Another year and another edition of Activision’s videogame and collectible figurine mash-up. For this year’s Skylanders Superchargers, vehicles have been added into the mix, opening up a whole new way to play the game and drain parents of their cash.

Skylanders, the original toys-to-game franchise, now competes with Disney’s Infinity, Nintendo’s Amiibo and Lego Dimensions for a slice of the pie. And stiff competition it is as well. With the marketing might of Disney drawing from some of the world’s top brands like Marvel and Star Wars, Nintendo from their back catalogue of classic game characters and Lego from everywhere else, Activision really can’t afford to rest on their laurels.

Hence the vehicles shaking this up for this yea’rs Skylanders Superchargers.

You have to admire the effort that Activision puts into their Skylanders games. As with previous entries, Skylanders Superchargers looks fantastic (and I reviewed the Xbox 360 version). The polished visuals look more like a creatively stylised kids cartoon than an interactive video game.

The plot, whilst not exactly deep, serves its purpose and provides enough giggles to keep the kids and adults that are young at heart amused.

Kaos, the evil cackling madman that spends an unhealthy amount of time plotting the destruction of Skylands has almost succeeded, imprisoning your friends. The only ones that can restore order is a special team of Skylanders… the Superchargers and their fleet of extra-ordinary land sea and air vehicles. With the help of returning characters Hugo, Flynn and Cali, players must liberate Skylands destroy the Doomstation of Ultimate Doomstruction and free Master Eon from Kaos’s prison.

For the uninitiated, and similar to all the other games of its ilk, the Skylanders franchise has players (referred to by the Master Eon, as he breaks the forth wall and speaks to you directly, as portal masters) placed in charge of the portal of power. This portal, when a Skylander toy is placed upon it, transfers the character into the game world. It’s a neat idea and, of course, the more Skylanders you own, the more characters you have to tag-team your way through the game. Which is where it can get expensive and potentially even more so this time as characters are paired up with a vehicle as well.

Thankfully, Skylander toys from previous games are compatible with Skylander Superchargers, meaning most fans will have a large collection of characters to draw upon. The portal included with Skylanders Superchargers includes a slot for a trap piece, as introduced with last year’s Skylanders Trap Team.

Placing a full trap in the Superchargers portal unlocks special Skystones for use with the mini card-like game, Skystones Overdrive.

The Skylander Superchargers starter pack comes with a couple of Superchargers and a car. Straight of the bat you are going to need to stump up some cash and buy an air and sea vehicle in order to actually play the game properly.

The addition of vehicles to the mix creates an interesting, though likely to be divisive, change. Whilst the use of vehicles may detract from what many may consider to be the core Skylanders experience, I found the new racing and vehicle combat mechanics a refreshing change for a franchise that seems to be getting a bit stale of late.

As well as the Main Story Campaign, Single-player, Multiplayer and Time Trial races are available directly from the Main Menu. This allows players to test out the three vehicle types with races on land, water and in the air. The racing will appeal to fans of Mario Kart, with plenty of power-ups and vehicle-to-vehicle combat.

The game contains the same sort of polished platform gaming fun that the franchise is renown for. This time though, at particular points there’s the opportunity to hop on board a land, air or sea vehicle and continue the Skylander experience in a rather different way.

The vehicles are upgradable in a similar way to the Skylanders, themselves, improving their speed, armament and weaponry.

Skylanders Superchargers makes for an interesting new direction and adding vehicles is certainly less gimmicky that last year’s traps. The cynic in me thinks that the inclusion of vehicles is more about emptying parent’s wallets than a creative change to make the game better, which, let’s be honest seems to be the same thing every year.

Still, Skylanders Superchargers is a very polished affair offering a great story, some fun, if familiar, gameplay and some outstanding characters. Fans should love it, but newcomers may end up wondering what all the fuss is about.

The post Skylanders: Superchargers Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

I’ve always found WWE to be more about the characters and the story rather than the actual wrestling. If you just throw two guys in the ring and asked them to wrestle, I would quickly lose interest. Throw in a storyline though with a few twists and give those two guys a personality, then you will have my attention. While WWE 2K16 manages to pull off the wrestling side of things pretty well, it fails to capture what makes the WWE special outside of the ring.

This failing is most exemplified in MyCareer mode which really should be where any great WWE game stands out. Here you play through the career of your character from NXT newbie to WWE Superstar.

To its credit, the mode features deep and rewarding character customisation options. Despite offering a lot of diversity, the visual tools can get a bit tedious to use if you want to go any further past the basics. In terms of move sets, you can go through and assign each individual move for your character to use or, if you are lazy like me, you can copy the move set of your favourite character.

The upgrading system also works very well. Your player has an extremely long list of attributes ranging from springboard offence to leg durability. After each match you are given points based on your performance in the ring which can be used to upgrade each of these points. As your character’s attributes are broken down into so many tiny pieces, it enables you to personalise to suit your play style.

The closest thing to a story in this mode is the very anti-climactic rivalry system. In practice this generally means that on your way to the ring in a match, someone random will come out and attack you. Following a couple of weeks of generic match interferences or matches against each other, you will fight at a pay-per view event ending the feud. Rinse and repeat. These rivalries completely fail to ascertain the sort of entertainment or emotion that is seen each week on the WWE.

The feeble attempt at character personalities also proves to be unsatisfying. If you haven’t seen wrestling before, after playing WWE2K16 you would be forgiven to thinking that wrestlers don’t have a personality. Your character is assigned the protagonist trait of “face” or antagonist trait of “heel” based on your answers in very generic interviews that occasionally take place. Other characters are also given one of these traits however they aren’t adequately played out on the screen. The attempts at personality end here.

