Footballer dramatically, making him a lot easier to dispose of. There’s an incredible amount of zombies that get both sillier and harder to deal with, which adds to the complexity of the game.

In “Adventure” mode you have 50 levels, all in segments of 10. The first 10 levels are in your front garden and are relatively easy to play. The game’s difficulty starts off so easily so everyone can play it. The second set of levels are done at night time. The night time levels are more difficult because you don’t have access to sunlight as easily. The sunflower is a lot less effective at night and instead it’s recommended you use a new plant that’s quickly unlocked at that point called the Sun-shroom which is much more useful. The night levels have new zombies and plants, and also other subtle things like graves that you can dispose of with a new plant called the “Grave Buster”. The third set of levels are once again in the daytime but brings the action to your back yard, which has a pool. The difficulty is once again risen as Zombies start using your pool, either by wearing rubber duck tube or worse, snorkels. The fourth round of “Adventure” mode is also in your back garden but this time it’s back to night time, but it’s even more difficult as a dark and thick fog covers most of the screen. You start using other plants like the “Plantern”, a lantern that makes seeing in the fog much easier and also the “Blover”, a blowing clover that gets rid of the fog completely on a temporary basis. The last 10 levels take the action to the extreme – the zombies invade your roof! Because of the slanted roof tiles peashooters are of no use here, instead you start using catapult plants, first the cabbage-pult, then the kernel-put which lobs churned butter at the enemy, and then, the melon-pult which deals heavy damage (because melons are heavy obviously). At the end of the game, level 50 (or 5-10 as it’s displayed on game), you go against the final boss.

The “Adventure” mode is a great game. It’s the main mode and it’s so much fun. It takes a good few hours to complete “Adventure” mode so it keeps you entertained for a while. When you beat “Adventure” mode you can replay it and the difficulty remains similar, apart from three of the plants are chosen at random for you in the beginning (where as you can choose your own plants at anytime otherwise).

Slowly going through “Adventure” mode unlocks other mini games, puzzle games and a “Survival” mode option. Some mini games are unlocked before completing “Adventure” mode, but to get full access to them you must complete the main game and then play through the mini games one by one. Beating the mini games one by one slowly unlocks the games individually. The mini games vary, the first game is called “Zom-botany”, which is a science experiment gone wrong where zombies merge with plants and attack your house. It’s a tactically completely different game to the main game and you have to think outside of the box a little to beat it. Other fun games include “Portal Combat”, which pays homage to the Portal series, where Portals appear on screen and zombies can walk through them and end up on another part of the screen, increasing the difficulty, and the Portals move as the level goes on to further add to the problems, another fun game is “Column Like You See 'Em”, which is an absolutely manic level where one plants equals a plant on every section vertically, and zombies come at you in equal measure; one zombie of that type in every vertical column. It’s complete madness but a lot of fun at the same time. There’s a total of twenty mini games and they’re all fun in different ways, and definitely fill the game up, giving you plenty to do if you finish the main game.

Crazy Dave is definitely one of the best things about PvZ, he's incredibly funny and CRAAAZYY!!

There are also twenty Puzzle games in the “Puzzle mode, but it’s only one of two types. First is “Vasebreaker”, which gives you a hammer to break vases containing either random plants or random zombies, and the task is you break all your vases, defeating all the zombies and protecting your house all at the same time. It’s tactically a tricky game to play as you don’t know if you’re breaking a vase that will help you or hinder you. There are ten different “Vasebreaker” levels and they vary in difficulty, ending in the last of the ten beign “Vasebreaker Endless”, which continues playing “Vasebreaker” for as long as you can, and you have to try and extend your undefeated streak for as long as possible. The other ten Puzzle games are “I, Zombie”. This Puzzle game puts you in the shoes of the zombies rather than the plants and your aim is to actually eat the brains of the person living in the house. Your zombies have different values not too dissimilar to the plants, and you use sunflower this time to activate zombies to eat the plants rather than the other way round. It’s once again tactically different to the main game as you have to think of ways to eat the plants and eventually, eat the brains you were trying to defend in the actual game. The 10 “I, Zombie” levels, similar to “Vasebreaker”, vary in difficulty and the last of the ten is “I, Zombie Endless”, which is exactly like “Vasebreaker Endless” but you’re trying to extend your streak in the “I, Zombie” games instead.

The “Survival” mode I mentioned earlier is a lot of fun. The idea is that you’re playing the main game and you have to survive a certain number of waves of zombies, depending on the difficulty. There are eleven different “Survival” games, the first five are the first five different battlefields and you have to survive five waves of zombie, the second five and the five different battlefields but much harder as you have to survive ten flags and the waves are much harder. The eleventh and final game is “Survival Endless”, which is like “Vasebreaker” and “I, Zombie” endless.

There are other little features, are more plants for you to unlock. After a few levels on “Adventure” mode, you’ll come across the only other known human in the game, the awesome Crazy Dave. Crazy Dave throughout “Adventure” mode gives you tips on the story and its progress. Later on he opens his own shop, and it’s here you get the opportunity to buy more plants if you wish. Crazy Dave is brilliant, he’s really funny and has some of the best lines in the game. After you finish “Adventure” mode you’ll have access to another feature, called the “Garden of Zen”. The purpose of this mode is simply to grow and sustain your plants, before selling them off for more coin to unlock even more features. You’ll also be able to grow something called the “Tree of Wisdom”, which gives you random bits of advice and passwords to unlock odd features like giving all zombies moustaches and the like.

Overall, “Plants vs Zombies” is a brilliant game. It’s hard to describe it without playing it. If I were to make a “50 games to play before you die list” this would be close to the top of it. It does much more than the generic tower defence game genre does, purely because it does it with so much charm and humour. I have yet to see one person dislike this game. It’s open to everyone from children to hardcore gamers to adults who don’t play many video games. It’s accessibility is universal and it’s just so much fun. If you’re still unsure whether or not to get this game give the free PC trial a go, you can find it by typing “free plants vs zombies” on Google. Popcap have it for free on their main site and you can get a real taster of what the game is about on there. Or on your Xbox 360 download a free trial on there. Popcap are really good for giving you free tasters on their games so give them a go. PvZ is one of the cutest, funniest and simplest games to come out in today’s hardcore gaming world. It makes a huge change and is more than worth your pennies.

Rating: ****1/2 stars

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Game Review: Final Fantasy XIII

Overall, Final Fantasy 13 is a great game with a complex yet rewarding storyline and an awesome battle system.

Final Fantasy XIII was released nearly two years ago here in the UK, in March 2010, and was released on both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. It is naturally, the thirteenth major chapter in the critically and commercially successful Final Fantasy series. The game’s official sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2, is to be released next month.

