Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast

If you are a follower of the Dragon Ball Z animated series then perhaps some of this makes sense to you, but considering that this supposed to be a beat em up, it really doesn’t make things easy for you. Firstly, this is unlike any fighting series in existence, and while previous entries have put in a good show up until now, particularly on the PSP it’s failed to change and has managed to develop a host of problems. Fighting in Raging Blast is a lesson in frustration.

From the lightweight tactics to the truly awful camera, it’s a game that makes very few concessions for its players. On the plus side, it nails the look of the TV series and the cel shaded visuals look impressive, especially when you manage to pull off a special move send your opponent through some of the destructive scenery. The arenas offer up plenty of room for the fast paced combat, but raging Blast has a learning curve so steep that it’s enough to put off any fighting fan. Combat quickly descends into nothing more than a flurry of quick attacks, and the subtlely of something like a Street Fighter or Soul Calibur is totally lost.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Neither of the Lego Star Wars games deserved to sell as many copies as they have done, but we have cheerful at the thought of a half decent Star Wars series receiving such excessive success. Well, we are not that cynical about it, really: we get to play as Chewbacca, only made out of Lego bricks. What isn’t amazing about that? This is Star Wars, and no matter how basic or short the first two games seemed, they were a bloody good laugh. In gaming, there’s rarely of substitute for such a frivolous state of mind, but the asking price could end up being rather too high for two rather short easy games.

For fans that were still gnawing hungrily after the second game concluded, there are a number of notable things that you will want to come back for on the PS3. Ever wanted to play the Zam Wesell chase at the beginning of Episode II? Well, you will get your wish in this compilation, even though it was a bit rude to omit it in the first place. An online co-op mode adds more worth to the package as well, along with ten extra Bounty Hunter levels and redesigns on some of the weaker vehicle (the dreadful Mos Espa Podrace included).

Fairytale Fights

Fairytales are just a little bit twisted. Whether we are talking about Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood, they are essentially high concept morality tales that inevitably end with someone either getting screwed over, killed or, despite some pretty nasty turn of events, living happily ever after. Fairytale Fights sends up these bizarre fictional scenarios with a premise as off center as the source material, situating the players in levels where denizens of these fictional universes get sliced up for the hell of it.

To exemplify the kind of context that Fairytale Fights takes place in, the game’s hub world, a seemingly nice, innocent place, has a man cutting up rabbits with no explanation. The game’s similarly horror skewed levels are themed around classic fairytales. Take the Hanzel and Gretel level, for example: as it progresses, players will notice fat children eating the surroundings. They can be decapitated with giant sharpened lollipops, which make us smile.

The gameplay is a slide scrolling platform based affair; think somewhere between Lego Star Wars and Castle Crashers, but with an emphasis on violence- but naturally, violence fulfils a major purpose, too. There’s a dynamic slicing attack where the analogue stick can be wiggled around to slash through enemies, causing them to fall apart.

Dead TO Rights: Retribution

The first three Dead To Rights titles were forgettable at best, so we weren’t exactly looking forward to the latest in the series, Retribution. It comes as a great relief, then, that on playing the game- which is a reboot, for want of a better description, we can see it has something going for it. It isn’t a world beater, but it could easily occupy the same territory as games like 50 cent: Blood On The Sand. A laugh. A muck about. A game. We went from not really caring to actually looking forward to this one, if only a bit, in a very short space of time.

Players control ‘cop on the edge’ Jack Slate as he travels through Grant City with his trusty K-9 hound Shadow and his pocket full of bullet-time, trying to unravel a web of corruption, deceit and other such naughtiness you’d expect from an action game/movie. While the game goes out of its way to show you it has noir influences on top of the standard bombastic action, it’s all still pretty much ignorable. The meat of the game comes through the combat, which is frantic, simple to control and over the top enough to be great fun.

Tony Hawk Ride

EA’s critically lauded, intuitive yet hardcore, Skate hasn’t yet published the faltering tony Hawk series back to drawing board, but into the Uncanny Valley, or rather, its plastic peripheral equivalent. This board controller feels like a skateboard, with impressively accurate responses, but for anyone with a modicum of skateboard experience, the controls are so almost, but not quite, similar to real life, that you brain initially knee-jerks into disgusted, self preserving rejection.

Want to Ollie? Lean back reasonably sharply n the tail i.e. a bit like real life, except without actual jumping, or physics, balancing forward motion. Kickfilps? Do an Ollie and (standing regular) nudge your front foot to the left? Again, notionally like real life, but contrary to everything your body wants to do to achieve the real-life motion. Grabs? Move your hand near the area you want, but don’t actually grab, it. The quasi-reality is dislocating and demands practice.

Hawk’s free roaming levels have been (largely) replaced by narrow corridors, played in timed bursts some focus on speed, others on tricks. The linear helps you nail the core controls, but we’re more intrigued by the more open and expressive free skate arenas. Visually, it’s bright, slightly childish and basic, like a posh TH: Downhill Jam on Wii.

NBA 2k10

What with EA upping their games with Live 10, the contest for king of the Hoops is much closer this year. For us, 2K10 just edges it, despite feeling a little rough and ready next to its rival. Why? It’s down to feel, this game is just better to play.

On court, the controls are less fiddly, and the animations seem to get together better than those in Live 10, giving a more responsive feel. Shooting seems natural, and regardless of whether you think the opposition should really be draining baskets with two of your men draped all over them, every time you shoot, the result is realistic. You can’t expect a little more man like Rondo to a sink a shot from outside the D with pretty much anyone man making him. Kevin Garnett, on the other hand….

Where 2k10 lets itself down, however, is in the Al decision making. It just isn’t that smart. We saw man desperately reaching for interceptions with two seconds left on the shot clock, leaving their man wide open for easy shots. We also watched as the opposition casually threw the ball in bounds and handed us a back court violation. Shouldn’t these issues have been sorted by now?