TVL Magazine #3 by The Vita Lounge Magazine

13 Reviews! Developer Interviews! Greg Miller!

The Vita Lounge M A G A Z I N E

www.thevitalounge.net THE VITA LOUNGE TEAM EDITORIAL Executive Editor / Paul Murphy @pmurphy1978 Editor-in-Chief / Kyle Wakeling @teflontactics Deputy Editor / Charlie Large @charlielarge Deputy Editor / Brad Gruetzmacher @vongruetz Podcast Editor / Tyler Olthoff @imsohappy77 NORTH AMERICAN TEAM Lateralus1082 @lateralus2801 Will Hernandez @PlayStationator EUROPEAN TEAM Liam Langan @liamhangover Colin Byrne @ColinJByrne Stephen Guy @stefarno MAGAZINE DESIGN Jhonatan Carneiro @JhoCarneiro Original TVL logo designed by Buramu SPECIAL THANKS Young Horses @YoungHorses Ackk Studios @AckkStudios XMPT Games @XMPTGames Brian Sharon @BrianGSharon Greg Miller @GameOverGreggy PRINT EDITION If you want to pledge and aid The Vita Lounge financially and also get a print copy of future issues of The Vita Lounge Magazine, please head over to www.patreon.com/TheVitaLounge and consider supporting us! We will ship worldwide! ADVERTISING Want to get your game featured in the magazine and read by more than 5000 people? We can discuss any magazine advertising opportunities! Send us an email at advertising@thevitalounge.net COVERAGE Are you a developer? If you are working on Vita content and want to get it covered in either the magazine or on the website, then we would love to hear from you! Please send an email to press@thevitalounge. net and add us to your press lists. If you have a game coming out soon and want us to tell other Vita owners, get in touch! DISCLAIMER The Vita Lounge is an independent PlayStation Vita enthusiast website. All content featured is used with permission, and is used to promote existing and upcoming titles for the PS Vita. We are not endorsed or affiliated with Sony or PlayStation, or any of the companies featured. © 2015 The Vita Lounge

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Hello Vita gamers!

Welcome to Issue Three of The Vita Lounge Magazine! We are back again and from now on you can expect to see us releasing monthly, which means we can keep you even more up to date with what happens in the Vita world. Once again we have more unique features for you, and we have interviews with Young Horses, Ackk Studios and an exclusive chat with XMPT Games, who tell us all about their latest titles. Our friend from Punk and Lizard explain about working to a deadline and Youtube's GadgetGirlKylie returns and tells us about the games she has been playing. We also have an EXCLUSIVE feature from Kinda Funny's Greg Miller, who gives his thoughts on the "Legacy System" debacle.

Paul Murphy PMurphy1978

Founder

Despite it only being a month since the last issue, we have packed in quite a few reviews into this issue, with Octodad, Tetris Ultimate and LEGO Jurassic World joining cover title Steins; Gate in a total of 13 reviews. We also have an import review of Puyo Puyo Tetris, which I suppose makes this a bit of a Tetris special! We also have an updated list of ten games to get excited for, which has three new entries! Whilst you are reading, we will be hard at work planning issue four – if you want it to happen then please consider supporting our Patreon – it would really be appreciated and would go a long way to supporting what we do! You can find our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/thevitalounge and you can even get a print copy delivered to your door, wherever you live in the world! Thanks for checking us out!

meet the TEAM...

Kyle Wakeling

Charlie Large

Tyler Olthoff

Brad Gruetzmacher

Editor-in-Chief and Jack of all trades at The Vita Lounge. Hailing from Canada, he's a long time gamer and aspiring writer - just hoping to spread the word of PlayStation Vita to the darkest corners of the internet... and beyond.

Deputy Editor of The Vita Lounge, he has been a part of the site for almost 18 months. Recently he has not given his Vita as much attention as it deserves, but titles such as Broken Age and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair have got him hooked on the handheld once more!

Our Podcast Host is in love with almost all types of games, the only type he can't stand (and that's probably because he sucks at it) is fighting games. His favorite genres would have to be shooters, RPGs, and adventure games.

A video game enthusiast and family man. He's been gaming since the days of the Intellivision, and while that indicates he's been doing this for quite some time, he doesn't intend to quit anytime soon. Currently he's trying desperately to convince his daughter that there are more games than just Minecraft (unsuccessfully so far).

teflontactics

Chaz3010

ImSoHappy77

vongruetz

Contents 04 NEWS TO GO

THE BIGGEST AND LATEST VITA NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

06 INTERVIEW

The Vita Lounge Magazine | Issue 3 | July 2015

16 REVIEWS

39 PUNK AND LIZARD

17 18 20

S J HOLLIS FROM PUNK AND LIZARD TELLS US WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING TO A DEADLINE, TROPHIES AND PUPPIES

PHIL FROM YOUNG HORSES TALKS TO US ABOUT OCTODAD AND THE VITA

08 INTERVIEW

Ultratron Octodad: Dadliest Catch LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin

Steins; Gate

40 HOT TEN

ACKK STUDIOS EXPLAIN ALL ABOUT THEIR UPCOMING RPG YIIK

10 INTERVIEW

UK DEVELOPER XMPT TALK ABOUT THROWING FRISBEES AROUND IN THEIR MANIC TITLE DISCSTORM

WITH NEWCOMERS, UPS AND DOWNS, WE LOOK AT TEN UPCOMING TITLES THAT YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO OWN

Tetris Ultimate

42 GadgetGirlKylie

12 JAPANESE REVIEW IF TETRIS ULTIMATE ISN'T ENOUGH FOR YOU THIS ISSUE, FIND OUT WHETHER YOU SHOULD IMPORT PUYO PUYO TETRIS

14 GREG MILLER GREG MILLER FROM KINDA FUNNY GIVES HIS REACTION TO THOSE LEGACY SYSTEM COMMENTS

26 28 30 32 34 36 38

Badland: Game of the Year Edition Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed Sketchcross Super Exploding Zoo LEGO Jurassic World Element4l Breach & Clear

GADGETGIRLKYLIE RETURNS WITH A LOOK AT WHAT SHE'S BEEN PLAYING ON HER AWESOME CHANNEL

43 DIRECTORY

THE BEST 2015 VITA GAMES SO FAR

Lateralus1082

Colin Byrne

Liam Langan

Will Hernandez

Stephen Guy

Gaming since the 80s and can't seem to get out of the 90's when it comes to music. I enjoy all types of games and long walks on the beach. A huge supporter of the Vita and I import pretty much everything underneath the sun.

A gamer since the age of 10, Colin was brought up on Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon on the PS1. After a five year spell of being a 360 owner, Colin has returned to the world of Sony through the PS Vita, and is loving every second!

Vita enthusiast and once declared as 'Champion of the Vita', Liam's love for Sony's handheld know's no bounds. He's happy playing most Vita titles and most recently found himself enjoying indie titles, but will totally give you a good run for your money in any beat-em-up

Will was cursed with the inability to ever be satisfied with his trophy level. You can catch him talking about football, basketball, and gushing about how good Mega Man 2 is on his Twitter page.

An overopinionated gamer who spends more time talking and complaining about games than actually playing them. Stephen can be found via our forum (among other places) under the username Stefarno.

Lateralus1082

EnterCole

liamlangan

I_AM_NOT_A_FISH

Stefarno88

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NEWS TO GO Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward PS Vita & PS TV Models Revealed Despite Final Fantasy XIV not being compatible with either platform, Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment have joined forces to promote the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion Heavensward in Japan with complementary PS Vita and PS TV models. The special edition PS Vita will cost 20,980 yen (£109.55/$168.48) and comes with a Heavensward theme download code, and a Heavensward original sleeve. The special edition PS TV bundle will cost 16,280 yen (£84.99/$130.74) and also comes with the theme download code and sleeve. Both will be released alongside the expansion on June 23rd in Japan.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Coming to Vita thanks to Kickstarter Koji Igarashi’s “Igavania” side-scroller Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is coming to the Vita, thanks to its campaign on Kickstarter reaching the $3,500,000 mark. This version of the game will be handled by Armature Studios.They’re promising to work closely with the team making the PS4 version so that there will be full cross-save support built into the game. They’ve also pledged that they will make the game fully compatible with the PlayStation TV. Some other features added for the Vita will include full touch support for the map which will allow players to draw and scrub the map. Additionally, Armature wants to include a feature where the game’s soundtrack can be exported to the Vita’s music library.

Hatoful Boyfriend Sequel to Land on Vita

World of Final Fantasy Announced at E3 2015

Although its prequel hasn’t even been released yet, Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star has been confirmed to hit Vita later this year.

Square Enix has unveiled a new Final Fantasy title for release on PlayStation Vita.

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star is a christmas themed entry to the quirky dating sim series. It’s slated for the second half of 2015 and will feature new and familiar characters, enhanced graphics and even more puns. 4 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

Amidst all the E3 PlayStation 4 announcements was a lone PlayStation Vita announcement in the first hour; the existence of World of Final Fantasy – a new title set to release in 2016. Not much is known about the game at this time other than the little that has been stated, though the E3 trailer looked to be quite cute.

Super Meat Boy Finally on Its Way to Vita Tommy Refenes, co-founder of Team Meat alongside Edmund McMillen, took to the PlayStation Blog to bring us all the news that most of us have been waiting for – Super Meat Boy is coming to the PlayStation Vita! Team Meat have said that when Super Meat Boy was first launched they weren’t allowed to bring it to the PS3 “for very complicated reasons.”. However, after years of patiently waiting, we can finally look forward to experiencing the challenging platformer on a PlayStation console! We’ve been given a release window of this Fall, and as if that isn’t good enough, Super Meat Boy will be free on PlayStation Plus’ Instant Game Collection.

Armature to Give out Unreal Engine 4 for Free In order to bring Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night over to the Vita, Armature must first port over the Unreal Engine 4 as it is not currently supported. Therefore, Armature has announced that after they have successfully completed the port, they will share the UE4 Vita code for free to any authorized developer on the platform. Having a version of Unreal Engine 4 up and running for the PS Vita would give developers another tool to create games for the system, or more likely, to port their current projects over along with Unity (which is already supported on the Vita).

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Announced for the West XSEED has announced the Western localization of Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. Read a snippet of XSEED’s press release detailing Trails of Cold Steel below:

“Revealed for the first time in North America, this RPG adventure from Nihon Falcom’s acclaimed The Legend of Heroes franchise, improves on the series’ formula and features an expertly told storyline that both longtime Trails veterans and newcomers alike can enjoy equally.” The game will be hitting Vitas in North American and PAL territories this Fall.

