Gaming History: Handhelds

These days we're spoilt for choice when it comes to handheld consoles; the 3DS and Playstation Vita offer two different approaches to dedicated console based handheld gaming while gaming on mobile devices and tablets is also becoming more widespread with apps, games and ports offered from a wide variety of sources. Looking back though, it's been an interesting ride to get to where we are today, with many handheld consoles attempting to captivate consumers and offer a unique gaming experience.

Though there were some devices which could technically offer a handheld or portable gaming experience before 1979, the first true handheld gaming console was the Milton Bradley Microvision, offering interchangeable game cartridges, 16 bytes of RAM, and a resolution of 16x16. 12 games were released for the Microvision, each of which came with its own facia for the unit, displaying the button functions and title of the game. Not a lot of these are around and in working condition today due to construction faults and 35 years of wear and tear.

(Milton Bradley Microvision - 1979)

Inspired by a businessman on a train who was playing with an LCD calculator, Nintendo employee Gunpei Yokoi came up with the idea of Game & Watch handhelds. Although these only played one game at a time, they were an important step towards the Game Boy, and 60 in total were released, beginning in 1980. The devices themselves consisted of an LCD screen, various buttons (most had a d-pad after 1982's Donkey Kong) and a watch/alarm function. The Game & Watch series proved to be incredibly popular in Japan.

In 1982 the first solar powered gaming device was released in the form of the Bandai LCD Solarpower. With only 10 games released it wasn't hugely sucessful, however it did feature cartridges with 2 stacked LCD panels atop one another for a 3D effect later in its lifespan. The first dedicated 3D home video hardware system was released a year later as the Tomytronic. This used a similar design to achieve its 3D effect, lighting the 2 LCD panels from a window on top of the device. Many later handhelds would dabble in 3D technology with varying degrees of success.

(Zelda Game & Watch - 1989)

Perhaps the best known handheld gaming system of all time, the Nintendo Game Boy was released in April 1989 in Japan, bundled with Tetris. Although it only featured 4 shades of grey for its colour palette and needed 4 AA batteries to run, the device achieved huge success due to its strong lineup of games which included Super Mario Land and Pokemon Red/Blue as well as various redesigns and colour choices for consumers.

The Game Boy's main competitors were the Atari Lynx, (released just one month later featuring a colour LCD screen, and the ability to link up to 18 units via a network system for some games), and the Sega Game Gear (released over a year later than the Game Boy and featuring hardware similar to that of the Master System). Neither of these systems saw anywhere near the level of the success of the Game Boy, possibly due to their far larger size, poor battery life and weaker game libraries. There was also a notable 4th place finisher in the 4th generation handheld race; the NEC TurboExpress, which was essentially a handheld TurboGrafx16. Its high price point, hardware issues with capacitors and screen hindered sales to just 1.5 million in total.

(Atari Lynx - 1989)

In 1995 Sega released the Nomad in North America. The console would accept existing Genesis cartridges and function as a handheld version of the home console. Unfortunately there was no support for many of the Genesis peripherals, the system was poorly marketed and only released in North America. Due to this, it sold poorly and with the release of the Pokemon games in the same year, it failed to gain much attention from consumers.

The next entry in the fifth generation of handheld console was the Tiger game.com in 1997. Featuring PDA style features and targeted at an audience of older gamers, it failed to excite consumers and was overshadowed by the release of the Game Boy Colour in 1998 which could display up to 56 colours simultaneously from its palette of 32,768, surpassing the capabilities of the Atari Lynx and other earlier colour consoles. In addition to this it was fully backwards compatible with the original Game Boy library, giving gamers a huge choice of games to play, even on launch.

(Neo Geo Pocket Colour - 1999)

Released in 1999, the Neo Geo Pocket Colour was the successor to the Japan only Neo Geo Pocket. The system on its way to becoming the biggest challenger to a Nintendo handheld in the US when it was dropped from the market after a company takeover. In 2000 the Wonderswan Colour was released in Japan, and had moderate success due to a deal between Bandai and Square to port and update Final Fantasy games for the console, though this success was shortlived.

2001 saw the release of the Game Boy Advance which added a larger screen, shoulder buttons and more power to the already successful design of the Game Boy Colour. With backwards compatibility for previous Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games as well as connectivity between the GBA and Gamecube, and the GBA SP redesign in 2003, the consoles sold a combined total of 80 million units worldwide, on top of the 118 million units sold by the original Game Boy and Game Boy Colour.

(Game Boy Advance SP - 2003)

Several competitors to the Game Boy Advance were launched between 2001 and 2004, including the Nokia N-Gage which aimed to combine the functionality of a handheld games console with a mobile telephone (somewhat unsuccessfully) and the Tapwave Zodiac, which like the game.com attempted to integrate PDA-type features, as well as photo and music storage but was ultimately unsuccessful as the company declared bankruptcy in 2005.

With Nintendo dominating the market arguably since 1989 and before, all eyes were on what would replace the Game Boy Advance, and just 3 years after its release, the Nintendo DS was introduced, featuring dual screens, one of which was a touchscreen. With many game design possibilities, games such as Nintendogs, Rhythm Heaven and backwards compatibility for Gameboy Advance titles, the system stands as the 2nd best selling console ever with almost 154 million sales, just 1 million behind the PS2.

(Sony PSP - 2005)

The first and only (so far) legitimate challenger to a Nintendo handheld console was released in 2005, in the form of the Sony PSP. Giving gamers higher graphical performance, and choosing to utilise optical media in the form of UMDs over cartridges, the system's games had more to offer in terms of content than the Nintendo DS. It worked far more like a home console than anything released before it, and could even play movies stored on UMDs. With 34.4% of the market share against the Nintendo DS, and around 80 million PSPs sold, the system was unlucky not to have been even more successful.

