Gameplay: Skullgirls is a fighter with an all female roster, much like Arcana Heart and Vanguard Princess. However, unlike those titles it isn’t your run of the mill moe romp. Featuring a near perfectly balanced cast of 8 characters, players will duke it out in several different match styles, ranging from 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or any mix of the 3 choices. Designed around a six button layout, ala Guilty Gear or Street Fighter, the game is extremely fast paced and very deep. Every character comes with their own unique style, such as Ms. Fortune who is a zombie cat girl that fights by throwing her head around like a bowling ball and extending her limbs like tentacles to attack from various distances, or Double that continuously transforms into the other cast of characters to deliver various and devastating attacks.

There’s a few different game modes, although they’re all par for the course. Story mode follows along each character’s story, but it sadly doesn’t go into as much detail as I was hoping for. The core story presented is rather fascinating; every few years a woman is chose to be the wielder of a magic skull, and if her heart is impure, it will turn her into a devastating being of destruction until another maiden slayers her and takes her place. The story mode just skims the surface of the characters, their pasts, and how they all connect to one another. I would have loved to see at least a biography section inside the game for more details. Aside from the story there’s arcade mode, which puts you in a gauntlet against random opponents and random numbers of opponents, tutorial mode which does a fantastic job of teaching players the bare basics of the game, and vs mode which is divided into local, ranked, an unranked. A nice feature included in the online play is the ability to alter your skipped frames ratio, and there’s even a ‘recommended skipped frames’ suggestion that will appear right next to an opponents ping.

Presentation: This game is a visual and audio feast. The artwork is such a beautiful clash of classic western and eastern styles. The characters all have such amazing amount of detail drawn into them; even the backgrounds for the stages are lively with activity and amusing little details. The voice acting is also fantastic, and the music really gets you pumped and in the mood to throw down. There’s plans of selling it on iTunes from what I can read up on, which I will gladly put down money for. Another thing that’s fantastic is the amount of references and jokes scattered about the game. For instance, Double will spout off Castlevania quotes from time to time, Ms. Fortune will make puns out of everything, there’s even a town of merfolk in the game called Little Innsmouth. Everything about this game screams with life, and I cannot praise it enough.

Value: This is where the game became a hard sell for me at first. With a roster of only 8 characters, and with the fighting options being very stock, it can be hard to justify the $15 purchase if you’re not a hardcore fighting game player. The online community is also a bit on the low side for the time being, which will hopefully be remidied as it releases in more territories and continues to gain developer support. As it stands now, it is a bit hard to justify. That being said, once you look past these flaws, you will find yourself an amazingly deep and rewarding title that is a must have in any fighting gamers library, and the library of anyone who likes to support quality titles, especially indie ones.

Final Thoughts: Skullgirls is a must have title. The few flaws it has can be easily overlooked once you really get down into playing this game. This is the kind of game that not only the fighting community needed, but the indie scene need as well to help shake things up. It’s not often a title thoroughly impresses me, but Skullgirls has rightfully earned every bit of praise I can give it. I urge everyone to check this game out. With that, I give Skullgirls an A-.

Gameplay: Men of War: Condemned Heroes follows the story of the Soviet penal battalions during World War II. These battalions are famous for being formed under Stalin’s “No step back!” order #227. They consisted of court-martial officers that were into serving as the lowest enlisted rank in a battalion that was assigned the most dangerous tasks. These battalions’ images are surrounded by many myths, and this game tells the truth about these regiments based on real evidence from their former members. Out manned, out gunned, and out of morale, you must lead your troops to victory in some of the most insanely challenging, yet rewarding missions.

The core gameplay of Men of War is simple. You must lead your small squads into combat facing off against heavily armed and entrenched forces. You will start off your missions with the bare essentials for combat, having to methodically pick off your enemies, and steal their weapons and ammo, which you will have to micro manage for each soldier you control. This becomes a bit tedious, but isn’t as frustrating as the fact that your soldiers don’t really seem to like shooting. I am unsure if this is to add to the realism of the game, but far too often you will sit there with your soldiers in prime locations to take out the enemy (after spending ten minutes getting them carefully into position) and will try to open fire, only to have a couple of soldiers fire, while the others sit there getting shot at while not returning fire. This can be somewhat worked around by taking direct control of a soldier, but if the AI would work right in the first place, this wouldn’t be needed to use as a work around in the first place.