The Swindle Arrives on Vita This Month The Swindle will arrive on Sony platforms first, with the game releasing simultaneously on PS Vita, PS3 and PS4 on July 28th in Europe and North America. Set in a steampunk world, levels are procedurally generated as you look to rob as much loot as possible while sidestepping a whole host of formidable foes. Developer Dan Marshall gave further details on his latest project:

“One minute you’re sneaking past robot security guards to grab a load of loot and the next you’re being chased by police choppers and drones… there’s nothing with stakes quite as high as The Swindle.”

Steins;Gate 0 Announced for Japan; Sony Awaiting “Right Time” No Word on Western Release to Unveil Gravity Rush 2 Steins;Gate 0 is a continuation of the Steins;Gate series which is set for release in Japan this Fall, but with the first game already released in Europe and soon in the US, it’s likely that this one will eventually follow. Founder of developers 5pb, Chiyomaru Shikura, is named as the lead project planner of the game; Tatsuya Matsubara is named as the producer with huke in charge of character design, and Take Abo is in charge of the music.

In a recent interview at E3, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida responded to a question regarding a Gravity Rush sequel, saying:

“That’s another project that we’re waiting for the right time to unveil. I’ve been playing the game for some time.” The main issue for owners of the PS Vita is whether the game will return to handheld at all. In March, the Korean ratings board classified Gravity Rush Remastered as a PS4 release. But only time will tell. The Vita Lounge Magazine | 5

TVL MAGAZINE

TELLS US ABOUT OCTOFATHERHOOD ON PS VITA HAVE YOU PICKED UP OCTODAD: DEADLIEST CATCH YET? IF YOU HAVEN’T EXPERIENCED THE CRAZY WORLD THAT YOUNG HORSES CREATED YOU SHOULD READ OUR REVIEW THIS ISSUE! WE CAUGHT UP WITH YOUNG HORSES PRESIDENT PHIL TIBITOSKI AROUND THE GAME’S LAUNCH AND HELL TELLS US ABOUT THE INSPIRATIONS BEHIND THE GAME AS WELL AS WORKING WITH THE VITA. Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to talk with us! How did you all come up with Octodad? One of the things the idea of Octodad was inspired by is the film Being John Malkovich. The idea of driving a body and managing movements in an awkward manner. The first Octodad, as a student game, was born out of a team of 18 at DePaul University which Young Horses was a part of before we existed as a studio. Seth Parker our audio lead explains this best since he was one of the initial sparks that formed Octodad. Seth Parker, Audio Composition/Design: “We had pitched for three days of basic ideas…one page pitches. So… we split up into teams of three and four and basically sat around for an entire day, banging our heads against the wall, trying to come up with eight-page pitches to bring back to the team… John Murphy, one of the artists and I were in a group together and we were like, ‘okay lets just go crazy.’ Somebody said something that reminded me of Descartes so I was like, ‘what if you were kind of a passenger in your own body?’ And then someone was like, ‘what if you were driving your own body?’ ‘What if you’re a guy inside a robot and you were driving them?’ ‘What if you’re an octopus in your head?’ ‘Well, what if you’re just an octopus?’ And that was how it happened.”

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Is there anything about the game that you don’t like? If you could have the development time all over again would you change anything? In my opinion with Dadliest Catch we spent too much time attempting to make the game exciting in the traditional sense. The end of the game comes to a climax that doesn’t always feel like it’s a fitting thing for the Octodad universe. We could have stuck with every day situations and circumstances rather than an aquarium cafeteria blowing up, or attempting a stealth Metal Gear Solid-esque level. We did go back and try to adjust as much as we could after we realized our mistake, but that was postrelease and something we didn’t understand until the game was in players hands. It’s difficult to say because some players like this hard section of the game, and others think it’s going overboard so to speak. What made you want to bring Octodad to the Vita? Do you think it is well suited to a portable system? When we announced that Octodad was coming to PlayStation 4 we got a ton of great responses, and one of the things that we kept getting asked was if it was coming to PS Vita as well. We didn’t have the expertise within our own team of having released on a mobile platform like Vita before which caused some amount of hesitation. The idea was

to put the game out on PS4 to see how it goes and get our feet wet with consoles in general. Though Octodad isn’t a graphical powerhouse, it is a physics playground and so we weren’t sure if we could create a playable version on our own that would live up to the PS4 version on Vita. Sickhead Games and PlayStation had our backs in this regard and that’s when we decided getting the game on Vita was a definite possibility. The gameplay in Octodad is suited to on-the-go play in that there are plenty of checkpoints and all the tasks in the game are split up into manageable chunks. You can mow the lawn or play one of the games in the Amazon Arcade while on the train. The game runs around 2-3 hours for most players and so it’s also great for a plane/train ride when you want to play something you can beat. The controls themselves work well on Vita since it has almost all of the same interfaces that a DS4 has as well.

How have you found developing for the Vita? Has it been a challenge to get Octodad onto the handheld? I mentioned before that we did need some help getting the game on Vita since we’d never optimized for that kind of hardware before. A lot of the work was seeing what resolutions we could bring textures down to, and where we could reduce the amount of physics objects or characters in levels to have them run well enough to maintain the experience we wanted players to have. It was a balancing act, but I’m surprised at how well the game now runs on a platform that initially released 2 years prior to us even launching Octodad in the first place. It’s very cool to see it on the screen, and is a great/easy way to show it off to friends and family. What compromises, if any, did you have to make to squeeze it in? Mostly a reduction in the amount of physics objects and lowering of texture resolution. We tried to balance performance with the experience we wanted players to have. I think it turned out great.

screens, and you can rub its back. So that’s cool. What Vita games stand out for you? Do you have a favourite Vita game? All the cross-buy titles are ones I end up playing on Vita instead of PS4. I’m not sure what it is, but I think Hotline Miami 1 & 2 play the absolute best on Vita. I think it might be the length of the thumbsticks? They’re shorter than the DS4 ones obviously and that works really well for the twitch gameplay. I also use the streaming play feature to play a lot of PS4 games from my Vita at home. Would you bring any future titles to the Vita? For sure. If the games controls can fit and it runs well there’s no reason not to.

What’s next for Young Horses? Other than the ports we’re currently working on we don’t have any big new plans for Octodad just yet. Our next game isn’t Octodad related as we’re looking to branch out a little and see if we can escape being a one trick pony. We love Octodad, but it’s all we’ve What are your thoughts on the Vita as known for like 4 years and we’re ready a system, and what do you most like for a break. Our goal as a studio is to about it? explore new and weird things that It’s great for playing games that I would can be done with games while telling otherwise not get around to on PC or stories that people can relate to. PS4, like Hotline Miami. The screen is one of the nicer mobile platform

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TVL MAGAZINE

HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING UP WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF YIIK? NOT SURE WHAT YIIK IS? IT’S A COLOURFUL 3D JRPG SET IN THE 1990S, ABOUT EIGHT STRANGERS, A MYSTERIOUS WOMAN WHO VANISHES IN AN ELEVATOR, AND WEAPONIZED PANDA PLUSHIES. WE HAD A CHAT WITH THE TEAM BEHIND THE GAME TO FIND OUT MORE.

Thanks for talking with us! Can you tell us a little bit about Ackk Studios? Thank you for having us! Ackk Studios is based in NJ, formed by brothers Brian & Andrew Allanson. In the past we created a little game called Two Brothers inspired by Gameboy Games, which is being remade as Chromophore and coming to Vita! There are five of us here. Brian, handling 3D modeling and programer, Brigid handling 2d Illustrations, Jose handling Mixing, mastering, and editing of YIIK’s 10 hours of cutscene dialogue, and 4 hours of soundtrack. Andrew, who wrote the game’s script, as well as all 4 hours of the soundtrack, and Ian who works on level designs. YIIK looks incredible. How did you come up with the idea for the game? Thank you! We wanted to make an RPG, and we knew we wanted it to be 3D, and set in modern times. I, personally (can’t speak for the team on this one), have always had a bit of a hang up about Mother 64. I remember seeing the first trailer, and falling in love… and then being really upset when it was canceled. So, for me I wanted to make a game that had

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the vibe of a lost PS1 or N64 RPG. Something that, when you play it, feels modern, but also feels like the lost game of that era that everyone forgot existed. Have any games inspired you with development for YIIK? Lufia 2, Wild Arms 1, Mother 1-3 (3 particularly), Zelda, and Paper Mario. That’s quite a differing range of games to drive that imagination, but also very Nintendo-centric. Do you think it will go down well with a PlayStation audience? I think so. The PlayStation Audience has always been wildly appreciative of RPGs, so I think that will help. Also, Persona 4 really brought a lot more people into the RPG world. Nintendo isn’t really making the kind of games that people want form Nintendo any more… that and the PlayStation hardware is superior… so that’s the draw for me. People love to say that it’s not the power of the system that matters, but the game itself… only thing is, for a developer, it’s much easier to get a game to be decent if the system itself is.

What sort of gameplay can gamers expect to see with YIIK? How long do you expect the game to be? For exploration, you can expect a hybrid of Zelda and Wild Arms 1. Lots of puzzles, platforming elements, and dungeons to tackle. For combat, there are turn based battles, that feature 8 party members, and up to 8 enemies. Each character has a different play style. So Alex, the second character you play as (and the one we’ve shown in trailers so far), fights with records. So, we created something inspired by the Judgement Ring from Shadow Hearts. This record player shows up, and a LP spins, you drop the needle on the sweet spots to increase the attack power, and combos. Claudio, the wooden-sword wielding badass, fights with something that feels like a hybrid of Sabin from FF6 and side scrolling DDR. Vella, has music based combat. So, everything she does contains elements of rhythm. We wanted to have lots of variety in combat, so we decided to make each character control different, so each turn you were handling a new issue.

In combat, you can speed up and slow down battle in real time with L and R. However, there is a trade off here. When an enemy attacks you, you have the chance to dodge or defend every time. So, you may choose to slow down combat to better execute a dodge… however, this drains your time meter. Taking damage adds to the time meter. The time meter is only used for slowing down time, you can speed up as frequently as you desire… just get ready to switch back to real time so you don’t take too much damage!

Are you trying to get that Vita version up to 60 FPS? Or do you think you’ll settle on 30 in the end? I’d love for it to be 60 fps, so I’ll aim for that.

The game is at least 25 hours long. I can beat it in 14, but I also made it.

We are finding that delays to the Vita versions of titles are increasing. How is the Vita version coming along? Are you still planning on a simultaneous release for the game? Vita version is as far along as the other console versions! Game runs on it, you can play it, some shaders don’t render… but that’s all fixable. I will release the Vita version the same time as the PS4 version if everything goes according to plan… this will have the game releasing this winter.