The closest thing to a manager mode comes in the form of the WWE Universe mode. If you go in hoping for a manager type mode though you will be disappointed. This mode basically allows you to create rivalries, set up matches and also participate in them if you choose. The experience though is a bit tedious and ultimately unrewarding.

The most interesting mode to me was the 2K Showcase where you play through the epic career of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Having only got into wrestling towards the end of his career, I found being about to play through his career both entertaining and engaging. Actual footage is played between matches which help to throw you into the situation.

Despite its other flaws, WWE2K16 does a decent job with the actual wrestling part of the game. Matches naturally go through a backwards and forwards flow of momentum due to a mostly well implement reversal system. Each wrestler starts out each match with up to 5 reversals depending on their attributes. Every time an opponent uses a move, there is a brief window of opportunity to press a button which reverses the attack. Time it correctly and you consume one of your reversals however they slowly refill over time.

The problem arises though when you inevitably run out of reversals and are left completely defenceless as your opponent mercilessly attacks you. By the time your metre refills enough for a reversal, so has your opponent’s.  When you do finally get your reversal, you may only get a couple of attacks, if any, in before your opponent reverses your attack and you are left once again defenceless.

One thing which didn’t sit well with me was what essentially is a health bar for each character. I only ever managed to get to the three count once my opponents health was at zero. One of the exciting things about wrestling is not knowing whether someone will kick-out or not, this health system takes away this unknown and the excitement with it. It also works against the finishing moves which feel more like a way to reduce an opponent’s health than a way to actually finish your opponent off.

Commentary for matches is also a problem. There is a very limited pool of dialogue which causes the commentary to get extremely repetitive. Lines are repeated not only between matches but even inside of a single match.

The rosters in this year edition is fantastic, featuring over 120 characters containing a good mix of classic legends and current superstars. Graphically all the characters look outstanding looking just as they do in real life. The game also features a great selection of modes.

WWE 2K16 unfortunately isn’t the embodiment of WWE that it should be. Despite featuring generally solid wrestling mechanics and an epic roster, the key modes available far from live up to their potential.

The post WWE 2K16 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Activision’s Guitar Hero is back, but, unlike the recently released Rock Band 4, it’s all changed for Guitar Hero Live.

Whilst the basic mechanics of Harmonix’s original Guitar Hero game have been preserved, FreeStyleGames’Guitar Hero Live has a new presentation, a new way of getting more music and a new guitar peripheral.

They’ve also dumped the drum kit, leaving players with only the lead and bass guitar, as well as vocals, for those so inclined.

Instead of a series of five coloured fret buttons, the new Guitar Hero axe has two rows of three fret buttons, allowing for an insane combination of notes and chords. Also missing are the touch-sensitive lower frets that, to be honest, I never got to work that well, anyway.

For those unfamiliar with the Guitar Hero franchise, the idea is to follow the note prompts as they proceed towards you on a “highway” by pressing the corresponding button(s) on the little plastic guitar peripheral whilst strumming the long button on the face. Special notes, correctly hit, unlocks hero power, enabling a x2 multiplier, which means more points, that is activated when the guitar is tilted up,

On the PS4, this all works due to a tiny little dongle that you plug into one of the console’s USB ports. Once synched, the guitar works as if it is a controller, with the frets, strummer and a little joystick on the guitar body mimicking the Dual Shock 4.

Rock Band 4 uses a virtually identical music catalogue as its predecessors, but this isn’t the case with Guitar Hero Live. None of your music purchased for previous Guitar Hero iterations will work with Guitar Hero Live.  For this outing Activision have made a rather controversial decision when it comes to music delivery.

There are two ways to play songs onGuitar Hero Live, either using the on-disc Live mode or the streamed online TV mode.

On the disc there are 43 songs which are unlocked as the player progress though the single-player campaign. It’s a good mix featuring tracks from Katy Perry to The Rolling Stones, something for everyone, to use the cliché.

The Live campaign places the player into a band performing at either of two iconic rock festivals: Rock the Block in Boulder City, USA or the SoundDial festival at Stoneford Castle, UK. The game is played from the player’s point-of-view, as the lead guitar in a band.

This time, instead of using computer graphics, the other band members and the audience are all portrayed using live action footage. What’s more, they react to your performance. Play without dropping a note and your band will nod in appreciation of your awesomeness and the crowd will go wild. Screw up and the band will start abusing you and the audience shake their heads and boo. This all happens virtually seamlessly and is actually very cool.

During the festivals players will perform twenty-minute sets with a series of different bands. Successful completion of a set will unlock each song in quickplay mode and well as some bonus band info in the festival gallery.

The other way to play, Guitar Hero TV, turns your console into a streaming mixture of Karaoke and MTV. Selecting one of the many streaming channels allows players to jump into the scheduled playlist and start strumming. You can compare your performance with anyone else playing on the channel. You can’t choose your song, but the songs keep coming, with the official music video streaming in the background. For most players, the lack of immediate choice is more than made up for by the huge music catalogue.

The set playlists of the music channels are great for casual players who will likely enjoy playing the streamed songs as they come. Dedicated Guitar Hero aficionados wishing repeat the same song in order to nail it are not going to be so happy. There is a way to choose your own streamed playlist on Guitar Hero TV, but I can still see this still causing some upset for hardcore fans.

As you playGuitar Hero TV you earn tokens that can be used to buy Plays. Plays are exactly that, free plays of song of your choice. Three Plays will cost you 1,800 tokens and ten Plays 6,000 tokens. You get about 160 tokens per successful song.

Now for the controversial bit.

