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Alas, Raven's perfume-spraying antics are over. In the original game, Raven, "popular" "star" of the "hit" "Disney" "show" was armed to the teeth with Bottled Spring Water, her deflector handbag, and perfume, which she used to spray people in the face with. It looks like Vicarious Visions got sick of Raven's antics (and honestly, who wouldn't be), as Disney Interactive has passed the development reins over to A2M, creators of the surprisingly good "Kim Possible 2: Drakken's Demise" for GBA.
In that's SO Raven 2: Supernatural Style, A2M has forgone the perfume for pies. That's right; Raven is now armed with cream pies, complete with the cherry. The game's subtitle alludes to fashion of a phantasmagorical nature, and this is indeed the case. In addition to her pernicious pastries, Raven fleeces a flock of frippery -- in other words, she steals clothes. When Raven switches into the "borrowed" outfit, there is a whirlwind of purple and pink, and voila -- the crime is complete. Raven has a different outfit for each level (once she swipes it, that is), including:
The game's main villain is an evil band manager that wants to break up some band that Raven likes. You don't actually discover that this gentleman even exists until the end of the second to last level - perhaps they were aiming for a plot twist, because his existence certainly surprised me. He also gives a great Scooby Doo parody involving the words "would have gotten away with it" and "meddling kids" before hastily heading for the nearest exit at the start of the last level.
Supernatural Style also features all of your favourite characters from the show, including Chelsea, Cory, Devon (why the poor guy is named after lunchmeat I'll never understand), and the irksome little brother of Raven's that probably is comic relief and gets all the one liners and flatulence jokes.
Raven's tomfoolery throughout the game once again seems to revolve around her endless amount of vanity, having her concert tickets stolen by a monkey, finding toy robots, and avoiding the Great Wizard Gandalf's Magic Missiles with a 1d20 hit. Raven also seems to converse with "hip" "street" "talk", peppered with the word "Snap!". This indicates that either this is her TV show catch phrase, or that Raven has rheumatoid arthritis at a very early age.
The game isn't all bad -- A2M has given players an incentive to explore the ten levels. There are assorted outfit pieces and colour tints for your outfits, along with special items that can be combined to make super secret outfit pieces (like the turban made from a garden hose and a necklace!). At the end of each level, you can dress up Raven, and depending on how stylish she is, you can earn even more money. Sadly, everyone hated my turban. In addition to the hidden level items, there are coins scattered throughout the levels which can be used to purchase any remaining photos, outfit pieces and character factoids, including this unintentionally hilarious gem:
Raven enjoys jet skiing and painting and has a flare for cooking.
You know, so that she can alert everyone within a fifteen mile radius when the tacos are done.
The game also features a clever photography mini-game. In this game, the timer is ticking down, and you have to take three photos. A slider randomly slides left and right at a random speed, focusing and unfocusing the picture as it does so. Your task is to take three photos as the slider is perfectly in the middle, so that you get a beautifully focused photo every time.
The game still is, quite frankly, atrocious for a couple of reasons. Raven can only jump half of her height, but this is probably a license-forced limitation, and it's clear that the game hasn't been tested solidly, as there are sound distortion glitches, as well as one unfortunate bug where the screen turned black but the sound kept playing. Nonetheless, it provides about two hours of gameplay if you play it solidly. There's also the option to go back and search for more outfit pieces and coins to unlock the rest of the extras, although most gamers probably won't do that unless they're fans of the show -- and let's be realistic for a minute, this is the target audience. Is the game better than the first? Oh yes. Is this a good game? Not by a long shot.
Pros:
Lastability: 6.0
The lastability varies directly on whether you're a fan of Raven or not. That said, A2M has tried to include a fair amount of unlockables to keep you interested if you like Raven and the show.
Final: 4.5
Better than the last game, but only by a smidge. It's still yet to be proven that Raven is a worthwhile character to make a video game out of. Please don't try again.
So it's just a little bit depressing that my favourite character, the tubby Tommy who was eating hamburgers all the time, grew up to become a bullying jerk.
The new Snowboard Kids game features a totally revamped artistic style. Instead of the cute little midget children previously seen, we now have a set of anime-style 16 to 18 year olds who look like what marketing would call "edgy", or perhaps "extreme". The lighthearted feel is gone, and replaced with a no-holds-barred, I'm-better-than-everyone vibe from these teenagers who all seem to be out to prove that they're number one.
However, this is merely an artistic style. As much as I'd like to tell you that I dislike it, this new direction is simply not for me. It's for the target audience of kids aged 14 to 18. Besides, if the game itself is good, then the art becomes less of a problem. But the game, while not perfect, is merely average.