Is there anything new you can tell us about YIIK? Yes! I alluded to it in an earlier question, but… Alex, the red-headed“hipster, is not the character you first play as in YIIK. There are two main characters. Alex takes up more of the gameplay time, but he isn’t necessarily the protagonist. How are you finding developing YIIK for the Vita? Have you had to make any compromises to get it running? Thankfully, biggest issue we’ve run into is the lack of buttons… so, this just forced us to simplify the controls on every platform. The game mostly looks the same on Vita as it does on PS4. The biggest thing is PS4 is always 60 fps, and vita is usually closer to 40.

You are also developing the game for the PS4, will there be any cross-buy or cross-save planned? Do you have a price-point in mind at this stage? Yes, I would love to do cross-buy and cross-save. Cross save I just need to learn how to implement it and I’ll get it in. $15-$20 is what I’m thinking now.

What made you want to bring the game to the Vita? I love my vita. I’m very busy, and I spend most of my time playing portable games. The Vita hardware is ideal for YIIK, over the 3Ds… so I chose to focus on Vita as my mobile version of the game.

YIIK IS SET TO LAUNCH ON THE PS VITA THIS WINTER AND WE ARE VERY EXCITED FOR IT. YOU CAN KEEP UP TO DATE WITH DEVELOPMENTS FROM THE ACKK STUDIOS WEBSITE. HTTPS://ACKKSTUDIOS.WORDPRESS.COM/ YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW THEM ON TWITTER VIA @ACKKSTUDIOS.

What do you like about the Vita as a system? The machine is very comfortable to hold, and very beautiful in terms of display. Is there anything you don’t like about the Vita, or wish you could change? You mentioned buttons earlier… Buttons would be good. I’d love more first party support. Other than that, there isn’t anything from a hardware perspective that has given me too much trouble. Whilst this is your first Vita title, it is not your game as a studio. You previously produced the classic GameBOY stylised action-adventure game Two Brothers in 2013. Would you ever consider bringing that to Vita? I am! That will likely be out before YIIK. We’ll see… Are you Vita gamers yourselves? What are your favourite Vita titles? Persona 4 (obviously), Uncharted, virtue’s last reward, and Gravity Rush…. and YIIK. What would you say to a developer looking to start working with the Vita? Thank you for wanting to make a game for Vita, we need more people like you. Think about what type of game is missing on the system, and try and fill that gap. That’s important to people I think. It’s a great system with great fans, so are developers, we need to anticipate what people might want on the system.

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TVL MAGAZINE

LOVE FURIOUS ARENA COMBAT ACTION? UK DEVELOPER XMPT GAMES TALK TO US ABOUT THEIR UPCOMING FAST-PACED TITLE DISCSTORM AND WORKING WITH THE VITA Hello XMPT games, thanks for talking with us! Could you tell us a little bit about your studio and how you got into developing games? The four of us met whilst working at a large software company and quickly discovered that we shared a mutual love of creating games. We formed XMPT Games so that we could start releasing our creations.

DiscStorm uses the classic aesthetic of Bomberman, fast-paced gameplay of Towerfall and draws on the hectic, ever-changing nature of Wario Ware. We wanted the game to be really easy At the other end of the spectrum is the to pick up - so that there was no barrier to entry for new players – but Pirate Ship: an arena that's all about deep enough that a dedicated player chaotic, confined gameplay. As the boat sways up and down on the waves, could truly master the combat. Hopefully we've pulled this off with the the hordes of pirates on either side move in and out, changing the shape of nuanced countering system and tight controls. We all continue to work full time jobs as the arena. The circular mast in the well as running XMPT Games. It can be center of the ship rebounds discs in all quite challenging to plan well and make directions, so players really need to be The single player mode takes influence from games like Binding of Isaac, Zelda sure that you keep up with those that fast with their reactions! and Shadow Of The Colossus. We try to are developing their games full-time, make each boss test the player both but we're all very passionate about what In addition to a great multiplayer we do and are determined to spend experience, we also wanted the single physically and mentally, as they work every free moment we can creating player campaign to stand up in it's own out how to defeat them whilst dodging their onslaught of attacks. games. right. There's a full wave mode for every arena in which you have to battle Is there anything new or exclusive that You are currently working on DiscStorm. your way past droves of enemies and you can tell us about DiscStorm? Can you tell us what it’s about? take on colossal bosses using both DiscStorm's all about fast-paced and brain and brawn. Each boss is designed Since we're on the subject of bosses, let's talk about some of those! How furious arena combat with friends, with their arena's unique aspects in about the Volcano Lair? whether in the same room or online. mind, so many force the play to take Players get three ricocheting discs each advantage of intractable objects or The arena is set inside an active with which to beat their opponents. The alter the arena itself in some way. volcano on a platform suspended win conditions switch up every round above a pool of lava. Plumes of flame too. There are classic deathmatch What was the inspiration behind the rounds like first-to-ten, and more game? What games would you say it is erupt upwards, stunning any player that touches them, and occasionally unusual match types like Time Bomb, in best described as a mix of? which players have to get rid of an Several years ago when we first started solidifying to form destructible basalt pillars. Enemies emerge from a gigantic exploding bomb before the timer hits game jamming we used to use a zero. random game name generator to come circular hatch in the arena's center. up with the theme. One of our The opening boss of the arena is the We've also tried really hard to make all favourite titles was “Tactical Frisbee Fire Wizard. He conjures a shield of ten arenas in the game feel and play Espionage”. This name clearly stuck fireballs around him which deflect any uniquely. For example, the Haunted with Rich, as the prototype of discs that they touch, making them Mansion contains secret passages DiscStorm was inspired by a harmful to the player. Occasionally he hidden behind bookcases and paintings combination of this name and that turn in to teleporting portals. As a Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, which he'd will stop and shoot the fireballs out in player, it's all about positioning – you been playing a lot at the time. Once the all directions, forcing players to hide can pull off a sneaky shot through a rest of us got our hands on it, we knew behind a nearby basalt pillar or adeptly portal or out-position your enemies via immediately that we wanted to turn it dodge out of the way. the bookcase passageways. Both of in to a full release title. 10 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

these elements give the Haunted Mansion a very strategic feeling, whilst still preserving the hectic nature of DiscStorm.

The final boss is a gigantic fire elemental called the Lava Lord: a being comprised entirely of fire and held together by hulking pieces of armour. In his first stage, he forces entire sections of the arena to erupt in flame and leaves behind a trail of burning embers where ever he passes. During the second part of the fight, he fires beams of molten lava out in five directions and becomes invulnerable, summoning several magma bombs which explode upon death. Players must move carefully, avoiding the beams and dispatching the bombs as soon as possible. He also has an enrage stage once he gets low on health, which combines elements of each of the first two stages, making him extra challenging. We briefly got some hands on with the game in March, at EGX Rezzed, and we spoke about the possibility of getting it onto the PSTV. Is this likely to happen? The emerging trend of consoles like PSTV does seem like a good fit for multiplayer games like DiscStorm. That being said, we can't make any promises on a PSTV release just yet! Are there any differences between the characters at all, or is it a level playing field? The characters and each of their costumes are only different in terms of looks. Due the pick-up-and-play premise behind the game, it was important to us that players could choose the characters they liked the look of the best, without needing to worry about which one was stronger. The changing arenas, match types and power-ups help to keep the game fresh instead. There are also five costumes for each of the five characters, twenty of which are unlocked as you progress through single and multiplayer. Since you started Disc Storm, the Vita has seen a boost in the amount of resources available to developers. Did you know about this, and have you taken advantage at all? Sony have been great to work with and they've always been very supportive of

us as a studio, even way back when we'd and Shuttle Quest 2000. only just released our first title, Penguin Party. They're always available to speak As developers that have experience to if we have any issues or requests too. with PlayStation Mobile, what are or thoughts on Sony shutting it down? How is development going? Are you close Glad you developed DiscStorm for Vita? to that light at the end of the tunnel? PlayStation Mobile played a huge part We are extremely close to finishing now in our history as a studio and we owe a the PC version now and the Vita version lot to it. When the company was less should be ready relatively soon after than a week old, we applied to the that. It has certainly been a lot of hard PlayStation Pioneers competition for work, but it's really fulfilling to see all of PlayStation Mobile and made it in to the parts come together. It's mainly just the final. Whilst driving home from that bug fixes and balancing left now, with the event, we made the decision to create odd little extra animation or visual cue our first title for the platform, Penguin thrown in. Party. DiscStorm had originally begun as a smaller project on there too. Working on a year-long project like DiscStorm has been a massive learning PlayStation Mobile provided a great experience for all four of us. When you way for newer developers to establish take in to account all eighteen unique themselves within the indie scene. We bosses, online multiplayer and everything were able to prove that we could make that comprises the core local multiplayer decent games using it, which gave us a experience, it's actually a pretty huge huge leg up when it came to pitching game in terms of scope; particularly for a for full Vita titles. There isn't really team of four working only evenings and anything like it left for fledgling weekends. As such, we've all grown a lot developers now, aside from the PC. In as artists, developers, musicians and that respect, a fairly vital, if under designers. Hopefully those new skills will appreciated, part of the gaming come across in the finished game and in community has been lost. future projects! We're still very glad that we developed What made you want to develop the DiscStorm for Vita. There's also game for the Vita? Do you plan on porting something slightly more rewarding as a it to the PS4 at some point? developer when you see something you Essentially, we chose to develop for the made running on a console as opposed Vita because we all love it as gamers, so to a PC. we want to support it as developers. When DiscStorm goes out, we'll probably Is there anything else that you are play it on the Vita more than we do PC working on for the Vita that you can too! share with us? Not right at the moment, although we We have been in talks about porting have recently discussed revamping one DiscStorm to PS4 for a release in early of our PlayStation Mobile titles and 2016. However, nothing is confirmed as bringing it to a new platform. We would of yet. love to apply everything that we've learned during the development of What games have you enjoyed on the DiscStorm to our older releases, Vita? particularly now that PlayStation Most of us are actually avid JRPG fans, Mobile has been shut down. stuff like Danganronpa, Persona and Disgaea - it's a genre that works That being said, the Vita is a platform particularly well on Vita too. Terraway that all of us are very fond of, so there's was a beautiful title too. We also picked a high likelihood that we would try to up a good number of PlayStation Mobile release whatever our next title is on titles like Haunt The House, Rymdkapsel there, if at all possible. The Vita Lounge Magazine | 11

TVL

JAPANESE REVIEW PUYO PUYO TETRIS MAGAZINE

Reviewed by Stephen Guy Puyo Puyo Tetris is a crossover of two fundamentally simple but super addictive puzzle games into a single package - Puyo Puyo (referred to as Puyo Pop in the West) and the timeless Tetris - mashed together into a variety of modes in a colourful, anime style. While I think it's safe to assume that everyone is familiar with Tetris, Puyo Puyo hasn't reached the same level of familiarity. Puyos drop in sets of two coloured blobs, and the aim is to connect four or more of the same colour together so that they disappear. The skill in Puyo Puyo is to chain these groupings in a way that clearing one grouping will result another grouping being cleared, and so on. The game features a story mode, and while I don't understand a word of Japanese, the plot clearly doesn't take itself seriously at all. Commencing with Tetriminos falling from the sky, the main cast is based on Tetris blocks and Puyos - with other characters including a giant fish, a robot and a wonderfully cool bear with a scarf.

