Rest in Peace, Satoru Iwata

Death in the video game industry is a subject only thought of in relation to the violent content of the medium and its possible influence on us as human beings.  Nobody thinks about it in relation to the men and women that give their lives to this industry through game development, corporate management or game journalism.  Being fans and followers of video games as a whole, we sometimes bestow these people with imaginary invincibility when in reality, they are merely mortal.  They live and, unfortunately, they die.

Late July 12th, news broke that Satoru Iwata, now former President of Nintendo, passed away July 11th at the age of 55 due to a bile duct growth.

When I opened up Facebook to find the news plastered in the centre of my News Feed, I couldn't believe it.  I went into denial as I scoured the Internet for more evidence than a couple Facebook posts.  Once I confirmed Mr. Iwata's death, the shock sunk in.  Nintendo and other news sources have reported on Iwata's multiple bouts with illness over the past two years, which caused him to miss the last two E3s.  None of the reports mentioned that it was this severe; making the news even more tragic.

Among all the grief and sadness, I feel the best way to honour Mr. Iwata's memory is to share what made him such a great leader and lovable personality not only at Nintendo, but in the industry as a whole.

While not as prolific as legendary Nintendo designers like Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma or Masahiro Sakurai, Satoru Iwata was responsible for the creation of Kirby and fostering classics, such as Earthbound and Super Smash Bros., during his tenure as a programmer and later President of HAL Laboratory.  Upon Hiroshi Yamauchi's retirement in 2002, Iwata was named the fourth President of Nintendo.  As president, he would go onto lead the company through the launches of the Gamecube, DS, Wii, 3DS and Wii U. 

In his early years as president, it was hard to get a read on Iwata's personality since gamers would only hear from him in the occasional interview or appearance at E3 or Tokyo Game Show.  As the years went on and technology evolved, Iwata stepped out as one of the corporate faces of Nintendo along with Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto.  The Iwata Asks and the Nintendo Direct gave Nintendo fans into a closer look at the president's quirky personality.  From intensely staring down a banana to his "Directly to you" slogan and hand gesture, Iwata was never afraid to put himself in wacky and possibly embarrassing situations in order to entertain.  His signature quirkiness is the main reason fans love him so much. 

On the corporate side, Iwata was a fighter and an incredible leader.  He managed Nintendo through some of its most difficult times as a company.  Facing immense pressure from stockholders, the media and the consumer, Iwata always stood his ground and kept Nintendo's future in mind before making drastic decisions.  Despite low sales for Nintendo during the Gamecube and horrible launch sales for the 3DS and Wii U, Iwata avoided making shortsighted immediate gains and developed long-term plans to ensure success for the future.  Under Iwata's direction, the DS and Wii both saw unbelievable success and the 3DS has consistently outperformed the other systems on the market over the past couple years.

Although death is horrible experience to all those involved, Satoru Iwata's love for the industry and quirky nature will live on through those he led at Nintendo, the many people fortunate enough to meet him in person over the years and the millions that eagerly watched every Nintendo Direct to see what crazy thing he would do next.  All I have to say to Mr. Iwata is thank you.  Thank you for making the company that I have loved since a child the best it could be for these past 12 years.  You will be deeply missed.

Launch Station: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

No matter what, Super Smash Bros. elicits a rabid response from gamers around the globe.  The years leading up to the newest iterations have been no different as gamers deeply analyze every piece of media Nintendo released to the public through character reveal trailers and Miiverse screenshots.  Instead of just one Smash Bros. release this time around, there will be two; one for the 3DS and Wii U respectively.  Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is leading the pack as it releases this Friday while the Wii U version will release by the end of the year.

Since Super Smash Bros. for 3DS will be the first Smash Bros. to release on a handheld, many gamers have had reservations over how the chaotic gameplay will translate to the small screen.  Nintendo's answer to these worries is by placing outlines around all characters in order to improve visibility especially when the camera zooms out.  Although both editions of the new Super Smash Bros. share the exact same roster, gameplay and multiplayer modes, there are a few areas where the 3DS version deviates from its Wii U brethren.  Mainly, all the stages, aside from stages like Final Destination, Battlefield and Brinstar, are exclusive to the 3DS version as they pull from handheld games such as Pokemon X & Y, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and Super Mario 3D Land.  Apart from the stages, the main exclusive for the 3DS version of Smash Bros. is the Smash Run mode.  Very similar to Kirby Air Ride's City Trial mode, Smash Run places players at random locations in this large open environment with the goal of collecting as many stat-boosting power-ups as possible in five minutes.  After the five minutes are up, these super-charged combatants are put in a randomized match to determine who made the best of their run.  Along with the Wii U version, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS also allows players to create their own Mii Fighters, customize move sets for preexisting characters and use Amiibo to train computer-controlled characters.  One heavily rumoured feature, which cannot be confirmed until the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, is the ability to use the 3DS as a controller for the Wii U version of the game.