Snowboard Kids plays somewhat like the Mario Kart series. However, instead of racing laps of a track, you must make your way down a mountain and enter a narrow doorway at the end of each lap to take the helicopter back to the top. Players can also perform tricks which increase the special trick meter, as well as earn projectile shots which can be used to attack opponents. There are also weapon boxes that can be grabbed to score alternate weapons such as invisibility, mines, and turbo boosts. The game also features multiple modes of play, as follows:
World Tour
Amusement Rating: Moderately Xtreme
A combination of regular races, slalom events, and boss battles. Comes in three cups of quickly increasing difficulty.
Time Attack
Amusement Rating: Barely Xtreme At All
You can race! Against the clock! It's like travelling through time, except not like that in any way at all.
Boss Battles
Amusement Rating: Moderately Xtreme
Destroy the boss before he gets to the finish line (or you can try to beat him). There are no powerups to help, so you need to perform tricks to earn projectiles here.
Slalom
Amusement Rating: Delightfully Xtreme
Easily better than the slopes of Mount Nasty. Perform tricks and collect diamonds to increase your score while navigating through the hoops to extend your time.
And yet, in the transition from C-Buttons to touch screen, the control has become more difficult. If you hit a wall or something similar that causes you to come to a grinding halt, you must rapidly tap the screen to gain momentum. Which is, quite frankly, stupid. You must reach over from the face buttons with your thumb and hammer the touch screen until your character moves, which is decidedly awkward, and could have instead been done with another button. Pulling off 'special' tricks requires you to clumsily thumb at certain parts of the screen while you're attempting to steer through the air.
Sound is another area where Snowboard Kids is fairly average. The music is not assigned to any particular level - instead, you get a random music track when you start a race. This track will change if you decide to restart, or retry after failing, which causes the levels to lose a sense of individuality that they get when they have specific music assigned to them. One level could quite as easily be another.
And then there are the voices. Along with the art style, the 'kids' are frequently shouting out irritating quips, such as "I totally meant to do that. NOT!", "Hahaha, it's called talent!" and the just plain wrong: "You like to watch, don't you?". (Although, the Princess Bride reference is pretty cool.) Turning down the voice volume makes the game much more bearable.
Snowboard Kids is a decent title. While the new character look may not appeal to everyone, the game itself is okay. There are some issues with using the touch screen for in-game tricks and acceleration, but aside from that, it's a fairly average kart-like racing game. Snowboard Kids would probably best suit those looking for an alternative to Mario Kart or a wackier approach to extreme sport games.
Pros:
The Jungle Jam Tournament is about to be held, the winner of which will ne named the Jungle Hero! However, before the tournament can take place, King K. Rool comes crashing down and swipes all the medals! With a "Don't even THINK about following me, monkey-brains!", he jets off, and a furious DK goes after him to claim back the medals.
Before you begin the game, Cranky (who isn't anymore, sadly) will teach you the basics. DK is controlled with the shoulder buttons. L and R are used to walk left and right on the ground (although you can use the Control Pad for this if you prefer) and pressing both down, then letting go will make DK leap straight up into the air. There are pegs and other climbable objects -- use L to grab one with DK's left hand, and R to grab one with his right. Holding down L or R while on a peg will rotate you anticlockwise and clockwise, respectively. To make your way through levels, you alternate between L and R to simulate a climbing motion (and it really does feel like DK is climbing as you do it).
DK has three "hits" before he dies and you get game over. There are no invincibility or health pickups in this game. Instead, you collect bananas, which are counted at the bottom. At any time during the game, if you press B, you'll restore one hit at the cost of 10 bananas. If you press A at any time during the game, you'll activate "Going Bananas", which will make your attacks stronger and allow you to jump higher (at the cost of 20 bananas). This makes for some really clever strategy - do you restore all your health now? Or do you save it and use invincibility instead? It's all up to the player to decide.
The object of the game is to find the medals throughout the stage - early on, they're obviously placed, but later, they become more hidden. Also hidden in the game (and a nod to DK64) are Crystal Coconuts, which are optional, but add to your percentage and cause 'something special' to happen.
The great thing about King of Swing is that it keeps introducing new gameplay mechanics in each level to keep the game fresh and exciting. Early on you learn about pegs and boards, but later you find: wheels (which you have to hold with one hand to make them rotate); levers, including ones that you need to hold with both hands and ones that you need to repeatedly pull down to trigger briefly before they reset; rocks, which you hold and then let go to throw; bombs, which are like rocks but can explode in your face if you're not careful; and cannons, which fire out pegs in arcs that you must quickly climb and let go of. There are also special levels like one set in a twister, where you're constantly being pulled to the left and you'll see yourself falling in the background as you get sucked around. Other special environments include water levels which have low gravity, and icy levels which have incredibly slippery climbing blocks, to name a few.