Just in case you’re not too familiar with the series, Final Fantasy games have been released since 1987, twenty five years ago, and are a set of RPG games that have for long periods of time become the most influential and widely celebrated role playing games of all time. Many recurring themes in the series are the using of magic and summoning monsters, the use of airships, travelling across a world, characters dealing with love or loss, characters defying the powers of fate, religion or apocalyptic circumstances and the inclusion of chocobos and moogles, two creatures the game series has made popular. The highest point in the series was arguably the release of Final Fantasy VII in 1997, which was released on the Playstation, which was met to universal acclaim and has sold more than any other game in the series, at over 10 million copies and is only second to Gran Turismo on the console. Since then the sales and reception of the Final Fantasy series has changed; some games sold more than others and some games were better received. Final Fantasy XI marks the first online RPG in the series, and was followed up by last year’s release of Final Fantasy XIV.

Final Fantasy XIII follows Final Fantasy XII (that being said, none of the major games are connected officially and are set in their own styles and game universes), which was met with a decent response, with the main criticism coming from the fact that the world was expanded across an immense terrain with in some cases very little linear direction and large amounts of battles followed by short spurts of storyline progression. What did Square-Enix do with Final Fantasy XIII in response to these criticisms?

"He's behind you!" Ah... I love pantomimes.

FF13 (I’ll now abbreviate to numerals) in comparison to FF12 does exactly the opposite in terms of the world terrain and linearity. The game is linear, to the point that you cannot travel back to previous areas at all, nor is there varied places to explore in each area. The game, it feels, almost holds your hand throughout your journey, which is completely different to FF12, a world where you can go to so many areas so early in the game, even if the storylines don’t require you to go there. FF12 and FF13 are complete opposites in terms of how the rails of the story go; FF13 glues your hands to the rail where as FF12 shatters the rail completely.

Moving onto the story, before I explain what the plot is, I’d like to just say that the storyline is very confusing and hard to follow first time round. It doesn’t help when you’ve entered a game in a fantasy world that uses three different terms in fal’Cie, l’Cie and Cie’th all the time and you barely have time to digest the terms and learn their meanings. It confuses the plot from the off and it makes the story hard to follow at times, unless you click straight away, something I personally didn’t do on my first run. The second run through the game was a lot easier mind, and the story on this run was much better to follow.

The story follows the theme of fate, and how these six playable characters are chosen as servants of the fal’Cie, the game’s equivalent of gods, to complete a task (called a ‘focus’) to destroy the world, and how if they fail in their task, they’ll turn into grotesque monsters (‘called Cie’th’). If they succeed and complete their ‘focus’ their fate is potentially just as bad, as they will be granted crystal stasis, for as long as eternity. The name given to these servants is the ‘l’Cie’, and they are capable of using magic, and therefore the general citizens of the land of Cocoon are afraid of them. It’s a harsh fate that is given to these six individuals, and it takes them all on an emotional journey of deciding to give up on their task, to embrace their task, to run away from it and try to shake it off, or try even, defying it. It’s a great storyline once you understand it, one of the best storylines in recent Final Fantasy titles in my opinion, and one I’ve enjoyed more than any storyline since FF9.

These six characters naturally all have different personalities and views on their situation. The main protagonist is Lightning, who’s sister Serah became a ‘l’Cie’ before the game begins, and at the start of the game turns into crystal stasis, having completing a focus that is unknown in task. Lightning, an ex-soldier, is seen as a very harsh character whose upbringing makes her take a bold and frank approach to these dire circumstances and often has the party she accompanies upset. Serah’s boyfriend, Snow, also is a main character, and only met Lightning days before the game starts and had a frosty reception from the ex-soldier, which leads to Snow often, get the brunt of Lightning’s frustrations. Snow himself, sees himself as a hero of Cocoon and uses his large stature and loud voice to carry him through his troubles of losing his girlfriend to crystal stasis and his refusal to accept his focus of destroying his home land. In an attack at the beginning of the game, Snow attempts to save a load of prisoned victims and the death of one particular person has significance to the plot. That is because it’s the mother of Hope that dies, who’s another main character. Hope has had a normal life on Cocoon and lives a life where Cocoon’s political pressures brainwash most of the citizens, especially when it comes to ‘l’Cie’ being hostile and basically, evil, so the despair that Hope goes through not only to accidentally become what he was thought to as evil, but to have to live with knowing who was arguably responsible for his mother’s death in Snow, leads to an interesting extension of the story.

The other three characters also have great story arcs; Sazh is a father whose son had also become a ‘l’Cie’ prior to the game’s beginning and has other issues too, but deals with them with a heavy heart but a happy smile. Sazh is an excellent character, definitely my favourite, and is probably the funniest character in the game. Fang is as forceful as Lightning is, yet shows a softer side to her much more often than the main protagonist does. She will do anything and everything she can to protect Vanille, who come from the same location in game and have a history together. Vanille is the hit-or-miss character of the game; she’s cute and bubbly and has all the traits of similar characters in Rikku of FF10 and Selphie of FF8, so you’ll probably either love her or she’ll probably either annoy you immensely. Vanille also operates as narrator of the game, and her significance to the plot is discrete but ultimately vital when the puzzle pieces all align. Without mentioning the main villain by name, the main antagonist in FF13 is absolutely fantastic, a much better villain than Vayne from FF12, and my favourite Final Fantasy villain since Kuja from FF9.

"RUN VANILLE! They're going to asplode!"

The game play has also dramatically changed this time round in comparison to FF12. We once again return to the ATB (Active Time battle) system used in most of the FF titles to date, but it’s a much-changed variation of it. The best way to describe this system is that it’s like the one used in FF10-2 but with much more action involved. So much action in fact, that you only control what is called a ‘party leader’, meaning this is the first Final Fantasy title where you can only control one character in battle, rather than the entire party. A usually very competent AI controls the party in support. Basically you can either use the battle system manually, where you can choose your actions, or you can use the very useful “Autobattle” command, which selects an option to you based on your enemy and any potential weaknesses, or in turn, any healing you may require if you are of the party support systems. But unlike a lot of the old traditional Final Fantasy titles, you have combos. You choose your commands either manually or automatically, and you can build your combo up to do multiple attacks in one go, in turn leading to a more smooth and sophisticated system which also looks good to watch and play. Your combos increase as the game goes on from two to six.

