Ski Jumping 2011

Ski Jumping 2011 – Life on the piste

As an avid fan of skiing and snow sports I was delighted to get a chance to play on the new java game, Ski Jumping 2011. It must be said, although this is naturally not quite as near to the real thing as I’d wish for, it’s a good enough distraction.

What you must do is select the country you wish to represent (sadly the UK isn’t anywhere to be seen – so that’s pretty realistic!). Once you’ve picked which, ahem, ‘other’ country you wish to represent, you must then try your best to hurl your ski-jumper through the air as far as you can and land them safely. All this sounds pretty simple but of course, it wouldn’t be a challenge if this was as straight forward as it could be.

From the start you’re challenged by competing against the clock as you only have a certain amount of time to launch yourself down the ramp. This is only made more difficult as you have to watch the flag in the screen to see when the wind’s blowing in your favour or against you as you propel your way down the snow-covered ramp.

Providing you’ve managed to get the timing right, you then are only half way through the jump. You must then hit the button to jump off the bottom of the ramp to gain as much lift and improve your distance. As you fly through the air you must try to maintain your balance and aerodynamic form by tilting your control pad in the appropriate direction. If you get it right, you could be on to a world class jump, although should you make mistakes you’ll lose height and distance and could even resemble a snow ball when you crash land.

Once you’ve landed you’ll see the judges scores which will be based on the overall jump and not just on the distance you’ve travelled. If you get it right, you’ll be rewarded with being the top jumper – but don’t count your chickens just yet as you must repeat the process all over again to press home the advantage or close the gap on the leaders.

This is a pretty basic and repetitive game but it does actually make it challenging and rewarding.

Positives

Challenging

Quite realistic

Nice graphics

Negatives

Very repetitive

Luck plays as big a part as skill

Poor sounds

2 stars

Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time

Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time – It’s not easy being a timelord

It’s funny how regardless of the various escapades of the famous Doctor, the timeless question that will rattle on possibly longer than the series in its various guises is just who is the best Doctor Who? I could stoke the fire by telling you who I think it is, but I’ll raise myself above all that and simply review the game – Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time.

For any top down puzzler fan, this game will certainly be quite appealing. Of course, if you happen to be a fan of the show, you will be even more enthralled by the prospect of playing with Dr. Who and his assistant.

In fairness, this game is a co-op style puzzler where you must use the attributes of both Dr. Who and his assistant. The Doctor can push objects around (e.g. to position a block on a switch) and climb over objects but his assistant can walk over weaker surfaces and crawl under objects. So it involves a fair amount of logical thinking to get you through the sprawling levels.

As you can guess, as the game develops, the harder the levels become. Testing not just your logical thinking but also your reaction and ability to avoid being ‘deleted’ by Cybermen or exterminated by those pesky Daleks!

The game is appears almost exactly as something from The Sims and when playing I almost expected the same bizarre language and it was with a bit of disappointment that after such attention to detail in graphics, there wasn’t the same attention to detail in the sound department and rather than watching speech bubbles, the voice-overs could have made the game more authentic – especially as the bad guys all were eerily sounding as you’d expect.

Putting this to one side, I initially was thinking this puzzle game would only really appeal to the young and dare I say geeky. However, I’m delighted to say this game does offer a fair bit of a challenge and the more mature gamer will be probably entertained quite a bit more regardless of the interest in Doctor Who. More to the point, perhaps this game will help endear the new Doctor more to me than his various prior counterparts.

Positives

Co-op challenges

Plenty of tricky levels to master

Appeals to the younger child in me

Negatives

A tad repetitive

Lack of voice-overs by the actors

The ability to look around the level using a free-roaming camera would have helped

3 stars

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Enforcing or Breaking the law can be such fun!

For most people out there it’s fair to say that we all find a balance between right and wrong and make our decisions from it. If games are to be believed then whether we choose to obey the law or break it, it’s easy to see that when driving is involved you can have heaps of fun cruising around at high speed on some of the more scenic locations.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a shot in the arm to the much hyped and arguably overdone racing game genre. NFSHP is not just really pleasing to the eye (which is not a huge surprise due to the brand), but a doddle to get racing with right from the start. The hardest thing to really decide is whether you wish to enforce the law and drive some of the most powerful cars on the planet clamping down on the reckless petrolheads, or if you wish to be a modern day Smokey and the Bandit. In either case, one thing is for sure – totally disregard the highway code and open the throttle fully.

When you’re a cop, your career develops from a fresh recruit through the rankings by exploring the missions and proving a success on the road. Some missions are simply for you to be as fast as you can and beating the clock in a race to a crime scene, others are being brutal with those who flout the law (bashing and using weapons to stop the pursuit), and of course racing (against other cops).