No matter the size of the screen, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS looks to be a worthy of the Smash Bros. name.  From my time with the demo, I found the controls to take quite a while to get use to and the visibility of the characters to be difficult to follow in four-man brawls.  Despite my reservations with a few mechanics, the demo is loads of fun and I highly recommend giving it a swing before picking up the full game.  Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is one of the most highly anticipated games for a reason.  It's just about time to settle all your differences and conflicts in Smash!

E3 2014: Nintendo Digital Event Impressions

Aside from Sony's offerings this year, E3 2014 can be summed up in one word-- safe.  For the second year in a row, Nintendo looks to usurp convention with their Nintendo Digital Event.  Details surrounding this event have been clouded in mystery since the Big N announced it.  A lot of people especially Nintendo fans were hoping to see Nintendo move out of the financial woes of the Wii U with this event.  Did Nintendo's Digital Event deliver?

As a whole, the Nintendo Digital Event delivered as a perfectly paced entertaining forty-five minute show.  It provided a great amount of new information on Nintendo properties people were most concerned about and wove it into a fun captivating presentation including smooth transitions, funny Robot Chicken skits and a steady pace.  With all that said, the presentation felt pretty safe and underwhelming in this writer's humble opinion.  Not to mean Nintendo's performance was bad, in fact it was better than last year's showing, however nothing truly surprised or caught this writer off-guard.  Also this writer would of ended the event with The Legend of Zelda reveal instead of the Palutena character reveal for Super Smash Bros.  Speaking of The Legend of Zelda reveal, the new game looks incredible with a cel-shaded anime art style and the futuristic technology mixed with medieval fantasy.  A more substantial Zelda trailer or gameplay would have been nice yet what we got was great nonetheless.

Super Smash Bros. saw Palutena and Mii Fighters revealed as new additions to the character roster.  Masahiro Sakurai took a bit of time to focus on the Mii Fighters as they look to be Smash's answer to create-a-fighters in other fighting games as you get to choose the Mii's style (brawler, sword-fighter and gunner), special moves and most likely appearance.  That news was coupled with an excellent one-on-one fight between Reggie and Iwata and the introduction of amiibos.  Despite the weird name, amiibos are Nintendo's answer to the collectable toy genre popularized by Disney Infinity and Skylanders and they allow you to store, transfer and unlock different data across multiple Nintendo games.  Currently confirmed to work with Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party 10 among others, the amiibos showed off at the event looked really well crafted.  There were a lot more games covered in this event including Mario Maker, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker,  Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2 with the first Bayonetta included on disc, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Yoshi's Woolly World.  Sadly, most of them are coming out in 2015.  Not much incentive to buy a Wii U this coming Fall, which is a mistake on Nintendo's part, but in 2015 the Wii U will be releasing games at a considerable pace.

Before the Palutena reveal, Nintendo ended off with a brand new property for Wii U called Splatoon.  Splatoon is a third-person shooter where you play as a squid-human hybrid and the goal of each match is to cover the arena with the most ink.  Ink plays a greater role than being your ammo as you can use it travel far distances quickly in squid form and slow down opposing players that get caught in it.  While Splatoon looks more like a downloadable game rather than a system seller, it was nice to see Nintendo introduce a brand new property for the first time in what seems like years.  Splatoon is hopefully a sign of more good things to come from Nintendo.

Although this writer did find Nintendo's Digital Event thoroughly entertaining, it was not the home run the company needed.  Nintendo did a great job in developing a definitive lineup for the rest of 2014 with set release dates for all their titles except Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, giving fans confidence in the games further down the pipeline and wrapping it all in an entertaining package.  Despite all that great stuff, this writer wanted Nintendo to make a much bigger statement this year and they fell short.  The Wii U will definitely gain some much needed ground in 2014, just not enough to compete on the same level as Sony and Microsoft.