There’s more to add to this battle system. There’s something called a “Paradigm” system, where you can chop and change battle formations with different job titles. There are six different job titles, Commando, which uses mainly physical attacks; Ravager, which uses damage dealing magic, a Medic, which primarily uses healing magic, a Saboteur which weakens and debuffs enemies, a Synergist that buffs allies and the Sentinel who absorbs damage and protects allies. Towards the beginning of the game the characters start to acquire access from one to three of these titles and towards the end the characters can gain access to all six, although the three titles they acquire later can only be strengthened minimally. When the game is complete, you have full access to all six titles and can be strengthened fully. So the “Paradigm” system means you can mix these job titles to work in your favour, for instance if you have three characters you can have a Commando, a Medic and a Synergist; one character physically attacking, one character healing and one character strengthening the party. You can then change to a completely different system with the “Paradigm” system, to a defensive one, for instance having two Medics and a Sentinel gives you a lot of healing power and some defensive cover too. The “Paradigm” system really does battle tactics in a Final Fantasy game in a way that’s never been done before and I think it’s fantastic.

While you have these six job titles, naturally you have to strengthen them and strengthen your characters. This game doesn’t use the traditional levelling up system like most Final Fantasy games do, and instead lets you increase your character’s stats on something called the “Crystarium”. After battles characters earn Crystarium Points, or CP, and you use CP in the Crystarium to activate nodes that give you character abilities or stat enhancements, not too dissimilar to FF10. After certain segments throughout the game, you gain access to another level of the Crystarium, further advancing your characters abilities and stats. So you have the six job titles, if they’re unlocked at that point in the game, that you can increase your characters stats and abilities through, and in turn they make your characters stronger.

Final Fantasy XIII’s graphics are absolutely gorgeous. The motion videos are as great looking as any game on the new generation consoles and the landscapes of Gran Pulse, the other location other than Cocoon, in FF13, are utterly stunning. The characters look good, the enemies look even better and some of the bosses in this game, particularly the ones very significant to the plot later on, look tremendous, particularly the designs main antagonist. The sound in FF13 is as good as the series has always been and while the quality of the soundtracks of recent Final Fantasy games don’t match the amazing tracks of FF7 and FF9 in particular, FF13 does a decent job of getting the mood set for each location and event that occurs. I once again, prefer the soundtrack of FF13 than that of FF12, to compare.

FF13 on the whole is absolutely stunning, particularly Gran Pulse later on.

Now I’m sure you’ve noticed but I’ve compared FF12 and FF13 a lot in this review. There’s a simple reason why – they’re polar opposites of each other. Final Fantasy 12 concentrates a lot on the exploration of the world map, and lots and lots of battles. The story lacks in FF12 and its basic premises is stretched across the incredibly large open maps and battles. FF13 does the opposite. The game is so linear, and the cut scenes and story is to the brim in terms of depth and development. Once you get over the confusion of the storyline you’ll find a great tale to be told here, and while the ending is not as good as other titles in the series, you still get the satisfaction expected from completing a Final Fantasy game. But the linearity of FF13 is a problem. There are a lot of places in FF13 that you go to only once, and never to return. In fact, the game is split into thirteen chapters and you can only revisit the places in chapters 11 to 13. 3 out of 13 chapters are capable of revisiting. That’s pretty poor. And like FF12, there’s very few mini games, if any, in FF13 although there are one or two decent side quests. The game does open up replayability by giving you full access to each character’s Crystarium at the end of the game, for you to continue to develop your characters and take on the biggest and baddest battles in these side quests. And I said, you’ll probably enjoy playing this game a second or third time just because the chances are you’ll appreciate the great story more.

It is for these reasons why overall, FF13 for me is a great improvement on FF12, and my enjoyment of it is probably on par with FF10, although for different reasons. What keeps FF13 together is it’s great storyline and decent set of characters, combined with an ultimately unique battle system. Sure the game is really linear but in the end, you can get over that, especially as the areas that are revisitable are probably the most strikingly good-looking places in the game. Another flaw would be that I don’t like the fact that you only control one character in battle, I like taking a party of characters into a battle and using all of them to beat my enemies. But overall Final Fantasy 13 is a great game, with a complex yet rewarding storyline and a great battle system. If you want my recommendation whether or not to buy or rent it, well, look at the general consensus of what I and most other people have said, and make your decision from there. If you can get over the game’s flaws, you’ll find a brilliant game in FF13, its’ one of the best RPGs in recent years.

Rating: ****1/2 stars

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Game Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic 4: Episode I is a great, yet not spectacular sequel, 16 years overdue that should appeal enough to new and old fans alike.

Sonic 4: Episode I was released back in October 2010 on multiple platforms including the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, Nintendo Wii, and the Playstation 3. It’s considered the direct sequel so “Sonic 3 and Knuckles” the two games released in 1994 on the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis, marking a sixteen year gap between the two sets of games.

Now unless you’ve been living under a rock chances are high that you know that many MANY Sonic games have been released in the sixteen years between these games. But a lot of fans of the Sonic games lost interest and disliked the direction that Sonic took after the release of the classic Sonic titles. Sonic 3D back in 1996 was received poorly, and while Sonic Adventure, which was released on the Sega Dreamcast in 1998, was received quite well, a lot of the older fans didn’t like the change in style that Sega were adamant on keeping. The newer Sonic titles were in full 3D and still concentrate on his speed but in the 3D environment the controls are very poor when in relation to the speed they were setting. Sonic Adventure 2 was then released three years later in 2001 and was also relatively well received by newer fans, but disliked by fans of old. The gameplay was changing even more with the release of Sonic Heroes in 2003 on the Nintendo Dreamcast, Xbox and Playstation 2, with the multiplayer aspects and the idea that you control more than one character at a time, but once again the game was well received by newer fans, and disliked by the classic fans.

There has been a big debate about the Sonic series since 1994 as you can tell. The reception of most games were mixed to positive by newer fans but mixed to negative by older fans. Sega wanted to keep up with the times and move forward with a 3D hungry video gaming world. They had mixed results doing this. But the all time low for Sonic was the release of “Sonic the Hedgehog” in 2006, released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. This move was bold as Sega were attempting to use the “Sonic the Hedgehog” title again rather than move to spinoff titles. It was seen as a series redesign and an attempt to appeal to both new and old fans alike. The game was received extremely negatively, by both new and old fans for its poor controls and its attempt to make the plot deeper with an awful storyline. It’s to some considered one of the worst games ever made. After this release a lot of fans really started to turn on the Sonic series, as it had been such a long time since a truly great Sonic game was released. Despite the Sonic Adventure series receiving decent reviews, there was no true gem in the Sonic series since the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis days. They then released Sonic Unleashed in 2008 on the Playstation 2 and 3, the Wii and the Xbox 360. It merged some new gameplay with some old school game 2D gameplay from the 16-bit era and the game was warmly received by both sets of fans.