Presentation: The visual direction of the game is very gritty and realistic, doing it’s best to capture the feel of the times. The voice acting is gruff and to the point, and the sound effects are pretty good, though not as great as say Battlefield. Overall the game looks and sounds above average. However, the part that really makes this game is the included historical reference. As you boot up the game, you are greeted with with a menu option that will let you read through the events of what transpired with the penal battalions, which really helps to ground you in just what it is that you are playing.

Value: The game spans across 15 missions which may not sound like a whole lot, but trust me, they will be making you work for your victory in each and every battle. You will easily find yourself dumping hours into fine tuning your tactics as you methodically advance your troops to victory. Like the said, the game is harsh, but never unfairly so. There is a multiplayer aspect… Which I have honestly yet to actually play. Not for a lack of trying, but simply a lack of any community. Even more hardcore of Men of Honor fans seem to turn their nose to this game, and most messages boards maybe have a few passing posts about the game. This is a shame, as the game as a whole is pretty great, if extremely niche. So sadly, if you are looking for a multiplayer experience, you may have to look elsewhere.

Final Thoughts: Men of War: Condemned Heroes is not a bad game. It seems to be getting a bad rap from casuals and hardcores alike for its brutal gameplay and complex control scheme. Long time fans seem to feel that the game just doesn’t live up to past iterations. I’ll admit, this is my first experience with the Men of War series, but honestly, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it so far. It’s tough, but never unfairly so, much in the same way of games like Demon Souls. However, the dead multiplayer at launch does make one wonder about the longevity of a game that’s soul appeal is rooted in it’s realistic take on historical events. Because of this, I have to give Men of War: Condemned Heroes a C.

+Fantastic gameplay
+Grounded, real life scenarios
-Balls to the walls hard
-Not for everyone

Trials is one of those games that doesn’t look like much from the outside looking in, but when you’re playing the game, you really feel why people love this game so much. Well the sequel to the mega XBLA hit is here, how does it fare against its predecessor though?

Gameplay: Trials is a very simple game in concept. You use the triggers to either brake or accelerate your biker and you use your thumbstick to balance him as he drives through the course. However, the game is all about how you play with the physics. As the tracks up in difficulty, so do the obstacles. For instance you’ll have to use midair momentum to get over a gap or land on your back tire to leave off a ramp at the best speed to score better times and medals. Failure to do any of these will result in your biker crashing. Which in my case, happened almost 3,000 times.

The gameplay can be brutal, but totally fair at the same time. The track difficulty is much better paced this time. You get tutorials for each difficulty to ease the newbie Trials players in the game. Trials veterans shouldn’t be too off-put though, there’s a heaping amount of tracks in here. While I personally don’t see the Extreme tracks as difficult as they were in HD, it may just be my personal readiness level as opposed to actual difficulty. Then again, it took me 299 attempts to get through the infamous Inferno stage, so take that for what you will.

On that topic, the retries are what make the game so addictive, they’re instantaneous! You might restart at a checkpoint 20-30 times a minute. The checkpoints aren’t brutal either, Redlynx even had mercy on you on the Extreme tracks. The ease of restarting has to be one of the biggest reasons why Trials is such a success.

Another cool addition to Trials is the Skill Game Circus. This is where some quirky Trials minigames lie. There’s a level that’s in the style of ‘Splosion Man, one that you navigate a UFO in, and a couple others. Just to reiterate, the game has a lot in it.

Presentation: One thing some fans complained about in Trails HD was the lack of environments. You were stuck in the warehouse the whole time. Well now you’re barely in the warehouse. This game strives at giving you insane and wacky locations for you to continuously fault at. Whether it be a medieval castle, a beach being bombed, or a stage set up like a certain other black and white XBLA game. Along with each of the new environments comes a pretty hilarious death. Typically when you finish a stage the rider ends in a very unfortunate fashion; be it struck by dynamite or floating off a waterfall. It’ll definitely pull a few laughs from you.

The music selection is rock and roll Trials edition. I don’t mind it. It fits the fashion of what Trials is and it’s quirky at times as well. Granted, Trials is the kind of game you’ll sit around listening to music or podcasts with, but if you’re not around those, you shouldn’t mind the in-game music.

Value: There’s over 65 tracks on Trials. That’s not including the ones you can download online through the track editor. The track editor is jam packed. So much in fact that Redlynx thought ahead and gave you a basic editor and an advanced editor, just to not overwhelm you from the get-go. Some of the tracks fans are making are already epic. There’s an Angry Birds stage. An Angry Birds stage! The actual editor can be a little tricky to use at the beginning, like almost all editors out there, but once you’re going, you’re good.