Running right through the middle of the Guitar Hero TV experience is a rather sneaky micro-transaction system. You can, rather than earn tokens to unlock songs, use Hero Cash. Those ten Plays can be unlocked for 450 in Hero Cash. You can buy Hero Cash in the PlayStation Store. 300 Hero Cash will cost you $1.95 AUD all the way up to 6900 Hero Cash for $25.95 AUD.

Not that expensive, but I can see a few people getting more than a little carried away, especially the aforementioned hardcore players wanting to master a song on the harder difficulty Levels.

As well as a shortcut to freeplays, Hero Cash is also required to access Guitar Hero TV premium content. Premium show grant players early access to new songs before they hit the free streaming channels.They only cost 210 Hero Cash but, again, restraint is required.

Overall, I was rather impressed with Guitar Hero Live and I take my hat off to Activision for reinvigorating the ailing Guitar Hero franchise with something new. The revised guitar design is welcome and adds a new challenge to the game. The live action footage in the Live mode is very well done. Micro-transactions aside, Guitar Hero TV works very well, with constantly updated music keeping the content fresh.

Guitar Hero Live is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The post Guitar Hero Live Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Lara Croft is back for a new adventure, but this time an adventure that, for the moment anyway, can only be played by Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners.

Rise of the Tomb Raider follows on from 2013’s very successful Tomb Raider reboot and is set a year after Lara Croft’s escape from the mysterious island of Yamatai. This new adventure has a young, but slightly more seasoned Lara embark on an adventure to clear her father’s name.

Having played 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot across a range of formats from Xbox 360 to PC, including the new-gen definitive editions, I was a bit apprehensive to hear that the follow-up, Rise of the Tomb Raider, would be an Xbox One exclusive (initially, anyway). Don’t get me wrong, the Xbox One version of the Tomb Raider reboot is very nice, but I’d had been spoilt by the PC version, and to some extent, by the PS4.

Thankfully, Rise of the Tomb Raider looks absolutely gorgeous on the Xbox One. The visuals are clean and beautifully lit. Crystal Dynamics really seem to have harnessed the power of the Xbox One now. Even the Lara Croft 3D model is a vast improvement over the one in theTomb Raider Definitive Edition.The environments, as well, are absolutely stunning. The developers seem to have really upped the scale of the Levels, no doubt due to the extra processing power of the lead console, the Xbox One, over the old-gen consoles that the last game originally catered for.

A few times I found myself just panning around to take in the view.

The gameplay is very similar to the previous game, if a little more refined. It’s still a third-person action adventure game, neatly divided into exploration, puzzles and combat. I can’t stress enough at just how masterfully designed the gameplay is, with some superb pacing and a great balance between the action sequences and puzzle-solving.

Lara starts out with just a mountaineering axe for climbing and a pistol. Considering just how useful she found it last time, you’d have thought that she would have bought a compound bow along with her. Still, during the course of her adventure she procures all manner of weapon and equipment so as to never overwhelm the player and slowly ease you into the game’s mechanics.

Initially, Lara’s climbing abilities are limited to jumping and grabbing ledges and climbing rock faces and ice walls. Later on, as you gain extra equipment, she is hoisting herself up walls, swinging across chasms and jumping onto climbing arrows.

Combat has changed very little from the previous game, which isn’t a problem at all. Lara can sneak about in the bushes, stealthily removing enemies one by one, or go in guns blazing. Harder difficulty settings promote stealth, but the easier settings are quite forgiving, allowing for a frantic mixture of melee combat and gunfights.

As you progress Lara’s weapon’s improve, with tougher opponents requiring more ingenuity to beat. Lara’s equipment also improves allowing access to areas previously blocked. The additional equipment forces you to think a little more as traversing through the environment becomes more complex.

The game has the same upgrade system and crafting system as before, which is fine – don’t fix what’s not broken. At base camps, which are also save points, Lara can upgrade her skills using available earnt skill points and her equipment using materials gathered in the field. This could be pelts from skinned animals or scrap and components found scattered about. Once unlocked, Lara can also craft some items on the go, like Molotov cocktails from bottles and even proximity mines made from enemy radios.

Base camps are also the place were Lara’s skills can be upgraded as she earns XP. Skills are split into three types: Brawler, Hunter and Survivor. Mastering these skills makes Lara a more efficient killer, able to better scavenge from the environment and craft better item. The skill tree is huge, allowing players to customise Lara’s abilities based on their play style.

Veteran fans of the series will welcome the inclusion of even more actual tombs to raid this time.

The completion of optional challenge tombs offers Lara new perks and abilities like quicker healing and new weapons. I’ve got to say, though, the puzzles are still nowhere near as difficult as in the original games. Not one of them had me pausing to think about it. Most of them almost solve themselves with the player unknowingly stumbling on the solution.

As you locate base camps you can fast travel between them allowing you to backtrack and get those missed collectables or find that illusive tomb. Revisiting regions later in the game with better equipment upgrades allow new areas to be accessed. As with the previous game, once the main campaign is complete Lara is free to comb the maps for any undiscovered tombs and collectables.

Rise of the Tomb Raider, like it’s predecessor, is full of collectables and optional activities.

Scattered about the environments are adventurer’s packs, coins and artifacts, maps and ammo. Written notes and tape recorders add optional backstory that can either be taken in or skipped. By translating text written on objects in the world, Lara’s language skills increase unlocking more of the background story.

For some of the more intense areas during the Campaign, revisiting post-game areas to clear out collectables which also allows you to really appreciate the level of detail. Even though I’d finished the game I found that there was still much to discover and many allied missions to complete.

