Monday Night Combat screen
We're halfway through summer and the flow of high quality, inexpensive games through digital channels has yet to ebb.
I tried three new ones this week, my favourite of which is Monday Night Combat, an innovative mashup of third-person, class-based shooters and tower defense strategy. It's good. Trust me. Also fun is Ubisoft Montreal's game based on the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. It's a lovingly crafted homage to the medium. And on the opposite end of the scale sits the latest Castlevania, which I found to be extraordinarily inaccessible. I play games for fun, not frustration.
Read on for details.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (Xbox Live Arcade)
There's not a lot of story in this old-school, side-scrolling platformer, the third entry in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade series this year. The goal is simply to work your way through a long string of rooms filled with zombies, skeletons, demons, and other fantastical enemies on your way to a boss battle.
The level of difficulty is masochistic. If your hero dies along the way (and he will-often) you must restart the level. Even skilled players will find themselves forced to start over time and again. The sole saving grace: Players get to keep all of the collectibles they've found after they die.
The going is apparently significantly easier if you play with the help of others in online multiplayer, but I had a tough time finding any available partners. I occasionally found games, but I was repeatedly booted from them before even arriving at the lobby.
And virtually nothing is explained. From objectives to narrative, it's simply assumed that the player has a thorough knowledge of the franchise, which will be infuriating for newcomers.
It does have moments of inspiration-I liked the ability to zoom out to view all of the rooms in a given castle (my hero became a tiny speck, but remained active)-but they don't make up for Harmony of Despair's overall inaccessibility. This is a game designed for Castlevania zealots and veteran gamers who take pleasure in punishment. Rookies venture in at their own risk.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade)
Based on the beloved graphic novels that inspired the movie slated to hit theatres this weekend, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is, much like its source material, a loving tribute to video games of years past.
A retro beat-'em-up in the vein of Double Dragon, up to four players spend the majority of their time pummeling bad guys with fists, feet, bats, and boxes.
But while the game has clearly taken cues from the classics, it has plenty of contemporary features as well. Characters level up with experience and learn new moves, we can walk into street shops to purchase a variety of goods (books for stat upgrades, food to regain health), and almost anything we run across can be used as a weapon, be it a street sign, an old tire, or a bag of trash.
Like the comics and movie, the game is set in Toronto, and even though the graphics are designed to evoke the heavily pixilated games of decades past, gamers who live in Canada's largest city will immediately recognize many objects in the environment, including the city's stylized curbside bike racks and bus shelters. And all Canadians will appreciate collecting coins decorated with moose, beavers, and loons.
Developed with care and an eye for detail by Ubisoft Montreal, there's little doubt that Scott Pilgrim fans will find a lot to love about this unusually sharp adaptation.
Monday Night Combat (Xbox Live Arcade)
The penultimate entry in Microsoft's 2010 Summer of Arcade series of downloadable games, Monday Night Combat is an oddly appealing mixture of over-produced sports television, third-person shooting, and, of all things, tower defense strategy.
The object of the game is simple: Don't let opposing bots destroy your Moneyball. If you're playing in Blitz mode, that means installing, maintaining, and upgrading loads of turrets that will protect your zone. If you're playing as part of a group online in Crossfire, you'll need to divide your time between defending your base and leading bots into enemy territory.
Even with towers you'll still need to shoot plenty of bots yourself. That's how you make the money necessary to keep building. Cash is also required to upgrade your own personal skills. Depending on the class you select, you'll be able to increase weapon potency and improve your special abilities, such as the assassin's cloaking power or the sniper's trap-laying skill.
It's not perfect. If you play alone it can be difficult to proactively defend while managing your turrets. Plus, a couple of the character classes are a bit wonky (the massive tank, who hobbles around in a giant shell of armour and can take loads of punishment, doesn't seem to hit as hard as he should given his name and the enormous weapon he carries).
But it's fun. And completely different. Definitely worth a try for fans of action or strategy looking for a fresh twist on their favourite game types.
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