There was a time when Dune could've been a behemoth of a franchise. Alejandro Jodorowsky's early treatment from the 70s became a legend in its own right and even inspired the likes of Star Wars and Alien. After David Lynch's underwhelming adaptation, the SyFy channel brought it to the small screen in the early 2000s with a small budget to match. So far, it's the best there is (that is until Denis Villeneuve gives us his inevitably awesome take) but I cannot forgive it for siring Frank Herbert's Dune, Cryo's broken attempt at a video game on PC and PlayStation 2.
June's selection of games takes you on a trip around the world and beyond. First up is the space-themed pinball game 3D Ultra Pinball: Space Colony followed by a global racing tour in Magnetic Field's Network Q threequel International Rally Championship. Then, get into all sorts of hijinks while in Japan in Big Red Adventure's comedic predecessor Nippon Safes, Inc before travelling to a moon colony in order to protect its independence in the FPS sequel Rebel Moon Rising. Lastly, explore the trap-filled dungeons in the Tower of Souls, a rather unique dungeon crawling RPG.
If there's one overlooked sci-fi shooter of the 90s, it's Outwars, SingleTrac's balls-to-the-wall action game from 1998. Published by none other than MicroSoft, it bears comparisons to a certain space-bug movie of the time. Want to know more?
Out of all the concepts for an action flight-simulator, that of a flying insect it perhaps the most inspired. Released in 1996 by Grolier Interactive, Banzai Bug took the gameplay from the likes of X-Wing or Wing Commander and plonked it into the miniature, colourful surroundings of a bug's adventurous life.
For the month of May, gun down some terrorists in the PC-only light-gun shooter A.D. Cop. Take turns to solve the murder in Foul Play: Mystery at Awkward Manor based on Clue/Cluedo. Drive fast down dirt tracks and country roads in Network Q RAC Rally Championship. Destroy everything that moves in the little-known sci-fi first-person-shooter Rebel Moon. Finally, take your wrestling skills around the EU in WWF European Rampage Tour. Read on for more...
Capping off a month of Star Trekking, here's a quintet of mini-reviews set in the universe. First up is Star Trek: First Contact, an interactive fiction featuring the original crew. Next is Star Trek: Pinball, where you can fight for the high score in three unique tables. You can find out everything you need to know about the Enterprise, including an interactive guided tour in Star Trek: The Next Generation - Interactive Technical Manual. There's a more visual take on interactive fiction in Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Transinium Challenge. To cap it all of, you can follow the plot of the fifth movie in the multi-genred Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Three years after Captain Kirk passed the torch over to Jean Luc Picard in the seventh Star Trek motion picture, MicroProse finally gave us the movie tie in. Released in 1997, Star Trek: Generations adds a heavy dose of adventuring to the first-person-shooter but is it any better for it?
Compared to other long-running franchises, Star Trek has had a pretty good run of games. In 1998, MicroProse had you play as one of the series' most famous villains - The Klingons - in Star Trek: Klingon Honor Guard.
In the latest quintet of monthly mini-reviews, a slew of hidden gems have made their way out of the Chamber. As a propeller-wearing slob of a man, platform your way across the US in Arcade America. Survive the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic future in Bad Blood, an action RPG from the folks behind Ultima. Grab your hoverboard and save the world from invading teddybears in the platformer Cyril Cyberpunk. Race across a multitude of nations in Network Q RAC Rally. Finally, prove your wrestling worth in WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game for a multitude of systems.
John Carpenter's The Thing is a milestone in sci-fi cinema so it's surprising that it took 20 years until we saw a videogame based on it. Released in 2002, Computer Artworks underrated gem proved that it was worth the wait. So much so that John Carpenter himself officially endorsed it as the canonical sequel.
Keep your ball inflated so you can keep on bouncing in the isometric puzzle platformer known as Airball. Destroy a bunch of mutated insects in the first-person shooter Blam! Machinehead. Spray an army of clones with bullets in the Iron Maiden themed arcade shooter Ed Hunter. Uncover an intergalactic drug ring in the classic adventure Omnicron Conspiracy. Pile drive a bunch of muscled men in spandex in WWF: Wrestlemania. All are experiences you can now have this February thanks to the Collection Chamber.
In the first of my batch of monthly mini-reviews, we have a variety of gamestyles to keep you busy. There's the action-strategy of Airborne Ranger, some Norse god role playing in Dusk of the Gods, some mini-game shenanigans in Jumanji: A Jungle Adventure Game Pack, some explosive combat racing in L.A. Blaster and to top it off, why not beat some wrestlers up in WWF: In Your House.
With Bohemian Rhapsody winning all kinds of awards, the awesome musical stylings of Queen are again on everyone's minds - if they ever left. But on the outskirts of their rock anthems and operatic concept albums sits a band with a keen interest in science-fiction. We all know Flash Gordon, and some may have seen the Orwellian We Will Rock You on the stage, but most fascinating is Queen: The eYe (yes, that's how it's spelt), a little-known action-adventure published by Electronic Arts in limited numbers back in 1998.