Multiplayer also makes its debut in Trials Evolution. No more dealing with just leaderboards, now you get real time racing with up to 4 people. You get a few stages that are set up to see your opponents above or below you, while harder stages make your opponents ghosts instead. The multiplayer rocks and I can see the local multiplayer rivaling even the biggest XBLA fan favorites, like Castle Crashers, at parties.

Final thought: Pardon the pun, but I really can’t find a fault with Trials Evolution. The game exceeds in every aspect over HD and then some. This is just the kind of XBLA game to get your friends into the service. I give Trials Evolution an A+. Redlynx hits hard with this game, and it resulted in one of, if not the best Xbox Live Arcade game.

I can go on and on in this review about clichés. I’ll say it right at the beginning so we can move away from it. Bloodforge is a hack-and-slash game all about a very angry protagonist named Crom, who he seeks revenge against the Gods that murdered his family. You following me? Yeah, the game doesn’t pop out. I get it, you get it, your second cousin twice removed gets it. Let’s get to the real meat of the game.

Gameplay: As said, Bloodforge is a hack and slash game. You have four weapons: a long sword, a giant hammer, claws, and a crossbow. That’s not the only arsenal Crom has up his sleeve though. You have a few bits of magic. You can use your Rune power, which summons the power of a God to help Crom take out enemies. My personal favorite Rune power was to call on my serpents (I’m a big snake fan). On top of that, you get Mana. With Mana you can either use your Rune power or use a shift attack which will allow bonus attack points. The cherry on the top of this whole package is your rage or Berserk or whatever you want to call it. When Crom fills up his blood meter, you can go on an all out frenzy which will speed you up and give you some extra power. After you’re done tearing up your enemies you can perform takedowns on stunned enemies. Takedowns give you a very graphic and intense animation that results in glorious, glorious decapitations.

So yeah, the game does have a bit on its plate to offer you. The attacks you get aren’t just for show either. A big concept of the game is to get your combo meter up so you can score more points, rank higher in a battle, and ultimately compete against your friends. Bloodforge has this cool little feature called “Blood Duel”. What those do is pit your score against a specific friend of yours during the game. As you approach the end of a battle, you’ll see your friend’s final score, giving you a little time to focus on building up your combo to hopefully pass that.

Bloodforge is interesting. I say that because the game is so polarizing to me. The gameplay isn’t top notch. The camera is a tad hard to grasp, and it does some weird sway when Crom walks. Enemies pop up in the most redundant and mundane way. The game is just repetitive. The drive is there, but it’s also not. Again though, it’s just hard to really say how great the game is when the gameplay just burdens you at times. It’s almost groan-worthy how predictable enemies pop up. Walking up to areas, I almost pause because I just don’t want to fight the enemies.

Presentation: Here’s another section that’s polarizing. The game looks fantastic. Like, fan-tas-tic. It’s gritty, grimy, and detailed. Whether or not you’re a fan of that art is up to you. If you’re still a naysayer of the legitimacy of the XBLA, then now’s the time to shut up. This game feels like a retail game at times.

The story is intriguing enough for you to care. Crom is a skull-wearing war-torn soldier known as “Destroyer” to the Gods. Long story short, you’re getting revenge. The game does have God of War-vibes. You’re not going to get away from that, but Bloodforge’s price sets it apart enough. Bloodforge is the kind of game that will be known as one of the games that pushes the barriers of the XBLA. Both in terms of visuals and story.

Value: The story mode for Bloodforge lasts you maybe 5 or 6 hours. There’s no new game+, sadly. The game does have a Challenge Mode that allows you to send your scores to your friends. You battle through waves while modifying the game, be it giving enemies more health so you can get more points or having exploding corpses. It’s honestly not too crazy of a mode, but I’ll tinker with it now and then.

Bloodforge’s price is a double-edged sword. One side, it’s cheap enough to set it apart from any competition and really shine, on the other end, it makes it hard for me to recommend in the midst of every other $10 or $15 XBLA game.

Final thought: Bloodforge is a great item wrapped around a sub-par game. Maybe a little more time was needed for polish. I give the game a C. The graphics blow away any XBLA game, but the game itself may leave you bored or content.