The roles are of course reversed in this game of cat and mouse should you decide to drive as an outlaw. Similarly, you are rewarded with bounty for being the fastest, brashest driver on the road. You have access to other equipment to help you stay a step ahead of the law, jamming equipment which helps immobilise the police cars hunting you down and of course brute power of the Nitro.

You can play the game watching it in third person or indeed you can switch the view to inside the car – in either case, the effect is much the same – one huge thrill-ride.

On the downsides, and these are only minor grumbles. I would have loved to have seen a few bits of finesse like rear view mirror (or reverse view mode), so you can look around you for better experience. More importantly, no amount of shunts, prangs or bashes have an impact on the ride or performance of the car. For the purists amongst us, it’s a bit of a letdown but I guess when you have to drive your car like a missile around the tracks it wouldn’t work quite the same if your car comes off second best.

Since I’ve got that off my chest, on the plus side, and it’s a huge plus, you do get to drive some hot vehicles like a pro and can modify the game to either ride automatic or manual for a better feel. Steering is a dream, as is drifting around the corner, powering through with hitting the nitro and using the handbrake to cut inside the opposition. All in all, this is a delight to play and any driving enthusiast will be happy to get to ride in each of the cars.

Positives

Stunning to look at

Brilliant fun to play

High powered speed fest

Negatives

Upgrading your car and doing the basic levels is too easy

You can buy your car upgrades rather than earn them through completing missions (rather defeats the object of the game – not to mention a shameless way of earning an extra buck)

Damage (or lack of realistic damage – regardless of the carnage)

4 stars

Dungeon Hunter 2

Dungeon Hunter 2 – Life as an immortal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...

Anyone who likes the top-down type of wizards and warrior style games like Gauntlet will no doubt be excited to see the second instalment of Dungeon Hunter.

You play the hero who’s charged with turning the tide of a tyrannical and rather evil ruler and the dark forces that follow. You can pick either to be a warrior, thief or mage at the very start and you then get to break out of the prison, beat up more than your fair share of monsters and unlock the mysterious levels to discover more about your character, and the fate that awaits you.

Some of the levels you get to explore aren’t much more than a nice add-on to the main plot, but importantly, they don’t just add a bit more colour to your character’s development but also help you get more powerful (in terms of attack and defence) through boosting your skill points.

As you move throughout the various lairs, you will uncover a number of characters who you can choose to help or ignore as you see fit. For example, you can speak to a prisoner who asks you to kill eight (killer) moths, if you do this mini-challenge, you will be rewarded, and if not, then it won’t have any significant bearing on the end of the game.

The games controls are pretty responsive and do all that you’d expect. The plot is plentiful and it seems almost a pity to move from one stage to the next as it’s such a pretty game with a lot of detail in each scene – however, it’s always matched by equally artistic scenes to enjoy at every next stage.

At the end of the day, this game is really entertaining and will challenge you and develops with you. I can’t say it’s in the same league as Fable in terms of the characters’ development as you interact with the environment around you, but for a handheld game it really is way up there.

The game suffers a little in terms of its automatic features, especially the automatic aiming ability with the mage’s ranged attacks. When trying to cast a spell, it would either miss or if there’s more than one enemy on the screen at any one time, you will have to pay special attention to ensure you attack the one you intend (usually the closest or more powerful monster); having said that, you will probably be watching the screen intently and very engrossed in it for all the other good reasons.

Positives

Beautiful game to look at

Decent controls

Lots to explore and good script

Negatives

Perhaps a bit too much for the less mature players to take on

Automatic aiming can let you down at times

It’s fiddly improving your character’s attributes

4 stars

Flick Golf!

Flick Golf! – Watch the birdie...

Have you ever pictured yourself being the next Tiger Woods (on the course that is!)? Well perhaps this is the game for you!

Flick Golf! is a cracking title which not only allows you to simply smash the golf ball from the tee, but also have the control to alter the spin, direction and course of the ball in flight should you wish to. The aim of the game is simply to score as many points as you can. This is achieved through getting the ball as close to the pin as possible, or, better yet, sink the ball in the hole.

Around the flag there are marked zones which illuminate when the ball touches one. The further from the flag your ball ends up, the lower the score you will be awarded. What is crucial to remember is the amount of points you receive is improved phenomenally by sinking the ball in the hole. Not only will you receive the maximum 1,000 points for the hole in one but also receive additional points for all the additional spin you’d put on the ball to ensure you got it in.

You have two modes to master; quickshot and world tour. As the name suggests, quickshot is all about being as accurate as you can under the pressure of a countdown. Not only do you receive more points for being precise but also get more time to score more points.

World tour is a challenge of scoring as much as possible with only nine shots which become more difficult as the game goes along. Firstly you have to manage to master the distance which gets changed from time to time but also you will need to keep an eye open for wind changes which will alter the flight of the ball.