Then, one year later, it was revealed that Sega were to finally make a game directly targeted to appeal to old school games. The game would be fully 2D and would bring the gameplay back to its older days. The music would be reminiscent of the music in the older games and some of the enemies from these games would make returns. It was also decided that the only character available in the game would be Sonic the Hedgehog himself. The game, once again quite boldly, was to be called Sonic the Hedgehog 4. A lot of fans immediately thought back to “Sonic the Hedgehog” back in 2006, a move that was a failure to bring back some of the old fans. Was labelling this new game “Sonic 4” to be a success, or a failure?

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I brings the plot back to 1994 and take place straight after the events of “Sonic 3 and Knuckles”; Dr Robotnik (NOT Dr Eggman, I refuse to use that name in this review again) has been defeated and his space station is destroyed. Sonic takes a break away from his friend Tails and his new companion Knuckles and goes to explore new places on his own. Little does he know that Dr Robotnik has returned and he has reconstructed some of his own old creations to make them bigger and badder than before, and to stop Sonic once and for all.

He must have stolen something really valuable if he's running THAT quickly.

The gameplay for Sonic 4 does indeed return to its roots; it’s the simple 2D terrain and Sonic runs forward with the press of the D-pad or analog stick. He can jump on enemies and boxes, and the Spin Dash, first featured in “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” returns. The Spin Dash is done by pressing the D-pad downwards and pressing the jump button multiple times, and allows Sonic to roll on the ground at a high speed. The game has returned to its roots, but the major addition to gameplay in “Sonic 4” is the addition of the Homing Attack; when Sonic is mid-air a target may appear on an enemy, a bumper or a box, and by pressing the jump button again, Sonic immediately homes into his target at high speed. This however is a welcome addition to the old school gameplay as it gives the title its own flavour and separates the game slightly from its predecessors. Older fans think this too; not all change is bad after all.

The levels look fantastic in Sonic 4. There are five levels, four of them have two acts and a boss battle and the fifth level is a large final boss battle with multiple stages. The graphics for Sonic 4 are smooth and colourful and look even better in HD. Despite times changing in the past 16 years and there being more and more emphasis on 3D games now, these 2D graphics are just excellent. Sonic games have always been vivid and lively in its colour palettes and this is no different, it’s just done stronger now than ever before. The five levels are all homage and tweaks to levels in the original Sonic titles; first you have “Splash Hill Zone”, which is homage to “Green Hill Zone” from the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” game, then you have “Casino Street Zone” which pays tribute to “Casino Night Zone” from “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”, “Lost Labyrinth Zone” has many elements from the original “Labyrinth Zone” from “Sonic 1”, and “Mad Gear Zone” has a very similar design to “Metropolis Zone” from “Sonic 2”. The final boss level, which is only unlocked if you beat all four zones and their respective boss levels, is the “E.G.G. Station Zone“, which combines many elements from the previous four boss levels while adding a new final boss, one that is very similar to the final boss from “Death Egg Zone” from “Sonic 2”. All of these tributes are more than welcome additions to the game, the only problem otherwise being that some of the levels and designs can be argued to take too much from the original game series, but it is of my personal opinion that there’s enough originality and tweaking here to see it as homage rather than recycling old materials.

I said earlier that you have to beat all four zones and their boss battles to unlock the fifth and final zone. However one major change to Sonic 4 that was not done in the original series is the flexibility of completing your acts and boss battles in any order you wish. When you load up Sonic 4, you must complete Act 1 of “Splash Hill Zone”, after that however you have access to a screen that you can select any of the four zones in any order. If you beat Act 1 of that level, then the second act opens up, then the third if you compete the second, and then the boss battle when you finish the third. But by all means go straight to “Mad Gear Zone” once you have access to this screen if you wish. My feelings on this are mixed, as I loved the idea of you going through the levels in order of events as it made you feel like you were following Sonic on his amazing adventure like a story. However with the times completely changed from the way things were 16 years ago you can understand why Sega have decided to give you access to nearly everything from the get go; we live in a generation where we are impatient and want to do things straight away, rather than unlock our rewards with hard work. Another addition naturally are the leaderboards, where you can compare your time and point tallies to other people who have played the game across the world.

There are other elements from the original series that remain in Sonic 4. You still have to jump on enemies or spin into them to defeat them. You still have to pick up rings, and if you get hit by an enemy you lose all of those rings. If you have no rings and get hit you lose a life. The boxes you can jump on still contain 10 rings, an extra life, running shoes to make you run even faster, temporary invincibility and a shield. Unlike “Sonic 3 and Knuckles” however there is only one shield, similar to “Sonic 1” and “Sonic 2”. A shield lets you take one more hit from an enemy, giving you extra protection and saves you from losing your rings. One thing that is different however is that there are no continues in Sonic 4. Once again the idea of having continues is silly in a modern gaming environment so it simply doesn’t need to exist.

He must have stolen something really valuable if they are releasing giant BALLS at him!

When you finish an act, like “Sonic 1”, if you have more than 50 rings you will see a large ring that Sonic can jump into, leading to a Special Stage. These Special Stages are too, reminiscent of the ones that were added in “Sonic 1”, where you have to guide Sonic through a puzzled level full of bright lights and rings, to the end where a Chaos Emerald will lie. The big difference between these Special Stages and the ones in “Sonic 1” is that you control the level in this game, and you must move the level rather than Sonic to get him to go in the right directions to the end, where as in “Sonic 1” you controlled Sonic and made him move and jump through the stage. If you collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds, you will have access to Super Sonic, golden, faster and invincible version of himself, like in Sonic 2, 3 and Knuckles. To activate him, you must first accumulate 50 rings, and as he is set off, your rings deplete by one per second, and if you run out, you’ll revert back to normal Sonic. Super Sonic is another great welcome in the series, and the times and points tallies on the leaderboards separate between just Sonic, and levels where Sonic and Super Sonic where used, so it’s good fun.

The music in this game is indeed reminiscent of the music found in the games released on the Mega Drive. It’s still crisp and clear enough to tell that it’s got a tinge of modernisation, but the move is certainly welcome, and the music immediately brings you back to the days when the music was so good. A lot of the newer Sonic games try to incorporate rock and metal music rather than the soft dance/techno sounds found in the games released in the early nineties. The sounds are also pretty much exactly the same as the classic games, with Sonic’s jump noise, the collection of rings, opening of boxes and spin dash all sounding as great as it did back in the day.