Although a fair amount of multi functional devices were released between 2005 and 2011, the huge success of both the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP systems lead to long term support for both, including many redesigns such as the DS Lite, DSi, PSP-2/3000 and PSP Go. The two consoles lead the handheld market in sales by a long way, and prevented any other company from gaining a foothold.

(Nintendo 3DS XL - 2012)

Continuing Nintendo's handheld market dominance, the 3DS is their current console, with an XL version available as well as the 2DS which has most of the functionality, save for the 3D feature. Despite a tepid initial reaction to the console, and many critics prematurely dubbing it a failure, it holds an approximate market share of 80% and has had many high selling games such as Pokemon X and Y. As previously mentioned this wasn't the first handheld foray into 3D gaming, but the autostereoscopic 3D is by far the best system for it in my view.

The PS Vita is the only other real notable dedicated handheld gaming device, and it's aimed more at gamers who want near-console graphics and gaming experience from their handheld play. The console went back to using cartridge style cards from optical media, though these can hold around 3 Gb which is higher than the 1.8Gb maximum for a dual layer UMD. Interestingly the Vita does feature a touchscreen, perhaps following Nintendo's lead but it seems to be less critical to gameplay for most titles.

(Handheld gaming on an Android device)

More recently handheld gaming seems to be taking place on smartphones and tablets, perhaps a natural progression given their touchscreen capabilities and the availability of ROMs online. It seems that the products which are most useful to consumers in this market are always the ones which will prevail. It remains to be seen whether Nintendo will be able to continue to dominate the handheld market with this new wave of handheld gaming across many other devices, but looking back over the history of portable gaming there's not been many points where they haven't been at the top.

Game Review: Power Stone Collection

Game: Power Stone Collection
Console: Sony PSP
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 31st October 2006

The Power Stone Collection for PSP includes both Power Stone and Power Stone 2, which were excellent fighting games for the Sega Dreamcast, as well as extras and new unlockables. It may help to read my review of Power Stone for the Dreamcast, as I won't be going over the details of why it's such a good game here. I don't own Power Stone 2 for Dreamcast, but for the purposes of the review I'll assume its as well ported as the original onto the collection, and I'll also be discussing the bonus features of the collection as a whole.

As a fan of Power Stone on the Dreamcast, I was hoping that it'd feel much the same on the PSP as it did before, and it wasn't far off. The face buttons are positioned the same as on the Dreamcast, despite being differently labelled, and the triggers are mapped to the shoulder buttons which is fine, since they only ever functioned as buttons anyway. The only real difference in control is that the PSP's analog stick is a little different than that of the Dreamcast, and I found myself alternating between the d-pad and the analog stick.

Graphically the game doesn't seem to have been changed too much from the Dreamcast, which isn't really a pro or a con, as I see it. The radar at the bottom had been changed to feature an arrow instead of quadrants, but there's an option to change it back to its original state. Other than these small changes there's not too many differences between this version and the Dreamcast version, save for the extra features.

Added ontop of the regular unlocks are new items such as the Soccer Ball, Maches Chainsaw, Giant Boots and more. There's also the ability to play as the four new characters from Power Stone 2; Pete, Julia, Gourmand and Accel. While they seem to control a little differently from the regular cast, they're a fun addition and it's nice to see some extra content. Overall it's an extremely solid port of the Dreamcast title which conveys the same energetic gameplay and arcade style action as the original. The smaller screen of the PSP isn't a huge problem, but at times it can be a hard to keep track of your character onscreen.

Power Stone 2 changed the formula quite a bit, adding 3 on 1, and Adventure modes to the game, as well as shortening the number of stages per run-through to just 3, with 2 boss stages inbetween for a total of 5. The game seems to be rather geared towards playing in 3 on 1 mode, as this is what unlocks new characters, items and stages for versus mode. Unfortunately when playing in this mode, the computer character fighting against the boss alongside you seems to have no clue that you're on their team, and will attack indiscriminately, making the game a little harder.

Adventure mode allows players to collect items and coins which go towards making new weapons in the item shop, where items and weapons can be combined to create new items and weapons. The gameplay of adventure mode remains much the same as Arcade mode, but with the addition of more coin collecting after each level. Once the main game has been completed, Adventure mode adds some replayability as items can be levelled up and rare items can be found.

Most stages in Power Stone 2 are dynamic and will change in various ways during battle. The airship stage begins on an airship which falls apart, leaving players to glide through the air and pick up items and powerups before landing on a floating battleground to continue. These stages add excitement and can turn battles around in some cases, although they can be difficult to get used to for first time players.

Due to the abundance of characters onscreen in 3 on 1 mode, there are also more Power Stones available in the levels, with a maximum of 7 instead of 3. Consequently, two players can have collected 3 stones at once, leading to them both being in their hyper forms. Although this can lead to fairly hectic battles, it means that finding 3 stones isn't as difficult as it might be, and players have the option to set the number of stones back to 3 if they wish anyway.

The extras included in the collection include a movie theater to rewatch ending cutscenes from the original Power Stone as well as credits for each game, sketches and artwork designs for each character, music and voices from both games, and the original VMU minigames which could be downloaded onto Dreamcast memory cards; Falcon's Aerial Adventure, Amy's Ninja Traning and Gunrock Slots. These make for a comprehensive collection of extra features and really embellish the game as a whole.

Graphically Power Stone Collection hasn't changed too much from the Dreamcast versions of both games, but the menus and extra features are presented very nicely. I noticed the PSP-3000 model interlacing issues affecting a few select parts of gameplay, but that isn't the fault of the game. Musically there's exciting and fitting music behind both games, though I feel the original Power Stone had music of slightly better quality.

Overall this is a great collection of two classic Dreamcast fighting games which appeals to existing fans of the series as well as those who are being newly introduced to it. Both games are of high quality and are excellently ported to the handheld console. Running through arcade mode in either game takes around 15-20 and so is perfect for play on the go. I'd definitely reccommend this to anyone with a PSP.

