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.

Hump Day Music: Big Blue

Sorry about the not posting this Hump Day Music yesterday.  Had a long day at work and I did not get around to write anything.  To get over the hump this week, I decided to highlight a track with a whole lot of energy.  This track comes from the high-speed, extremely energizing racing of the F-Zero series.  The original track was from F-Zero X, but it also can be found in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl.  I am speaking of Big Blue.

The original Big Blue has strong guitar riffs and makes for one of the most iconic tracks from the F-Zero series.  Like many video game tracks, Big Blue has been remixed and re-imagined a good number of times on sites such as OverClocked ReMix and Newgrounds in many different styles from caribbean island style to electronic sound.  I would like to share my favourite remix from artist ES5 Big Blue (Essi Hardcore Remix).  It is an electronic remix of the classic Big Blue track.  The crowd effect at the beginning of the song is really neat and even though it may be a little repetitive, the energy is high throughout the track.  It really gets the blood flowing and felling very energized after listening to it.  I hope you enjoy this track and I will be back much later tonight with the newest edition of On the Download.

Launch Station: Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning

In a genre dominated by the Elder Scrolls, it is hard for a developer to crack into fantasy RPG space.  With an all-star ensemble, EA Games is looking to tackle another gaming juggernaut with the release of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games' Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning.  In this day and age, publishers seem to be more accustom to trust a big franchise than a new IP, but EA has backed 38 Studios and Big Huge Games with a lot of money to make Reckoning worthy of taking on juggernaut known as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

With Ken Rolston, lead designer on Elder Scrolls III and IV, as executive designer, acclaimed fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore working on creating the world and lore of Amular, Todd McFarlane, acclaimed comic book artist, working on the art and former Rare composer Grant Kirkhope composing the soundtrack, Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning has a lot of excellent talent behind it.  The world of Amular revolves around pre-determined destinies known as fates.  From the day a person is born to the day they die, they are on a pre-determined path that cannot be changed.  When you start the game, you are tasked with creating your character.  Once you finish that task, you thrown right into the story.  Just resurrected by the Well of Souls, you are released from your pre-determined destiny due to the fact you have already died.  As no longer are bond by the chains of fate, you are given the chance to create your own destiny.  This clean slate plays right into the gameplay as you can customize your character, weapons and class any which way you want.  The combat is very customizable as well.  You can choose from many different play styles from picking off enemies one-by-one through stealth to charging head-first in with sword and shield. Reckoning's real-time combat system allows players fluidly chain together sword slashes with shots from a bow to firing off different spells and abilities.  After defeating numerous enemies, you will fill your Reckoning meter, which allows you to deal out huge amounts of damage to your foes including some spectacular finishing moves.  38 Studios and Big Huge Games looks to marry the brutal combat of God of War and the fantastical world of Elder Scrolls with Kingdoms of Amular.

For those looking for either another fantasy world to dive into after Skyrim or just a fresh new IP, should give Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning a look.  Personally I think Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning will be more of a cult hit in the gaming community.  The third-person action has impressed me as it allows me to get immersed in the game more than the first-person view of The Elder Scrolls series.  Keep your eyes on Reckoning, you just might be surprised in how good it turns out to be.

Launch Station: Resident Evil Revelations

2012 will be a big year for Capcom's big survival-horror franchise, Resident Evil.  While the big Japanese publisher is giving the cold shoulder to Mega Man fans, they are giving fans of Resident Evil everything they want with not one, not two, but three Resident Evil games in one year.  Operation Raccoon City releases next month and Resident Evil 6 releases all the way in November, while Resident Evil Revelations for the 3DS kicks off this big year for the franchise when it lands on store shelves tomorrow.