It's been quite an eventful year for everyone's friendly neighbourhood arachnid. First was a tearful (temporary) farewell to Tom Holland's Peter Parker in the excellent Avenger's: Infinity War. Then came the highly addictive Spider-Man game on the PlayStation 4 - one of the best games of the year. But before the biggest cinematic surprise of Spidey's cinematic outing (Into the Spider-verse) the world grieved at the deaths of his co-creators - the ever-personable Stan Lee and Steve Ditko earlier in the year. In honour of all that has come to pass, let's have an almost complete look at Spider-Man's amazing gaming past.
Black Rock Shooter: The Game is an action role-playing game developed by Imageepoch for the PlayStation Portable. It is based on the Black Rock Shooter franchise created by Huke. The game was released in Japan. NIS America published the game digitally on the PlayStation Store in North America (United States only) and Europe .
Black Rock Shooter: The Game is an action RPG in which players take on the role of the eponymous Black Rock Shooter (BRS for short). The game is divided up into several missions in which the player must clear objectives to progress.
On the main overworld, BRS can explore the available areas and look for certain items. Battle begins when the player comes into contact with an enemy on the overworld.
During battle, BRS can aim and shoot with her rock cannon at enemies, block against attacks and sidestep to avoid them completely. If the player fires the rock cannon or uses the sidestep too much in a short time, the system will overheat, leaving the player vulnerable to attack until it cools down.
Throughout the game, players can earn abilities that can be equipped to BRS and used in battle, each with their own cooldown periods. These include offensive attacks such as a powerful blast, a sniper rifle, or support abilities that can increase BRS' stats such as her attack or defense. Certain sections will also see BRS ride a motorcycle, in which she can attack enemies on either side of her or use weapons to fire in front of enemies.
Midnight Club 3: DUB edition is a racing game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third installment in the Midnight Club series. Like previous installments in the series, the game is an arcade-style racer and focuses on wild, high-speed racing, rather than realistic physics and driving. The name is derived from a partnership between Rockstar and DUB Magazine, which features heavily in the game in the form of DUB-sponsored races and DUB-customized vehicles as prizes.
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is an open world racing video game and the first game in the series to include car modification, both visual and performance. By winning races, the player unlocks new cars and options to customize them with. These options include enhancing the performance, adding vinyls and new paint jobs, and physically modifying the car by changing parts such as wheels, bumpers, spoilers, neon, hoods, and engine components. The cars are divided into four classes: D, C, B and A, depending on their performance.
There are five types of races in the game: ordered races, circuit races, unordered races, autocross races, track and frenzy events. In ordered races the player races through the city on a course marked by yellow-orange flares to reach a finish line. In circuit races the player races along a circuit course through the city for a set number of laps. In unordered races the player is free to go through scattered checkpoints in any order before crossing the finish line. Autocross races take place in a walled-in circuit of the street with no traffic or police, the goal being to finish the circuit faster than a set time. Track events, available in arcade mode, are similar to autocross races, except that the player competes against other races inside the barricaded track, often taking more damage. Frenzy events also available in arcade mode, are time trial races where the player gets every 15 second a nitrous boost, also the handbrake won't work and the race only ends when the time is over.
Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion is an updated version of Tekken 6. The game was released on Arcades for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and for PlayStation Portable (PSP). The official trailer was shown at the AM Show on Japan. It is similar to the Dark Resurrection upgrade for Tekken 5.
Tekken 6 features bigger stages with more interactivity than its predecessors, such as walls or floors that can be broken to reveal new fighting areas. The character customization feature has been enhanced, and certain items have implications in some aspects of gameplay.
A new "rage" system has been added, giving characters more damage per hit when their vitality is below a certain point. Once activated, a reddish energy aura appears around the character, and their health bar starts to flicker in red. The rage aura can be customized with different colors and effects to appear like fire, electricity, ice, among others. Aim for a one-shot reversal with the new system, "Rage Mode". Another gameplay feature added is the "bound" system. Every character has several moves that, when used on an opponent that is currently midair in a juggle combo, will cause the opponent to be smashed hard into the ground, bouncing them off the floor in a stunned state and leaving them vulnerable to another combo or additional attack. As of the Bloodline Rebellion update, successfully parrying a low attack will also put a character into a bound state.
Following his victory in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, Jin Kazama, the new King of Iron Fist, has taken charge of the Mishima Zaibatsu and now appears to possess tyrannical ambitions. Using his resources within the organization to become a global superpower, he severs the Mishima Zaibatsu's national ties and openly declares war against all nations. This action plunges the world into an extremely chaotic spiral, with a huge-scale civil war erupting around the globe and even amidst the space colonies orbiting the planet. His biological father, Kazuya Mishima, is aware of this and finds Jin's interference in his own plans for global domination to be a nuisance. Now in charge of G Corporation, having usurped the company following its previous leaders' failure to use and then dispose of him, Kazuya is seen as the only force who could oppose Jin and places a bounty on Jin's head for anyone who can capture him. Jin's response is to announce The King of Iron Fist Tournament 6 in order to battle Kazuya and crush G Corporation.