Rating: 91/100
Grade: A

Game Review: We Love Katamari

Game: We Love Katamari
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 20th September 2005

Listen along to the game soundtrack as you read! (recommended more than ever)

Every once in a while, a game comes along which reminds players what they love about video games. For me, this is definitely one of those games. The Katamari series began with Katamari Damacy, which was released in Japan, Korea and North America and designed around the 4 key points of novelty, ease of understanding, enjoyment and humour. The game featured The Prince of the Cosmos as its main character, attempting to repair damage to the night sky (caused by the King of the Cosmos while drunk) by rolling up enough everyday items with his katamari (a small adhesive ball) into stars and placing them back into the sky.

As the second game in the Katamari series, We Love Katamari continues the story as fans of the original game populate the 'select meadow' where they shout their requests of the King until players choose to hear them and take on their 'mission'. Although they all involve rolling up items with a katamari, the missions are nicely varied and focus on different aspects of the game such as rolling up to a certain size within a time limit, estimating the size of your katamari without the size guide on the HUD, and helping fans out by completing objectives.

Depending on the mission, players will start with their katamari at a specified size, somewhere within the mission location (ranging from houses to schools to the universe). Once the objectives have been explained, it's possible to collect any item that's slightly smaller than your katamari's current size. As things are added to the cluster, its size grows and is shown in the top left. Most stages feature a good variety of items scattered around, although some are based around collecting a number of the same item.

The analog sticks are used to control the katamari; if they're both pressed in the same direction, then the katamari will move in that direction, turning is achieved by holding the sticks in different directions, and there are also special moves like dashing, or hopping over the katamari which require alternating and pushing in the sticks respectively. While this does take a little getting used to, there's a tutorial stage which can be replayed as needed, and I found myself to be fairly competent after only a short while.

After the completion of every 2-3 missions, a cutscene is shown and more mission options open up. The story that the cutscenes tell fits well with the humour and style of the game, despite not being hugely related to the missions which players are carrying out. Once the game is complete, all cutscenes can be accessed from a 'movie viewer' option, as well as the opening from Katamari Damacy, included only in PAL versions due to its lack of release in Europe.

Throughout the mission locations are scattered 'cousins' of the Prince, who come in a variety of colours and shapes, and can be found and collected by rolling them into the katamari. Once found, players can use any cousin they wish to play missions with, and even change the appearance of each cousin with 'presents' that are also found in missions. This gives the game some replayability as it's difficult to find all of the cousins/presents on the first playthrough.

Graphically the game has a cutesy cartoon style which fits well with the general aesthetic and enables players to easily tell what they're rolling into the Katamari most of the time. The game's soundtrack is one of its strongest points, as several genres are covered excellently in an entertaining way that fits effortlessly behind the game. While there's no voice acting for the text on screen, this is perhaps a wise decision due to the absurdity and humour of the game.

Overall while We Love Katamari was one of the most expensive games I've ever bought due to its rarity (although this isn't saying too much, since I get 99% of my games used), for me it was completely worth it. Though the game is short and only based on one core mechanic, the amount of fun and sheer absurdity that Namco managed to cram into the game, coupled with the soundtrack, visuals and replayability more than made up for that. It's not a game for everyone, but those that do enjoy it should absolutely love it.

Rating: 92/100
Grade: A

Amstrad CPC Triple Header: Harrier Attack, Trollie Wallie, and Paperboy

I recently picked up an Amstrad CPC 464 home computer system from 1984. Just like Commodore Plus/4, the hardware is all underneath the keyboard, and the games are played from cassette tapes, though this time the cassette player is built into the console itself. The CPC uses its own monitor which supplies power to the console via an extremely short lead, resulting in players being literally inches from the monitor, unless they choose joystick controls and have a sufficiently long controller lead. Anyway, with the system I picked up 73 games, so there's many more of these reviews to come, but for the first I picked out the three most exciting games I could see.

Game: Harrier Attack
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Durell Software
Release Date: 1984

As one of the CPC's previous owner's favourite games (according to a list I found), I was expecting a fair amount of Harrier Attack. As the game's title would suggest, players pilot a Harrier jet through hostile skies taking on ships, anti-aircraft fire and other planes. I used a master system controller as a joystick, so the movement buttons were mapped to its d-pad, and the rockets to button 1. The only slightly disappointing control related feature was that despite there being a second button on the master system's controller, the space button on the keyboard was used for bombs.

A difficulty level from 1-5 is selected at the beginning of the game, and this governs how much anti-aircraft fire the player can take, as well as how intelligent the AI opponents are. Completing the game at difficulty level 1 will take players onto difficulty level 2 and so on. Getting to the end of a stage is fairly easy, and should only take 3 or so minutes at half-speed. Points are awarded for blowing different things up with the finite number of bombs and rockets provided, and there's an extra 2000 bonus points for landing at the end of each level.

The game's graphics are simple and perhaps a little behind par for the time. The scrolling effect of the game can be fairly jerky and offputting, but I didn't find it too hard to get used to. While there's no music, there are some decent flying game style sound effects, and explosions sound far better than they would on the Atari or similar consoles.

Overall this is a simple but fairly effective shoot 'em up which is held back by the simplicity of its graphics, and being restricted to moving in lanes instead of freely. The choice of 2 weapons is good, and multiple difficulty levels mean that the challenge is never too great or small. With a good soundtrack and some slightly better graphics, this could have been a much better game, however.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Game: Trollie Wallie
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Players
Release Date: 1986

The 'Players' cartridge label was reserved for games sent in by players of the Amstrad CPC who had programmed their own games and sent them in for evaluation. Only games that were approved by the company were then distributed to owners of CPCs everywhere. Trollie Wallie is one of those games, and it's a platforming/maze style game where players are tasked with collecting 40 items for a shopping list and checking them out, 5 at a time in a huge maze like supermarket level.

