The Witch and the Hundred Knight is an action RPG title published and released exclusively on the PS3Â by NIS America in North America on March 25th of this year. It is a stage based hack and slash game with a top down isometric view similar to games like Diablo.
Yaiba: Ninaj Gaiden Z is a third-person action game set in the Ninja Gaiden universe. It is actually a spin-off, done in great looking cel-shade comic book style, starring the titular protagonist; a rogue ninja who goes on a rampage, slaughtering his fellow clan members before coming face to face with Ninja Gaiden series mainstay, Ryu Hayabusa. Despite his skill and prowess Yaiba Kamikaze was no match for the wielder of the dragon sword and fell in combat.
Magus (pronounced May-jus) is a third-person action/adventure title from Black Tower and Aksys Games. It stars the titular protagonist; a young man imprisoned since infancy and tortured for reasons unknown. One day mysterious woman named Kinna, reveals his true birthright, to be that of a God and assists in his escape. Now with this assassin by his side, Magus sets out to gets his revenge of the King who had him locked away. It is an interesting plot, that never really delivers. It isn’t bad but there is nothing about this narrative that left an impression. It does feature some interesting and funny dialogue, mostly the protagonist’s. For some reason Magus speaks as though as he lives in modern time, even though this game takes place in a fantasy world set in the past. Sentences such as “Damn, son how many unicorns did you have to eat to get that big?”, while funny, is out of place.
Earth Defense Force 2025 is a third-person shooter from developer Sandlot. A sequel to EDF 2017, it sees the planet Earth once again threatened by giant bugs and an alien threat known as the Ravagers. That is all you really need to know about this game’s story. It’s a throwaway tale, filled with B movie dialogue and equally cheesy voice acting. The main focus of this game is to kill everything in sight and have fun. EDF generally delivers, though it is not without its annoyances.
Stick It To The Man! is an interesting platformer / puzzle game in which players take on a main character Ray, who after a mysterious head injury can now read minds. Everything opens up with a subliminal dream sequence – which may be taken as a metaphor preluding to later events – as players get the character to awaken himself from the dream and discover a parasite of some sort within the brain.
Visually Mutant Mudds takes a unique interpretation to the 2D retro art direction style by allowing players to hop back and forth between foreground and background layers throughout various points in the title. This plays into the gameplay too which is packed with action and takes pieces of the greatest platformers while pitting the player against an invading enemy via a true sidescroller action combat system. The presentation of this game is so polished players will feel a great value in their purchase immediately. Story-wise the game even satisfies deeper questions as to what the action is all about as an invading race starts off when a meteor shower hits the planet threatening to end the human way of life.
Mutant Mudds focuses almost completely on fun factor while managing to deliver a high quality sound system full of nostalgic nods and enough fresh ideas to feel like nothing you’ve played before. A new brand has been formed with this IP which we hope to see explored again at a further date, though the creativity displayed by the developer Renegade Kid also plagues our minds with questions of what will they come up with next? A sequel is indeed in the works though, and we look forward to this being announced later this year.
The Deluxe version of this game features optional checkpoints (which can be turned off for those more hardcore players). Each level will challenge the player significantly both by design that is suggestive yet deceptive as well as the time limit that each course holds. Players select which level they’d like to approach from a set of doors and can also take alternate routes to the end of the level resulting in an even more retro-throwback challenge but also demanding the player to return for the correct exit badge to that particular stage.
Once stages are passed in the traditional sense though, that doesn’t mean they are done yet. Walk through a mirror in the center of the stage selection screen to discover mirror matches of the level once seen in the “real” world. In this alternate dimension of sorts, players must use a different weapon otherwise their ammunition simply cannot effect the ghostly representations of the mutant enemies which come back to life after being killed. This weapon also comes with limited ammo, even further increasing the difficulty of the game. After all of these remix stages are also passed players get access to even more content. Doors to more stages are seen in the foreground and later unlocked.
Thankfully Mutant Mudds never quite feels like a puzzle game, though it will take some trial and error before players master everything. MM is a straight up action platformer with plenty of shooting, hopping, a bit of hovering thrown in here and there, and good old fashioned collecting “coin”-like pickups called golden diamonds which are used to buy upgrade items fro Grannie’s Attic. The music heard is top notch quality and really pays homage to some of the classics while also feeling brand new.
Engine Performance:Â No glitches were encountered during our play-through of this game.
Replay Value:Â Between the many levels, their alternate versions, and the hidden / optional content players will have plenty of fun to have before even tapping into the set of 10 trophies and playing on a second screen for Vita owners adds a bonus experience to the mix as well.
Mutant Mudds Deluxe is a game that brings the Platformer genre into a beautiful intimate relationship to the Side-Scroller Action / 2D Shooter genres while also adding new gameplay mechanics and graphical elements to the mix. With completely intuitive gameplay design as well as retro-inspired music, sound effects, and graphics MM does what most games could only wish to do and that is provide the ultimate complete package that every type of gamer is sure to fall in love with.
Played On: Sony PlayStation 3
Review Copy Info: A digital copy of this game was provided to RealGamerNewz by the publisher for the purpose of this Review
A-Men 2 is a very interesting mixture of puzzle and action platformer gaming in which players see themselves through a number of stages that are meant to challenge the mind as well as skill of the player. Not only must the puzzle-like layout of each stage be solved but along the way the traditional gameplay mechanics of the platforming and side-scroller genres must also be mastered. For example falling from great heights will get the player killed and there are enemies actively patrolling who must be dealt with, sometimes fatally. The stages will even get so tricky that they allow saving mid-way at select points with kiosks made for such a task, you’ll be rewarded with extra experience points for not using these though.
After leaving many of us emotional wrecks with last years The Walking Dead: The game, developers Telltale games return with The Walking Dead: Season 2. Just like in the first season, this story will be told across five episodes. With episode one: “All That Remains”, Telltale comes out swinging.
Mirror of Fate HD is the console port of Konami’s Nintendo 3DS title which installed the Lords of Shadow series into the handheld console. Mirror of Fate is not a 3D action adventure title like Lords of Shadow though, and instead harkens back to the good old days when Castlevania was a 2D open world type of game. With a less linear approach to things, Mirror of Fate HD extends the Castlevania: LoS series into the 2D world with 3D character models as well as other assets including backgrounds fleshed out with new age graphical techniques.