The main problem with Sonic 4: Episode I for me is the controls when it comes to high speed movement, something that has always been a problem with modern Sonic games. Sonic moves very fast as he always does, and in the older games released 16 years ago and prior, the gravity defying movement was controlled perfectly, with very few hitches. While this game for large parts deals with the pace and the movement of Sonic well, there are times when Sonic stops, or hits the end of a wall. These situations are quite irritating as some of the finest memories of Sonic are when he’s in motion, running or rolling across a terrain with ease and grace, and for a glitch or a wall to be hit in a way that the game doesn’t like unexpectedly, brings the motion to an abrupt halt. Another thing is that Sega have also made Sonic fall with good poise on some occasions rather than him fall in a ball movement like he used to. Sonic will look downwards at the ground below and in this stance he is vulnerable to attacks, where as when he is rolling downwards from the sky he is in an attacking stance, and will land on his enemy crushing it. This can catch you out at times when you want to attack certain enemies below you as you’ll lose your rings if he is not in his rolling attacking stance, and there seems to be no consistency with it.

Another problem that was once raised was the length of the game. The game has three acts and a boss level for four zones before the final boss. Tally that up and you have 17 levels in total. Considering when the game came out it was 1200 Gamerpoints on the 360, around £7 on the Playstation 3 and 1500 Wii Points, which are considered steep prices for the “arcade/downloadable” stream of gaming available, it’s still pretty cheap. These games cost anything from £30 to £50 when they were individually released back in the early nineties, so complaining about the price is silly. Remember that “Sonic 1” had six zones of three acts, totalling 18, and “Sonic 3” had even less; six zones of two acts, totalling 12, so this isn’t a bad deal. Not only that, but the games have since been reduced in price on both the 360 and PS3.

The special stages are as difficult and trippy as they ever were.

The most important question in this review simply is, does the game live up to the expectations and hype? Will the old school fans be happy? Overall, I think the answer is yes. Sonic 4 does a great job in bringing nostalgia and homage to the old series while doing just enough to clarify its position as an individual title released sixteen years later. Sonic 4 is a fine, if not extravagant effort that should bring old and new fans together to appreciate what was so amazing about the series in the early nineties. The music, the level design, the enemy design and most importantly, the 2D design are all reminiscent of the classic games yet the Homing Attack, the new level select menu, and the leaderboards all serve reminders that this is the 21^st century; a game released in 2010 not 1994. And the game does a good job of balancing elements from both worlds, and, both sets of fans, old and new. Overall, Sonic 4: Episode I is a great, yet not spectacular sequel, 16 years overdue that should appeal enough to new and old fans alike. There is room for improvement, and I hope that Sonic 4: Episode II will deliver that promise.

Rating: **** stars

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Game Review: Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection

With popular classics and a few hidden gems, the “Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection” is as good a compilation of 40+ games you’ll ever see.

The Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection was released back in February 2009, nearly two years ago, for both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 and advertises 40 classic Mega Drive (or Sega Genesis, for those elsewhere in the world) titles all on one disc and for the first time, the games are compatible in HD.  It’s one of the biggest collections of video games on one bit of media available, and it contains some of the biggest and best games that were released on the fourth generation console. Also included are some unlockable games from either the Sega Master System or the arcade.

So what games are available on this compilation? How about all the main “Sonic the Hedgehog” titles, which are Sonic 1, 2, 3, “Sonic and Knuckles”, 3D and Spinball? It also has “Streets of Rage” 1, 2 and 3, “Phantasy Star” II, III and IV, “Golden Axe” I, II and III, the two “Ecco the Dolphin” titles, “Shining Force” I and II and “Vectorman” 1 and 2 amongst others. These games, back in the day, were anything from £20 to £50 each, and considering the game was £25 upon release and available now from £10 to £15. I’m pretty good at Maths and this spells out at up to £2000 in games back in the day, and all together it’s now available for anything up to 200 times less. That’s an immense statistic. There are other great games on this list too, like “Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle”, “Altered Beast”, “Columns”, “Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine”, “Flicky”, “Gain Ground” and “Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master”. I don’t really know if I really need to review this game because simply listing all of these amazing games says it all, but I’ll continue.

It's great to see such classic titles again, crisper than ever.

Having all the classic “Sonic the Hedgehog” titles in one game isn’t a new thing, it’s been done many times before, but it’s still a great way to play these games again, or for the first time if you’re too young to have played the games when they were released. The best thing about these Sonic titles, which are now up to 20 years old (Happy Anniversary Sonic!) are that the graphics still look absolutely beautiful today, with it’s amazing palette of colours and the fast action. The tightening of the graphics to HD level doesn’t make the biggest of differences but it’s a more than welcome addition.

One of the main bad points about this compilation is that it doesn’t include the “lock-on” Sonic games. Just in case you’re not familiar, the Mega Drive cartridge for “Sonic and Knuckles” had an innovative “lock-on” section at the top where you can attach a second cartridge to it. This was so you could attach another Sonic title to it; if you attached “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” to it, a game that does not feature the Knuckles as a playable character, allows you to now do so. It also allows you to play through the “Sonic 3” levels and then the “Sonic and Knuckles” levels, giving you a whopping fourteen levels of gameplay. I always maintain that these two games combined a game that’s often called “Sonic 3 and Knuckles”, is the most complete version of Sonic the Hedgehog ever. The “lock-on” feature also gave you access to “Sonic 2 and Knuckles” and the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” title locked onto “Sonic and Knuckles” gave you access to hundreds of random bonus stages that are similar to those available on “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Sonic and Knuckles”. So no “lock-on” features is a major downer for me personally, and many other fans as well, due to these versions of the games being so good in the original formats. The producer of this compilation said that there were “tight development times” for the release of this game and that’s the reason they’re not included. They said that if they were to release these “lock-on” games there would be no room for other games, like the bonus “Master System” games. It’s a fair point, although personally I would have preferred the “lock-on” versions over the old Master System and arcade games. But you also have to consider, we have six Sonic titles on this compilation already, so there’s enough Sonic content on here for other games to be considered, which is fair enough.

Riding dragons in Golden Axe was so much fun, now you can do it again!

There are so many games for you to choose from in this compilation, and they cover a lot of different genres here too. Sonic, naturally is a platformer, and that along with other games like “Alex Kidd”, “Dynamite Headdy” and “Shinobi III” will keep you going in a variety of different ways. For the RPG fans you can’t look any further than the “Shining Force” series, a turn based RPG that’s as good turn based RPG ever. The “Shining Force” series stands out as some of the best RPG games ever, and most certainly on the Mega Drive, a console lacking in good quality RPGs. The three “Phantasy Star” games are also well received RPG games that are available, so you have hours and hours of fantasy role playing games to sink your teeth into here. For the side scrolling beat-em-ups, the “Streets of Rage” series set the standard and has arguably never been beat for them. The “Streets of Rage” series, the trilogy, vary in difficulty and have great looking sprites, a range of characters and some funky music, some of the best music available on the Mega Drive. Other alternative side scrollers are the “Golden Axe” series, which are all very similar in style but still are very enjoyable, the very retro “Altered Beast”, a game that has dated a little since the early nineties but is still a little but of fun to play, and is slightly harder than the other games in the genre. There are other games in other genres too, too many to put into great detail here and are all worth a look.