The controls are fairly sound as only the d-pad and one jump button is used. The jump itself is of a set length, and non adjustable once initiated, leading to a need for angle and distance calculations before you lift off, as there are many obstacles which can kill the player. A lot of the paths and platforms that lead to vital items are moving or appear and disappear, which makes the game pretty tough. I managed to find and check out 5 items out of the 40 after about 15 goes.

Graphically the game is once again fairly simple, although there's a near NES level of detail afforded to some of the shopping list items, even if the main character looks far too scary to be a mascot of anything. Nothing is explained in the game, so it'll take a while to get used to what everything does, around the level, however once you know, it's easy to remember. The title screen features an enjoyable remix of the song 'Popcorn' although there's no in game music once the game has begun.

Overall Trollie Wallie seems like a game that's lost a lot of its fun and charm with age; it seems extremely outdated and doesn't control all that well by modern standards, but I can see kids in the 1980s dedicating a couple of hours towards trying to beat the game. Personally I don't think I'll ever come back to/complete the game but it's nice to see what the indie developer community was producing in 1986.

Rating:
Grade: E

Game: Paperboy
Console: Amstrad CPC 464
Developer: Elite
Release Date: 1987

Paperboy seemed to find its way onto every console under the sun, and the CPC was no exception. I remember being distinctly disappointed with the Commodore Plus/4 version of Paperboy due to its poor control scheme and graphics, but the CPC version seems to have fared much better in both of these aspects. The general aim of the game is the same as in all versions of Paperboy; deliver papers to the houses who subscribe and break the windows of those who don't. Although this version doesn't give you much indication of who subscribes and who doesn't, I aimed for every mailbox, window and other target available, and was rewarded with points for each one hit, so it wasn't too much of an issue. At the end of each stage there's a BMX style course with targets to aim papers at, which adds a fun twist.

There were still a couple of problems with the game however; due to the angle of the road as it scrolls upwards, most obstacles were hard to avoid, especially drain covers and anything directly in front of the player. Also because there's no real guidance as to where to deliver the papers to, it becomes more of an arcade style ' get the high score' game, which gives it less replayability once you've played for a while.

Graphically the game is bright and features a good level of detail for an 8 bit console, the scrolling is a little choppy but not too bad. Most of the game's problems come from the fact that the player's bicycle is only afforded a small triangle in the bottom right of the screen. There's not any music or sound effects within the game, which is a little disappointing, but the gameplay is more important.

Overall this version of Paperboy seems to feature the best of both worlds, in terms of graphics and gameplay despite having some minor problems. While I've not played the NES version, I'd say this is a strong competitor to it. 8 bit consoles have their fair share of arcade style games, and this is one of the better ones.

Rating: 43/100
Grade: E

Game Review: Papers Please

Game: Papers Please
Console: PC
Developer: Lucas Pope
Release Date: 8th August 2013

If you keep even slightly up to date with the gaming community, chances are that you've heard of 'Papers, Please', the indie office-job sim that made it onto many 'Best of ' lists in 2013. Players assume the role of a citizen of Arzstotska who is picked to perform the job of border crossing attendant in a labour lottery. From the very beginning of the game, Arzstotska is established as a generic eastern European style communist dictatorship with political tensions affecting the relationships between the country and its neighbours.

Throughout the game, these tensions serve to slowly escalate the difficulty of the tasks presented to the player. Initially only the passport details of potential immigrants have to be checked against known information, but by the end of the game there's entry passes, work permits, I.D supplements, vaccination records and more to worry about. Assessing whether all of the information on the supplied documents matches will ultimately inform the player's decision to approve or reject the applicant.

As the game progresses new rules are added and taken away, and it's up to the player to remember what rules apply to each day. Discrepancies can be questioned if necessary, and fingerprinting, full body searches and defensive weapons in case of terrorist attacks are added to the tools available, giving a feel of development to later gameplay. For every correct approval/denial, the player earns 5 credits towards food, housing and keeping their family warm. At times it can be hard just to break even, with all of the strains on your income. If more than 2 potential immigrants are wrongly assessed then players begin to receive financial penalties for bad performance also.

As well as the pressure of earning enough money to keep their family alive, players also must consider the plight of various recurring characters at the checkpoint, lovers separated by the border, people attempting to bribe their way through, and most importantly to the game's story, political terror groups who wish to enlist the skills of a border official. It's up to players whether to help out any of these individuals or not, and depending on their choice, one of the twenty different game endings will be achieved on, or before the 31st day of work.

The real charm of this game comes from living the day-to-day life of a checkpoint officer, and attempting to keep concentration long enough to check all relevant information, while assessing the best course of action for each decision and providing enough income to feed and house family members. While the core gameplay may not appeal to some due to its perceived monotony, I found that the tweaks each day's rules, and overarching story kept things interesting enough.

Graphically, the game is presented in a simple pixel style which helps to focus players on the task at hand and keep the feel of the era in which the game is set. The sound is appropriate for the game with an interesting theme and sound effects, which contribute to the overall ambience. If you're looking for a simple game to pass some time, or just something a little different from the normal gaming experience, I'd reccomend giving 'Papers, Please' a try.

Rating: 81/100
Grade: B

Midas Touch Double Header: Robot Warlords vs Go Go Golf

Having had enough of quality titles for a while, I've decided to return to my quest to find a good game by Midas on the PS2. Today's two titles are from the era when the company was known as Midas Touch, and both look as if they might be pretty enjoyable.

Game: Robot Warlords

Console: Sony Playstation 2

Developer: Nexus Interact

Release Date: 14th December 2001

Upon first inspection, Robot Warlords looks as if it might play a little like the mech sections of Titanfall, or at least function as a decent mech shooter. After all what else could a giant robot on the front of a game mean? Well it turns out that the game couldn't be much further from that sort of gameplay if it tried. While I wasn't expecting wonders from Midas Touch (as several of their other games have disappointed me), I think even they could have tried a little harder. 