Grade:  B+

Bit by Bit: May 2014

May has been one interesting month.  As we inch ever so closer to the biggest video game trade show of the year, the focus of game developers, publishers and journalists has slowly shifted to E3 2014.  Every piece of information released or news story ran relates back to E3.  Considering all the questions leading into the event, E3 2014 should be either an exciting onslaught of brand new games or a disappointing slog of new information for already announced games.  Personally, I am hoping for the former because I want to see the games that will truly get people excited about spending over 500 dollars on the current generation of gaming.  As of right now, all this generation has given us is shinier graphics and a massive drought of games.  We will see what the future of gaming is next month, but before that let us take a look at the month that was May 2014.

Game of the Month
Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf: World Tour both came out on the same Friday at the very beginning of May and these are the two games that captured most of my time this past month.  Out of these two game, there can only be one Game of the Month.  The game that earns that title is Mario Golf: World Tour.  It has been a long time since Mario Golf graced a Nintendo system and World Tour is a return to what gamers loved about Camelot's golf game now turned up to eleven.  Early on your time will be mostly dedicated to the single-player Castle Club as you play in tournaments to improve your Mii's handicap, earn new attire and equipment and prepare yourself for online.  After some time in Castle Club, you will be ready to hit the online links where the meat and potatoes of World Tour is.  The online in World Tour is great as you play rounds against players around the world or in your region at your own pace.  Once you complete a round, you can post your score to the tournament or play again and see if you can do better.  The online is incredibly smooth and hardly caused a problem for yours truly.  Scouring new tournaments each and every week easily will become routine for Mario Golf enthusiasts.  Mario Golf: World Tour would not be some fun to play if the core mechanics of golf were not so well made and finely tuned.  If there is one game to pick up this month, it is Mario Golf: World Tour.  It has given me hours of enjoyment and will give plenty more thanks to online.  Guess I will be seeing you on the golf course.

TV Show of the Month
I wanted to change some things up this month.  Considering my most anticipated game of the month comes out at the very end of May and I have a whole article already drafted up and ready to be published this coming Friday, there really is no need to regurgitate what I will wrote here in Bit by Bit.  So the TV Show of the Month is back for another go especially since May marks the month when most TV shows air their season finales.  It seems like every week this past month there has been a major finale of some sort be it Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Survivor.  Each person has their show they watch every week.  As of late, that show has been Person of Interest for yours truly.

I knew of the show, but never watched it until I caught my dad watching the show this past Fall.  Person of Interest has gripped me in a way that I have not experienced since Lost came to an end four years ago.  Currently, I have watched all of seasons one and two and a part of season three and can say the show has gotten better with every season.  Person of Interest is a show about the vigilante partnership between a computer genius Harold Finch and a burned CIA agent John Reese.  Finch and Reese receive numbers from an America-wide security system simply known as The Machine.  The number they receive indicates either a perpetrator or victim for a possible crime.  During the course of the episode, Finch and Reese have to determine whether their person of interest needs to be saved or stopped.  Interesting concept for a show that was initially a procedural.  Over these three seasons, Person of Interest has become much more serialized with overarching stories and reoccurring threats such as the corrupt police association HR and the rogue security corporation Decima.  In particular, Person of Interest perfectly walks the fine line between procedural and serial that makes it like nothing else on television today.  The season three finale happened just about two weeks ago now and I cannot get over how amazing it was.  The finale completely changed the course of the entire series going forward that I will not do a disservice in spoiling it here.  The finale has to be seen to be believed, it is that good.  With this finale, Person of Interest has sealed its place as must-watch television.  I highly recommend checking Person of Interest out as it is the best show I have seen since Chuck ended in 2012.

Video of the Month
What do you get when you mix the superb music from the Ace Attorney series with popular musician Brentalfloss?  Well, you get the newest "With Lyrics" video-- Phoenix Wright with Lyrics.  Taking the song Cornered from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and adding lyrics that parody the tropes of this series such as the well-endowed women characters and extreme juxtaposition between charming wackiness and brutal violence.  It is a fun song that fans of the series will thoroughly enjoy.

