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Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

March 5, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Brian Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Is it soccer or football? For me it’s always been called soccer. Even when I played the game for one short season as a youngster, it was always called soccer. In my one season of football/soccer I learned to appreciate the game, but I never learned to love the game. After moving closer to the southern border of the United States, I soon learned that my lack of passion for soccer wasn’t shared amongst the rest of the world. Now with Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 for the PSP, I’m put to the test to see if my past association with the sport would help me in reviewing the game.

I’m not going to pretend and tell you that I know everything about soccer. I don’t know how many leagues or how many teams are located throughout the world. My soccer knowledge is limited to what I remember from playing the game and the World Cup craze. Thankfully with Winning Eleven 2007 (W11 2007), you don’t have to be an expert at soccer to have fun with the game. The game is jam packed with tons of options and solid gameplay to keep you playing.

The amount of options in W11 2007 was overwhelming at first. The game lets you customized almost every part of the game. From the camera angle, to season mode, to the colors on the jersey, W11 2007 is a full featured soccer game that should please casual gamers and hardcore soccer fans. I let a friend who is a big soccer fan play the game, and he was impressed with the amount of options that can be customized. The gameplay modes are just as full featured as the options.

There are six gameplay modes in W11 2007 to keep gamers busy. Match mode is just a single player game against the computer, either a regular game or a penalty kick game. Master League is the simulation piece of the game that lets you manage a team while competing in a season. League mode lets you play in a season with a team of your choice. Cup mode allows you to compete in seven different cup tournaments. Training lets you practice to your heart’s content all of the moves in the game. Wireless lets you play against other PSP owners but only by Ad Hoc Mode. Then finally there is an edit mode which lets you edit and create players, teams, and cups/leagues in the game. This isn’t a stripped down portable game; this is a game that is loaded with all of the toppings and extra cheese.

The actual gameplay is topnotch but only after stumbling out of the gates due to the controls. The controls are just as feature-packed as the gameplay modes with what seems to be an endless variety of ways to perform passes and shots. You have a short pass, a first-time pass, a first-time long pass, a high cross, a low cross, an early cross, a regular shot, a first-time shot, a chip shot, a hard shot, a soft shot, a moderately hard shot, a moderately soft shot, and many others. I know it’s been a long time since I played soccer, and maybe I don’t understand the broadcasters on Univision, but I sure don’t remember that many choices for passing and shooting.

It took me a few games before I felt comfortable with passing, shooting, and playing defense. But I still had shots flying over the net consistently even after several games. The game lets you control the strength and height of a shot by holding down the square button to charge the shot. To me it seemed that the charge meter was very inconsistent since my character was still missing open shots. Sometimes I would hit the button just once for a quick shot, and I would get a short and low shot. Other times, even with a quick button press, shots would start flying away.

Even with the misfires in some of the controls, Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 is a portable game packed with all of the trimmings usually seen in a console game. The gameplay modes should keep the hardcore gamers busy for hours. The sheer number of options can even help novice players learn the ins and outs of soccer. Just take my advice and start off on the beginner’s difficulty setting if your soccer skills are still developing. This let’s you play the game in a more arcade style setting where you can get used to the controls and the variety of options. Oh, one more item of note, yes there is still a delay in waiting for the game to load off of the UMD. It can take up to a minute in some areas to get into the game while you wait for the load menu.

Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

February 23, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Jason Dobson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Fun yet elementary. This is about as decent a description of Mastiff’s Falcom-developed action adventure Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure for the PSP as any you’re going to get. It’s an entertaining, yet largely sterile adventure that retraces the steps of countless games that came before it. Yet, sometimes the mold is not in need of being broken, and as is the case with Gurumin, a game can readily play within established boundaries and still be quite enjoyable. While not quite up to the standards of let’s say Daxter, Gurumin is nonetheless a welcome addition to the PSP’s slowly growing identity.