The game opens with 7-10 minutes at least of badly voice acted text and character avatars, setting the scene for the game in a long winded and overly confusing manner. I was no more enlightened when the conversation ended than when it began, as the characters reference events outside of the game, say different things to the text that appears and generally don't have any exposition or defining features outside of their physical appearance.

Having decided that I was quite willing to sit through all of this storyline for some killer mech gameplay, it was pretty disappointing to find that Robot Warlords is in fact a turn based strategy combat game. Although the back of the box does mention that the game is turn based, none of the screenshots indicate this, and I'm convinced that the publishers did their best to hide it. Missions are given to the player, alongside a setup screen where weapons, stats and other options can be customised (though its hard to work out what anything means, as the game doesn't explain it). 

Once the mission has begun, players choose from the attack options menu as to whether they wish to move, attack, or use special techniques in order to defeat the required amount of enemies. Each of the 4 mechs on the player's side gets a turn, and while there seems to be some strategy to the game, it's not explained at all before you're thrust into battle, and the damage done by and to your mechs seems to be essentially random. After each allied and enemy turn, a short cutscene showing the desired action happening occurs, which becomes tedious incredibly quickly. 

There are seven missions overall in the game, taking 10-15 minutes each on average, or 14 turns, but most of them are fairly difficult to complete due to the utter lack of explanation from the game, as to how to play. Graphically the game features low resolution textures and poor all round mech models, backgrounds and effects. The music which plays behind the game and menu loops far too quickly and noticeably, and the voice acting and sound effects are also incredibly poor. 

Overall this seems to be the worst kind of budget game; one that attempts to trick players into thinking that it's something more than it really is. The mechs and fighting displayed on the back cover look far superior to the game's content, and with only 7 hard to play missions, and hours of scrolling through text, there's no real reward to picking this title up and giving it a go. Even if you're into robots, strategy games and reading lots and lots of text, I'd give this a miss.

Rating: 24/100

Grade: F

Game: Go Go Golf

Console: Sony Playstation 2

Developer: Mahou

Release Date: 29th November 2002

While I'm not the biggest fan of golf as a sport, I have played a Tiger Woods PGA Tour game or two, and so know vaguely what a golf game should be like. Just moments after starting the game however, I didn't have the best feeling about Go Go Golf, as the options screen allowed me only to choose whether vibration was on or off. No sound or visual options, let alone gameplay and control options reminded me of other painfully simple budget games. 

Beginning a new Tour, I thought I'd attempt to pick up the game's controls as I went along and see just what the game's career mode is like. The core gameplay was indeed painfully simple, with the X button used to time the backswing and hitting of the golf ball, and left/right directional buttons used to choose which of three preset destinations the ball is to be aimed at. There are literally no other buttons used to play the game, and players can usually do without the directional buttons, leaving X as the only button necessary to play. 

Graphically the game is almost up to PS2 standard with its player models, but course details and textures look horribly scaled and low resolution. At many points in the game's three courses, I could clearly see the pixels of the fairway. Soundwise, the game claims to have "dramatic music", but I think it could be better described as 'uninteresting muzak'. All voice clips featured are of strangely low quality also. 

Overall this isn't that bad for an extremely simple golf game, the control feels almost arcade like and the simplicity of gameplay may appeal to some gamers, however the characters have no real personality or defining features, the graphics are extremely poor when compared to other golf games of the time (and earlier ones!), and to have just 3 courses seems like a lack of effort on the developers part. It's almost passable as an arcade style sports game, but it's not short of problems.

Rating: 45/100

Grade: D

Game Review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle

Game: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle
Console: Sony Playstation 3
Developer: CyberConnect2
Release Date: 29th April 2014

As far as new releases go, this is possibly the most up to date I'll get; Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle was released just over 2 months ago, to compliment the new anime series which has been running since 2013, though the manga series has been running since the late 1980s. As a fighting game, it features many of the main characters and antagonists from parts 1-8 of the anime/manga series fighting battles based on the plots of their respective parts, as well as online and arcade style battles.

The style of the game derives heavily from the style of the manga and anime, using a graphics shader system to give the appearance of battles straight out of the pages of a book, while keeping a high definition 3D look which is visually impressive. While 32 characters are unlockable and included on the game disk, there are another 9 which can be downloaded from PSN for £1.59 each, bringing the fighter total to 41.

There are 4 game modes (not including practice); Arcade, Story, Campaign and Versus. Arcade mode is only included in PAL versions of the game, and allows players to fight 8 random opponents with any fighter of their choosing, a little like arcade mode in most other fighting games. Story mode is separated out into each of the 8 parts of the manga series so far, with specific battles which outline the story of each section. There can be anywhere from 4-10 fights per part, opponents will often have special status effects, and once beaten, you can play as the opponents in each battle.

Campaign mode is played online and tasks players with searching for bosses, who once found will reappear for the next ten minutes. Bosses have a large overall health bar (between 1500 and 7000HP) which can be depleted by beating them in battle. Multipliers and other effects can be used to increase the amount of damage done, and once beaten, bosses unlock alternate costumes, taunts and victory animations for fighters. Versus mode allows players to play against a friend, the computer or other online players with any character.

Of course no fighting game is complete without the fighting itself, and All Star Battle has some of the best I've seen. Fighters come in various styles; Hamon (or Ripple) users strengthen their attacks via breathing techniques, Stand users have a persona which fights on their behalf and can perform special moves, and Horse riders are mounted at the beginning of battle, but can be knocked off their horse when attacked. There are also a handful of other styles used by single fighters due to the huge range of powers and abilities presented in the manga, which the game stays true to. While this can cause some imbalance between characters (there are definitely some that I have a hard time fighting as), I think that most of them can be mastered with enough work.