Launch Station: 3DS Double Feature

It has been a long time since Launch Station has graced the pages of Silver Bit.  Formerly part of regular scheduled programming, Launch Station is Silver Bit's preview article where yours truly conveniently summarizes all the information on a selected new release or possibly multiple releases for your reading pleasure.  Speaking of multiple releases, Nintendo is looking to jumpstart the summer months with a slew of new games for the 3DS this Friday.  The games in question are Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf: World Tour.  For 3DS owners looking for games to play after getting their fill from Bravely Default, Yoshi's New Island or Disney Magical World, there will definitely be something for them this Friday as these two games fall under two opposite ends of the gaming spectrum.  They will easily be great appetizers for the main course that comes later this month in Mario Kart 8.

Due to the series more casual audience, Kirby has always been a character that Nintendo can test out new ideas and concepts.  For a character all about transformations, Nintendo's pink puffball embraces new directions and experiments as Kirby has been turned into various types of balls from a pinball to a golf ball and even being made entirely out of yarn for the sake of new ideas and concepts.  Aside from new transformations and more powerful inhaling abilities, Kirby's platformers have stuck to the same formula since the original Dream Land series on Game Boy.  Kirby: Triple Deluxe looks to add a few new ideas to the Kirby platforming formula in order to take advantage of the 3DS's power and stereoscopic 3D.  Levels involve more than just movement from left to right.  Thanks to the Warp Star, Kirby can move between multiple layers of the level in a way much similar to moving between the foreground and background in Mutant Mudds.  With the multiple layers, Kirby now needs to worry about threats from the standard Waddle Dees to massive life-ending mallets that move between the layers to attack.  More so than past entires, Kirby's inhale move has been super powered with the help of the Miracle Fruit's Hypernova Kirby transformation.  As Hypernova Kirby, the pink puffball can inhale extreme amounts of items, enemies and large obstacles in order to solve puzzles.  Along with the new transformation, Kirby's copy abilities have seen a drastic overhaul as the developers have worked tirelessly on creating unique move sets for every single ability in the game.  As a bonus to the main game, Triple Deluxe includes two extra subgames in Kirby Fighters, a fighting game similar in gameplay to Super Smash Bros. where you pit Kirby's different copy abilities against one another to see which one is the best, and Dedede's Drum Dash, a rhythm game that has you controlling King Dedede as he bounces on large drums to the tune of classic Kirby songs.

It has been just under a decade since Mario and friends last hit the links.  Considering Nintendo's focus on motion controls during the later half of the 2000s, it is very surprising that Nintendo did not bring Mario out with new entries in his two most iconic sports roles, golf and tennis, to champion a new motion-controlled generation of gaming.  Well the wait for a brand new Mario Golf game is almost over.  With the portability of the 3DS, Mario Golf: World Tour's main focus is on multiplayer.  There is a large suite of multiplayer options for players to choose from with the first choice being whether to play locally or online.  Local play allows for quick and easy competition amongst friends and colleagues in the same vicinity.  Online play allows for a few more options as players can compete in regional or worldwide tournaments to see where they rank in Mario Golf.  Since you only have to post your scores for online tournaments, there is no need to have players log on at the exact same time.  You can post a score anytime during the tournaments scheduled start and end date.  Players can even set-up their own online tournaments and communities to compete with their friends and rivals in a more personal online setting.  While it may be the main focus of World Tour, multiplayer is not the only way to play this Mario Golf.  Castle Club is World Tour's single-player mode which allows players to learn the basics of the game through lessons from Toad, compete in club tournaments to increase stats and earn new gear for your golfer and explore the club grounds in order to meet familiar Mario characters and find special challenges.  The fun does not stop there as Mario Golf: World Tour offers players with a lot more downloadable content to buy.  You can either pick up the Season Pass for 15 dollars which includes all three packs for download upon release or buy the packs individually for 6 dollars each.

No matter what game you choose to pick up this Friday, there is no way you will end up disappointed.  Nintendo has put out two great 3DS titles to eat up gamer's time until the next large 3DS release or Mario Kart 8 later this month for Wii U owners.  Personally, I am picking up both titles for different reasons.  While I am not the Kirby fan in my family as that title belongs to my youngest brother, I have heard nothing but good things about Kirby: Triple Deluxe.  Even though Kirby's notorious easy difficulty, I am looking forward to playing Triple Deluxe.  On the other hand, I am a huge fan for Mario Golf.  Considering my father is a golf professional and I have been around the sport all my life, blending Mario with such a key part of my identity has always made me identify with the series more than your typical simulation golf game.  With the incredible online additions to Mario Golf, I am excited to play the online tournaments and compete on world Mario Golf stage to see where my skills stand.  With two great titles released on the same day, there is nothing that will not keep a Nintendo system owners smiling this Friday.