For the most part the game is set in the Siberian wilderness with Lara looking for the lost city of Kitezh, the home of the divine source, the search that seemingly cost Lara’s father his life. Trinity, the shadowy organisation that should be familiar to fans of the Tomb Raider comic book, led by a deluded madman that thinks he is the chosen one and his devious sister, are also after the artefact. During her search Lara finds some incredibly unlikely allies in the, interestingly American-accented, Siberian tribe tasked with protecting the divine source.

This is still the “little girl lost” young adult adventure version of Lara Croft that was OK for the Tomb Raider rebooted origin story, but offers up very little in the way of character development considering the horrendous trials that she had to undertake to survive the island of Yamato. It would be nice to see the sassy, confident Lady Croft from the original games, once more.

Whilst the general premise is interesting and the plot interesting enough for me to want to find out more, the story does seem a bit off at times. I found this surprising considering what a great job scribe, Rhianna Pratchett, did with the last game and the success that she is currently having writing the Tomb Raider Dark Horse comicbook.

The plots McGuffin used is an tiresome cliché, sending Lara on a quest to vindicate her dead father. It’s a bit of a lazy way to give Lara the personal drive to embark on another quest and one that we’ve seen before. Maybe next time we with see a Lara that is happy to go on an adventure just because, rather than because of a sense of duty.

I found Camilla Luddington’s breathy delivery of Lara’s lines really grating this time, as she puts on a very forced faux British received pronunciation accent. The Tomb Raider voice and motion-capture actor is British by birth but has spent many years living in the US. Her real accent is actually bit “mid-Atlantic”- a bizarre mix of southern English and LA valley girl.

To be fair, all the above can easily be overlooked, as overall the gameplay is actually superb. If you do find the plot a bit much, you can easily skip to the next bit of exploration and ignore the story.

As if the game wasn’t big enough, the games fresh addition for this year, Exploration, adds near infinite replay value. Rather than include a multiplayer game that nobody cares about, Square Enix have added a card-based mission generator that is an interesting mix of EA Sports’ Ultimate Team and the Hitman Contracts feature from Hitman: Absolution.

As players progress through the game they earn credits which can be used to purchased packs of cards. Using the initial gifted set of cards or the additional cards purchased from the in-game marketplace, the cards can be used to modify either pre-created challenge Levels or to create your own. These challenges can then be posted for other players to try.

Cards can strengthen or weaken Lara or the enemy by adding special abilities, outfits or weapons. You can even give Lara or the enemy big heads. Each card has a positive or negative multiplier depending on whether they make the game easier or harder.

Using environments and Levels from the game modified using cards, players can create thousands of different challenges, making Rise of the Tomb Raider a game that is very difficult to put down.

Narrative-style adventures tend to suffer on the replay, unless they are REALLY engaging. Rise of the Tomb Raider joins a limited number of games, that includes the Tomb Raider reboot and the likes of Uncharted and The Last of Us, as being a game that I’m likely to return to again and again.

The engaging, if uneven, story and fun Levels are complemented by tons of collectables and a large number of impressive optional tombs that are craftily hidden away.

The game looks beautiful, really showing off the under-used power of the Xbox One. The inclusion of the Explorer mission generator is absolute genius and cements Rise of the Tomb Raider as one of the year’s best games yet.

The post Rise of the Tomb Raider Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

For years Pro Evolution Soccer, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, was a few goals behind the reigning champion FIFA.

FIFA was so popular that FIFA 14 was still being produced for the PlayStation 2. PES in the meantime had become the Manchester City to FIFA’s Man United. Last year however PES scored a striking equaliser in PES 2015. Nevertheless, after the release of Metal Gear Solid V, PES is reported to be the last and only AAA game series that Konami will continue to develop.

So should Konami keep this last one around? Fortunately, PES 2016 is a solid update to last year’s PES 2015, one that takes it to the top of the heap.

From the main screen you can find easy access to your standard exhibition matches, tournaments and online game modes. The game isn’t designed for quick matches though.

PES 2016 wants to give you the ability dive deep into setting up your team for play. You could realistically spend just as much if not more time managing your team players (who individually can radically alter the way a team plays, and are updated weekly with their real-world performance), their layout, dynamic tactics that react to whether you are defending or attacking or any of the myriad other options.

Despite all this complexity though, you are still able to quickly jump into exhibition matches for a quick ten minute round.

You can develop a real rhythm to the game with its realistic-feeling physics and fluid player animations. For a casual soccer game player like myself, I have often found myself being frustrated with previous games sensing what I am trying to do – not selecting the correct player to switch to, or knowing to whom I want to pass the ball.

Fortunately in PES 2016 the automatic selection is intelligent, and nearly every time the controls react just like you want them to. This is helped by greatly improved player AI. Both your teammates and opponents react smartly to how you are moving the ball around. Your opponent’s AI won’t forgive you easily for mistakes too. A bad pass or defence is quickly taken advantage of and will require a quick, frantic and intelligent response.

The appearance of PES on current-gen consoles has been greatly enhanced with Konami’s proprietary FOX engine. PES 2016 introduces dynamic weather to the series, which brings nice visual effects at random times during your match.

The PS4 version looks great, and the FOX engine should provide a solid base for developers to build on in the coming years. There have been controversies with the PC version of PES 2016, which seems to be a port of the PS3 version of the game. This is surprising, given the overall well-made Metal Gear Solid V PC version, which is based on the same engine.

Why Konami made this decision is unknown, but it is disappointing that the best way to play the game is on a console.

As usual, FIFA has the edge in club licences. So while you can’t play as some of your favourites directly, there may just be someone with the same skills and abilities as him. While yes, they are only cosmetic differences, part of the joy of these games is being the person whose skills you admire so much. Konami has done so much with the rest of the game to make it the best soccer game out at the moment (though Rocket League comes close) and it would give the series an almost unassailable lead if they were able to clinch the missing licence deals for next year’s game.