Regular moves available to players include grabs and single punches/kicks which can be performed with any of the light/heavy attack buttons; but the most effective moves to use are quarter turn moves (which are unique to each character, varying from ranged attacks to being able to place traps on the stage) or combos which can be performed with multiple taps of the light/heavy buttons. The Heart Heat meter at the bottom of the screen builds up as player gives or takes damage, and the number signifies the strength of special move which can be used, ranging between one and three, if a move is available. There's a score bonus for finishing with a Heart Heat move, and a cinematic cutscene plays once the move has landed.

Graphically the game is impressive both stylistically and in general with highly detailed characters, player models and cutscene style special attacks. There are pieces of concept art and original designs and models which can be unlocked with in-game credits too. The music and sound effects in the game are also of a high standard with voice clips and catchphrases faithfully performed by their original voice actors from the anime (up to part 3 at least), as well as fast paced and exciting musical accompaniment for battles. Voice clips and BGM can be unlocked for sound test style play with in-game credits.

Overall Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle is an excellent fighting game which will be best enjoyed by fans of the series, but can be enjoyed by fans of fighting games in general due to its high quality in visuals and gameplay. While some characters might not be as easy to play with as others, there's a good number of fighters with generally powerful and easy to master movesets. If I had to pick between this and Power Stone for my favourite fighting game, it'd be close, but I think All Star Battle just has the edge.

Rating: 90/100
Grade: A

Cricket Games Masterpost

While I'm aware that most people view cricket as potentially the most boring sport on Earth behind lawn bowls, croquet and watching paint dry, I was brought up to appreciate its elegant pace and action. Due to this I've picked up the odd cricket game here and there when given the chance, and just as with my football games, I thought I'd do a masterpost, giving an overview of each game chronologically.

Game: Brian Lara Cricket
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Codemasters
Release Date: December 1998

The earliest cricket game I own is Brian Lara Cricket '99, seemingly the only cricket game on the original Playstation. It features nine international teams which are available to play as in every mode, and a further six which can only be played as in the world cup mode. The squads are all licensed and correct for the time, although in true sports game fashion this makes the game seem incredibly dated, but there's a good selection of 8 game modes including Classic Match and Test Season, the latter of which allows players to guide an international team through 1-7 years of test match cricket.

The most fun part of a cricket game for most fans is going to be the batting; with an intuitive and simple control system, players would be able to position and time their shots to perfection, racking up the kind of scores that they dream of seeing on the television. Unfortunately, the batting in this game is anything but intuitive as you're given absolutely no feedback on whether you're hitting too early or late. Most of the time, the ball won't travel very far due to how shots have been timed, and many lofted shots will be caught by fielders.

Running between wickets is difficult to judge in game, and cancelling runs once they've been dialled in is also difficult and has the potential to put batmen in even further danger of being run out. When the AI bats, however it'll always take a run whenever it's impossible for their batsman to be run out, resulting in far too many sneaky runs being added to the opponent's total. Bowling against the AI also gets dull very quickly, despite the fairly innovative aiming system for the pitch of deliveries, I found it very hard to get any of the opposing batsmen out. Fielding can be either automatic or manual, though I'd suggest putting it on automatic, as manual fielding is the equivalent of giving runs to the other side; it's very harsh on which button should be pressed, and when.

Graphically the game is pretty unimpressive, even for the original Playstation. In 1998, we weren't too far away from the release of the Playstation 2, and the blocky, undetailed visuals really let the game down. Overall when you consider the atrocious loading times, frame rate issues, glitches and gameplay issues, in addition to the fact that neither bowling or batting is particularly special, it doesn't matter how many gameplay modes Brian Lara Cricket has, because it's just not that fun.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Game: EA Sports Cricket 2002
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 1st February 2002

EA Sports first cricketing entry on the Playstation 2 was Cricket 2002, featuring the present day and historic international sides, as well as a variety or tournaments and play modes. The controls are quite a bit like that of Brian Lara Cricket in a lot of ways although there are a few improvements, including the decision to change the run button from X to O, thus eliminating a lot of accidental run outs.

The batting in this game is extremely harsh on timing and won't allow you to hit a lot of fours or sixes, which is semi-realistic, but not exactly what you'd want from a video game. Even after four or five matches and some practice sessions, I was finding batting to be extremely difficult to master, and managing only around 30 runs in 10 over games. Perhaps with much more practice I'd have been able to play better, but a lot of sports games have a pick up and play quality which engages the player from the outset.

Bowling too is incredibly difficult, if not even more difficult than batting. Players are given a little green guideline as to where they're aiming the ball, but moving it to a sensible position is almost impossible. It pings around the pitch like it's got a mind of its own, resulting in lots of wides given away to the other team, and the system for no balls is also pretty harsh. Once this is taken into account alongside the batting it's almost impossible to win games without putting in a good 10 hours of practice or so, which I'm not willing to do.

Graphically the game is poor for the PS2 with the grounds, players and faces all lacking detail. The commentary is pretty standard, with a lot of repetitive phrases and quotes. Overall there's not a whole lot to enjoy here, and I pity cricket fans in 2002 who were subjected to this, as it's only slightly better than Brian Lara Cricket from 1999.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D

Game: International Cricket Captain 2002
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Empire Interactive
Release Date: 24th May 2002

Just as there are Football Manager games, there are also Cricket Captain games, allowing players to take control of their favourite teams from the dressing room, setting their aggression levels and fields, and sitting back to watch it all unfold. Depending on your view of managerial games, this may already sound pretty boring, but there are a few redeeming qualities to the game.

Players can choose to captain International, County or both types of sides in their various schedules, with the skill level of the team being the main deciding factor on the game's difficulty. Once a team has been chosen you're allowed to manage its squad and draft new players in from the academy before embarking on the first game on the calendar.

The picture above is the view that players get when there are highlights of the game to show, but most of the time you'll be looking at the overall stats screen, on which the aggression of the bowlers/batsman can be changed, along with a few other options such as field placings and keeping the strike (for batsmen). Once the settings are satisfactory, play advances on an over-by-over basis, controlled by the square button, with the option to change any settings after each over.