Resident Evil Revelations might not be a numbered entry in the series, but it's main focus is on the story of the series.  Revelations is set between Resident Evil 4 and 5.  You mainly play as Jill Valentine, one of the co-founders of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA for short), as you search for Chris Redfield, the protagonist of Resident Evil 1 and 5, aboard a derelict cruise ship known as the S.S. Queen Zenobia.  The S.S. Queen Zenobia serves as the main setting for Revelations, but at certain points in the game you will take control of many different characters from Chris Redfield himself to new characters such as Jill's partner Parker Luciana in locations like the city of Terragrigia or the Mediterranean coast.  These sections are more action-focused and serve as a break from the extremely tense survival horror-focused segments on the ship.  With Revelations, Capcom is looking to bring back the tense survival horror gameplay from the first three Resident Evil games.  The segments on the ship with Jill will focus on elements like low ammunition and a bigger emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving.  Revelations also includes a multiplayer mode called Raid Mode.  In Raid Mode, you and a friend battle waves of enemies in order to earn points that can be used to upgrade your character and weapons.  Revelations will be fully compatible with the 3DS Circle Pad Pro, which also releases tomorrow, allowing players to use a control scheme common with most shooters today with one circle pad to move and the other to aim.

From what I played of the demo and seen of the game online, Resident Evil Revelations is shaping up to be a big third-party release for the 3DS.  The mix of elements from old and new Resident Evil games and the episodic nature of the game will be great for playing on the go.  Also with Capcom dropping the price of the game 10 dollars to the normal price of new 3DS games (40 dollars plus tax), Resident Evil fans should not pass up Revelations.

Bit by Bit: January 29-February 4

Earlier this week, I was looking at the line-up of games releasing this February and my jaw dropped.  For the next month or so, there will be a good two to three big game releases each Tuesday.  Don't forget the PlayStation Vita officially launches on the 15th of this month along with a line-up of five games from Sony.  Man, February is becoming the new November for video game releases.  February will be one busy month especially for Silver Bit as there will be a good two Launch Stations for the next few weeks until things start to settle down.  Before we start looking too far ahead, let us take a look at the best of the week.

Game of the Week
While I continued to play a whole lot of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, one game beat it out as Game of the Week this time around.  Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective released for iOS this past Thursday and I immediately downloaded this gem from the mind of Shu Takumi, the creator of my favourite DS adventure series Ace Attorney.  When you download Ghost Trick to your iPhone, iPod or iPad, you get the first two chapters for free, but to unlock the rest of the game you have to pay 10 dollars.  Considering how rare the original DS game is and how great it translates to iOS, Ghost Trick is definitely worth it.  The first two chapters alone provide a lot of brain-teasing Rude Goldberg-like puzzles for you to solve and a very compelling story that will keep you wanting to play more.  As I am trying to conserve my money for the line-up of games I am getting in March and April (Mass Effect 3, Kid Icarus Uprising and Xenoblade: Chronicles), I am going to wait a little while until I unlock the rest of Ghost Trick for my iPad.  The time I had playing the first two chapters was just incredible that I slapped my wrist for not buying this game on the DS when I had the chance back in December.  If you have 10 dollars to spare, go pick up Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for your iDevice, you will be in for a treat.

Most Anticipated Game of the Week
Speaking of Ace Attorney, this past weekend Capcom Japan officially announced Ace Attorney 5.  While this announcement was only for Japan, North American Ace Attorney fan such as yours truly is hoping that Capcom will bring the newest game in this excellent adventure series to our shores and hopefully on the 3DS.  There are many questions still left for Capcom to answer, but we will not likely hear anything until E3 or the Tokyo Game Show.

Video of the Week
There were not a lot of trailers or videos that caught my eye this week until yesterday when I stumbled upon the newest video from the Game Overthinker.  The Game Overthinker looks at certain topics in video games and gives his own spin on things in a very intelligent over thought out way.  I don't usually watch his show, but sometimes there are topics that caught my ear and his latest episode revolved around one.  The topic being "Should game companies open there vaults?"  It is a great episode that all gamers should take time to watch as it will get you to think about how the video game industry should perserve their history.