The game's graphics have a nice charm to them. Although nearly all the characters in the game have previously appeared in other Donkey Kong Country games, here they are given a different, sprite-based look which works really well. There are also nice little touches, like seeing DK's tie fly up in the air as he falls back down, having DK beat his chest and slap the ground when he's idling, and seeing his legs react as you swing in a direction. The levels have a pretty, pastel look to them, with a nice selection of muted colours being used in the backgrounds. The game also uses the GBA's rotation effects heavily throughout the game (most characters and enemies rotate to turn around), while there is also some use of scaling effects on the map screen.
In addition to the Adventure Mode, there is also a "Jungle Jam" mode, which can be played either single-player or single- or multi-cart multiplayer. Various events are unlocked for every set of Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals you find in Adventure Mode. There are assorted types of events, including a simple race to the finish, obstacle courses, battles, a race to break the most barrels, and a 'claim the most area' event. Earning Gold Medals for them in Single-Player mode is to your advantage, because when you reach a certain amount of Gold Medals, you'll be rewarded.
Music and sound for the game varies. Sound is pretty good, with some clear voice samples from DK, Diddy, Dixie and Funky (they are all playable in Jungle Jam), and there are some nice jingles for collecting items like medals and Crystal Coconuts. King of Swing also has one of the most hilarious 'cancel' noises for a game ever. It sounds kind of like a duck making a loud "MMMWAA" sound, and you hear it every time you back out of a menu. It's priceless. There are some nice renditions of a couple of Donkey Kong Country songs, but the game features mostly new songs. While some are merely okay, there are some great songs too, like K. Rool's theme and the slow, steady aquatic theme.
As mentioned earlier, King of Swing is a great game, and not one that you should miss if you own a Game Boy Advance. It's so good, in fact, that even if you stripped away the DK license and made it, oh, I don't know, "Raven's That's SO Swinging", you'd still have a great game. Donkey Kong is just the icing on the cake. You want innovation, but still want a full game? It's right here.
NOA currently has DK: King of Swing set for the ever-so-vague '2005' date. If you're can't wait for King of Swing, but can't get the European version, our partners at Lik-Sang have the Japanese version, which will be released on the 19th of May.
Pros:
Another Code: Two Memories (or "Trace Memory", as it will be called in the States) begins in this mysterious way. You assume the role of a thirteen year old girl named Ashley Robins, who receives a mysterious package containing a DS-like system called a "DAS". The package also comes with a note from her father, previously presumed deceased, asking her to come to Blood Edward Island for her fourteenth birthday.
Upon reaching the island, Ashley begins to search for her father. She encounters a ghost, known only as 'D', who explains to Ashley that he cannot remember anything about his past, including his death, and thus cannot pass from this life to the next. Together, the pair of them explore the monstrous mansion on the island to find clues about Ashley's father and D's past.
Another Code is all about slow-paced exploration, discovery, and revelation. Solving puzzles and finding character back-story are what will help you in this type of game, rather than having a quick trigger finger. Because of this, the story is crucial to the game, and if it was poor, it would cause the whole thing to collapse in a heap. Luckily, the story is engaging, and while it may not have a whole lot of plot twists, it is full of suspense and intrigue as you uncover more details about Ashley's family, as well as the history of the Edward Mansion and the island itself.
The graphics are a blend of three different styles - a pre-rendered look for close-ups of the various locations you visit, a polygonal world for you to navigate through in real-time, and a cel-shaded style for the images of various characters. These three different styles blend together to give a refreshingly different look which contrasts the realism of the pre-rendered scenes with the cartoon-style of the characters quite well. The only problem with the pre-rendered scenes is that because they are pre-rendered, when you solve certain puzzles, the image is not updated on-screen. For example, while reconstructing a sign allows you to see it assembled close-up, if you are looking at the gate where the sign is, the sign still appears to be broken.
Music and sound are fairly subdued, with the music being a subtle set of songs that can be forgettable, but not annoying. The game uses mostly natural sounds like waves splashing, dripping caves, howling wind, footsteps on creaking floorboards, and other things that you'd hear in real life. The various sound effects for the DAS system sound suspiciously like the Nintendo DS itself.
Because Another Code has been designed from the ground up for the Nintendo DS, it uses the system in incredibly clever ways. Except for the wireless multiplayer feature of the DS, every aspect of the system is used in a puzzle of some kind, with two puzzles in particular being so ingenious that I don't want to tell you about them, so that you can figure them out for yourself. The game does give you hints for nearly all of the puzzles, but some of them are a little too vague, meaning that they don't actually make sense until after you've solved the puzzle.