Each year we try and understand which soccer game is the one to play for the next 12 months.

Until recently it was EA Sports’FIFA, but PES 2016 challenges these assumptions. Yet, in the modern age the annual franchise release is being challenged by games moving to a service model, much like Street Fighter V is planning. If next year’s PES and FIFA games do move to this type of game, then PES stands out as the best of the last.

So whether you want to count the improvements over last year’s game, or dive into the series for the first time, you will find hundreds of hours of play ahead of you. No vuvuzelas included.

The post Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Mega Man is quite the old franchise with many releases over the years and, as with most other classic games, it’s due for a re-release. Capcom and Digital Eclipse have delivered the goods with Mega Man Legacy Collection. The collection brings together the first six Mega Man games with a few much welcome extras.

The first Mega Man game was released back in 1987. It is said to be a classic, but not all classic games stand the test of time. With so much time elapsed I was certainly curious as to how these games hold up. I’m not a long standing fan and haven’t even picked up a Mega Man game so I would be seeing, with fresh eyes, how timeless this classic might be.

The Mega Man Legacy Collection is a set of 2D side-scroller platform games. You obviously play as Mega Man and usually choose from a troupe of eight enemy robots that range from characters like Bubble Man to Spark Man. After deciding on an enemy you play through an appropriately themed Level. Both enemies and Level design are created accordingly.

So each boss robot brings a whole new Level with new monsters. After defeating an elite robot at the end of each round you are rewarded by a new equip-able weapon type.

For instance defeating Metal Man gains you the use of his throwing metal blades. This creates a good amount of diversity and keeps things interesting as you progress.

The movement and combat mechanics are as basic as it gets. You can move left and right, jump and shoot. For a bit of excitement you can jump a tad higher by holding down the jump button. Shooting has two options; just shoot or shooting three shots in quick succession. The triple shot can vary depending on the weapon type equipped.

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the simple retro feel of the games; all the lovely arcade-y noises, simplistic combat and colorful blocky Levels. As I played on however I came to understand the way the game is played, so to speak. Parts of these games were definitely made with your death in mind.

Levels can be quite challenging, sometimes however with a serious degree of frustration to it. Many Levels offer extra health and lives, all you have to do is have the right outfit equipped to access them. This makes Levels either harder or easier depending the order in which you choose to defeat the elite robots. So the challenge can actually vary greatly as certain enemies and even bosses have weaknesses to certain weapon types but can be resistant to others.

Difficulty however is not found only in enemies and boss battles. The layout of each Level has many unique and interesting aspects that involve a bit of skill and luck to navigate through. These sections provoked a bit more emotion than I would have expected but painful as repeating some of these sections are, finally making it through is cause for much celebration.

Thankfully, when re-bundling these games, Digital Eclipse likely anticipated for people like myself by adding a handy dandy save function.

This makes these games a bit more forgiving and helped reduce some frustration.  I would most likely have rage quit if I had to repeat dull parts leading up to hard parts as many times as I repeated the hard parts. There is only one save to make for each game and it would be unwise to save amidst enemies or in the middle of a fast paced section, so it didn’t completely take away from the game but rather saved us hopeless cases a bit of time. You also don’t have to use it if you don’t want too.

Each story starts off roughly the same. A bunch of other monster robots have been created and are causing havoc. Your job naturally is to take each one down. It’s not exactly in depth or thought provoking but provides adequate reasoning for running around and beating up bad guys. It can be said that history seems to repeat itself…a lot.

The same can be said for the gameplay as it varies very little from the first to the last. These six installments, while offering new boss robots, are so much alike.

Each game has 6-8 elite robots to defeat, the exact same game mechanics, the same look, style and feel. They really took the “if it aint broke don’t fix it” thing to heart as the frame work in each game is considerably the same.

There are a few minute modifications, from the third game in which you have a slide dash and from the fourth game onwards you can charge your shots, but that is all that gets updated. This said it isn’t a bad thing.

Over and above the games themselves other extras have been thrown in. The Database section in each game provides little blurbs of information on the enemies within the game and also allows you to directly proceed to the boss match with any of the boss characters for that game.

The Museum option simply provides you with numerous images of production art for the particular installment.

Lastly the game provides a Challenge mode. There are numerous challenges but not all are initially available. Many are remixes of particular sections and they need to be completed within a certain time limit. There is some reward here as new challenges are unlocked as current available ones are completed.

Mega Man Legacy Collection is a beautifully re-packaged retro game that holds its own pretty well. Levels are colorful and diverse. Enemies also come in a decent assortment.

The sounds and music all add to an immersive but nostalgic (even if you have never played before) experience. New weapon types keeping things both interesting and fun. However I will say if it wasn’t for the save function added there are more than a few points in the game I would have likely rage quit. Some game aspects I’m glad stayed in the past.

I can’t really falter this game much if at all. It is still a fully functional game, all these years later, with plenty to see and do, I just might not complete this one 100%.

The post Mega Man Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

In a few short years I’ve found that Traveller’s Tales’ LEGO games have gone from being mildly amusing and entertaining, but ultimately frustrating, affairs to laugh-out-loud and finely honed, well-crafted puzzle games.

With almost every new film franchise having their own LEGO game, TT Games are one of the most industrious developers in the business. And here we go again with LEGO Jurassic World.

The Jurassic Park films do not immediately spring to mind as suitable material for an entry in TT Games kid-friendly series of LEGO games and yet that’s exactly what we have got here.

