PSP Month: Chili Con Carnage

Game: Chili Con Carnage
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Deadline Games
Release Date: 16th February 2007

If you've ever played Total Overdose, you'll know exactly what to expect from Chili Con Carnage; a very similar game by the same developer. With a Mexican theme, third person shooter gameplay and lots of kills to chain together, the game takes a whacky and sometimes fun approach. There are 7 missions in total, each split into a few parts but the overall gameplay is a little too monotonous as players work their way through the levels shooting everything they can with auto-targeting.

There's some humour to the game's overall story and it's obvious that it's not to be taken particularly seriously; the gameplay seems to be the main attraction. That said, I found the gameplay to be pretty bland and not varied enough to warrant 7 missions. Sure there are combos that players can string together, jumping and shooting enemies but the auto targeting takes away any challenge from the game.

Graphically the game is pretty average, and more to the point uninteresting save for its Mexican theme which quickly gets old. Levels are laid out in a fairly linear style, even if a little exploration is necessary to find the next goal. Music and voice acting is mainly comedic as is to be expected with this kind of game. 

Overall Chili Con Carnage is too short to be considered a full gaming experience, too long to be interesting as a niche concept style game, trying to be funnier than it is, with a boring gameplay style and lacklustre combo and shooting options. Without auto aiming it could be at least fun to try and hit the enemies but instead players will find themselves spamming the shoot button as enemies appear. 

Rating: 44/100

Grade: E

PSP Month: Pursuit Force

Game: Pursuit Force
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Bigbig Studios
Release Date: 7th March 2006

Pursuit Force is a fairly unique action game for the PSP allowing players to take on the role of a special forces police agent, attempting to shut down five of the most dangerous gangs in the city. There are 6 missions per gang, for a total of 30 with later missions unlocked through ranking up in earlier ones. Gameplay missions mostly consist of chasing other vehicles on a boat, motorcycle or in a car, jumping from vehicle to vehicle and shooting gang members in order to neutralise them.

There's not a lot of difference between gameplay in boats and cars, although they handle a little differently. Gameplay is significantly more fun in cars than boats. Missions get a little longer as the game goes on, but there are no checkpoints, so failure means starting from the beginning. This is an issue as things are pretty hard from thestart, so with later missions it can be frustrating to say the least. The story behind missions are also limited by the gameplay and usually reduced to 'This gang is attacking something or someone, you've got to help".

Graphically the game isn't bad on the PSP but it's nowhere near the level of the best games for the console. The HUD is a little cluttered with the lawfulness meter in the bottom right, car and player health in the bottom left, a map in the top left, subtitles at the top, an objective counter in the top right, weapon and ammo info at the side and various targeting symbols on screen. The voice acting isn't bad and there's some humour in some of the missions.

Overall Pursuit Force is a lot of the same thing, and the game only really gets harder as it goes on, rather than any more interesting. It's a good concept for a game and the gameplay itself works well, there's just not enough variety to keep players pushing on through the difficulty wall, and not enough story to keep players interested in progressing.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

PSP Month: Playstation Network Collection: Power Pack

Game: Playstation Network Collection: Power Pack
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Sony
Release Date: 24th October 2008

The PSN Collection: Power Pack is a three game compilation of Playstation Network games released for the Playstation Portable and features Beats, flOw and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops. I'll be reviewing this as a collection since the individual games are mostly gimmicky or short. It's an interesting choice of titles too; a rhythm game, a relaxed indie "life simulation" and a shooter, but maybe they were going for variety?

Beats

As a fan of rhythm games, I was pretty sure I'd like Beats. It allows players to import music from their Memory Stick Pro Duo and creates beatmaps based on the pulse for players to tap along with. The songs which come as standard with Beats are all pretty lifeless and don't show the game off in the best possible light, but if you're a fan of energetic electronic music then you're in luck. I chose to import The Prodigy's song "Wild Frontier" and finally I could feel the beatmap working alongside the song to create steps in time with the beat.