Gurumin tells the story of Parin, a little girl whose archaeologist parents sent her to live with her grandfather while they embarked on a dig abroad. Sadly, upon arrival in the quiet mining town of Tiese, Parin quickly discovers that she is the only child around, leaving her largely alone in the strange new place. Before long, however, Parin notices a dog barking at a small girl in the streets, though oddly nobody else in town seems to take notice. Parin and the little girl, Pino, become fast friends, though it turns out that indeed none of the other people in town can see her. As it would have it, Pino turns out to be a monster child from a neighboring dimension that is invisible to adults, and it isn’t long before she takes Parin to her world to meet her strange yet accommodating friends in Monster Village.

However, soon after stepping foot in the dimension, the village is attacked by a group of powder blue creatures known as phantoms who capture many of the town’s peaceful monsters and cover the world in an evil mist. To save her new friends, Parin takes up the village’s legendary artifact, a mysterious yet powerful drill once used by a human long ago to defeat an ancient dragon, and with it she takes to the task of finding her friends as well as various other stolen items. As monsters and items are uncovered, Monster Village is slowly rebuilt over the course of the game’s 10 or so hour adventure which, while perhaps overly cute, is nonetheless fairly entertaining.

Even with a mythological drill on a stick, combating the game’s various enemies can prove to be somewhat trying, especially for a twelve year old girl. Gurumin’s enemies come in all shapes and sizes, and the particularly tough ones – phantoms – often come protected with an assortment of equipment to help tilt the balance in their favor. Thankfully, however, Parin’s drill is uniquely suited for stripping these bits of metal off opponents, and even better, these bits of discarded junk can then be gathered up and used to upgrade Parin’s equipment in Tiese to help tip the odds back in her favor. Sort of cosmic balance, I suppose.

In addition, Parin herself has a few tricks up her oversized sleeves to help throw back opponents. She can charge her drill in order to dig through opponents and obstacles, and she can do a guard dash in order to move quickly out of the way and avoid damage. In addition, as more attacks connect, the drill’s level slowly increases up to three levels, with each offering more potent attacks and new abilities as well. For instance, when maxed out, the drill can project a laser for long distance attacks, an invaluable asset when facing multiple phantoms at once. In addition, taking damage lowers the drill’s level a bit, so there is an added incentive to play defensively as well.

For a game as, for lack of a better term, simplistic as Gurumin, the game is surprising in its depth and emphasis on replayablity. There are a number of secrets to be found that, while completely optional, are certain to make the game more appealing to those players looking to get more out of the game than just the main quest. Everything from unlockable items and costumes for Parin to numerous collectibles and mini-games are waiting for the dyed-in-the-wool completionist.

While all of this is good fun, as with the lion’s share of PSP titles, Gurumin’s most significant shortcomings lie not with the game, but rather with the handheld itself. Besides the inordinate amount of loading that can and does crop up from time to time, the game’s controls are also a bit nonsensical, forcing you to perform rolling D-Pad and button combinations ala Street Fighter II in order to pull off Parin’s various techniques. It can be done, but it’s an activity for which the console is certainly not ideal.

However, altogether Gurumin is a welcome surprise for the PSP, and one that owners of Sony’s sleek handheld should well consider picking up, if even just for a rental. The game is short, but offers enough extra content to keep players coming back should they fancy an extended stay. The game is fun, whimsical, and while perhaps a bit child-like in its presentation, is still accessible to most anyone with a penchant for anime-inspired action.

Me and My Katamari

August 25, 2006

PSP / Reviews / by Tim Canty Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]Katamari Damacy[/i] has become the stuff of legends. The wildly popular franchise has legions of fans all over the world. Now, in its third (and supposedly final) incarnation, has it still got the Katamari magic?

Fans of the previous games will already be intimately familiar with the King of all Cosmos, a ‘stark raving loco’ deity, who craves attention. Following his rise to fame in [i]We Love Katamari[/i], the King and his family enjoy a nice day out at the beach. However, the King gets a little over excited (as per usual) and ends up obliterating a string of islands. The islands inhabitants are understandably upset by this, so the King orders his son, the Prince, out to collect objects to make new islands. So that’s where you start; grab a blank Katamari and start rolling.