While you can just play standard Puyo Puyo or Tetris should you wish - you can select either of these directly from the start screen - the game offering standard Puyo Puyo, Puyo Puyo Fever and Tiny Puyo Puyo modes, as well as the typical Tetris options of 40 lines, marathon (150 lines with and endless option) or ultra mode (3 minutes), the greatest interest is in the variety of battle modes. Battle modes enable you to either face a CPU opponent at a set difficulty (handily colour coded on a scale from yellow to red) or a consecutive mode - where you face successive opponents of increasing difficulty. Versus mode is a standard competition (featuring the standard Puyo Puyo and Tetris) where you are free to compete against the same or different discipline, while Swap mode has the game switch between the two.

It's easy to skip the dialogue and get to the action if you prefer, and you are left with 70 different stages (approximately half of which are battles with other characters). These stages provide an introduction to the modes on offer and you will notice a gradual increase in difficulty as you progress. Should you find something too tricky, failing a stage four times gives you the option to skip to the next level. Each stage has three stars available, with the first awarded for clearing the level and the other two for beating a goal typically granted for winning within a set time or reaching a high score. Each game rewards you with in-game currency which can be used towards unlockables such as alternate player voices or different puyo and tetrimo display types.

Big Bang is probably the weakest battle mode, with the player on the Puyo Puyo stage plays 'fever mode' â&#x20AC;&#x201C; effectively a series of pre-set chains that require completing within a time limit - whereas on the Tetris side you are presented a series of lines to clear with Tetriminoes. When the time runs out, the better you performed, the more damage you do to your opponent. The problem is that the Tetris side is incredibly easy and effectively requires no skill at all. Party mode is a standard in puzzle games â&#x20AC;&#x201C; here you compete for the highest score in a set time limit and a series of power-ups are interspersed in the game field, activated when they are cleared. These power-ups provide a variety of effects, such as impacting your opponent or

12 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

One fantastic feature is that the game allows you to save replays of your games for reminding your victories, high scores or great escapes. While the game is obviously in Japanese, I had very few struggles with navigating most of the game (aside from occasionally forgetting the standard Japanese switching of circle and cross for select and cancel) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the gameplay itself requires little explanation, and the use of pictures, typical menu layouts and occasional English words mean that this is probably one of the most import friendly games you will encounter.

The game allows for a huge amount of customisation, however this is the main area where a lack of Japanese A totally new mode for this game knowledge can be a struggle. Edit features a mixture of Puyo Puyo difficulty (handily colour coded), change and Tetris on the same field, and is game timers, starting difficulty levels, probably the most complicated to get activate hard drops and edit visual your head around. Puyos sit on top of Tetriminoes, which drop through Puyos setting such as the background or to the bottom. Clearing lines or forming display of Puyos and Tetrimos are the variables available for you to change. Puyo groups within a short timescale enables you to build chains with either. boosting your score.

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a fantastic combination of two great puzzle games. It looks great and super vibrant, offering a massive selection of modes, and competitive multiplayer. Unfortunately, a release outside Japan appears to have been blocked by Ubisoft obtaining the exclusive license for console and handheld Tetris games outside of Japan for Tetris Ultimate, however I'd definitely recommend picking this up on an import if you have any interest in puzzle games.

When you are facing Puyos against Tetriminos, the games features slight adaptations to balance them together - for example you can instant-drop Puyos to the bottom, while the Tetris side features a gauge to store attack drops. I found that you can build attacks with Tetris much quicker, however a high Puyo Puyo attack chain will do much greater damage, which helps keep things relatively balanced. The game features 4-player multiplayer via either the internet or ad-hoc. While Puyo Puyo Tetris is compatible with the PlayStation TV, unfortunately the game does not support offline multiplayer, which is a shame, albeit an expected one. There weren't that many people online, but I didn't struggle to get a game as long as I wasn't too picky over the mode I wanted to play. I did find a very small amount of lag when clearing lines â&#x20AC;&#x201C; although this is likely due to my competitors being based in Japan. A word of warning though, I found the typical standard online to be very high, so expect a challenge.

A wonderful combination of two fantastic puzzle games joined into a great package. A release outside of Japan appears highly unlikely, however this is well worth an import purchase.

Presentation

Gameplay

Lasting Appeal

The Vita Lounge

Execution

4.8

The PlayStation Vita’s taken some lumps in the past year. First came the of the past. Then, Sony admission that Triple-A Computer Entertainmen content is a thing t President Andrew Ho which has since been cla use called the Vita was rified but still stung. An a “legacy platform,” d most recently, PlayStat much ignored the li’l gu ion’s E3 2015 press confe y. rence pretty It’s time to face it, best friends: the PlayStation Vita is dead to the world to us. . But the good news is that it doesn’t matter Some of my happiest da ys at IGN.com came in 2007 when I was taske most junior on the Pla d with running the PSP yStation Team, saw it as page. I, being the leadership believing in page. In reality, it was an me and tasking me with underperforming desti piloting a platform nation for an underperfo learn to drive the site on rming platform so why it? not let the new kid I threw myself behind the little handheld, ma de sure fresh cover sto about my daily PSP tria ries were appearing ev ls and tribulations durin ery day, and posted g the train ride to the off Hot Shots Golf: Open Te ice. We saw games such e 2 improve on the origin as Patapon debut, al’s ideas, and a small bu t dedicated band of po rta ble gamers grow. Then, in 2009, an event known as Destination PlayStation happened. Creed, and LittleBigPla Sony announced that Mo net iterations were all torStorm, Assassin’s coming to the portable top of that, Sony brass powerhouse as well as revealed that they had tw o new bundles. On been going to third partie everything was going to s and reintroducing the be different from here m to the PSP -- that on out. In February 2009, I eloqu ently broke the news on IGN by writing: “Remem PSP was dead? Sony jus ber how lots of people t gave them the finger.” were saying the Sony isn’t giving anyone the finger with the Pla yStation Vita. In fact, the approach of the PSP -company’s taking the ex there’s no big event or act opposite third party initiative co we have right now is as ming to save the PlayS big as this thing’s going tat ion Vita. The fanbase to get, and the develop who are going to be on ers who are on board are board until it’s all said the and done. developers That’s great news. Jump back to 2009 and the middle finger wavin g; Destination PlayStat didn’t save the PSP or ion redefine its place in the industry. Sure, a lot of people bought the ne w bundles and jumped in (PSP’s numbers dwarf those of the Pla yStation Vita), but they didn’t stick around to be part of the community . Assassin’s Creed: Blood lines was lackluster, LittleBigPlant PSP was fun but didn’t make the PSP a “must have,” and none of these announcem ents stopped the hater s from hating. 14 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

who didn’t believe from the rth trying to convert those wo it s Wa . one ant ort imp s the most s already solidified? And that last one was perhap ather fans to a group that wa we fair on add to ing try rth get-go? Was it wo yStation Vita are the ones st likely to trash talk the Pla mo ple peo ea The o. int fall l stil supporters bunch of Vita titles, how wid I’m playing and rattle off a It’s a quicksand trap us Vita at wh o e int Gam A nch lau SEG a bly g yin vita When I ine I’m still pla of us, it’s like I’m telling you who have never picked it up. one not ’re you If . ner ow a they’re a Vit person’s eyes get tell me if Gear. erson dungeon crawler bringing the beautiful first-p is ox nkB Dri 5: 201 in ing Moriarty, and, good God, at what’s com ke life worth living for Colin ma But we shouldn’t care. Look l wil ls Gir ir spa De ra Ult /Vita love on the list, er Episode ives. If you’ll allow some PS4 lus Severed, Danganronpa Anoth exc t jus are se tho d An ch more. is imminent. Saga, Axiom Verge, and so mu ner Persona 4: Dancing All Night Ban The !, Up ns Gu ad, e, Chroma Squ there’s Mike Bithell’s Volum a en’t, and that’s why the Vit but I bet there’s a few you hav , rse cou at Of tly es? fec per gam e se gam tho t’s a a few of into the Titan Souls box. Tha Now, have you already played feel the need to turn my PS4 ’t ul Boyfriend, and Not don I tof Ha but , ls, tion Sou n Bas at Tita k e ne ride. Now, loo is awesome. I lov pla ry eve and h eac h wit t re that fac home on the Vita, and I treasu the same case. be n’t wo t tha a Hero and tell me nk God. Those are titles yStation Vita? No -- and tha Pla the on d rte cha Un or e ther Killzon Drake and Trophies on I thought I wanted Nathan Are we ever going to get ano . een scr big my on ed fer would’ve pre nd tries on dresses than a mi 2 levels while my girlfrie I played, loved, and honestly Mia e tlin Ho ee thr on e tak ch rather a; I’d prefer whatever crazy the go, but it turns out I’d mu t there’s no Infamous on Vit fac the at up e nos ir the n e of fans like us. (Ask masses tur trip to Shambhala. Let the that’s a real possibility becaus and i, am Kon er aft to get l probably indie game Hideo Kojima wil Bloodstained.) e hida and the guys didn’t giv rldwide Studios Shuhei Yos Wo y Son and of he, ent nic sid it’s Pre nd y fou wh wonder ause the PlayStation Vita has When we look back at E3 and ge know the answer -- it’s bec We n. stio que l PlayStation Experience sta ica tor rhe a for Gio Corsi to step on the Vita more time, it’s ited exc s get o e wh orit ce fav ien our aud m fro I. We’re the on the Vita and what’s next it’s in the hands of you and w of classics he’s helping get sle to be on Vita one the ng ut goi abo it’s us w tell kno we and e PC indie becaus in a hockey jersey new hot t tha g yin pla off s who put e this one subject so much. smaller studios. We’re the folk on Patreon because we lov ine gaz ma a k bac o wh s day. We’re the folk es To the world at large, yes. Do Is the PlayStation Vita dead? so , PS4 a e hav I all. fans? Not at that matter to us dedicated -re. On Vita, keep giving me the ff stu A give me the Triple out d ner l wil o wh , and the girl the guy who will travel to PSX rky qui the -t ten n Plus con about this month’s PlayStatio sions from a team of five mis zed -si games with the bite people living their dream. Oh, and make a new Patapon.