The play area has 3 "landing pads" for steps, and players press the corresponding button when the symbol is in the centre of the landing pad. In addition to this, when a step is performed on the left or right pad, the d-pad must be held in the corresponding direction to register the step. This isn't too complex, but anyone who's played regular rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution or Rhythm Heaven will likely find themselves forgetting to press left and right every once in a while.

Graphically the game has a basic interface, but a large choice of backgrounds and themes against which to play. It's an interesting experience and some songs work better than others; it's a matter of luck really. It'd be tough to listen to an album this way, but I can't see myself wanting to play more than 5 songs in a row in the Beats format. 

Overall it's not bad for a bitesize rhythm game, and the near infinite choice for songs is nice though the game will only allow 127 to be accessed at once. The powerup bar and subsequent Fever mode are a nice touch also, but I feel like Beats is missing a real unique selling point which distinguishes it from other beatmap based rhythm games like Audiosurf and Dance Factory.

Score: 6/10

flOw

flOw is a very simple game with deep ocean style visuals where players control a creature and "eat" other creatures to become larger and more detailed. Each screen is pretty small, but players can move up and down to dive deeper and find new things to eat and merge with. Every now and then it's possible to lose some of your creature, but this isn't a particularly competitive game and it's easy to get any progress back.

There's very little to do in flOw aside from swimming around and consuming everything in sight. While it might be fun to watch your creature grow for a minute or two, when there's literally nothing else to do in the entire game, it can get old quickly. As beautiful as the concept and execution is, when there's not a lot of gameplay it can be difficult to enjoy a game.

Overall flOw is mind-numbingly boring, and should only be played as a bedtime wind-down. Apparently the game can save your "progress" but there's no end goal, and nothing to achieve so it seems pretty pointless to me. As relaxing as this type of game is, it needs to bring a little more to the party to compete with any of the other titles on the PSP.

Score: 3/10

Syphon Filter: Combat Ops

Perhaps the most disappointing of the three games in terms of content, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops is essentially a map designer add-on for Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, allowing players to create and share their own multiplayer maps. Since my PSP has some connectivity issues with my Wi-Fi, I wasn't able to verify whether you're able to play these maps, but I doubt there'd be anyone online to play with even if I had been able to.

Graphically it looks okay, and fans of Syphon Filter might have a little fun designing some maps, but it's a very poor inclusion on a multi-game collection which purports to be a "power" pack of video games.

Score: 1/10

Overall

I'm not entirely sure what the point of this Playstation Network collection was; if it was to collect together the best that PSN had to offer, at least from Sony's game selection then why are there only three games, and why are they all such average or boring games? There's variety in the type of games included but I can't see anyone truly enjoying this UMD for very long at all. With other collections like EA Replay, Gradius Collection, Metal Slug,  Power Stone, Namco and more on the PSP this is a very weak showing.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Master System Month: Shadow Of The Beast

Game: Shadow Of The Beast
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Psygnosis
Release Date: 1991

Shadow of the Beast is a strange game; partly because it starts players out on an overground level with no instruction and assumes they'll walk left, find a key, enter a building and decent underground to continue the game which defies most gamer logic and partly because it feels so different to other Master System games. Most platform games take place on several height levels, but the start of Shadow of the Beast is completely flat, and gives no indication that the player should be getting a key instead of exploring.

Once you get underground the game is difficult, but a little more predictable. Any items picked up can be used via a pause menu of sorts, though some potions will take away health so it's best to exercise a little caution. The enemy and boss designs are interesting, and even the player character is very different from that of normal games, though explanation for this can be found in manual rather than the game itself.

Graphically the game is pretty impressive with some seriously nice visuals in the underground part of the game. The music is the main audiovisual achievement though with a classic soundtrack both on this version and on the 16-bit Mega Drive version. Psygnosis were always known for pushing the gaming boundaries a little so it's unsurprising that Shadow of the Beast is good, if a little unconventional.