The Prince’s tool of choice, the Katamari, is an odd rubbery ball thing, which sucks up anything smaller than itself. The more stuff which gets stuck to it, the bigger the Katamari grows, and so the bigger the objects you can collect. This means you start out rolling up paper clips and coins, but eventually you can grow large enough to absorb people into your ever growing behemoth. That’s where the game’s irreverent humour comes into play, as you roll screaming children into your Katamari alongside cows, stationary, buildings. The combined sound of chickens, children and cows all crying out at once is, frankly, hilarious.

On the PS2, the Katamari games utilize both analogue sticks, to control the ball like a tank. Unlike its PS2 counterparts, Me and My utilizes the Directional and Face buttons, owing to the fact that the PSP has only one analogue stick. These controls aren’t as slick as the PS2 games, but they are easy enough to get to grips with. In a short while, you’ll take to rolling like an expert.

The areas you roll around in gradually grow in scale, as you grow with your Katamari. To begin with, you’re confined to rolling around a small room indoors, but eventually, you can break out into a large city, rolling up all manner of buildings. The world and the items in it are very colourful, and your Katamari adopts a sort of twisted beauty as it collects all manner of pastel coloured objects. The graphics aren’t far removed from the PS2 version, but there’s a trade-off, in that there are some annoying load times, and the physical appearance of the Katamari holds far less objects than the PS2 version.

The soundtrack is just as crazy as the PS2 version. There’s plenty of Japanese pop music, salsa, rock, and even lounge music. The music tends to get overbearing at times, even distracting, but the occasional piercing scream helps break up the music nicely.

The downside is that [i]Me and My Katamari[/i] is far shorter than the other Katamari games. Returning players from the previous games will just breeze straight through in a few hours. Also, there are far fewer environments to play around in. That means you end up playing in the same areas over and over again, which can get quite dull. There’s a multiplayer mode, allowing for up to 4 people to compete with each other, but given the scarcity of PSP’s, and the fact that each player needs a copy of the game, this’ll be a seldom used feature.

Despite its shortcomings, [i]Me and My Katamari[/i] holds true to what Katamari’s all about: short bursts of random insanity. And it’s pretty damn good at it. It belongs in the collection of any Katamari fan, and it’s good enough to introduce people to the series too.

Mega Man Powered Up

July 2, 2006

PSP / Reviews / by Joe Teed Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Doing a remake of a classic game on a modern system requires walking a thin line between adding fresh technology and innovation and keeping the original feel of the game. Capcom has managed to keep on track and delivered a stellar example of how to do it right with [i]Mega Man Powered Up[/i]. The game should feel right for all you [i]Mega Man[/i] fans, without making you feel like the technology in your PSP is going to rust in the process.

[i]Mega Man[/i] fans will know the formula behind this game pretty well, even if they never played the first game in the series: Mega Man plays through the levels of the robot masters, defeats each one, and acquires their special weapon. You can pick which order you beat each of the six original robot masters, and then you must face off against the endgame Wily levels.

[i]Powered Up[/i] contains a version of the original game which, for the most part emulates the game as it appeared on the NES. In this mode you don’t get any widescreen, although the graphics are still 3d. All six of the original robot masters are here, along with the Wiley levels and their bosses. But the meat of the game is really the “new style” mode.

When you play the revised game, you’ll notice the levels have been tweaked to work well with widescreen, and they’ve added 2 new robot masters in order to bring the roster up to the now-traditional 8. They’ve also switched up some of the patterns and weaknesses to throw off anyone who has mastered the original game, and even given the masters some new attacks. I’m a particular fan of the new bosses, since they bring in weapons that function more like tools, something that was lacking in the original game.

The gameplay should be thoroughly familiar to [i]Mega Man[/i] veterans, and at least initially comprises the ability to jump and shoot (actually, in the brief intro level, you can’t even shoot). Timing is a key element in the game, with plenty of (occasionally frustrating) platforming and precision shooting. There are occasional places where a certain boss weapon will be of particular use, but it is certainly less often than in the later [i]Mega Man[/i] games. There are three difficulty levels in new style, ranging from the painfully hand-holding easy to the dizzying speeds of hard. Normal, of course, feels just like the original game.