While there's not a lot of "action" to the gameplay, fans of simulation and strategy games may prefer this type of progression. I'm not entirely sure how the aggression options affect the chances of being out/taking a wicket, but I'm sure there are sums going on somewhere. It can be a little frustrating when your batsmen keep getting out, or you can't seem to take a wicket, but winning games can be equally rewarding.

Graphically the game isn't bad for the most part, with accurate pictures of the grounds at which games are being played, and other interesting visuals, however it's let down by the stick figures of players in highlights. The commentary is minimal and within a game or two you'll have heard all there is to hear. Overall the game is incredibly slow paced, and often it can feel as if you're not having much impact on the game. The target audience of a cricket game is already fairly small, but ICC2002 will appeal to only the most hardened cricket strategy fans.

Rating: 39/100
Grade: E

Game: EA Sports Cricket 2004
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 5th March 2004

There's not a whole lot to say about Cricket 2004 that I haven't said about Cricket 2002. The bowling in this game has been slightly improved from the frankly uncontrollable system of the previous game, while the batting remains much the same, and relies on very strict and subtle timings and shot choices. One of the best additions to the game is the county sides from the English domestic league, and the option to play the full county schedule as one of the sides.

Graphically the game is better, but still not super impressive, and the commentary is still the same boring and cliched phrases from before. Overall due to the fact that the gameplay hasn't significantly improved, and the only major addition is county sides, I can only give the game slightly more than Cricket 2002.

Rating: 48/100
Grade: D

Game: Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Codemasters
Release Date: 21st July 2005

One of three games I picked up alongside my PS2 back in 2005, Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 was the first cricket game I played, and still remains one of my favourites. Differing from the earlier games in the Brian Lara series, and EA's efforts, this game has more of a relaxed feel to all of its elements while still keeping a good amount of realism and the feel of cricket.

While many international sides are featured in the game, none of the players are licensed unless they're playing in licensed tournaments, which means that intentional misspellings such as "A. Streass", "M. Vorner" and "B. Leap". The only players who avoid this fate are those from the classic era such as W.G. Grace, and Fred Spofforth. It's not a huge issue with the game, but it'd have been nice to see players names licensed and spelt correctly, as they are in the EA titles.

Batting is a lot easier than in the above games; while good timing is still required, players are given a larger window of opportunity in which to hit the ball with good timing, and getting a good hit seems to be far more intuitive also. The confidence meter on the left plays a small part in how well players perform, and also features a timing feedback system for the batsman. Scoring boundaries in the game proves to be a little too easy most of the time, leading to scoring rates of 20-30 runs per over on easy difficulty modes.

Bowling is also simplified with the 4 different types of delivery set to each face button, swing controlled by L1 and R1, and the pitch of the ball controlled by the analog stick. The player moves the aiming area until it is in a suitable place, and then a random location within the circle is chosen as the actual pitch of the ball. The more skill a player has, the smaller the circle and thus the better their accuracy. Fielding is controlled via gauges which the player must stop at halfway for maximum accuracy.

Graphically the game fairly good for its time, with recognisable faces, good player models and stadia. The commentary is still fairly mundane and is the game's weakest point overall. There's a good amount of play modes including classic match scenarios, tournaments and exhibition matches, as well as Create-a-Player and classic team unlockables.

Overall Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 is one of the most fun cricket games in this series of reviews, due to its ease of play and more relaxed control scheme. While this can lead to some unrealistic scores and situations, the difficulty modes provided almost manage to combat this when playing against the AI. With a host of unlockables and things to do, it's just a shame there's no county options to flesh out the game a little more.

Rating: 72/100
Grade: C

Game: EA Sports Cricket 2005
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: EA
Release Date: 1st July 2005

While Cricket 2004 was a small step in the right direction for the series, this game is an embarrassment to the cricket games as a whole. Batting is just as difficult and strict as usual, with most attempts at hitting ball resulting in wickets falling. Bowling has been made a little easier, but this also means that it's possible to get teams out for very low scores, thus resulting in matches where you're chasing 30-50 runs in 10 overs and still not managing to get them because the batting controls are so poor. Even when the computer plays itself it struggles to score runs, and against human bowling is quite content to score 0 runs an over until the last few, in which it'll start scoring exclusively in boundaries, destroying any small sense of realism that remained in the game.

The graphics are nowhere near as good as those in Brian Lara's cricket game for 2005, and the only redeeming factor for the game is the inclusion of county teams once again, although it's not too much of a bonus if playing with them is just as impossible. The soundtrack is dire and takes away from any cricketing mood that the game might have had, but overall there's very little to enjoy.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Game: EA Sports Cricket 07
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA
Release Date: 24th November 2006

Bearing in mind EA's effort from the previous year, it'd have been easy to ignore the final effort in the series as "probably just as bad", however someone at the company managed to pull off a spectacular turnaround. The game introduces the new 'Century Stick' batting system, which uses the right analog stick to control the bat and determine shot selection and timing. This not only makes it easier to bat however you'd like within the game, but finally allows players to easily score runs.

The number of game modes included is one again impressive with English and Australian Domestic season/tournament modes, International tournaments and exhibition games, and an Ashes mode which includes classic match objectives set over 3 different series. Overall when combined with the new batting system this makes for a great deal of gameplay to experience and enjoy for cricket fans.

Bowling has been improved slightly, keeping much the same system as in previous games. While things can get a little tedious, it's possible for the player to make much more of a difference to the game from bowling than before. The pitch types included vary in their effect on the ball and different types of bowling and my only real complaint is that skill levels don't seem to matter particularly for bowlers. The fielding in the game can be set to a manual mode, but it works nicely set to automatic too.