I told you earlier, if you bought these games back when they came out, your total bill could have possibly reached £2000 so you definitely have a vasts amount of content here. There are some popular classics here, but there are also some games here that you may have not played, and that’s a good thing. There’s a justifiable reason for each of the 40+ games to be included here. There’s the obvious, Sonic and “Streets of Rage”, but there’s the more subtle, less popular games here that are of good quality yet their lack of popularity made them almost forgotten. Take “Gain Ground” for example, my favourite game from the few games I had never played before, it’s really good. “Gain Ground” is an odd arcade strategy-shooter, where you simply have go through all the levels and beat the game. In more depth, you can either get through each level by getting your characters individually to the other side of the screen, or kill all the enemies on the screen for automatic progress. As you go through the game you can save and recruit your hostages, all which are trapped warriors and can aid you in battle. It’s easier to play this game than explain it, and it’s a lot of fun, especially as each warrior has their own ways of attacking enemies with their own weapons and special abilities. If you get this compilation give this game a go if you’ve never played it before, it’s an interesting little game that doesn’t have much recognition as a great quality game from the Mega Drive days. Another decent effort is “Ristar”, a game released in 1995 when the Mega Drive was in its dying days, which was made by the same team that made Sonic. Give that a go as well as it deserves more recognition than it has. As I said though, it’s hard to do mini reviews of all the games available on here, but if I were to choose two ‘not-so-popular’ games on the compilation to play, these two are the ones I’d choose.

Shinobi III is still so much fun all these years later.

So all in all this is a fantastic compilation. I’m not going to claim that you’ll love all the 40+ games on this CD, you won’t. But there’s something here for everyone, and chances are there are games on this disc that you’ve never played before. Seriously, give the new games a go. You might find a hidden gem or two. It’s hard to rate compilations due to the fact that not every game on these things are going to be to your taste. But as homage to one of the best video game consoles of all time and the great games that came out on it, the “Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection” is as good a compilation of 40+ games you’ll ever see.

Rating: ****1/4 stars

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Game Review: Resident Evil 4 HD

Resident Evil 4 HD is the most complete version to date, of one of the best video games ever made. A true classic.

Resident Evil 4 HD was released just under four weeks ago here in the UK but the original game was released on the Gamecube just under seven years ago. This HD version is available both on the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, and is a direct port from the version released on the Playstation 2, which itself was released just under six years ago. As you can see this game has been released on many gaming platforms, including the four above the game was also released on the PC, the Nintendo Wii, on the mobile, on the iPhone, on Zeebo and finally, the iPad, totalling in ten different formats.

To clarify, this is a direct port from the Playstation 2 version, with only one change; it’s been remastered in HD. What was different from the Playstation 2 version and the Gamecube version? Well; the main addition being a new game mode called “Separate Ways”, which explains what happened in the original game but from the perspective of Ada, similar to the way Resident Evil 2 works (with the two scenarios with Leon and Claire). So in short, with all the content and a crisper look, this is the most complete version of Resident Evil 4 yet.

Asplosion in three... two... one...

Work on Resident Evil 4 actually started back in 1999, six years before it was actually released. The idea was for the game to be more action packed and less about survival horror. The backgrounds and atmosphere was more reminiscent of old Gothic locations, similar to those found in Europe. They eventually started to notice that the game was becoming something completely different to Resident Evil, and decided to make it a game on its own. They added demons and rewrote the storyline, and released the game as Devil May Cry, a game series that has had a great amount of success on its own.

The game went through three more development segments, most notably the one before the actual game release. This development time was spent making the game even scarier than the previous four instalments (Resident Evil 4 is the fifth main title in the series, after Resident Evil: Code Veronica) and took an almost Silent Hill approach to the series. The gameplay was similar to the actual release of Resident Evil 4, but the locations and atmosphere was much darker. The main villain in this game was a man dubbed Hookman, who naturally, carried a large hook with him. He would pursue Leon in a fashion not too different from Nemesis from the third entry into the series. The game was dropped and development finally started on what we now know as Resident Evil 4.

Just in case you’ve never played the game before, Resident Evil 4 features Leon Kennedy, an ex cop who was involved in the Zombie Outbreak in Resident Evil 2. Leon was a cop for one day, and that was the day of the outbreak. Six years have passed since that time, and Leon now works for the American president. An unknown insider kidnapped the president’s daughter, Ashley, and was brought to a small desolate village in rural Spain, where a mysterious cult resides. It is Leon’s job to work with two Spanish police officers to work undercover get Ashley home. Virtually no time passes from the beginning of the game before these two police officers have been killed and Leon must wade through hoards of villagers hell-bent on keeping Leon away from the president’s daughter. These villagers are not zombies, but what is then known as Los Ganados (or “The Cattle" in Spanish) who seem to be possessed by something. These villagers are much more dangerous than the zombies of old; they can work together in groups and are intelligent enough to throw or yield weapons. The story unravels and answers all the questions needed, like why was the president’s daughter kidnapped? How did these villagers get possessed? What’s possessing them? Who was involved internally with the president to actually kidnap his daughter Ashley? Everything gets answered.

As for the gameplay, the game has moved forward in leaps and bounds from the old style. Resident Evil 1, 2, 3 and Code Veronica used predetermined camera angles and when your character moved out of the picture, the camera angle would change to suit the location of the character. This has been thrown out of the window and instead the camera is always behind the character, slightly above shoulder height. This new perspective adds a more first-person approach without ever being a first person shooter. When shooting, a red laser comes out of the gun to show the player where the target is placed. Unlike before, where you shoot at a zombie’s upper torso or low to their feet, you can now target individual limbs which do different things; shooting the head makes the enemy stumble backwards or result in the head to explode, shooting the feet makes the enemy crouch forwards, and shooting a hand results in the enemy dropping a weapon if they are holding one. If you shoot the head or feet correctly, you can run up to your enemy and pressing the action button (“A” on the Xbox 360 controller) when near them gives you the option of attacking your enemy physically. With Leon, pressing the action button when they’ve been hit in the head allows him to roundhouse kick them to the floor, knocking over nearby enemies. Depending on how far you are in the game, pressing the action button when they’ve been hit in the foot allows you first to kick them straight on, resulting them flying backwards a decent distance. Later on this is replaced by the Northern Lights Suplex, a fine wrestling move, where Leon actually lands the enemy backwards onto their head, usually resulting in the head exploding. These moves are more than welcome to the gameplay, which makes the game much cooler.