Batman: Arkham City Review

Arkham City starts not in the tights of the Caped Crusader of Gotham City, but in the pristine suit of Bruce Wayne as he holds a press conference to announce his opposition of the Arkham City prison.  Immediately following Wayne’s announcement, TYGER mercenaries arrest Mr. Wayne.  Wayne wakes up chained up.  Bruce tips over the chair and tries to escape, but the guard hears him.  The guard goes to kick Wayne, but he counters thus breaking the guard’s leg.  Another guard hits Bruce with the butt of his gun and pushes him out into the processing center as other inmates ridicule him and Hugo Strange’s voice booms over the intercom.  As Bruce Wayne enters Arkham City, Penguin and his thugs jump the millionaire and knock him out.  You wake up kneeling in front of the Penguin.  The diminutive crook starts wailing on Wayne with brass knuckles.  A well-timed counter and Wayne breaks the Penguin’s hand.  With the Penguin hurt, his goons jump into take Wayne out, but to no avail as the millionaire playboy of Gotham City takes them down with ease.  This series of events just described is the opening minutes of Arkham City.  In this opening, Rocksteady introduces the player to the story, the main villain, the core mechanics and the atmosphere of this new Arkham prison in one neat package.  It makes for one of the best openings for any video game as Rocksteady puts you in the shoes of the vulnerable Bruce Wayne before letting the player loose as Mr. Wayne’s alter-ego, Batman.

Once you get a hold of Batman’s suit and gadgets, you are dropped right in the thick of Arkham City.  Given the reins to do what you want when you want in this expansive setting with lots to do.  This amount of freedom is extremely refreshing considering how linear Arkham Asylum was even with the openness of Arkham Island.  You are free to go complete story missions, find side quests, collect Riddler Trophies (which you need to collect all of them to complete one of the side quests) or just beat up some inmates.  You can easily lose hours upon hours just exploring this incredibly rich setting without even touching the main story.  Speaking of Arkham City’s story, it is better paced and put together than Arkham Asylum’s plot.  Rocksteady has seamlessly woven a large gallery of iconic Batman villains like the Joker, Mr. Freeze Two-Face and many more into a one epic plot worthy of the Caped Crusader.

Along with fixing the flaws with Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady also made some improvements with the combat and upgrade system and one big addition in a playable Catwomen. Rocksteady did an incredible job making the combat in Arkham City more satisfying than its predecessor.  It is much easier to chain together strikes, counters, special takedowns and gadgets into one crazy combo, which makes even fighting lowly inmates that much more rewarding.  The upgrade system has been totally revamped.  Instead of just being long line of upgrades, you can choose from upgrading Batman’s batsuit, combat or gadgets.  The upgrade system gives players a little more freedom to build the Batman they want.  The biggest addition in Arkham City is Catwomen.  At certain points in the main story, you will get to play as Selina Kyle.  These segments are pretty short, but act as refreshing breathers from the World’s Greatest Detective.  Catwomen is much more agile than her burly counterpart allowing her to traverse corners of Arkham City that Batman just cannot reach.  After beating the main story, players are able to switch between Batman and Catwomen at certain locations around Arkham City.

With an epic story, excellent gameplay and a fully faceted open world setting, Arkham City is the ultimate superhero and ultimate Batman game.  Any gamer no matter if they are hardcore fans of the Dark Knight or know nothing about the Caped Crusader will enjoy the amazing experience Arkham City offers.  It puts you in the shoes of a superhero like no other game has ever done before and few could possibly do after.  In Arkham City, you are Batman.  You are the Dark Knight.  You are the World’s Greatest Detective.  You are a superhero.