Nintendo Direct 6.21.12 Impressions

Nintendo Direct is a mini-conference where Nintendo announces new and exclusive Nintendo announcements and showcases their upcoming games.  Nintendo Direct serves as a way for Nintendo to keep Nintendo fans up-to-date on the newest happenings in the Big N directly from them instead of through video game websites or magazines.  It is a very cool idea and personally these videos have always been fun to watch.  Last night, Nintendo hosted another Nintendo Direct that focused mainly on Nintendo 3DS, but had a little section to showcase a game or two for the Wii.

First and foremost, I really did enjoy this Nintendo Direct as it did wrapped all the information about 3DS and Wii into one concise 20 minute video that flowed perfectly.  My one big grip is that a lot of the big announcements that Nintendo shared with us should have been at E3, not this 20 minute mini-conference.  The major announcements of the Nintendo 3DS XL and Namco Bandai helping develop the new Smash Bros. games along with the reveals of Fire Emblem and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask should have been showed E3 because it would have definitely improved Nintendo's okay showing at the event and it would gotten out to more people than just this little mini-conference that usually is only viewed by Nintendo fans and video game journalists.  While I can criticize Nintendo's decision to omit a lot of this huge announcements, the Nintendo Direct did what it was suppose to do.  It got Nintendo fans excited for the next wave of 3DS games and the Kirby Dream Collection for Wii.  I would have liked if Nintendo gave a concrete release date for The Last Story, but that is just minor.  We got a price and date for the 3DS XL, a rundown of all the third-party 3DS games, looks at New Super Mario Bros. 2, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Kirby's Dream Collection, Fire Emblem, Pokemon Dream Radar, Pokedex 3D Pro and Pokemon Black 2 and White 2.  One of the other big announcements for me at least was the 8-Bit Summer initiative for the Nintendo eShop.  If any of you have read some of my On the Download posts, I have been crying to the heavens about the lack of Virtual Console games on the eShop.  It seems somebody at Nintendo of America has heard my prayers.  There will be two Virtual Console games released each week in July starting July 5th including Kid Icarus: Of Myths & Monsters, which should of come out alongside Kid Icarus: Uprising in my opinion.

All-in-all, this Nintendo Direct mini-conference was very good.  It was packed to the brim with great content and announcements.  While some of this stuff should have been at E3, I cannot fault this mini-conference for Nintendo's obvious gaff.  If you want to check it out, I have provided the video for you to watch below.  Enjoy and have a nice day.

On the Download: May 13-19

Nintendo and Sega round out our big downloadable games for this week.  Funny how things have changed so much since these two companies were at each others' necks during the 16 bit console era.  For 3DS owners, Nintendo has put up their first retail game patch up on the eShop.  The patch is for Mario Kart 7.  You will need to download this patch in order to play Mario Kart 7 online as it fixes the exploits found in a few of the tracks to keep the game balanced and fair.  3DS owners can check out the Rayman Origins demo on the eShop as well.

It has taken a good number of weeks to finally get a new game for the 3DS Virtual Console.  While not Kid Icarus: Of Myth and Monsters, which should have been released on the eShop already, the game released this week is Kirby's Block Ball.  Kirby's Block Ball is a Breakout-style game that sees Kirby roll up into a ball to destroy blocks and enemies that litter the playing field.  Your objective is to keep Kirby in play by bouncing him off the paddles on all four sides of the screen.  Destroying enemies will give you bonus points.  There are also special items that will help in destroying all the blocks in each level.  Once all the blocks in the level are destroyed, Kirby opens up the next level.  In order to open up the final level of the game, you must beat the high score in each level.  Kirby's Block Ball has a couple different modes like boss battle mode and bonus mode.  Kirby enthusiasts or gamers looking for a good 3DS Virtual Console game will most likely pick up Kirby's Block Ball for its incredibly inexpensive price of 3 dollars.