GREG MILLER WAS BORN TO EAT CHICKEN WINGS AND PLAY VIDEO GAMES, HE DOES BOTH IN THE NAME OF KINDAFUNNY.COM. FOLLOW KINDA FUNNY ON YOUTUBE AND TWITCH TO INTERPRET THE LATEST NEWS AND GAMES ALONGSIDE GREG, COLIN, NICK, AND TIM.

The Vita Lounge Magazine | 15

REVIEWS 17

Ultratron

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

Tetris Ultimate

Super Exploding Zoo

Badland: Game of the Year Edition

LEGO Jurassic World

Hyperdimension Neptunia 36 U: Action Unleashed

Sketchcross

LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin Element4l

Steins; Gate

Breach & Clear

OUR SCORING POLICY:

5 OUTSTANDING

Full marks indicates an almost perfect game- or at least as close as it can be. It will almost certainly be the best example of what can be achieved on the Vita and simply must be in your collection. It could also be argued that these games are worth buying a Vita for. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s if there were loads of them, it will also be very rare to see a game get this score.

4+ EXCELLENT

Scoring above 4 means that this is something that should definitely be in your collection. These games are very good indeed, and serve as great examples of what can be achieved on the Vita.

3+ GOOD

On a five star scale a three is slap bang in the middle and above average. We class these games as good. Perseverance will yield some some fun. These games may suffer with slight presentational issues or have cut back features.

2+ POOR

Hardcore fans of the series or genre may find something worthwhile but generally speaking this is one to avoid.

RUBBISH

The genre may be to your tastes but try as you might you will struggle to enjoy the game.

The Vita Lounge Magazine | 16

REVIEW ULTRATRON completely counter-intuitive. Text pops up on the bottom left of the screen in the middle of a dogfight, and when you try to read it you end up getting hit or you run into an enemy. At the same time however, when I ignored it I felt as if I was playing the game wrong because I wasn’t getting all the information the game wanted me to have. It’s not a huge deal after playing it for several hours as you’ll come to learn from experience, but it was very frustrating in the moment.

Reviewed by Will Hernandez 1

169 MB

increasingly smaller. But in Ultratron, all I did was avoid the bullet hell that came in the last two stages. In fact, Puppy Games once again nails it in an adrenaline-pumped shooter; you won’t have much trouble with the game during the first three stages. What isn’t frustrating are Ultratron’s their newest game Ultratron taking the Titan Attacks! concept and turning The fourth, and final stage, Letum, is sounds and visuals. The soundtrack where the head and heartaches will is great, with every beat matching the it on its head. Puppy Games carried commence – stage one and two are a fast-paced, on-your-toes gameplay over the same goals and rewards, but joke comparatively. that will pump you with energy as the unfortunately some of the charm was levels get harder. I mean, you do play lost when transforming it from a sidePower ups are financed by collecting as a robot – so a robotic soundtrack scrolling Space Invaders-esque shootthe money earned from killing pests, or couldn’t be more fitting, right? Most em-up to a 3D twin-stick shooter. enemies – but just like the gameplay, of the game is dark with a single color highlighting the fact that you’re on a The basic concept of play is exactly the this part has a twist, too; you’ll only get the money if you pick up the different stage; but even though it’s same in Ultratron as it was in Titan pellets dropped by the baddies. So, very simple, that is exactly what gives Attacks! – destroy everything on your hypothetically, you could get an entire these games their charm. screen. This added a nice sense of level without earning any money… and familiarity when playing Ultratron for sometimes, it feels like you don’t. the first time, as I was immediately Ultratron may only take you a few Rewards are expensive, and there understood what the game was trying hours to complete, depending on how are way too many. There are 20 in to do. much you struggle in the last stage. There isn’t much to do after aside total, including Shields, Pets and from fully upgrading your character EMP Shocks. Most of the upgrades in and unlocking every pet, and that’s Ultratron can be upgraded multiple part of why I can’t look back upon times, resulting in a whopping 60+ upgrades in total – and a lot of these Ultraton very fondly. It did its job to require thousands of dollars to obtain. entertain me, but it didn’t keep me That said, you won’t end up touching sucked in long enough for me to have a half of these upgrades until the very memorable experience with it. end because most of the money that you do earn you will probably spend Puppy Games’ Ultratron is well worth on Shields – and these can get very the short time you’ll spend with it, pricey. It also felt like the upgrades that it’s just a shame that it really didn’t You’re no longer held back by one plane I did buy had little-to-no effect and I do anything to make it standout barely felt a difference between having from the rest of the shoot-emand most of the screen is now your a Rocket Pet equipped and not having shooting ground – just as long as you up crowd. All I can see it as is the one. The price of these upgrades made inferior version of Titan Attacks!, don’t run into any enemy shooters. the money that the enemies drop feel Even though most of the screen is though hopefully you’ll be able to insignificant, and there didn’t seem to yours however, I still felt restricted by see it for what it’s trying to be. the dozens of enemies that will tend to be enough distributed to cover the cost appear at once. It would have been nice of these expensive items. to move anywhere and drag the screen The way you’re fed information with me, more space to avoid fire, and from the game is very strange and a new layer of depth to Ultratron‘s difficulty by making enemies appear of nowhere. The game being harder that way would have been more entertaining than just dealing with what’s just in Ultratron is another highly entertaining twin-stick your limited amount of space. shooter to add to the great number of quality PS Vita games out there. Unfortunately, there isn't too What makes Titan Attacks! hard is how much here to separate it from the rest of the pack. small your window to hit an enemy was. Both of you could only move sideto-side, and as the enemy ship slowly moved down the screen to destroy you, your window to attack got

3.6

Presentation

17 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

Gameplay

Lasting Appeal

The Vita Lounge

Execution

REVIEW OCTODAD: DADLIEST CATCH

Reviewed by Will Hernandez

626 MB

A game about an Octopus that cons a woman into believing that he’s a man, Octodad: Dadliest Catch is by far the weirdest, craziest, and wackiest thing I have ever played – even beating the rudeness that was South Park: The Stick of Truth with its ridiculous scenarios.

With these unique controls you’ll be mowing the lawn, making coffee, clambering up a gigantic playground, and grilling burgers – and despite how difficult some of these tasks seem as an octopus, actually doing/attempting them are some of the most fun parts of Octodad! On the other hand however, hiding from scientists is not. Luckily you Now how the heck does this kind of game manage to capture won’t have to deal with them for long, but the stealth bits of my heart and attention when it’s only a few hours long? The Octodad are a drag, and feel like a complete shift in gameplay, sound, and awesome animations definitely have objective from the crazier parts of the game. something to do with it; but better yet, my experience with Octodad: Dadliest Catch on the Vita felt even better than my The story of Octodad is surprisingly heartwarming. experience with the game on the PlayStation 4. Although you won’t be sobbing your eyes out or have your heart strings plucked at like they were while It’s no secret to the player that this dad is actually an playing a game such as The Last of Us, there’s an octopus, as crazy as it may be for his family to accept that. element found in Cartoon Network-style cartoons The brilliant minds at Young Horses have managed to make that can be found here. Could we possibly see an silly, off-the-wall, and almost down-right terrible controls Octodad animated series at some point in the work towards their game’s advantage, and even make it future? Unlikely, but holy crap that’d be cool. the sole reason why it was so enjoyable. Take everything you know about good game mechanics and throw it out the window. The challenge and entertainment comes from doing ordinary tasks, but with some of the worst controls you’ll ever use in your life. The left and right triggers are used to control the movement of Octodad’s limbs (only two are usable, thank god), while the thumbsticks control the directions in which they’re being moved. The catch is that the limbs don’t move where they should (or where you want them to), and you just have to move them in the general direction of your target and hope that they reach or touch it. Luckily, the game is pretty generous by automatically moving you towards the object in question once you’re close enough, but it’s an odd mechanic for sure. 18 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

I think that Octodad‘s soundtrack is one of the game’s stronger points, but it is also one that sleeps on you until you take the time to appreciate it. Everything from the opening theme song (which is seriously awesome, by the way) to the sound effects heard while you’re creeping through a human world disguised as a dad, slipping on bananas and collecting ties – all of it simply rocks! Not to mention some of those sound effects would make me laugh to myself as I subjected the titular character’s unsuspecting wife through torture, mowing down her flower patch just to get to one of thirty collectible ties.

the entrance of the grocery store is missing some crates and a treadmill where they were originally found. That said, things like the soda can mountain found in the level are still present – to my surprise. These missing objects aren’t too big of a deal, but they were noticeable – even to someone that hadn’t seen that part of Octodad in over a year. On the plus side, it was great to see how good Octodad looks and runs on Vita (aside from the aforementioned load issues). It doesn’t look Young Horses had to sacrifice any of the game’s awesome animations, as these and the art style have stayed intact in the transition to the handheld. I never experienced any performance issues either, and while the load times are a pain I accept them as a necessary evil for us to be able to enjoy Octodad as close to as was intended.

I’m a monster; a monster with eight legs.

As I mentioned, this was the best time I had with the game. It just feels right on the Vita , rather than on my television, where I felt a tiny bit disconnected due to the wonky controls being so essential to the experience. Having the screen right in your face and seeing the result of flicking your finger towards the nearest object to topple with Octodad‘s limbs is like no other.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch feels right at home on Vita, and is (in my opinion) one of the best games available on the device – though it helps of course that it also includes all of the content from its PC and console counterparts, plus the DLC. The game’s crazy scenarios and concepts will leave you highly amused, scared, and confused – but are all worth the wait it took for the title to be ported onto the handheld.

Now, I’ve gone on enough about how much I enjoyed Octodad: Dadliest Catch, but how does it transfer over to the Vita? It was originally released on PC, so it’s safe to assume that changes were bound to be made. The first thing that will stick out are the load screens, as you’ll be forced to endure them in-between every level. They’re something I’ll take being that the game was ported over from PC, but they will certainly be noticeable to those who nitpick such things. What is annoying however are the in-level load times – where every now and then during a level the game would load for a few seconds before starting you right back where you left off. I would have preferred longer load screens between levels if it meant not having to deal with that unpredictable and repetitive mess, and it definitely took me out of the experience a few times as it breaks continuity somewhat.

