Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4
I’m all for the Lego games, even though they’re slowly oozing their way through the gaming industry like... something that oozes. There’s been Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Batman, there’s going to be a Pirates of the Caribbean one, I won’t be surprised if Warner Brothers own the rights to every film series in existence by now in order to turn them into little digital plastic bricks.
If you’ve played any of the Lego games you know what’s happening here. You and either a friend or the computer control two characters from the Harry Potter universe as they run around alternately smashing things into little bricks or building little bricks into something else, in order to collect studs, the currency of the game. It’s simple platforming at its best. My only issue is with the control system. As you’re playing witches and wizards, you can cast certain spells, but sometimes getting the game to understand when you want to cast one is sometimes fiddly and annoying. Also, there seems to be a bug at the end of Year 2 that makes the boss disappear from view even though it’s actually right in front of you. Oddness.
Anyway, if you love Harry Potter, it’s worth playing, but if you’ve played one Lego game, you’ve played them all really.
The World Ends With You
I rarely, if ever, play RPGs. In fact, the last true one I touched may well have been Final Fantasy 8. So imagine my confusion, if you will, when a friend pressed The World Ends With You into my hands, saying ‘You MUST play it!’
It definitely isn’t your usual RPG fare. Yes, there’s levelling and spells (reincarnated here as pins that you wear) and parties and ENDLESS TALKING, but that’s where the similarities end. Your setting, rather than your bog standard medieval or sci fi fare, is the shopping district of Shibuya, Tokyo. You play a character that rather than taking on the hero mantle automatically, is outwardly hostile to everyone he meets. It’s all quite refreshing to see, initially, but at the end of the day underneath it all is just another grindfest.
If you enjoy RPGs, you really should check this out if you haven’t already. If not, well, maybe you should investigate my next item:
Okamiden
You all know how I love Okami with a deep and slightly illegal love (that restraining order is simply proof of said love), and I think I mentioned my unrestrained joy at the prospect of a sequel being released, so you know I got my grubby mitts on Okamiden as soon as was humanly possible.
The verdict? It’s good, but it shouldn’t have been on the DS. I know, I know, the whole point was you could draw directly on the screen, and it was nice to be able to interact with the game world that way, but Okamiden suffered for the gimmick.
Okami was stunning, even by today’s standards. A sequel on the PS3 or Xbox 360 would have been eye bleedingly beautiful, and would have been able to support a much more engaging game (Honestly, Okamiden has one unique mechanic, that of using your in game partner to help you platform, and it gets old QUICKLY), but it got kicked in the head for the almighty DS. An absolute crying shame.
You should still play it, though. Play Okami then play it. You can’t call yourself a gamer if you won’t support truly original titles. I will judge you until you do.
Portal 2
Oh, who am I kidding? I’ve played it, you’ve played it, and even your dog’s played it. ISN’T IT AWESOME?!
No comments:
Post a Comment