Live Ware: Aces of the Galaxy, Frogger 2, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
6/20/2008 6:43 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Aces of the Galaxy
Developer: Artech Studios
Publisher: Sierra Online
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Originally appeared on: N/A
RECOMMENDATION: Buy It
Somebody over at Artech Studios really digs
StarFox. How else can you explain
Aces of the Galaxy, which plays like Nintendo's classic space shooter if it were to be injected with a large dosage of adrenaline and neon? Hopping into one of two different (in appearance only) spaceships, you blast your way through a variety of levels packed full of enemy ships, asteroids and other space debris. To deal with the barrage of enemy fire, you have a few weapons at your disposal: a basic laser gun, torpedoes and missiles that allow you to lock onto multiple enemies at once,
Rez-style. A "temporal shift" feature momentarily slows down time for those moments when you need to more efficiently dodge oncoming hazards.
With its branching levels and hectic action,
Aces is a wonderful homage to
StarFox. Making things even better is the two player co-op mode, which can be played locally or over Xbox Live. Be prepared for a challenge, though, as this game isn't easy. It's even tougher if you're competing for high scores.
Aces is a harsh judge of your performance throughout the game.
Roogoo
Developer: SpiderMonk Entertainment
Publisher: SouthPeak Games
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Originally appeared on: N/A
RECOMMENDATION: Buy It
Usually, when a new "falling block" style puzzle game gets released, the gut reaction is to write it off as a
Tetris clone and leave it at that. Every so often, though, a title is able to get past that stigma thanks to an innovative feature or gameplay twist that makes it stand out from the crowd.
Roogoo's fresh take on the genre brings it up to the ranks of games like
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and
Meteos. The game's roots are in those pegboard toys that infants play with. You know, the things where you use a toy hammer to knock different shaped blocks into the properly shaped hole?
Here, the blocks are falling from the sky, and it's your job to rotate the circular platforms that sport the holes so that the correct hole lines up with the block as it falls through. It starts off fairly easy, but after a couple of levels, new challenges arise that increase the challenge. Soon you'll be dealing with enemies that block the holes and nefarious butterflies that drag your blocks back up through multiple platforms, forcing you to quickly think in reverse.
Like the best puzzle games,
Roogoo is easy to learn, but the clever mechanic and increasing challenge keeps it addictive. There's also a multiplayer mode that allows up to four people to compete at once. Even if you don't care for the game's cutesy aesthetic (but how could you not ... those
Roogoos are adorable!), this one is worth getting.
Frogger 2
Developer: Voltex Inc.
Publisher: Konami
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Originally appeared on: N/A
RECOMMENDATION: Fry It
To date, there have been two
Frogger 2s. The first was
Frogger II: Threedeep!, which was released in 1984 for Atari systems and the Commodore 64. In 2000, there was
Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge, for the PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color and PC. Unreleased to either of those games is this third entry in the rapidly expanding "
Frogger 2" genre, the subtitle-free,
Frogger 2. This new game maintains a viewpoint similar to the original
Frogger, albeit it with a more cartoonish look. Instead of crossing streets and rivers, however, our intrepid amphibious hero must now hop through all sorts of different environments in a variety of levels.