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy is a fighting game published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) as part of the Final Fantasy series. It was developed by the company's 1st Production Department. The game is both a prequel and remake of Dissidia Final Fantasy, revealing what occurred before the events of its predecessor, and was released in North America.
The game initially focuses on the twelfth war between the gods Chaos and Cosmos who have summoned several warriors from parallel worlds to fight for them. Upon ending the twelfth cycle, the game remakes the thirteenth war from the original Dissidia Final Fantasy and adds multiple side stories. Fights in Dissidia 012 were given the ability to counteract enemies' strongest attacks by using assisting characters, while navigation is now done through a traditional-styled Final Fantasy world map.
Development of the game started with the Square staff wishing to improve the game play from the first game to provide players with more entertaining features as well as balance several parts. Dissidia 012 has been well received, with publications calling it one of the best PlayStation Portable games.
Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy Game play
Game play is largely reminiscent of Dissidia Final Fantasy along with a few changes. The game consists primarily of one-on-one battles, taking place on what is known as a battle map where the two characters duel. Players are able to perform two types of attacks: a Bravery attack and an HP attack. Both characters start with a set amount of Bravery points, the number of Bravery points being equivalent to the amount of damage dealt by an HP attack. Thus, the player must perform several Bravery attacks to steal Bravery points from the opponent so as to increase the power of their HP attack, as Bravery attacks do not cause any damage.
Call of Duty: Roads to Victory is a World War II first-person shooter for the PlayStation Portable and a portable spin-off of Call of Duty 3 for consoles. It was developed by Amaze Entertainment and published by Activision Publishing. It is the third portable installment of the franchise, first being on the N-Gage and the second on the Pocket PC.
In campaign mode several missions are available, throughout World War II. There are 3 campaigns throughout the game: American, Canadian, and the British. The American missions are Operation Market Garden, Operation Avalanche, and Operation Detroit. The Canadian missions are the Battle of the Scheldt, Operation Infatuate, and Operation Blockbuster. The British missions are Operation Market Garden and Operation Varsity. Although there are 14 levels total, each take place during a certain mission from World War II.
Multiplayer
In multiplayer, up to 6 players may play wirelessly via ad hoc, in nine different maps. Game types are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Hold the Flag, and King of the Hill.
Roads To Victory received mixed reviews. IGN rated it 6.6 out of 10 and GameSpot scored it 6.2 out of 10. GameSpy noted that the artificial intelligence in the game was "unimpressive" and "laughable", noting that despite the game initially having a "great presentation" that it was only "mediocre", scoring it 2.5 out of 5.
Roads to Victory has been criticized for some glitches. The Age commented that these glitches "tend to mar the experience at times, such as all the architecture vanishing in a blur or suddenly finding yourself stuck on the corner of an object for no obvious reason". The game's control scheme has also been criticized, with the Sunday Mail stating that "the big drawback of the game is the clumsy control scheme, which has the buttons doing the work of the arrows and vice versa.
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai is a fighting video game that was developed by Dimps. Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai 6 is a part of the Budokai series of games. Its sequel is Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road. In Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai 6 all the latest characters are available which are in Dragon Ball Super series, which includes some latest attacks. It has all forms of Goku including Ultra Instinct and mastered Ultra Instinct, Vegeta all forms including Blue one, Kefla, Kaybe, Broly, Goku Black Rose, Zamasu including its fusion with black goku, etc
Scenario story mode is a new story which takes place two years after the defeat of Kid Buu, and which is based on the events of the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn. The players follow the events of the story in which you choose between Goku and friends, including enemy characters, along the way. The choices that the player makes determine how the story evolves.
Another mode is the Arcade mode, a single player mode that lets the player to choose the character let's him/her combat against the CPU in order to fight and gain the Dragon Balls. After gaining enough Dragon Balls, Shenron appears and grants the wish of the character, designed according to their personalities.
Key Features
High-speed wireless multi player battles featuring the universe's strongest fighters
18 playable characters, including price fighter Pikkon
Revamped version of the acclaimed Saiyan Overdrive fighting system
In-game transformations to more powerful forms
All-new stage based on Fusion Reborn
Seven game modes, including a compelling story mode: Dragon Road
While the game is especially the same as the prior installments, it has notable differences; first off, most of the interactive button prompts (such as Dragon Rushes) where removed, and scrapped in favor of more simplistic mechanics. Ultimates can be performed freely, and have their cinematic touches notably reduced and/or removed outright. A majority of special attacks done with E + left or right can now also be charged up for more damage and/or a longer duration at the cost of more Ki expended.