Watch out for that guy, he's pretending his arm's a cobra!

The signature weapons have returned, with a few more added in; there’s a nice selection of handguns available that all specialise in different things. The same applies to the shotguns and the magnums. These weapons aren’t readily available, you start off with just the handgun (and a shotgun on the easiest difficulty), but as you progress more and more becomes available. The handgun is easy to use and very effective in the beginning against most of the Ganados, and the shotguns are good against big groups of enemies, or the stronger enemies you encounter later on in the game. Magnums, like always, are the elite weapons that have very little ammo available in the game that should be used sparsely; the bosses are recommended for such instances. Added to these signature weapons are the rifles. Rifles have rarely been featured in the Resident Evil series due to the fact that the games aren’t first person shooters (apart from the Survivor and Chronicles series), and while this isn’t a first person shooter, the camera angle works in favour of the use of a rifle. Rifles, like in many other action shooter games, are great for long distance and also pack a decent punch. There’s only one machine gun in the game which is the TMP, a minigun that can be used effectively once in a while. There are other bonus weapons too but these are usually unlocked after completing the game and dramatically make the game much easier.

As mentioned earlier these weapons aren’t readily available, but are slowly unlocked as the game progresses. They’re made available through a merchant, who looks like one of the Ganados but speaks perfect English (in a fantastic cockney accent) and has a hooded coat for his wares. You’ll soon appreciate seeing the site of his blue flame that he is often standing next to, as he often offers you the next and better versions of your weapons. On a side note the Merchant is a fantastic character despite having virtually no purpose to the plot other than providing you with better weaponry, his accent and phrases while aren’t intentionally funny, are delivered fantastically you can’t help but fall in love with him. As well as having the option to buy weapons, you also have the option to upgrade them. Upgrading your weaponry is important at it allows you to keep up to date with the pending difficulty increase in enemies. Upgrades allow your weapons to deal more damage, to fire faster, to reload faster and to hold more ammo in the gun itself.

Another new addition to the game is the items case. In the old games you had usually six, eight or ten item slots and that was it. Most items would hold up one space, with the exception of the very large guns like machine guns and rocket launchers. Still there was a flaw; a shotgun was one space and so was a small key. Naturally a shotgun is much larger than the small key yet they take the same amount of space. This observation now doesn’t exist with the new suitcase; Leon carries a case which has many items slots and each item holds different amount of spaces. For instance, the smallest item is now an egg that is used to increase your health, and this only takes up one item space. In comparison, the handguns take around six spaces, and the shotguns can take anything up to sixteen spaces. Your case has probably around sixty spaces at first but like the weapons, your case can be upgraded to carry more and more as the game goes on. This new system removes the flaw of the old item space situation, while giving you much more customisation as well, unlike the older games you can now also drop items.

Good luck...

The game itself can be completed in fifteen to twenty five hours, which is a huge increase in time when compared to the older games. Not only is the game much bigger than others, but there is still more to do when you finish the game. You can take part in The Mercenaries game mode, which is similar to the one in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, where you have a time limit to kill as many enemies as possible. The difference between this and the Resident Evil 3 version is that you are only allowed in one large area in this game, and you can get time bonuses by going across the level. Killing enemies in succession starts a combo which when finished gives you more and more points as the tally increases. There are four levels in the game, which are all diverse and are similar in design to particular areas of the game. As mentioned much earlier in the review you can also play “Separate Ways” with Ada, which takes a good hour or two to finish. Lastly, you can play another game mode called “Assignment Ada”, which once again features the lady in red, where you are trying to receive random ‘plaga’ samples across a terrain.

While that is the majority of the game, also added into the game are the options to save your game and start afresh, a New Game+ if you will, where you keep all your weapons and advances from the previous game. You can also play again in a different difficulty, keeping in mind the easier your difficulty of choice, certain sections of the game are removed to make the game easier, meaning if you play on the hardest difficulty you play the game in its entirety. You can also unlock new costumes for both Leon and Ashley, by completing the game multiple times. So there’s a huge amount of content in this game, and it’s all worth sinking your teeth into.

On the whole Resident Evil 4 HD is the most complete version of Resident Evil 4 to date and is well worth getting no matter how much of an experience you’ve had with the game in the past. If you have the original Gamecube version, or a Playstation 2 or Wii version, it doesn’t matter, this HD remaster looks incredibly smooth and stands well with the games being released to day, despite being seven years old now. If you’ve never played Resident Evil 4 before, I can’t recommend this game enough. If you like survival horror and action packed shooter games, get this. You won’t regret it. Yes, its seven years old but it’s still one of the most complete games to ever come out. It’s a true classic, a game that will go down in history not only as one of the best games from the sixth generation of video gaming, but one of the best video games of all time. Everything from the graphics, the action, the controls, the enemies, the storyline, the vastness of the game, everything is close to perfection. The only problem I’d say with the game is that at around £15, it’s quite a steep price for a seven year old game, but it’s still worth it based on the content you receive. Resident Evil 4 for me, is the best in the series and this is a must for fans of survival horror shooter fans.

Rating: ****3/4 stars

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Game Review: Super Street Fighter IV

Super Street Fighter IV isn’t a fancy new game with new modes. It’s exactly what it says on the tin, an absolutely brilliant fighting game.

Super Street Fighter IV was released in April 2010, and is an update on Capcom’s incredibly successful “Street Fighter IV”, released in 2009. This isn’t merely a refinement; it’s a true upgrade in every way. Apparently the initial idea was to get this sorted out as downloadable content, but there was too much work and the update would have been so big it was easier just to release it as a formal game. To make gamers who bought the original feel less ripped off, it was made available at two thirds the price; £25 was the launch price in the UK.

So what was added or changed in this game? Visually, the easiest change is that there are ten characters added to the roster. Eight of these characters are remodelled from older games, including T.Hawk from Super Street Fighter II, Guy from Final Fight, a spinoff of the Street Fighter series in the early nineties, and Dudley from Street Fighter III.

The two new characters are Juri, a female Taekwondo fighter from South Korea, who’s small and nimble. In contrast, the other character is the very bizarre Hakan from Turkey, who has red skin and is a large oil wrestler. He covers his entire body in oil and slips around the floor and jumps on his opponents.

Ladies, say what you want about pregnancy and periods but, being kicked in the googlies really hurts. A lot.