Gameplay: From the basics, Fez is a platformer. You control a little pixel character named Gomez as you twist the world either left or right using the triggers to change the perspective. This gives you access to ledges or areas you couldn’t see or grab before. Later on in the game you’ll be able to twist certain spires or tinker with water levels. You do all of this to get yellow cubes. Simple? Yes.

There’s nothing much to the gameplay to be honest. You won’t get bored of it, but you probably wouldn’t think too fanatically of it after the first two or three hours.

In terms of how hard the puzzles might be, I’ll let you know that none are too bad. You probably won’t have to resort to a walkthrough. One thing that can be confusing is the map system. It’s very hard to grasp from the get go. It shows the world through a picture and from it stem the worlds you can access in that world specifically. And towards the end, it just looks like a crazy web that is almost off-putting to go to.

The biggest, yet smallest, complaint I have of Fez is the climbing. It’s way too slow and kinda dampers my excitement when I figured out a puzzle finally, only to be climbing so excruciatingly slow.

Presentation: This is where the review really is. Fez looks like an indie platformer on the outside, and to many it will be. You can play the entire game and totally miss the point of Fez. The game actually has a world, with very deep and hidden secrets. Anything from its own alphabet to studying portraits. It’s almost strange why the game wasn’t hyped up to be the mysterious world it is. Perhaps it’d be too offsetting?

The music in Fez is above and beyond spectacular. I guess the best way to explain it would be chiptune ambience. I often find myself standing in place just to listen to the music. And hell, the music even hides stuff. Scanning the files, you’ll find QR codes leading to a date. Just to reiterate, Fez hides something in everything you do.

The visuals are also top-notch. Lively 8-bit graphics in a 3D world. The world is colorful and there’s plenty of variety. One of my favorite parts of the game is the huge homage they give to Super Mario, which I’ll leave you to find out. There’s a new game+ aspect that I’d help describe here, but again, I’ll leave that a secret for you to find out when you get there.

Sadly, the game does have some technical issues. The frame rate does drop pretty often when a lot is going on. Also, the game crashed on me two or three times. It can be annoying to have to reboot the game and start from where you first entered that world, but what can you do?

Value: Fez goes a long way in keeping you busy. There’s plenty of doors you’ll miss even if you do beat the game. New game+ does allow you to go and explore some more, which is needed because there will be some puzzles you’ll need your new ability to solve.

As for the actual game, I’d peg the game at 7 or 8 hours. For $10, that’s great. I fully expected this game to be $15, but it’s nice to see a game drop below that. The overall package of the game comes together so well that it’s hard to really ignore the game for that alone.

Final thought: Fez is one of those games, like Braid, that’ll be remembered for quite awhile. The music, the visuals, the world. Everything about the game hits hard. It’s a bummer that the technical aspects of Fez don’t exactly help its overall score. I give Fez an A-. The overall meaning may be lost or not even seen to you, but for those of you willing to give the game’s world a shot, you’ll be very pleased with the outcome.

Presentation:  The game looks great. It is not praise-worthy, but everything was well-textured and well-defined. There are a few awkward tendencies the game has though. At times the dialogue does not really match up with the mouth of the character talking. Their body movements are weird too, everyone seems to shake and sway about superfluously whenever you are in a conversation with them. It is very offsetting.

The story is a classic, pirates versus the sea monster.  As a pretty avid pirate fanatic, I very much enjoyed that. The only problem being is how hard it is to actually get into the story. The mission details are compressed and difficult to understand. It is incredibly easy to get lost, not on the island, but on what to do. However, as soon as you get the ball rolling, it is pretty straight forward. A little problem solving skills are all that is needed.

Gameplay:  You are thrown into that world with a weapon and without any armor at all. The enemies themselves are strong. Too strong almost for how little they give you. I play on casual, mind you, and I had trouble taking out some of the simplest things at first. The wild animals even take a long time of slashing to kill. So whenever ever you encountered anything that is not a warthog, you were practically forced to find another way around. It is annoying being forced onto impossible enemies from the start, but the game does get a little easier to manage when clothes and experience start to come into the picture.

As I have shown above, I am not particularly impressed by the fighting. It is bland. The game does offer other options though. You can use swords, guns, or even magic. The guns and swords are self-explanatory, but the magic is known as voodoo. The game never actually tells you how to use it, or at least in the beginning, but it stems off into even allowing you to make potions with ingredients you find. A personal favourite option of mine that is available, is the rogue. If you put your experience towards cunning, you can improve things such as sneaking, pickpocketing, and “silver tongue” (or coercion). The different ways affect methods of acquiring gold, your interactions with people, and the missions you can accept and how you can perform them.