Graphically the game finally looks almost passable; I'd say that its graphics are the worst feature besides the commentary. Although it'd be difficult to record a larger variety of phrases and commentators, I think it'd help the game a lot, since you'll be hearing the same thing over and over otherwise. Overall this is the closest thing so far to actual cricket, despite its tendancy to be a little slog heavy on easier difficulties. The wide range of modes and new batting system really help to make this a good cricket game.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B

Game: Brian Lara International Cricket 2007
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Codemasters
Release Date: 23rd March 2007

While largely based on the previous game in it's series, Brian Lara International Cricket made some rather unpleasant changes to its gameplay and options which render the game a whole lot less fun to play. The batting has been tightened up from a slog-happy boundary fest, into a little more of a timing and skill based task. It's still possible to hit most balls for a boundary, but being caught is much more of a possibility when balls are mistimed. On the whole though I'm not really sure whether this amounts to a good or bad change; if it had made the game more realistic then I'd be all for it, but players are left with a game where it's hard to score realistically or in a fun way.

Running between the wickets can be done very quickly, and when combined with new slower fielding animations this gives the opportunity for many quick runs that shouldn't be possible. When the ball finally does reach the wicketkeeper/bowler from a throw, they'll always take the bails off, no matter whether the batsman is in, leading to further breaks in realism.

In addition to these gameplay changes, there are significantly less gameplay modes included in the game than there were previously. Players can choose to play in the World Cup, Champions Trophy, or a single Test, ODI, or T20. There's no classic match mode or challenge series, which leaves everything feeling like a variation on the same gameplay.

Graphically, BLIC2007 is slightly better than the previous instalment but the commentary remains the same once again, with some soundclips even recycled from 2005. Licensed music has been added to the menu screens, but I'd much rather it wasn't there, and overall the game comes off as rushed out the door to compete with EA's 2007 effort, to which it hardly even compares.

Rating: 51/100
Grade: D

Game: International Cricket Captain III
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Empire Interactive
Release Date: 16th November 2007

The second and final game I'm going to be reviewing in the International Cricket Captain series suffers from many of the same defects as the 2002 version. This isn't surprising once you consider that all that seems to have been updated are the teams, competitions and graphics engine for the highlights. The maths portion of the game, and the options available to players remain largely the same, if a little clunkier (while results are being calculated, the game visibly drops frames).

My main issue with the series as a whole is that players seem to be able to make very little difference to matches, only really able to hope the correct random numbers are generated to see their team through to victory. While there are training modes and aggression bars to set, fiddling too much with them only seems to make the team perform worse; the most fun I had out of the game was skipping to a close finish in a game where I hardly touched the aggression sliders.

Graphically the game is average in its menu presentation and poor when it comes to the highlights. Despite a new system, the level of detail is very low compared to other cricket games of the era. Overall while fancy graphs and 3D highlights have been added, the game hasn't really moved past ICC2002 in terms of complexity. The modes and problems remain the same, with only updated teams and competitions to show any promise.

Rating: 42/100
Grade: E

Game: Ashes Cricket 2009
Console: Sony Playstation 3
Developer: Codemasters
Release Date: 7th August 2009

For the final game in this roundup, I headed to the PS3, hoping for a truly next gen cricketing experience. The first thing I noticed about the game was that the graphics weren't significantly better than those of Brian Lara Cricket 07. Perhaps the resolution was a little better and there was slightly more detail, but it wasn't the type of quality I expected from the PS3. An important thing to note about this game is that its by Codemasters, who also made the Brian Lara series and seems to run on the same game engine.

Just like the Brian Lara series, most of the teams are unlicensed and so have only allusions to the names of players. The only teams to be fully licensed seem to be England and Australia due to the 'Ashes' title of the game. Once again there's only international teams to play as, with a few "best of" teams thrown in. Game modes include Ashes, Test, ODI and 20 over games and tournaments, but that's about it; there's no challenge matches or season modes.

Gameplay is roughly the same as that of the Brian Lara 05 and 07 games, although there's far more options in the way of bowling such as swing, cutters and reverse swing. The timing for batting has been tightened up for faster bowlers, although its still fairly easy to hit anything medium pace and below. This is one of the biggest problems with the game, in my view; even though the game is based on the Ashes, a test series, the AI bats as if it's a 20 over game, and it's hard not to go at 10+ runs per over in any format if you're good at batting.

There are also some issues with the fielding in this game; throws are either amazingly accurate and run batsmen out from miles away, or will go for 4 overthrows. Both of these occur far too often, and when the AI is batting, there's a glitch that leads to it being run out at least once an innings from a poor call, after being safely in. Due to these glitches, some fairly poor commentary and the overall mediocrity of the game, especially considering it's on the PS3, overall it's probably worth a play if you're a cricket fan, but doesn't surpass Cricket 07.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

So, what have I learnt after playing and reviewing 10 cricket games, from 1998-2009? Well, firstly that it's hard to make an enjoyable game that realistically simulates cricket; after all I doubt many people want to bat for the entire length of a test innings at 3 to 4 runs per over. Secondly while bowling is fairly easy to model in-game, it's difficult to make that half of the game particularly interesting to players; I was guilty of skipping the other team's innings in many games just to bat.

Finally and most importantly batting is a difficult thing to put into a cricket game; too easy and players can chase down any total, and set hugely unrealistic scores for AI to chase, which are programmed to score at 4-5 an over. Too hard though, and it becomes like Cricket 05 where players can't score off 90% of balls, and get bowled out for under 10 runs. Neither of these are particularly enjoyable in the long term, and the only game to strike a real balance between the two was Cricket 07.

Cricket Captain games also have a long way to go since being forced to watch cricket you're not even playing, while feeling as if you have no control over the outcome is more like watching real cricket than playing a game. At best they felt like watching someone roll dice to determine outcomes, and I don't think there was ever a huge market for them anyway. So, if you're looking for a good cricket game (and you'd probably be in the minority there), go for Cricket 07, everything else is flawed in one way or another.