Those with a strict set of rules on how a game should play may not find it as enjoyable as I did, but the hilarity of the mundane tasks you’re forced to do as an octopus should be more than enough to get most of you through this bizarre ride with a smile on your face. Though it’s not a long game (clocking in at around 3-5 hours depending on play-style), it’s certainly one of the more enjoyable ones you’re able to take with you.

Another difference (albeit trivial) found in the Vita version was the removal of objects that are found in the PC and console versions. For example,

Octodad: Dadliest Catch for PlayStation Vita suffers from long load times, but its unconventional gameplay and silly story make it one of the best games on the handheld.

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4.3

REVIEW LEGO NINJAGO: SHADOW OF RONIN

Reviewed by Brad Gruetzmacher There is no shortage of LEGO games for the PlayStation Vita. In just a few years they have managed to push out no fewer than ten separate titles. In order to crank out that many games, there needs to be a formula in place. The problem is that after tweaking this formula with every game, some would turn out good and some would be… well, let’s just leave them in the bargain bin where they belong. Now I don’t know what they’ve put in the water over at TT Fusion, but they struck gold with their last outing in LEGO Batman 3. I’m now happy to say that things have only improved with LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin. They’ve created a fun adventure that has something which is incredibly rare in any LEGO game: a story that you can actually understand. It’s truly amazing.The land of Ninjago is once again in danger and now a new threat has surfaced. A mysterious and dark samurai called Ronin has appeared to challenge the Ninjas. During their first battle, Ronin is able to steal the memories from our heroes: Jay, Kai, Zane, and Cole. Not only do they lose their memories, but they have also been sapped of their special elemental powers. They must now journey out on a quest to collect the magical obsidian weapons which will restore their memories and help them to finally defeat Ronin.

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Shadow of Ronin follows the same structure as most other LEGO games. You smash objects, collect LEGO studs, and try to find all the collectibles. What this game gets right however are all the fine details that have been changed in the last few outings. Gone is the perma-death which results in you failing the level and having to start from the beginning. Gone is the need to collect Gold Bricks to advance the story. Gone is the isometric view. What remains is a frustration-free experience that provides fun combat alongside minor puzzles for a “best of both worlds” approach.

The island of Ninjago acts as the game’s hub world which you access by flying a mechanical dragon. Each of the game’s chapters are represented as buildings you fly to and additional areas are added as you progress through the game. Once in the hub you have free reign to travel where ever you wish and after beating a chapter, you can always return to try it again in free play mode. Inside each chapter you get to visit a number of different locales that vary from fire worlds to ice temples to bogs made of toxic sludge. Each new environment presents different challenges that change up the way the game is played and as you unlock the Ninjas’ elemental powers, new ways to attack will open up.

Along the way you’ll be able to take control of a giant samurai warrior, fly a dragon, and race bikes through all sorts of different environments. New friends will join the party and together you fight off an increasing array of different enemies. To all the LEGO fans out there, this will all Unlike some of the other seem very familiar. It’s the tried and true LEGO formula.

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audio work as well. The music is mostly slow and haunting (depending on the situation) but always with an Asian undertone that makes it fit in the world of Ninjago. The characters are all fully voice acted and are all done very well. There’s a good level of humor with jokes for young and old alike. Best of all, even if you know little (or nothing) about the Ninjago series, the story does a great job of easing you into things.

LEGO games that tend to be collectathons, Shadow of Ronin is grounded in combat. There is still the occasional collectible to find of course, but the missions are mainly focused on defeating waves of enemies. It’s very fitting for the Ninjago series. And whether you’re using Kai’s fire attack or Zane’s freeze ray (or the trademark spinjitzu move) there are plenty of different ways to take out Ronin’s forces.

game are about as good as they get. It became obvious in an early level when you’re in a prison and the level of detail in the environment was simply stunning. These great visuals become even more evident every time something explodes and a cel-shaded style smoke cloud goes up. It just looks so good. Add to this the fantastic character animations with a buttery smooth frame-rate and the result is a colorful feast of LEGO goodness.

The controls are very intuitive and work well. Triangle will switch the player you control. Square attacks (or hold it for the spinjitzu maneuver). Cross will jump and Circle initiates an elemental attack. But of course since this is a Vita game, you can also use the touchscreen to pretty do everything. I wouldn’t recommend relying solely on touch controls, but it is an option.

To compliment the exceptional visuals, Shadow of Ronin also boasts fantastic

So what’s not to like? Honestly, there isn’t much. The only gripe I really have is that the hub world can be really difficult to navigate. The locations for where the different chapters can be accessed are not marked, and the only real way to find them is to fly around, hoping you stumble across it. It can be a bit frustrating, but it is offset with the fun of flying a fire-breathing mechanical dragon. TT Fusion has once again knocked it out of the park with LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin. Fans of the series will find plenty to love in this new entry, and players who might have been turned off by some prior LEGO games (yes, I’m talking about LEGO Marvel for Vita. It was horrible) should come back to see how much better things have gotten.

Very early in Shadow of Ronin I noticed something special and it really stood out to me through the rest of the game. The visuals in this LEGO

LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin is a fantastic entry into the LEGO series and should appeal to young and old gamers alike. The fully fleshed out story is (for once) easy to follow and the heavy focus on combat makes it fun to control these nimble ninjas. If you're a LEGO fan who has been turned off by some of the recent games in the series, this one should make you a believer again. Presentation

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4.1

REVIEW STEINS;GATE

Reviewed by Charlie Large

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The Visual Novel genre seems to have found its home the past, thus being able to change the future. on the PlayStation Vita in recent years, with titles such as Danganronpa, XBlaze and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last This is the start of what becomes a gripping story of these teenagers racing to be the first people to successfully build Reward enjoying success on the handheld. a machine capable of time-travel. Each of the characters that you meet along the way are brilliant additions to the For the uninitiated, Visual Novels are interactive stories story, and at times, outshine the insecure, oft-arrogant, that tend to sacrifice gameplay in favour of anime-style art and brilliant narratives. Some of the titles mentioned above Okabe. do add puzzles or other gameplay elements, but you will find that Steins;Gate avoids these to deliver one of the best Steins;Gate does start off a little slow, but as you make your stories I have seen in a video game. way through the game’s chapters and realise there is a lot more to the story than the time travel theme that features A tale of teenagers and time travel, you are the selfheavily you will find yourself become addicted to finding out proclaimed mad-scientist Okabe Rintarō – the founder what is to become of the game’s multi-layered characters. of the Future Gadget Laboratory. The Headquarters for this operation is in a spare room above a TV repair shop in Akihabara. Okabe has enlisted his friends, the ditzy Mayuri Shiina (Mayushii) and ‘Super Hacka’ Itaru “Daru” Hashida, as Lab Members to aide him as he attempts to make ‘Future Gadgets’ – which often turn out to be pretty lacklustre.

In true visual novel style, the story in Steins;Gate is text-based – so prepare to read through thousands of lines as you make your way to the game’s thrilling climax. Accompanying the text is a brilliant soundtrack that changes depending on which character you are conversing with and fits the mood of the game perfectly. The characters are brought to life via an amazing Japanese The story begins when, after a conference at Radi-Kan, Okabe finds famous teen scientist Kurisu Makise face-down language voiceover – with each role played to perfection by the respective voice actors. in a pool of blood. Shocked at what he has seen, Okabe flees the building and sends an e-mail to Daru telling him of the events that have unfolded. This e-mail causes a major change in the world, with Daru receiving the mail seven days before Okabe sent it. The latest of Okabe’s Future Gadgets, the PhoneWave (name subject to change), is the cause of this timetravelling e-mail. A microwave with a phone attached, the PhoneWave was built to allow the Lab Members to set the microwave remotely, so that when they return to the lab their food would be ready and waiting. This machine unintentionally happens to allow users to send e-mails to

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The lengths that developer 5pb have gone to to make Steins;Gate accessible to all those that play it is quite commendable. With all of the science behind the story and the constant nods to popular culture (both Eastern and Western), a glossary has been included to help with some of the words that you may be not so familiar with. I thought this was a great addition to the game, and found myself learning quite a bit whilst playing through the story.

Steins;Gate, like other games in the genre, has multiple endings for you to work towards. The ending that you get is dependent on the choices that you make as you progress through each of the game’s chapters. These choices are presented to you are known as ‘Phone Triggers’, where your decision on how to respond to an e-mail, whether to answer or reject a phone call or whether to send a D-Mail (the time travelling e-mails are named these, with the D standing for DeLorean in a nod to Back to the Future). All of your choices will affect the future, with the Butterfly Effect being one of the many scientific theories that are prevalent in the game. Making these choices is pretty simple, your phone can be accessed almost all the time during the story. You will see a display in the top left of the screen that acts as the front screen of Okabe’s mobile phone and this will alert you to any incoming calls or new e-mails that you receive. A quick press of the triangle button will display the phone on the screen, and here you can read your e-mails and choose how you would like to reply to them. When you receive an e-mail that you can reply to, you will notice that two to three keywords in a mail are highlighted blue. These words serve as the choices you can make in the game and selecting one of them will alter the response you send, ultimately altering future events.

It is testament to the brilliance of Steins;Gate when a game with minimal interaction and a lack of ‘gameplay’ had me hooked to my Vita for over a week. Your first playthrough of Steins;Gate will last in the region of 20-25 hours, and if you want to go for all the endings you can look at about 40 hours in total. I found myself looking forward to getting home every night so I could get back into the wonderful wit and humour that features in the strong narrative – often playing until the battery died on my Vita.

Steins;Gate is arguably one of the best games in the Visual Novel genre, and definitely up there as one of the best games on the PlayStation Vita. Days after completing thegame I still have bits of the story running through my head, from little catchphrases like Mayushii’s chirpy, song-like ‘tutturū’ that she says when greeting people to Okabe’s megalomaniac monologues that often end up with him talking into his phone like he is on some secret mission. The lack of gameplay and the amount of reading that is involved will mean that some people will not be fans of this game, but Steins;Gate definitely has left me wanting more and I feel that any person that enjoys a good story will find this game extremely enjoyable. For a game about time-travel, it sure has taken a while for Steins;Gate to reach Western shores. All is now forgiven though, as the thrilling twists, fantastic characters and the eccentric humour make the wait worthwhile. Steins;Gate now has me wishing that I could time leap back to the day I started the game, just so that I can experience it over and over again!