Value:  This is actually a pretty big game. Combined with the numerous side quests that you can find, this game could provide many nights of gameplay.  The mark against it though is that it takes a good deal of time to actually get into the game.

Final Thoughts:  I did not like it at first because it was too hard. After you are given the capability of actually being able to fight something efficiently, the game picks up though. It is actually a lot fun and has an intriguing story.

Gameplay: The concept of Aero Vacation is simple, build up your airship as you amass a fortune and create the worlds best airship cruiseline. You start off with a bare basic airship cluttered with junk, but as time progresses you will clear out the rooms and build resturants, living quarters, activity centers, and all kinds of other little places inside of you airship. Building new stores and activites inside of your airship helps to earn money and exeprience. Money is used for purchasing more stuff, and experience is used to unlock more features in the game, such as airship designs, blue prints for activity centers, and even more locations to travel to.

The overall feel of the game comes off as like a pseudo-RTS, much like Akimi Village or A Kingdom for Keflings. In addition to managing your flight times, money, and structures, you will also need to manage your energy, which is generated by power generators and used to upgrade your structures. It’s this kind of time and resource management that keep you engrossed in the game, while still being designed to just pick up and put down at any given time.

Presentation: The art direction of Aero Vacation reminds me strongly of Scribblenauts and Game Dev Story, which is a welcome thing to see. The main theme song for the game isn’t bad, however after hearing it on loop for over an hour, it grows rather tiresome.

Value: The core game play never changes which means what you see is what you get. Aero Vacation has this odd disconnect where it feels like a time management social game, but plays more like an actionless RTS. This isn’t bad per se, but it can feel a bit jarring at times. Still, for the ripe price of free, this game is worth at least investing a little bit of time into, even if this game isn’t your cup of tea.

Final Thoughts: At the casual level, Aero Vacation is an amusing little game that will fill the void of time in your life without you having to constantly micro manage it. On a more serious gaming level, Aero Vacation serves as a miss-matched experiment in relaxing RTS elements and social gaming time management. It’s addictive, keeping you entertained by designing your ship and building up that economic empire, but frustrating because you have to play at the games pace. With that said, I give Aero Vacation a B-.

+Strong gameplay
+Addictive time sink
-Jarring pacing

Gameplay: The Splatters is all about skill shots. What do I mean? You aim your blob, appropriately named “Splatter”, as you try to clear the bombs from the level. There’s a bit more depth than just that though. On top of clearing out the bombs, it’s in your best interest to get your combo meter up so you can finish the level with the maximum three stars. Besides timing and how many bombs you knock out, you have to add a little flair to your shots. You can strike twice while in the air, reverse time to build up momentum, or explode your splatter so you can rain down on the bombs.

The technical aspect of The Splatters isn’t too bad. It eases you into your new abilities pretty quickly. You’ll have some levels you can play straight-forward and some you’ll use all of your abilities, which can lead to some awesome replays on the leaderboards.

Difficulty spikes aren’t found here either. Sure, getting the maximum number of stars each level might be a pain, especially if you’re a completionist like I am, but for the most part, you’re fine.

Presentation: The Splatters has a fun art style. You get a few different colored Splatters though the game. Granted, the stages aren’t as dynamic as I was kind of hoping for. Moving backgrounds, different settings, anything else to spice up the look of each level. With that said, there’s no moments of monotony because of the high level of accessibility.

Value: One thing I immediately thought was that this game feels like an iOS game. The three star layout, the easy to grasp gameplay, etc. Is this a bad thing? No. There’s three different “levels” with 65 total sub-levels. Some levels you’ll be able to speed through in a minute, some you’ll probably be stuck on if you’re aiming for a perfect rating. Leaderboards also play a big role in this game. “Splatter TV” shows all of the top replays from the leaderboards. More games are implementing this, which is great, and The Splatters was absolutely a game that needed it.

Final thought: The Splatters is a neat little game that is easily one of the most accessible games on the platform. It may not be remembered in a year or so though, which is a bummer. I give The Splatters a B. If you’re in the market for a fun diversion from your blockbusters, this is most definitely your game. A little more fluff would’ve helped this stand out, maybe some multiplayer or more art, but that doesn’t diminish the overall package.