Although I was originally skeptical about the new graphics style, it fits the game perfectly. Mega man always was a fairly catroony and lighthearted series. The models are smooth and colorful, and probably thanks to the low polygon count and lack of textures, look a lot sharper than what you’d expect. The game manages to keep the cute feel of the series and still pump out graphics worthy of the PSP.

Once you’ve beaten the game, there are a lot of options to spend your time on. Each of the robot masters can be captured and made playable to give you a slightly different feel to the game and allow you access to previously hidden parts of the levels. Without playing through the levels as some of the other robots, you won’t be able to get all of the parts for the level editor. There is also a challenge mode, with 100 preset scenarios for you to try your hand at. The game is also packed with other unlockables, giving you ample reason to replay the game at different difficulty levels, attempt the challenges, or even just go online to “Mega Man web.” There are a few alternate takes on [i]Mega Man[/i], and even a new character or two.

Even if you somehow tire of all this, you can build your own levels, or even download other levels from the internet. The level editor is very simple to use, and if you don’t trust the teeming masses, Capcom has a few specially designed levels for those seeking a new level of challenge. There are new downloads coming (as I write, a new official level has just hit), so don’t think Capcom’s leaving the content for this one hanging. They clearly know how to support a game on a modern system with downloadable content.

Capcom really pulled out all the stops on this one, but there are a few sticking points that keep it from perfection. For one thing, the robot masters are often not well designed for playing out the full game. I think non-expert players may find attempting the game as anyone but [i]Mega Man[/i] to be fairly trying, and there’s no real warning of how difficult the boss fights are with them. Secondly, there is no auto save. I’ve come to expect this feature in games, and when it’s not there I always end up losing a few hours of work after my first shutdown. Oddly enough, achievements and rewards are saved, just not your progress in the actual game. The challenges are another sticking point. They are fairly boring and repetitive, and often difficult enough that I just can’t get into them. My final bone to pick is with the painful jumping puzzles in a few stages, but that’s just more a complaint with my own clumsiness.

Capcom had an opportunity to mail this one in and still make a few bucks, but they delivered on every front. There are some minor issues as there are with any game, and Capcom obviously can’t please everyone, but the good far outweighs the bad in this game. Not only did they manage to completely revamp the game while keeping the original feel and spirit intact, but they put enough content into the game to make you keep coming back for more. [i]Mega Man[/i] and classic gaming enthusiasts should not pass this up, no matter how much they’ve played the original. Here’s hoping for a [i]Mega Man 2 Powered Up[/i]!

Silent Hill Experience

May 29, 2006

PSP / Reviews / by Mate Bors Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The [i]Silent Hill Experience[/i] is not a game, let’s start out with that. This UMD was released around the time of the movie for promotion, and to cash in on the collectors.

The UMD features two animated graphic novels set in the Silent Hill universe, one of them being exclusive for this UMD. While the idea was great, in reality it fails. Unless you are an extremely fast reader, you won’t be able to read all of the text in the text bubbles and such, making you miss key information, and just making the experience (pun intended) frustrating. The stories aren’t really Silent Hill-esque, but are still ok. However, the music that underlines it is excellent.

Speaking of the music, there are twenty selected tracks from all four games. I personally think this is the best part of the disc, and the reason I won’t sell it. The music has a great atmosphere and can really get you in the mood of playing some Silent Hill. There is also an interview with the composer

There is also some movie stuff, such as interviews and trailers. Good stuff, but these will probably be in the DVD version of the Silent Hill movie, so this set isn’t something worth buying the UMD for.

While SHE is pretty cheap, I can only recommend it to collectors and fans of the series. The only part that makes SHE stand out is the music, which are available to buy anyways. The digital comic idea failed due to it’s speed, and the movie things will probably be available later. Unless you are a die-hard Silent Hill nut, [i]Silent Hill Experience[/i] is strictly a rental.

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