On the Download: January 29-February 4

Booting up the Nintendo eShop today expecting some exciting new demo or possibly a new 3DS Virtual Console, sadly nothing.  For those looking something to download to their 3DS this week, I will be talking about the big new release on the eShop later in this post.  I was a little upset especially with the fact there has not been a new 3DS Virtual Console game in over a month.  Nintendo and other developers have a plethora of great games from the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game BoyAdvance systems that they can re-release for the 3DS such as Castlevania Adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons and Mega Man Zero.  There are a good number of titles already on the 3DS Virtual Console, but for the huge library of games released on the Game Boy family of handhelds there should be a new 3DS Virtual Console game at least once or twice a month, even more.  Enough of my little rant, let us get down to business and take a look at some of the biggest downloadable games this week.

For those old enough to remember, there was a day and age when cartoon comedy shows such as Family Guy and South Park were actually good.  After what seems like endless seasons of brain-numbingly stupid jokes and absolute no plot, these shows are long over stayed their welcome.  Back twenty-some years ago, The Simpsons was the best show of them all and it got its own arcade beat-em up made by the great game developers at Konami.  Personally, I remember playing this arcade game at the hotel my family and I would go to each summer when I was younger and I had a ball dropping quarters into this fun beat-em up. Well this Friday on XBLA and next Monday on PSN, Konami will be re-releasing their classic licensed beat-em up with a few cool additions to the game.  These additions will be four player online co-op play, new modes and other bonuses such as the never-released Japanese version of the game, classic flyers and posters and a character guide.  For 10 dollars or 800 Microsoft Points, you could relive a classic beat-em up from the 90s with up to three friends.

For the last few years, Q Games have been making a bunch of unique games under the PixelJunk banner.  The PixelJunk series was exclusive to Sony consoles and handhelds as you could only find them for purchase on the PSN Store.  Now PixelJunk has come to the PC through Valve's Steam client with the release of PixelJunk Eden, the first game in the series.  The PC version of PixelJunk Eden has a number of new features the big feature is the newly re-imagined controls which are made especially for playing on the PC.  In each of the 15 levels, known as gardens, in Eden, you control the agile Grimp toward the Spectra that is hidden in the level.  Jump, swing, climb your way through vibrant plant-life solving puzzles, completing unique challenges and defeating enemies on your way to find Spectra.  Right now, PixelJunk Eden is on sale for 8 dollars or 12 dollars if you pick it up with the original techno soundtrack from indie artist Baiyon.  For those who have missed out on this series while on the PS3 and PSP, should check out this unique indie game that along with the the other installments in the PixelJunk series has received a vast amount of critical acclaim.

Speaking of former exclusive games jumping to other gaming platforms, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, which was originally exclusive for the Nintendo DS, was just released today on the App Store.  Ghost Trick follows the recently deceased Sissel as he tries to piece together the mystery surrounding his death.  As a ghost, Sissel can jump from inanimate object to inanimate object and perform tricks to solve puzzles and save others from meeting their demise.  If something goes wrong and a person you are trying to save dies, you can rewind four minutes before their death to get another chance at being the hero.  Currently, the first two chapters in Ghost Trick for the iOS are completely free, but to unlock the complete game you must shell 10 dollars.  It might seem steep for an iOS game, but considering finding the DS version is almost zero to none, there is no better deal for this great adventure-puzzler.

Other than disappointing me with the lack of support for the 3DS Virtual Console, Nintendo has been hitting it out of the park with these downloadable exclusives for the 3DS.  First Pushmo, now Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword.  In Sakura Samurai, you play as a young samurai tasked with restoring peace to Japan by rescuing Princess Cherry Blossom, the daughter of the gods.  To complete your task, this young samurai must battle devious foes and bosses across feudal Japan.  The meat of this downloadable game is in the combat as you seamlessly transition from enemy to enemy dodging, parrying or blocking attacks while making attacks of your own.  In between battles, you can traverse villages in order to talk to NPCs, stock up on rice cakes, upgrade your sword and save your progress.  To say the least, Nintendo's downloadable offerings should get people excited as it looks like the Big N means business in the downloadable space.  Just like Pushmo, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword is only 7 dollars.  If you pick it up now or a little later in the year, Sakura Samurai looks to be another great downloadable game for Nintendo's 3D handheld.