After a scene-setting prologue taken directly from the beginning of the first film we find ourselves on Isla Nublar, the island from Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. From here we can continue and play through the Jurassic Park adaptation or, for the more impatient, go straight into Jurassic World.

I’d recommend playing though the films in chronological order, as without completing Jurassic Park you are not going to unlock The Lost World and then Jurassic Park III.

For those of you that have not played one of TT’s LEGO games, they are basically puzzle games where locations and character and situations have been re-imagined using the famous LEGO building blocks and figures. To be honest, it’s pretty ingenious.

Player must break and reconstruct items to make new useful objects and devices in order to progress though Levels. Breaking items releases LEGO coins, which are also strewn across the Levels. These can be used to buy additional characters and vehicles.

The games features characters from all the movies, from major players like Sam Neil’s Alan Grant and Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady to lesser characters like Ray Arnold, Samuel L Jackson’s breakout role.

Each character has a special ability. These range from being able to fix machines and fire at targets, to diving headfirst in dino-poo. There are quite a few other unique trails and mechanics that have been introduced this time.

Some characters can use tracking skills to find an area that can then be excavated, uncovering vital bits of LEGO for building important objects. You’ve also got vines that can be cut with dinosaur bones and a watering can that can grow monstrous, but useful, plants. There’s even sections where players control dinosaurs.

There are areas that can only be accessed by characters unlocked later on in the game, meaning large areas of the game are only available on a subsequent play-though. It’s a crafty way of baking in a bit of replayability, and one that I totally endorse. These wonderful LEGO worlds don’t really need any incentive to revisit, but when you do it’s good to have some fresh puzzles to play.

Unlike some of the previous games, the puzzles make sense and are not overly taxing. When a new mechanic is added to the mix you’ll always find a handy LEGO version of the first film’s “Mr DNA” only too willing to give you some pointers.

As well as the puzzles, there’s also some mini-games. Players can partake in optional races and, if they gather enough DNA-laden lumps of amber, even make their own dinosaur.

The visuals continue to be polished, and that’s especially noticeable now that we are playing on new-gen. The quality of the lighting and the models make the graphics difficult to distinguish from footage of actual LEGO. Who would have thought that the first photoreal video games would be LEGO games.

The same accolades can’t be extended to the game’s audio. The game features audio ripped directly from the movies’ soundtracks, although for the old films it sound like it’s been taken from VHS tape recording.

Whilst the music is crisp and rousing, the voices sound all hissy and distant. I’d have sooner they’d paid the original actors to do it, or found some sound-alikes, than give us the audio we’ve been left with. It really lets down an otherwise superb game.

In a world where every other game has a mature rating slapped on it, it’s nice to find a game that you can play with the kids. Like most successful comedy primarily aimed at a younger audience, the humour in Lego Jurassic World works on two levels.

For the kids there’s the in-your-face slapstick and for the adults the odd cheeky wink. The game also goes to great lengths to remove the gore, with dinosaurs, instead, having a taste for sausages and when a person does end up in a creature’s mouth, it’s just to clean his teeth.

It is a testament to the skill of the developers that they have manage to reimagine the plot of all four films with the distinct humour and style that the LEGO games are famous for. There’s hours and hours of fun on offer, even more if you are a completest. It’s a great value-for-money package offering a huge amount of gameplay.

With new-gen visuals, the series trademark humour, addictive gameplay and a story spanning all four films, LEGO Jurassic World is definitely worth a look.

The post LEGO Jurassic World Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The legendary Mortal Kombat series finally comes to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with the cross-gen Mortal Kombat X.

Set, for the most part, 20 years after the last game, this first outing for the current-gen (but it is available for PS3 and Xbox 360 as well) introduces the offspring of several characters as well as bringing back some old favourites.

Whilst I’ve dabbled with MK over the years, I’ve not seriously played the games since the days of those photograph-like sprites. This was a great opportunity to get reacquainted with the series now that it has reinvented itself as the poster boy for 2.5 beat-em-ups.

Developers NetherRealm have pretty much perfected the art of creating an awesome beat ‘em up. Drawing on many of the attributes that made their DC Comics’ fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us so good, as well as their experience with 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot, Mortal Kombat X is the most refined example of the genre that I’ve ever played.

The game has all the usual trimmings you’d expect: the single-player arcade like Tower mode, the on and off-line multiplayer mode and quick fights. There’s a well written story campaign that, surprisingly, actually makes sense (especially considering the convoluted histories between the characters).

The story mode is good fun, providing an entertaining, if a little camp, Sci-fi Kung-Fu story. It reminded me a bit of the kind of direct-to-video fayre that I enjoyed back in the nineties, although that’s a bit of an unfair comparison as the voice acting and animation in the game is actually very good.

If you don’t follow the Mortal Kombat chronicles, the plot may be a bit convoluted, but it does expertly serve to give some reasonable context as to why all these guys would want to beat each other up. With some lengthy cut scenes, a lot of work has been put into delivering what I’d say is one of the best stories that I’ve experienced in a fighting game.

It’s with story mode that most players will, no doubt start, serving as a wholesome reason to pick up the game in itself as well as a great introduction to all the characters in the game.

The story follows the offspring and relatives of some of the game’s classic characters as they journey from Earthrealm to Outworld, getting involved in lots of fights as they go. The group has been put together by the now fifty-year-old Jonny Cage and consists of his and Sonya Blade’s daughter Cassie Cage, Jax’s daughter Jacqui Briggs, Kung Jin – cousin of Kung Lao and Takeda- son of Kenshi.

Of course all the classic characters are there: Raiden, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Sub Zero and Jonny Cage, but it is nice to have some new blood and see the next generation of Mortal Kombat heroes.