One little quirk of the game is that, unlike every other adventure game in existence, you can't pick up everything that isn't nailed down immediately. Ashley needs a reason to use an item before she can pick it up. To be fair, this makes logical sense -- I know that I don't pick up everything I see on my way to work every day -- and it's not really too difficult to figure out what you need, because you'll usually have seen it before, or it will have been implied by Ashley or D that you need it. Another problem with the game is that it's often difficult to know if you've checked everything in an area. It would have been helpful if there were a button that showed all the things you can interact with in the current screen. Oh. And there's a sliding tile puzzle in the game. I hate those.
The game's control is quite clever, and easy to use. You can navigate Ashley either with the Control Pad, or the easier method of holding the stylus down, and she will automatically walk to the stylus point. She'll keep walking until you let go, so you can navigate easily by moving the stylus around the screen. (I will be very surprised if this control method doesn't get ripped off for at least one other DS game.) When Ashley reaches something she can examine, a magnifying glass icon appears. Simply tap on it and you'll see a close-up view of the area on the touch screen. You can then examine pretty much everything on-screen, either by double tapping, or by placing the pointer on the object you want to examine, then tapping the magnifying glass icon. Throughout the Mansion, there are also special data cards that contain little memos from Richard, Ashley's father. During the second play-through, the information in these cards changes to history about the Edward family, giving you a reason to explore the game again.
Cing has done a great job on creating an easy-to-play, unique, and most importantly, entertaining DS game. Anyone who's played a PC game with "Quest" in the title will enjoy this, as will those who don't particularly like to see a Game Over screen when they play games. There's nothing like Another Code on the DS at the moment, but hopefully, other developers will be inspired by this game, and we'll get to see more adventure games on the system.
Pros:
The Breakall Drillbot has other uses besides breaking through solid walls. There are sockets running along on rails -- if you drill upwards into these, you'll hold onto them for as long as the drill keeps running. There are also hidden jacks that you can plug your drill into. These come in handy to open giant roller doors that block your path. The one I encountered also needed to be closed again to remove the counterweight from blocking my path. The drill can also be used to plough into enemies for as long as it keeps rotating. It can even be used to deflect bullets and missiles, but you don't want to run into the missiles because they'll explode instead of deflect!
There is also a cool mini-boss encounter before the demo is over. There is a fairly large pig-like tank which keeps shooting missiles straight at you. The key to success is to wait for the missiles to come out, then plug your drill straight into the missile hatch -- not as easy as it sounds, as the missiles come at you thick and fast! Once the tank is defeated, you'll finish the level and be picked up by your fellow thieves. You'll also see a cutscene that shows your Drillbot completely destroyed. Your handyman repairs it for you, but wouldn't you know it, he can't repair those extra gears you found, so you'll have to start the next level with one gear again.
Screw Breaker is a fantastic game with a really clever game mechanic. It's a combination of action, platforming, and puzzle, and the cart on the show floor even has built-in rumble! Here's hoping that it gets released, because it's a really fun little game that's easy to pick up and play.
There aren't many games where you get to play as an eight year old girl who becomes the leader of a gang of thieves when her dad is severely beaten up by guys who wear skull masks and use rollerblades. There also aren't many games where young girls drive gigantic mechanical machines to cause severe property damage while reclaiming stolen treasure.
Game Freak's Screw Breaker (or Drill Dozer everywhere else) features both of these things. And not surprisingly, thieves + property damage = fun.
The game is a platformer with a clever hook -- you control a robot called the Breakall Drillbot, which has two massive drills for arms. As you'd expect with any platformer, you can use the A Button to jump, but Screw Breaker lets you attack and interact by using the L Button to drill anti-clockwise, and the R Button to drill clockwise. Whenever you drill, a big gear and a time bar overlay on top of the whole screen (it sounds very intrusive, but it's actually fairly subtle).
Initially, you'll only be able to drill until the bar has filled up and drained down again, but you can increase your drill time by collecting gears. Once you have another gear, you can switch up by letting go and quickly pressing the current drill button you're using to switch up. This is made very intuitive by seeing the words "DRILL UP!" when you're able to switch a gear. Because of this, you'll be able to increase your drill time to allow you to drill through tougher bricks and attack enemies for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, any gears you earn break when you finish the level, so you must get them again in each level.