Overall the game is playable once you know what you're doing, but still can be somewhat difficult at times with enemies zooming in from off-screen to take your health, and some exploration and item menu experimentation needed to finish the game. If you want something a little more complex than your standard 8-bit game though, it's well worth a try!

Rating: 62/100
Grade; C

Master System Month: Spider-man

Game: Spider-man
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Technopop
Release Date: 1991

Depending on what you want out of a Spider-man video game, it's possible that Spider-man on the Master System will be tolerable. The classic web-swinging movement through levels is nice and fluid and works well with the control system, and it's easy enough to wrap up baddies in webbing and dispatch them off screen. The issue comes with the game's overall premise though; players are given 25 minutes to collect 5 keys from 5 Spider-man arch-enemies and disarm a bomb.

The story begins with The Kingpin blaming Spider-man for placing the bomb, and since everyone appears to believe him, Peter Parker must clear Spider-man's name by stopping it from going off. Most levels consist of platforming, beating up baddies and bosses, and swinging around by web. Inbetween levels the story is advanced via pictures and hard to read text.

Graphically the game is pretty average for the era; the sprites are small but it's easy enough to tell who's who, and the locations are recognisible but not particularly detailed. The music isn't all that memorable, but it's the mix of an overall time limit, some tough sections of the game and repetitive gameplay that lets Spider-man on the Master System down the most.

Overall the story isn't all that exciting; collecting 5 keys to disarm a bomb supposedly planted by you seems contrived, and we'd have to wait for the Spider-man games on the Playstation 2 before we got the web slinging action we truly craved from this sort of licensed video game. A version of this game also came out for Mega Drive, but this is one of the rare cases where the Master System game appears to be better than the 16-bit version.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Master System Month: Time Soldiers

Game: Time Soldiers
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1989

To make a truly good 8-bit game, all you really need is a good concept, and good gameplay. Time Soldiers nails a good concept, as players must travel through time to rescue their comrades, visiting prehistoric times, Rome, the world wars, and futuristic times in the process. The gameplay though is a different story; an offcentre shot makes it difficult to aim throughout levels, a lack of enemies makes the game super easy to just walk through and many repeats of each stage mean that there's almost no replayability.

All of the games levels play bottom to top, with players making their way past enemies and obstacles, but in no real danger as the enemies are slow, and have awful aim. Some take more than one shot to beat, which makes it hard to tell if your shot has hit its target or not. None of the levels are particularly interesting, even though their basis is in interesting historical locations, and bosses are much too easy to defeat for the most part.

Graphically the game is disappointing, sprites are small and undetailed, colours are bland and uninteresting and the animation is basic. Shots are represented by small circles and not much else, and even the powered up shot isn't very exciting. The game's music is also basic, with few redeeming qualities to the audiovisual presentation in general.

Overall Time Soldiers had a good concept with its time travel in order to save a team worth of comrades. With a few more stages, variation in obstacles and enemies, and a little more difficulty, in addition to better visuals and music, this could have been a classic for the time, but it seems like a lot less effort was put into the execution than the concept.

Rating: 39/100
Grade: E

Master System Month: The Cyber Shinobi

Game: The Cyber Shinobi
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1990

The sequel to Shinobi (not counting Alex Kidd in Shinobi World), the Cyber Shinobi delivers a futuristic twist on classic Shinobi gameplay. With various shot power-ups and ninjutsu powers to aid progression through levels, players work their way through hordes of baddies mainly using hand-to-hand combat and their timed jumps to aid taking damage, and come out on top.

The game plays well with simple controls, and a clearly laid out HUD, even if it does take up nearly one third of the screen. While the original Shinobi allowed players to use unlimited shuriken against baddies, all ranged weapons must be collected as power-ups which changes the overall feel of gameplay quite a bit. Levels aren't particularly long, and there's a boss at the end of each though they don't really fit with the general bad guy aesthetic; the first boss being a construction vehicle!