Via flashbacks and interactions during the story, players get the chance to try their hand at each different character as the story plays out, which is full of exposition, betrayal and power-struggles.

Of course, as well as the single player story, Mortal Kombat X is packed with other modes, ensuring that you never get bored.

As well as the usual single fights and the online verses modes, the game also has a Tower mode that provides a more no-nonsense old-school arcade experience that has you fight opponent after opponent from a randomly selected group of opponents.

There are twenty three characters available in the game from the outset plus a few more that were available as pre-order incentives and as part of the game’s season pass “Kombat Pack”. Each character has three fighting styles, one of which is chosen at the selection. This makes for an extraordinary amount of variation, giving players three times the amount of fighting strategies to master.

As an interesting aside, the game also features a bizarre game mode called Crypt. Similar to the old retro dungeon games, Krypt is a first person maze-like affair that only allows you to move forward, left or right and turn 90 degrees. The movement is horrible, but the rewards are great.

Scattered about the areas, which start in a graveyard before going into the Krypt are objects that, for a Koin fee, will gift items. These could be things that are useful to advance in the Krypt, concept art or access to new moves in the main game.

It’s worth a go on Krypt every now and again as you can get some good stuff. It’s not much fun, though, and more of a means to an end than anything else.

The game has many other minor game types that I won’t go into here, else I end up writing a list for you; suffice to say they all add a bit of variety to game in a genre renown for quickly becoming repetitive.

Giving players lots of ways to fight is great, but only if the actually fighting is good.

And it is. Mortal Kombat X delivers.

If you are not familiar with fighting games, Mortal Kombat X looks a pretty simple affair, and whilst you can get away with a bit of button mashing to begin with, after a short time with the game it starts to reveal its hidden depths.

It’s not long before you find a character that best suits your particular play-style (or button-mashing style) and you start to refine your combat strategies. Learning the blocks, counters and special moves is a very satisfying experience, especially when you go online and start winning against real opponents.

Mortal Kombat X is incredibly violent. And whilst it is almost so over-the-top as to be comical at times it is quite gruesome. The finishing fatality moves (if you manage to pull them off) are so gratuitous that I couldn’t help but giggle at the carnage. Same with the x-ray super-moves which give you an inside view of the insane damage caused during the attack.

The game is made all the more gruesome by the amazing fidelity of the graphics and the superb way that the fighters and modeled and animated. Every hit connects.

The visuals are absolutely jaw-dropping. The detailed backgrounds are full of things going on and even with our fighters in the foreground moving silky-smooth at lightning speed the game never drops a frame. The game looks fantastic.

As well as the brutal combat animations, the sound design packs a punch letting you know that you’ve connected with your opponent or that they’ve beaten your guard and given you a hiding.

I certainly enjoyed playing Mortal Kombat X.

It’s a very good game. The beautiful graphics, the variety in the extra modes and, most importantly, the great fighting make Mortal Kombat X the best fighting game I’ve played in a very long time.

The post Mortal Kombat X Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

I once heard it said that riding a motorcycle is as close as you can get to piloting a jet fighter without actually piloting a jet fighter.

And I tend to agree.

For a motorcyclist, there’s absolutely no comparison to be made between driving a car at breakneck speed and the absolute thrill of riding a motorbike at full throttle.

They are two very different animals.

Whereas a driver simply controls his car using pedals and a steering wheel, a motorcycle becomes an extension of its rider. The motorcyclist’s whole body influences the machine not just his hands and feet.

It’s a strange symbiotic relationship between man and machine that is very hard to explain, and even harder to translate into a video game.

That’s probably why car racing games are ten a penny and you can count the amount of motorbike racing franchises on one hand. And, most of those motorcycle racing franchises come from one stable- Italian developers Milestone S.r.l.

Following on from their hugely successful MotoGP games, Milestone’s Ride sets out to do for motorcycling what the Forza and Gran Turismo games have done for car racing; they want to provide gamers with their own motorcycle racing simulator.

And, by and large, they have succeeded.

Unlike many of its adrenaline fueled peers, Ride’s presentation doesn’t do much, initially, to inspire much confidence in the game.

It’s introduced by an Englishman waffling on about some deep meaningful stuff. It’s well-written and well-enunciated.

But I didn’t come for a Shakespeare reading. As educational as the voice-over guy is, he’s no Jeremy Clarkson and instead offers up a pretty dry and uninspiring introduction to the game that’ll either put you to sleep or make you consider saving yourself some time and returning the game to EB Games without playing it.

To be honest, the game’s presentation is a bit ropey, even worse I’d say than the same developer’s MotoGP 14. But, it seems, unlike many a polished AAA turd, the developers have spent the money on the gameplay and not the fancy intro and testosterone soaked announcers.

Yes folks, Ride is actually a very, very good game.

Let’s start with the bikes. There’s over 100 licenced motorcycles in the game ranging from 80’s classics to 2015 models. Each bike has been meticulously modeled to create beautiful virtual reproductions of some of the world’s best superbikes.

I found myself getting all blurry eyed over the game’s beautifully modeled 1986 Yamaha FZR750- my dream bike back in the day, and the 2014 Kwacker Ninja ZX10R, the bike that I’d buy now if I still had the bottle to hit the road at breakneck speed on two wheels.

As well as licensed machines from all the big manufacturers, including an electric bike from Lightening, the game features hundreds of licenced performance upgrade parts from the likes of Arrow Exhausts, D.I.D and Pirelli.

The game also allows players to kit their rider out in style with helmets from Shoei, Arai and AGV, boots from Sidi, some Alpinestars gloves and a number of cool-looking Dainese jackets.