Steins;Gate is one of the best games I have played on the PlayStation Vita. A tale of timetravelling teens, you will find that there is a lot more depth to this game than meets the eye. The lack of 'gameplay' will put some people off, but if you are a fan of Visual Novels or love a good story, then Steins;Gate is a game you need to play! El Psy Kongroo! Presentation

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REVIEW TETRIS ULTIMATE

Reviewed by Kyle Wakeling Tetris is back, and with all the options they’re giving you it’s more ultimate than ever. Now I don’t profess to be a Tetris professional, or to have played all (or even most of) the versions – my most recent regular player being a PlayStation One version that I had on disk up ”til last year – but I’ve been playing variations on the concept since I was about three and am more than familiar with how the original played.

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ahead, as you should). The first of the opponents to touch the inside of the roof of the play area with their matrix will be the loser, making the survivor the winner of the match for surviving.

This version of the game however, is everything it pretends to be and more – offering the most popular gameplay modes alongside a high level of rule customization for the purist and tinkerers. Though I prefer the default setup personally, if you don’t there’s quite a lot you can do to fix that; but we’ll get into that later… for now let’s run through the modes that are included in this version. BATTLE MODE CAN CAUSE YOUR SCREEN TO FILL UP FAST!

The third basic gameplay mode is called Sprint, and tasks you with clearing forty lines of tetraminos in your fastest possible time. This mode is all about speed and accuracy, so it’s a good one to hone your skills on if you’ve only got a few minutes – as it shouldn’t take you too long. Time’s Up mode is the first of the more difficult ones, and has you clearing lines of tetraminos in order to add time to a countdown clock. You start with thirty seconds, so it’s important to get a bit of a cushion in this one with some quick clears if you’re looking to survive long. Battle Ultimate is the second battle type mode and the only other mode that is 100% versus. As with regular battle mode, you’ll be fighting an opponent – however this time they’ve introduced a series of power ups to shake things up. There’s Buzzsaw which sends three random lines from your matrix into your opponents, Carousel which temporarily shifts their matrix to the left every time they drop a tetramino, Hip to be Square which makes your opponent’s next four drops square tetraminos, Haunted Well which Next we have Battle, which is the first of the two versus makes your opponent’s blocks invisible for three turns, and only modes. Battle pits you against an opponent (either one Let it Rain which rains tetraminos down on your opponent’s of the four AI options or an online foe) in a sudden death game. This is where things got a little too “new age” for me match with a twist; cleared lines and level bumps will add and I had to back off – but I’m sure the masochistic of you random unfilled lines to your opponent’s play area. All added out there might enjoy the challenge of dodging around all of lines appear as grey “shadows” and serve to fill up your the power ups (or sending them your opponent’s way). play area that much faster while also making it harder to clear what you have possibly planned out (if you’re thinking Ultra‘s a three minute challenge mode, giving you just 180 First up we have Marathon mode, in which you attempt to clear horizontal lines of tetraminos through fifteen progressively more difficult drop speed levels. This mode isn’t endless, and will be completed once you’ve beaten the fifteenth speed level without touching the inside of the roof with your tetramino matrix. It’s a pretty basic mode, but one that does well to introduce you to the game.

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seconds to throw down as many clears as you can in order to obtain a high score. To me it was one of my lesser played modes, but I understand the lure of a mode that has a fixed time – both for score chasing purposes, and a limited amount of play time.

play – well, there are quite a few;

Endless mode is exactly what it suggests; endless… if you’re good enough. Offering an endless succession of speed drop modes which get progressively faster, it’s a true score chasing mode as it pits you against yourself and the randomizer – looking for the highest score you can get without touching the top of the play area with your matrix. Think of it as a variation on Marathon mode that only ends when you mess up; it’s the ultimate challenge for the quick to react Tetris player.

As for the game itself, it’s very solid. In all my gameplay with Ultimate on Vita I never encountered a single in-game crash, graphical glitch, multiplayer disconnection, or issue in general – aside from one small nag of a crash. I couldn’t figure out what the cause was exactly (it almost felt random), but certain times when starting the game from the bubble it would hang right before the “Press X to Start” screen; a simple closing of the game and then reopening it usually remedying the Now I’m no expert on all the different rules that have been implemented over issue (though annoying). the years and changes that have been It may be a little more pricy than possible, but that seems like a pretty extensive list of changes to have access some expected – debuting at $15 US, £12, or €15 – but it’s notable that it to (especially when most of those options have multiple levels). It certainly comes with the Challenge DLC that the PlayStation 4 version doesn’t seems like however you’ve grown up come with built-in, and if you buy the dropping tetraminos, there’s a rule or PlayStation 4 version with the DLC it change to make sure that’s what you actually costs more than the already get. What more could you ask for? complete Vita version does. Looking at the game from a graphical and sound based perspective, it’s clear If you combine that cheaper entry that the game both runs and sounds price with just how solid the game new-age. Gone are the bland single runs on Vita and the added portability tone tetraminos of the original version, compared to other versions… you and gone is the original version of that have me wondering why you’re familiar Tetris chiptune – however in reading this review instead of their place are the coloured blocks playing this game. Tetris Ultimate many of us have come to know over the is simply a must have for any Tetris years, and a remixed Tetris tune that’ll fan of the past, and a must try for appeal better to the current generation any puzzle fan out there today.

Next we have Landslide mode, where every ten drops you’ll get a random tetramino dump to add to your matrix. To me, it felt like a single player battle mode with a slow but smart opponent that will never lose – and so I avoided it in favour of the next mode… which happens to be my favourite. Haunted is the mode for those with a memory, ’cause it’s Marathon mode with a twist – you can only see your already set pieces when you lock a new one in (they’re otherwise invisible), and as you level up the viewing of your set pieces becomes less frequent (happening every two lock-ins, then every three, and so on). It’s a mode that relies on memorization, Tetris skills, and logic – and is easily the hardest mode in the game. It’s also my clear favourite, because it trains you for literally every other mode in the game. All these modes can be played multiplayer (either with AI or an actual opponent online), and the non-battle modes can be played single player as well – giving you plenty of options for play. All the games with single player modes also track your scores, giving you a readout of either the global charts or your friends with a simple toggle. In addition to that, there are also awards and other stats collected, along with a challenge feed to give you new scores to reach for. Speaking of options, aside from the modes you’re probably wondering what other options you have for customizing

of up-and-comers. Despite these changes, the game runs smooth even at higher speeds (or at least the ones I could reach) and seems to be rock solid in all graphical and audio areas – something that has proven well worth the wait to experience.

Packed with some great modes, a proper online leaderboard, stat tracking, enough customization options to please almost any player, and the offer of true portability... this truly is the ultimate version of Tetris.

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4.9

REVIEW BADLAND: GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION

Reviewed by Charlie Large Originally released as a mobile game, Badland was recognised by Apple in 2013 as one of the best games of the year. No mean feat when 2013 saw titles such as Ridiculous Fishing, Rymdkapsel and The Room 2 release on iOS platforms. This is why the PlayStation Vita version of Frogmind’s side-scrolling, physics-based adventure game has ‘Game of the Year’ tagged onto the end of it’s title and this release is the most complete yet – with over four times the amount of content here than there was when the original version released two years ago. In Badland, you play as a blob-like creature that is called Clony and you must navigate Clony through the woods that feature in the game. The stages that you will play through in the main part of the game are split into two days, with each day holding 40 stages – these spit evenly into different times (Dawn, Dusk, Noon and Night). As you progress through these stages, avoiding the obstacles that the game throws your way, you will notice strange goings on in the woods.

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There is not much point having a story to make you care about Clony when you spend most of the game watching him die as you try to figure out what you need to do in order to progress. It is quite hard to describe how Badland plays, the best way I can think of describing it is what you would get if you crossed the look of Limbo, the control scheme of Flappy Bird, the physics of Angry Birds, the power-ups of an endless runner and the brutality of Ethan: Meteor Hunter. It is worth noting that Badland released prior to some of these titles, and they do say that imitation is the highest form of flattery! Controlling Clony through the many stages is simple. You will hold X to make Clony soar for the skies, whilst tapping X will make him flap his wings to keep at a steady height. This control scheme also translates to the PlayStation Vita’s touchscreen, and feels very similar to that bird-based game that frustrated many mobile gamers last year. You will also need to use the left analogue stick to guide Clony from left to right, I found that this made the touchscreen controls pretty redundant as it was tricky trying to use the combination of these controls and being able to see what was going on on-screen as this was obstructed by my hands.

These goings on appear to be the game’s narrative, with machines coming to life and adding to the dangers that lurk along Clony’s path. Badland: Game of the Year Edition also features two additional level packs titled Doomsday and Daydream. These stages see you take control of two new characters called Snorfy and Fury, tasking you with escaping There are power-ups to collect as you make it through each the woods and revealing a little more towards the game’s stage. These vary from orbs that will make you either bigger overall plot. or smaller, make the side-scrolling speed up or slow down, orbs that make you spin clockwise or anti-clockwise and The story in Badland: Game of the Year Edition is trivial, and ones that will either cause you to bounce off objects or stick to them. is certainly not the focal point of this title and this shows.

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These orbs make getting through each of the game’s 100 stages a little more interesting, but after you’ve played five or ten levels, you have pretty much played them all. There is not much in the way of variety in this game and, bar the ever-changing backgrounds and the appearance of new obstacles that placed in ways that will almost certainly kill you, you will probably find Badland rather repetitive at times. The one thing that did bring me enjoyment whilst playing this game was the pick-up that caused Clony to be cloned (in case you were wondering where the name came from). As you progress through the game’s stages you will often find yourself having to control multiple Clony’s at once as you try to navigate through a level’s obstacles. All of these clones will move in unison, so if you hold X they will all rise upwards. You may find that some of the clones may fall behind and be killed off by the sharp wheels, bombs, lasers or even the ever scrolling screen but do not worry too much, as long as one iteration of Clony makes it through and to the next checkpoint that is all that matters! There are of course trophies and challenges that will require you to get as many of the clones to a stage’s exit point, but chances are you will be happy with getting any there such is the brutality of some of Badland‘s challenges. Speaking of trophies, for those that are gluttons for punishment there is a Platinum trophy in Badland – but I can’t see many people obtaining this due to some of the punishing trophies that are up for grabs. It is clear that this was originally designed as a title for mobile platforms. The gameplay is definitely designed for quick five minute bursts while you are waiting for a bus or have a few minutes to kill. If you are like me and tend to play your PlayStation Vita for longer periods (anywhere between 30mins to a few hours) you may find that you get bored playing long before you’re ready to put your Vita down. All is not lost with Badland however – I do like the game’s art style, with gorgeous looking backdrops and brilliant animations. Almost

everything in the foreground of the screen is black, with vivid reds and whites used for lasers, pushable buttons and Clony’s eyes. The backgrounds that you will see in each stage are colourful, vivid and also change as you progress further in the game – with glimpses of things to come and plot elements hidden here. The only thing I will say is do not admire the backgrounds too much or you will find yourself constantly being taken back to the game’s generous checkpoints. Badland’s audio does leave a little to be desired for though. The game does use a lot of ambient background noise to mimic the sounds you would expect to hear if you were making your way through the woods but this is about as much as your ears are treated to. I would have loved to have heard some relaxing background music in this game to complement the fantastic visuals yet contrast with the frantic gameplay that plays out as you plough through the stages. The game also features Co-Op and Multiplayer, but this is local only. You can play either competitively or co-operatively with a friend using the same PlayStation Vita, with you either using the touchscreen or a combination of the face buttons and

the touchscreen depending on which mode you are playing. I didn’t explore much of this mode if I am honest, but this may add a little longevity to what is a short game. The main story missions do also offer additional challenges once you have completed them for the first time – including tasks such as completing a stage in less than X amount of tries or completing a stage with X amount of clones making it to the exit – but again, I didn’t feel the urge to go back and replay the single player mode once I’d beat it.