It has been a long time coming, but the second and final episode of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is here.  Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II sees the return of Sonic's lovable sidekick Tails and the villainous Metal Sonic as Sonic's adventure takes him to Little Planet, where Sonic CD took place.  Metal Sonic has joined forces with the nefarious Dr. Eggman.  The two evil entities plan to reconstruct the Death Egg, which Sonic and Tails must stop at all costs.  For Episode II, Tails accompanies Sonic in his adventure.  Tails can either be controlled by the computer or a second player through Sonic 4 Episode II's local and online coop play.  There are numerous combination moves that Sonic and Tails can do throughout Sonic 4 Episode II such as Tails lifting Sonic to normally unreachable areas and preforming a huge spin attack together.  For those who did not enjoy Episode I's wonky physics, Sega have created a whole new engine with reworked physics that feel exactly like the Genesis games and stunning HD graphics.  Sonic 4 Episode II features four new zones, special stages based off of those found in Sonic 2, red rings which are hidden in each act and exclusive bonus Episode Metal, which explains what happened to Metal Sonic since we last saw him in Sonic CD, for those who own Episode I on the same platform.  Even though I am a huge Sonic fan, I am not going to be picking up Sonic 4 Episode II until it is announced for Wii U as I bought the first episode for my Wii and want to keep it on the same system to possibly get Episode Metal.  For anybody else, Sonic 4 Episode II is available for PSN, XBLA, iOS, PC and soon Android and Windows Phone 7 with varying prices from 8 dollars on the portable devices and 15 dollars on consoles.

On the Download: February 5-11

While last week was pretty big for noteworthy games for download.  This week there are not as many games that I will highlight, but there was a lot of big downloadable news.  First, this week the Japanese Nintendo eShop saw the release of three new 3DS Virtual Console games (two more than the North American eShop got this week).  Japanese 3DS owners saw Kid Icarus: Myths & Monsters, Kirby Dream Land 2 and Wario Land grace their eShop.  Considering how the Japanese eShop gets games a few weeks ahead of the North American eShop, hopefully these great games are coming in the next month or so.  The other piece of news comes from my favourite franchise from this generation of consoles, Mass Effect.  In the next month, BioWare will be releasing two Mass Effect apps for the iOS.  Infiltrator is a third-person shooter where you infiltrate Cerberus bases to collect evidence of crimes Cerberus committed and freeing prisoners.  Datapad is a companion app to Mass Effect 3, which will allows players to check the galaxy map, receive messages from characters, play mini-games and search a codex filled with information on the Mass Effect universe.  Both of these apps will play into the Galaxy at War meta-game that will affect a player's galactic readiness rating, which will effect the ending of Mass Effect 3.  Enough with the news for this week, let us get down to the meat and potatoes of On the Download.  Let us take a look at the biggest downloadable games for this week.

Originally set to release early last month, Gotham City Impostors has landed on XBLA, PSN and PC.  Gotham City Impostors is a first-person shooter based off a story in the Batman comics where one group of vigilantes dressed as Batman battle another group of criminals dressed like the Joker with guns and other violent weapons across  Gotham City.   You play as either the Batmen or the Jokers in multiplayer-only team death match.  Gotham City Impostors gives players a plethora of customization options from weapons and gadgets to appearance and play style.  There are no set classes to be slotted into, you are given everything you need to play Gotham City Impostors exactly the way you want.  Much like other FPS games, Gotham City Impostors is overflowing with upgrades and unlocks for players to collect as the level up in the game.  Gotham City Impostors might seem like an extremely unorthodox Batman game, but if you are looking for another Batman game to fill the void after finishing Arkham Asylum and Arkham City at 15 dollars or 1200 Microsoft Points Gotham City Impostors is a very affordable Batman fix.

Hyper-stylized art and gory action of Klei Entertainment's 2010 downloadable action game, Shank is back in the sequel.  You play ex-mob hitman Shank on another adventure killing enemies left, right and centre on the way to reach your goal whatever it may be.  As you can probably deduce from the last sentence, Shank 2 is not about the story.  Shank 2 is about improving the main problem with the original game, the game's controls.  Klei made the controls much tighter and to better complement Shank 2's visceral combat system, which allows players to switch between guns, melee weapons and chainsaws on the fly in order to put together some crazy combos.  Apart from the regular single-player, Shank 2 also offers a survival mode, which can be played co-operatively either locally or online.  For those old enough to download it, Shank 2 for XBLA, PSN and PC should provide some mature fun for 10 dollars or 800 Microsoft Points.