You can easily waste a lot of time swapping parts to get the best out of your machines. Even if you are not technically minded, you can still spend an awfully long time kitting out your rider to ensure that they are both stylish and coordinating with their bike.

Whilst the bikes are well modeled and rider animations fluid, the general level of graphical fidelity is shockingly average.

Generic-looking buildings line streets that are bounded with cookie-cut crowds robotically fist-pumping the air.

It’s clear that Ride is another of those awkward cross-gen titles granting current-gen console owners a higher resolution, more stable framerate but little else over their last-gen brethren.

The lighting, for instance, is very old school. None of the environments can hold a light to the likes of Forza Horizon 2 or Driveclub.

But, as I alluded to earlier, thankfully it’s not all about graphics and presentation.

This is a game about riding a bike and the developers, Milestone, are about the best studio in the world when it comes to digital simulating the subtle art of motorcycle racing.

Fans of the genre will know that it is Milestone that have practically dominated motorcycle racing games for well over a decade.

Their MotoGP games are generally well-received, but often suffering from the same sub-par presentation problems that somewhat mar Ride.

This time, in moving away from the constraints of the MotoGP licence they have been able to add more motorcycle variations and some more interesting circuits.

The game ships with fifteen circuits ranging from dramatic fantasy tracks based on the landscapes of Sierra Nevada, North Wales and the French Riviera to classic motorcycle racing circuits like Donnington and Magny-Cours, via street-racing circuits set in Miami and Milan. There’s something for everyone.

Unlike MotoGP where players are committed to a world championship, there’s no structured campaign in Ride. Instead it’s all about all about prize money and reputation. The more money and wins the more bikes become available to buy. No matter what you do in the game you advance your rider.

And there’s plenty to do.

The menu at the start gives you plenty of ways in which to embark on your motorcycle racing career. There’s a choice of World Tour, Quick Mode, Online, as well as some customisation in My Rider and the game options.

To get right into the thick of it, World Tour grants access to a series of World Tour Events tailored to certain categories of bike based on engine capacity, type, age and manufacturer.

Most are a series of single races that can be undertaken at the player’s leisure, but there’s a few multi-race championships thrown in there as well.

The World Tour mode also has a series of unlockable Elite Trophy races for big cash and new bike prizes. These races become available chronologically one you start climbing the game’s world rankings.

It’s in this section where players buy new bikes, customise them with after-market parts and view their collection. Players can also pick the My Rider option to kit out their rider and the use the Teammates page to select a teammate from the AI driver list or pick a Ride owning friend.

The Online option allows players to quickly get into a multiplayer race with up to eleven other racers or create an online race themselves.

It’s only after having experienced an online race that you realise just how kamikaze the AI opponents are. Real players are a lot more careful on corners and when overtaking whilst the AI seems to rigidly stick to the racing line.

If time is short and you can’t afford to mess about, Quick Mode gets you straight in there without any fuss. Either for a Quick Race, using any bike (you can even rent a bike that you don’t own) on the track of your choice, or a few laps of Time Trial.

The glaring omission is the inability to choose the weather and time of day for your race.

It’s here in Quick Mode that you can also set up a split-screen race with a friend, opening up all sorts of opportunities for couch competitions.

There’s also a tutorial option to help players get to grips with the controls, which are a bit more complicated than those of a car racing game.

Ride is not an easy game to get into for the novice.

The steering is very sensitive compared to car racing games. I’d even goes as far to say it feels a little too sensitive sometimes.

Leaning or braking too much will send your rider sliding down the road, as will hitting anything, including other riders.

Throttle up too quickly and you’ll likely do an impressive, but usually catastrophic, wheelie. Same goes for applying too much front brake, if you’ve got independent braking switched on; stoppies are cool, but not on the race track.

The game has a rather steep learning curve that can be off-putting at first. But, in my opinion Ride is as unforgiving as a motorcycle sim should be; if it were any easier you may as well be playing a car racing game.

In saying that, Ride has all the usual aids you would expect in a racer, such as racing line and auto-braking, but it is best played with as little help as possible.

In fact, part from the racing line and automatic gears, I’d recommend switching off any help as soon as you can.

Sure, you will crash a lot, but once you’ve got the idea that you can’t ride everywhere at full throttle things get easier. Even then, if you have any momentary lapses, you can always hit the rewind button, unless you’ve gone totally hardcore and switched them off as well.

Ride gives players an extraordinary amount of control to the player.

Throttle and steering are a no-brainer, but there’s also front AND rear brakes as well. You can also shift the rider’s weight forward and backwards and tuck-in low on the tank to lessen drag and increase speed.

A great addition, which I’d like to see in other racers, is the semi-automatic gears as standard. This allows players to dabble with changing gears at their leisure. Learning good use of the gears is essential to aid speed reduction and to quickly power away from opponents.

Loads of beautiful motorcycles, some great circuits and a very comprehensive, yet intuitive control system round off a great motorcycle racing experience.

Ride isn’t an easy game to master, but is still very accommodating. Allowing players to get to grips with it at their own pace. It is at its best when played with all the riding aids off, but it may take some time to get proficient enough to play it that way.

The graphics are a bit disappointing for a PS4, especially compared to other current-gen racers and the lack of weather and time of day options is a bit of a shame.

But this is a cross-gen game, and when negotiating hair-pin turns on some of the world’s most powerful motorcycles eying up the scenery is going to be the last thing on your mind.

Despite being somewhat rough around the edges, at its heart, Ride is a very competent and thrilling simulation of motorcycle racing.

Ride is out now on PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC.

The post Ride Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.