Graphically the game is pretty standard for the Master System with a limited colour palette and low detail on sprites. That being said it's locations and levels are nicely designed and the music is far above the usual 8-bit soundtrack standard. The difficulty level is high, but not so much as to discourage players from giving levels just one more go.

Overall The Cyber Shinobi is an impressive game for 1990, managing to combine a fun play style with impressive music and level design. It's a shame that there wasn't a basic shuriken type weapon to continue the style of play from the original Shinobi, but this adds a new strategic element to player's movement through the levels.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B

Master System Month: Alien 3

Game; Alien 3
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Release Date: 1992

I've yet to watch the Alien films, but before telling me to stop playing Master System games and watch them right away, consider that Alien 3 on Master System has seemingly little to do with the overall plot of the film or series. Players are tasked with rescuing captured comrades in underground air ducts which are crawling with xenomorphs who are pretty quick and can spit acid. Luckily there are weapon and health power-ups scattered all over place to aid players in what would otherwise be a difficult mission.

While there's not a whole lot of variation from level to level, the gameplay is tight, responsive and fun. Planning routes to avoid taking damage from the xenomorphs and hunting for your allies around the map add a strategic element to the game, and the simplicity of the controls allows players to focus on this too.

Graphically the game ins't anything special; too many of the same types of shades appear most of the time with the grey/blue mix being the worst offender, as the colour of the walls, floor, xenomorphs and the player's shirt. The music is good though, and serves as a good accompaniment to the gameplay's changeable pace as xenomorphs attack.

Overall Alien 3 is a fun little Master System title with a good core concept and gameplay, which needed maybe a little more variety to become a true classic for the console. Exploration through the tunnels and ladders in the game is a nice touch for platform games of the time, and the experience is generally a lot better than most licensed games of the 80s.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

Master System Month: Galaxy Force

Game: Galaxy Force
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1989

Galaxy Force is an interesting space shooter which set its own rules at a time when most video games in the genre were pretty homogeneous. For a start, players can select which of the game's four missions they want to play first. The follows a few freeform minutes of Afterburner style space shooting action, flying towards a planet until players are met by a tunnel. Flying through this zig-zagging tunnel successfully will result in the mission being cleared and return players to the mission menu screen.

The levels are colourful and varied although there's only four of them, perhaps the first part of missions is too free form though, and there's hardly any combat in the second part; just turning left or right, based on which command is given. While Galaxy Force is unique, there's no doubt that it's a very short game once you know what you're doing.

Graphically the game is impressive for its time, the launch sequence preceding missions especially. The second part of missions can be a little too flashy, with black and white alternating walls and flashing turn instructions. The in-game music has some funky bass-grooves and is well worth a listen, even outside of the game.

Overall Galaxy Force struggles to be more than an interesting set of two gameplay modes and some varied space-based levels. This is all it really takes for a Master System game to stand out though, and although there's little replayability, it's a nice little game.

Rating: 70/100
Grade: C

Master System Month: R-Type

Game: R-Type
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Irem
Release Date; 1988

R-Type is an impressive shoot 'em up for it's time, featuring detailed backgrounds and a different musical theme for each of its levels, tight gameplay and a big helping of challenge. A lot of shoot 'em ups around this time took a far more simple approach, and this is part of what helped R-Type to stand out as a full video gaming experience.

Players take control of a ship, leading the effort against the Bydo Empire and fire at everything in their way. Through collecting power-ups, additional weapons and add-ons will join the fight and increase the offensive potential. The bosses at the end of each level are well designed and provide a final obstacle to overcome before moving onto a new area.

Graphically the game looks great for the early Master System era, enemies, bosses and levels are all well detailed and varied. Although the controls for shoot 'em ups are usually basic, R-Type controls well and allows players to choose whether their add-on weapons are docked to the ship or floating free, which is a nice touch.

Overall, whilst pretty tough R-Type offers players the chance to gain more credits through a couple of cheat codes, and never uses cheap tactics to hit players. It's features put it years ahead of other shoot 'em ups of the time, and define it as a classic.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B