You wouldn't think that you could do all that much with a drill, but there's a surprising amount of creative uses for it in Screw Breaker. If you push forward when drilling a brick, for example, once you've finished drilling, you'll get a little 'boost' forward. This boost can be used to let you hook onto a brick in front of you that would otherwise be out of reach. The drill can also be used to wall jump by drilling into a brick, then reversing the rotation in mid-drill. A mid-air dash can also be performed by ducking and then pressing jump. These little tricks become particularly crucial in latter stages of the game, especially in the secret levels where the difficulty becomes particularly devious.
The levels in Screw Breaker are well-designed -- there's no place you can really get 'stuck.' It's clear that a lot of creativity has gone into the design, and that the levels have been tested thoroughly. There are assorted drill-specific obstacles for you to get through. Some of these include air ducts (red-coloured ones require you to drill with R to go forward, and blue ones require you to use L), boulders which hurtle towards you (you can't drill these if they're rolling down a slope, only flat ground will do), and clamps which hold onto your drill, let you gain speed and launch you into the air.
Boss battles are an absolute pleasure, with at least one in every level. From the possessed tree stump that grows a cactus tail to the grandma twins that pilot a submarine to the large police mech that throws a giant pair of handcuffs at you to the insanely large missile-hurling robot that takes up the entire screen and you must sabotage from the inside to destroy, each one is a real treat to battle. There are also mini-battles where the screen locks you in place and swarms of Skull Rollers or cops come charging at you until you manage to drill 'em all.
The game's soundtrack is excellent, featuring plenty of guitar and a suitably industrial feel for the majority of the game, which is appropriate as it mostly takes place in buildings and factories. Variations in the music including a spooky theme for a temple in the jungle, and an aquatic theme accentuated by bubbling noises. The game also features a fair bit of vocal effects - not speech, necessarily, but assorted grunts, cackles and chuckles from the supporting cast, which all help to give the game a bit more personality.
Although the Japanese version is entirely in Japanese, there's only two points in the game that are a little difficult due to the inability to read Japanese. The first is that you need to look for hints in an immediate area to a safe combination (although you can just read everything and look out for numbers in the text), and the second is that the game only explains instructions in Japanese, meaning that you mightn't know that you can hover by holding L when using the flying powerup in one level, which is essential for beating that level's boss. Aside from these two issues, it's all fairly straightforward.
Screw Breaker, simply put, is a fantastic game. It's the kind of creativity that can only escape from Japan, and yet with such a quirky design, it's surprisingly easy to pick up and play. The rumble cart is not overused, and enhances the experience. If you can't wait for the English release -- and that's perfectly understandable -- then pick it up from our partners at http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=117&products_id=7256&>Lik-Sang. The Japanese version comes with a bonus mini-comic that tells the game's opening story!
Pros:
And the OBJECTION screen cleaner. And the thick manga/artwork book thingo. Now my mum's thoroughly addicted to the game, though! I don't mind - it's great watching someone else play the game and get as into the story as I was!
Quote
Don't worry Ben! I'll never forget you!
totally SPIES!(tm) FOR THE GAME BOY(r) ADVANCE
now available nationwide
Butt-Kicking Animated Series on the Cartoon Network, Now Available as Video Game for the First Time Ever
NEW YORK, NY, November 22, 2005 - Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) and Marathon Animation today announced that Totally Spies!(tm) is available in stores nationwide for the Game Boy(r) Advance. Totally Spies! is the hit animated TV series that stars three teen super-spies from Beverly Hills, who fight international crime. On air since 2001, Totally Spies! is seen in more than 100 markets worldwide, including the Cartoon Network in the USA. Totally Spies! is rated 'E' for Everyone and available at a suggested retail price of $29.99.
"Atari recognizes brands with specific appeal and converts them into mainstream interactive entertainment," said Steve Tucker, Director of Global Brand Management, Atari, Inc. "The Totally Spies! franchise is one that will continue to grow globally, and we are excited to release the first Totally Spies! video game."
"Fans across the U.S. can now fully immerse themselves in the non-stop thrills and excitement of Totally Spies! with a truly interactive gaming experience," said Marathon Animation President Vincent Chalvon-Demersay. "With its engaging, fast-paced action and widespread appeal among both boys and girls, Totally Spies! perfectly lends itself to interactive games, which invite fans to be part of the non-stop adventure that is the series' hallmark."
Totally Spies! features three hip Beverly Hills girls - Clover, Alex and Sam - who all share a flair for fashion and live double lives as they become international secret agents for the World Organization of Human Protection (WOOHP). The series aims to empower girls, while celebrating their tech-savvy lifestyles, as the irrepressible "spy girl" stars use all manner of techno gadgets to inadvertently stop world crises...while still managing to get their homework done! Gamers will follow five story-based levels, which combine fun and fast-paced puzzles, racing and fighting.