It’s a bit of a guess when it comes to getting the ball in the hole. Sure you can pan the angle from side to side to help get  the stroke you want but the power of the shot is quite challenging in itself and as the camera follows the ball, you will fight the disorientation to ensure the ball goes towards the flag.

Overall, it’s a light and entertaining golf game which will keep you entertained for a while. If you’re looking for something a little more ‘realistic’ then I’d suggest looking elsewhere. Your stroke-play, approaches and tongue-in-cheek trickshots achieved by this game in either of the settings will however get right under your skin.

Positives

Bright and cheerful game

Nice twist on the golfing theme

Light-hearted entertainment

Negatives

Repetitive

Very challenging

Being accurate is awkward with the camera movements

3 stars

iRequiem

iRequiem – Like a bat out of hell...

This game is one of the oddest titles I’ve had the fortune of playing. I say this as I’m a little undecided as to how it came to be as addictive as it proves to be. Regardless of whether it was down to accident or design, it is something that probably only you will be able to decide but whether you find it so bad it’s good, or good old fashioned gaming at its best, you will probably find yourself lured to play for hours with little or no break!

There is a bit of a plot to the game but in all honesty it doesn’t really matter that you were such an evil so and so that, now in hell, wishes nothing more than to get your soul back and atone for your wicked ways through killing hordes of evil monsters. All that really matters is... do you want to fight for your life?!

The artwork doesn’t really do much for the imagination as the background rarely changes e.g. when you’ve worked your way through a fairly repetitive task of defending yourself from wave after wave of various nasty looking creatures and kicked the heck out of the end of level boss. After each level you get to replenish yourself by using the gold coins you’ve collected on your way; choose from a huge selection of weapons (both ranged and ones more suitable for close quarters) and artefacts which influence game-play (from luck to more powerful attack or defence).

Besides the coins you can collect along the way from the fallen enemies, you also can collect the souls and use these to your advantage. During the middle of a battle, you can duck into the church and make a prayer, which will result in replenishing health or invulnerability for a period of time through to good old lightning bolts and the magical ability to throw your enemy around the screen (which did prove pretty comical in its appearance but hugely effective and quite satisfying).

So whether you prefer to use weapons or dabble with the odd spell when blasting your undead enemies to kingdom come, this game really does allow you to have quite a bit of fun.

As mentioned, the game does have the odd stumbling block – namely the graphics are a bit basic and the controls aren’t always that easy to use (hacking, shooting and casting spells can all get jumbled in battle – particularly when trying to cause explosions on screen too). Otherwise, this title does all that you’d really want or expect it to and even these faults can be largely overlooked due to the entertainment this game has to offer.

Positives

Entertaining and hugely addictive

Simple and easy to get to grips with

Action hero commentary proves a great distraction

Negatives

Controls are a bit fiddly (facing the wrong way can normally occur)

Graphics seldom change

Very repetitive

3 stars

Gravity Guy

Gravity Guy – He’s flippin’ marvellous!

Who out there ever fancied having a special ability or super human skill? I think if we were being honest, just about everyone of us would like at least one cool ability. Alas being able to teleport and fly seems a little bit beyond our reach at least we can dream of what it would be like. Gravity Guy is lucky enough not to just settle for dreaming though as he gets to flip between surfaces with simple taps of the screen.

This game is a scrolling platform style format where you have Gravity Guy running from left to right as the ground moves along. What you must do is navigate your way through the course of undulating corridors. This is pretty simple in principle but when you’re having to rush away from your pursuing droid and the courses get increasingly more complex and testing to your reaction speeds, you will be firmly challenged by this little game.

Gravity Guy, as all superhero’s do, has his weaknesses. He’s pretty useless when it comes to blocks (he can’t jump – probably due to his gravity boots sticking so solidly to the surface), and he doesn’t like wide open spaces (as he’ll fall off screen). So my advice to you is as long as you remember to keep your feet on the “ground” (whichever way up that may well be), your chances will be radically improved.

If playing against the computer and the persistent droid you can give your friends a chance at proving their skills with up to four players allowed to play at any one time – needless to say, the competitive level is notched up just a few levels when competing with your friends and laughter and banter are bound to come as a result. The only tricky thing is having so many people holding the iPod/iPhone at any one time without either a) you can’t see what’s happening on screen or b) a fair bit of cheating will probably “accidentally” happen.

Overall this game is simplicity in itself and yet thoroughly challenging and very entertaining. Whether you play it by yourself or with your friends, you’ll be sure to find it nearly impossible to put down.

Positives

Hugely entertaining

Compete single player or multi-player

Very addictive

Negatives

Pretty repetitive

Limitless lives is good on the one hand but doesn’t do much for the really purist game players out there

Frustrating at times

4 stars