Other changes to the game are welcome; like the addition of a second Ultra Combo. If you’re not familiar to the ‘Combo’ abilities in the Street Fighter series, there are two bars at the bottom of your screen that fill up. The first is the Super Combo which is filled up slowly based on how much damage you deal to your opponent. The second is the Ultra Combo, your character’s strongest move, which fills up when you are receiving damage. When a round in Street Fighter is finished your Ultra Combo resets, while your Super Combo gauge is carried on into the second round. Having the ability to choose one of two Ultra Combos in Super Street Fighter IV is a great addition as these moves are the often the coolest looking in the game and adds a personal touch when you’re playing online, as people can choose different combos.

Speaking of playing online, while there was an online option in the original Street Fighter IV, there is a large quantity of different ways of playing online this time around. There is “Team Battle”, where you and three more people take on another four people online, there is “Endless Battle” for up to eight players where the winner stays on in a 1 on 1 fight and the other possible seven rotate and take in turns, while the other possible six watch. As a free patch piece of downloadable content, later in the year Capcom released an online “Tournament” mode, where it’s possible to play up to eight players in a bracketed knockout game where the winners stay on to form a Semi Final, and then a Final. Finally, you can save replays of your fights and let people watch them all over the world, and vice versa. The large array of online modes is absolutely fantastic, and it’s arguably the most varied online selection in any fighting game so far.

Other subtle changes since “Street Fighter IV” are the improved anime cinematics for each character in the storyline “Arcade” mode, and some of the moves have had tweaks in damage. These tweaks are subtle, like Ryu’s infamous “Shoryuken” is now a two-hit move rather than a single punch. Capcom didn’t have to do these tweaks, yet it shows how much effort has been put into making this game the most complete version of Street Fighter available.

Unfortunately, there has been a some removals, to make room for some new additions, namely “Time Attack” and “Survival” mode which the latter for me is one of my favourite game modes in any fighting game. But in its place is the revival of the legendary “Bonus Stages” from Street Fighter II. After a few fights in “Arcade” mode you can take part in the first bonus stage, which is your character attempting to break a car with their fighting moves. The second bonus stage is towards the end of the “Arcade” mode where the character attempts to break barrels falling from above. The nostalgia is definitely there for those who have played the classic Street Fighter II released twenty years ago.

Akuma kicks a lot of ass but he can't break a barrel? Tut tut.

Fighting in this game is as crisp as it ever has been; the controls are very similar to all the other entries in the series with there being six attack options, three for punches and three for kicks. These three options per set of limbs vary in power and speed; the hardest hitting punch is the slowest yet the quickest kick is the weakest. The D-pad works in eight directions, similar to the older styled games where moving your character on the left of the screen to the right makes them walk, pressing left makes them walk backwards, pressing the up button makes them jump on the spot and down makes them crouch. Pressing D-pad diagonal up-left makes them jump forward and so on. It’s a very simple concept; it hasn’t really changed since Street Fighter II twenty years ago but then it doesn’t need to. This foundation is what makes Super Street Fighter IV so great.

The difficulty levels on this game are perfect; ranging from Easiest to Hardest you can choose your own skill level to play to, and they do a good job of varying the difficulty fairly. You should be able to beat Easiest if you are competent to play the actual game, and the Normal difficulty provides you with some difficult matches later on in “Arcade” mode. In the end the difficulty naturally leans more towards difficult rather than easy, but there are plenty of room here for people who are new to the series. If there are any problems playing the game, the “Training” and “Challenge” modes are perfect for those players. “Training” mode allows you to test your character on an AI character without worrying about your health bar depleting. “Challenge” mode lets you individually work on each character’s moves. Another tweak to “Super Street Fighter IV” is the option to skip certain character moves in favour of the more difficult ones later on the list; in the original Street Fighter IV you had to do each move in turn, without any option to choose a later move in the list.

I spoke of “Arcade” mode a little earlier but if you are unfamiliar with Street Fighter then here’s a description of the main game mode available. “Arcade” allows you to choose a character and it gives you an intro to why this particular character is taking part in this fighting tournament. As stated earlier the cinematics are anime, and look really good. After a few fights as stated you have the option of the first bonus stage, after a few more you have the option of the second bonus stage. The penultimate battle in the game is against your rival. Your rival is a character associated with the character you have chosen, for instance Ryu and Sagat have a long term rivalry and this is evident in Ryu’s game.

As mentioned before the anime cinematics look great and work with the design of the game but the graphics in general are absolutely gorgeous. Taking an artistic approach, the intro movie puts emphasis on the fact that this game is fictional yet rich at the same time. Capcom haven’t used the new generation of video gaming to be as realistic as possible, but instead use them as a platform to use art as a video game medium. The result simply means that this game stands out more than most other video games, even the fighting games. The Ultra Combos look brilliant as well, and nothing looks better than Ryu’s “Shin Shoryuken”, especially when the camera closes in on Ryu hitting an uppercut straight on the jaw and the character’s pain animation is shown. So much care has been put into the visuals in Super Street Fighter IV and it’s just fantastic. The fighting takes place in many different venues, some reminiscent from older games in the series, like a busy street and a jungle. Once again great care has been put in the backgrounds and they are good to look at if you’re not concentrating on the action itself.

The Ultra Combos look 'ultra' impressive in Super Street Fighter IV close up.

On a personal note, my favourite fighting game series of all time is the “Tekken” series so it’s natural for me to compare this to Tekken. And it pains me to say it, but in nearly every department, Super Street Fighter IV trumps “Tekken 6”. The online modes are just excellent, there’s such a strong selection of options available when you want to take on people around the world that is in comparison to the single option available in “Tekken 6”. Also while there is lag when you play online once in a while, it pales in comparison to Namco’s prime fighting game. It’s the comparison between the online modes available in both games where you really see the true qualities of Super Street Fighter IV shine; it’s just simply the best online experience thus far in a fighting game.

Overall, Super Street Fighter IV is the most up to date fighting experience around. And the best thing about Capcom’s most complete fighting game is that they have gone back in time to find their motivation to make such a great title. A lot of games are trying to be new, try to complicate things and try to be something their not. Super Street Fighter IV is the complete opposite of that, it’s a fighting game, pure and simple. You have your fighting game, your many different characters (35 in total now) with their range of movesets, you have your “Arcade” mode where you can complete the game and learn about the background of your character and you have your options to take on other players offline and online. That’s what this game is and it’s what a fighting game should be. There’s no new fancy game modes, or new ways of playing the game, bar online. Online aside, the only things that have changed since the classic game released twenty years ago is that there are Super and Ultra Combos, other characters and significantly improved graphics. Super Street Fighter IV brings the game series full circle and is exactly what it says on the tin, an absolutely brilliant fighting game.

Rating: ****1/4 stars

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