Badland did win a Game of the Year award back in 2013, but that was when it released on a device where similar games thrived. There is no doubting that Badland would be a fun smartphone game, but the PlayStation Vita is an entirely different beast. It is hard to recommend purchasing Badland: Game of the Year Edition when there are so many other games out there at a similar price point that will offer a lot more depth and will feel more at home on the PlayStation Vita. Releasing within weeks of Broken Age, Octodad and Shovel Knight, Badland would be lucky to be a contender for the PlayStation Vita’s Game of the Week – let alone Year!

In bringing Badland to consoles, Clony and co. make a flap for the big time but unfortunately fall a little short. Frogmind saw great success on smartphones with this title, unfortunately this does not translate as well to the PlayStation Vita.

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2.9

REVIEW HYPERDIMENSION NEPTUNIA U: ACTION UNLEASHED

Reviewed by Liam Langan So, not to sound crazy or anything, but this is the fifth (yes, FIFTH) Hyperdimension Neptunia game to release in the West over the last 12 months – with two entries to the Re;Birth series, a spin off known as Producing Perfection (which was somewhat of a miss-step) and a strategy RPG known as Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart included in that tally. This time, we’re treated to a new spin off – Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed – which, instead of hosting RPG elements like the aforementioned entries, is all about action; and boy, oh boy does it do it perfectly.

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to do – with one mission in particular having a goal that basically tasks you with locating two enemies in a level and killing them both at the same time. Before you start a quest however, you’re able to select which characters you want to use. For the majority of the quests you’ll be able to pick two of the ten characters from the roster. The great thing about these characters is that none of them control the same, keeping the game feeling especially fresh (especially if you choose to vary which characters you want to use).

The story takes place as the girls take a break from their previous adventures. When Neptune is approached by journalist Dengekiko and Nepgear is approached by Famitsu (See what they did there ;D) to take part in a new combat experience things start to get weird. Clothes start to disappear and weird missions start to appear on the quest board, so in response Neptune and the gang decide to investigate what’s going on.

Although, Neptunia U is less of a JRPG than any of the other games in the franchise, there are still some RPG elements that feature in the game. Characters can level up, be customised, have unlockable abilities and – based on how many of certain enemy types you defeat – can unlock medals which in turn provide you with stat boosts.

Upon completing some of the missions that are posted on the quest board, the team realise that there are some missions without clear goals, and that the missions in question should never have been filed. With that in mind, they realise that there are some mysterious forces at play – and here is where the quest truly begins.

The gameplay is quite simple; pressing square executes a standard attack, pressing triangle executes a more powerful attack, circle allows you to dodge enemy attacks and the X button allows you to jump. The right trigger button gives you access to your characters special moves, which consist of two powerful attacks that use AP to execute.

There is also HDD mode, which transforms your character into a more powerful being and makes them near enough indestructible. The main flaw with this however, is that once you activate HDD mode the game becomes far Most quests play out with specific goals, such as; beating too easy and you’ll be slicing through enemies like a specific boss, defeating a certain amount of enemies, or collecting a certain amount of items within a level. There are a hot knife through butter – and that’s before you learn your EXE Drive moves, which are essentially missions that only give you a vague idea on what you need

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(which happens quite a lot)! However, these cutscenes are also spoiled by the horrendous voice acting.

super moves that destroy every enemy on the screen. The game looks great, and the character models are very well designed – as are the stages that you battle on. These areas are vibrant and filled to the brim with an array of colours. The enemy models are also

incredibly well designed, including the variations of each enemy that you encounter.

The game’s main campaign lasts around ten hours, but once you complete the story you will unlock two new modes. The first mode is called the Gamindustry Gauntlet and here you will see the game’s characters pitted against each other in a 1-on-1 combat tournament. The other mode, named the Neptral Tower, tasks you with ascending a 50 floor tower with each floor presenting a number of enemies for you to defeat. The challenges that you must overcome in this mode get progressively more difficult the further you progress, but luckily this mode never seems to get difficult enough to become frustrating.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed is a fun and hectic game with a great story and great combat My main complaint with the game system. It is, however, let down by a however is the voice acting; it’s rather short main campaign and very repetitive, dull and for the most part mediocre voice acting. Don’t let this had me cringing whilst I was playing. put you off though! Hyperdimension It’s clear that the characters were badly Neptunia U: Action Unleashed is cast and the performance proves this, definitely still worth a go if you’re a however the cutscenes in the game fan of the series in general, or worth can be quite amusing – especially when a look if you’re in need of a high the characters break the fourth wall octane, fast paced action game.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U is a fast paced, high octane action game that is fun to play, but can be quite easy at times. The story mode will keep you entertained for at least 10 hours, but don't expect it to be as vast and as huge as it's JRPG counterparts.

Presentation

Gameplay

Lasting Appeal

The Vita Lounge

Execution

3.8

REVIEW SKETCHCROSS

Reviewed by Brad Gruetzmacher

325 MB

There is nothing I enjoy more on a hot, summer day than to pour myself a tall glass of cool lemonade and sit on the front porch to do some nonograms. There’s something calming about a good logic puzzle that soothes the weary soul. Nonograms however haven’t been exactly setting the game world on fire, and in Sketchcross from Spiky Fish Games, we get our first introduction of these puzzles on the Vita. I’ve been wrapping my brain around these things for awhile now, and what I’ve learned just might shock you. What’s a nonogram, you ask? To paraphrase, it’s a logic puzzle in which you’re given clues to fill in different squares on a grid. The solution will reveal a hidden, pixelated picture. Of course, the more complex the puzzle, the less pixelated it will look (and thus the more frustrating it will be).

Sketchcross starts off with a simple tutorial that, honestly, left me even more confused on how to play than before I started. Fortunately it didn’t take me long to pick up on the gist of things. On the outside edge of a 5×5 grid, there are number clues that tell you the order of filled in squares on that line. So for example if it says 3*1, then there is a group of three squares next to each other, then a space of some kind, and one square sitting all by itself. It takes some getting used to, but it’s easy to pick up. Then as the game progresses into the later levels, that 5×5 grid becomes 10×10. Then 15×15. By the time you reach the upper levels, you’re dealing with mind-numbing 30×30 grids that will result in some pretty elaborate pictures. But the increase in size isn’t the only way the game offers different levels of difficulty. Before each puzzle you get to choose whether to do it Easy, Normal, or Hard. The puzzle stays the same, but the amount of time you’re given changes. Easy is the most relaxed approach. Here you are given as much time as you want as well as a way to check and see if you’ve figured out a row correctly. Normal takes away that checking tool and also gives you a time limit to shoot for (if you miss it, the game doesn’t end but you’re not rewarded either). And Hard gives you a countdown timer in which to finish. There is also Frenzy mode which throws a series of small puzzles at you to solve in under 30 seconds. The goal is to see how many you can finish in a row without failing. For me, the answer is “not a lot.” Full confession: I had never heard of a nonogram before picking up Sketchcross. If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d wager few others have either. But it turns out they are kind of fun. I really enjoyed staring at the number layouts and trying to logically figure out each puzzle. It’s a shame then that I just can’t enjoy Sketchcross as much as I want to. Sometimes it’s the little things that ruin it. One of the most baffling parts of the game is in the layout of the controls. They made the odd decision to map the

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Visually, Sketchcross isn’t very impressive, but then this is a puzzle game where looks just don’t matter. It’s designed to look like you’re using a pencil to shade in squares on a crumpled sheet of paper. To that end, it serves its purpose well.

“Pause Menu” button to Triangle, instead of the Start button… which is how it is in almost every single game ever made dating back to the NES. I constantly found myself wanting to check something in the menu, or quit a puzzle, and I’d press Start… only to find nothing happen. I discovered Triangle almost by accident. The other controls work fairly well though. The D-pad is used to move your cursor around the grid while Cross will fill in a square and Square will mark the spaces you know won’t be filled in. The shoulder buttons are used to zoom in and out of the puzzle and the Left Stick will pan the camera while zoomed in. You also have the option to use the touchscreen to fill in squares or navigate the menus. The touchscreen works well, but after progressing to more challenging levels, I found it easier to use the physical controls. Controls aside, what really started to irk me was how some of these “logic” puzzles would end up a guessing game. Logic could get me half-way through, but then suddenly I was left with a number of possible solutions that could all technically be correct. A number of times I actually “finished” a puzzle but it wasn’t the solution I was supposed to get. That’s frustrating. It makes it nearly impossible to start a puzzle on Hard and have any hope of finishing it. In those instances, it seemed like the best solution was to play it on Easy, remember where everything went, and replay it on Hard with the

And if I thought there wasn’t much happening with the visuals, the audio is nearly as empty. There’s a sound effect for a pencil scratching the paper and… come to think of it, that might be about it. There is also a constant musical tune playing in the background. It’s the type of menu music that you usually go into the system settings and turn off right away. I found my favorite way to play was to put on my own custom soundtrack in the Music app and just ignore the game’s audio. It’s not that the audio is bad, just incredibly dull solution already known. The puzzle doesn’t change so the challenge at that (well, the music might actually be bad). point diminishes. Sure it’s cheating In the end, Sketchcross is a nice idea somewhat, but it seems like the game actually requires you to cheat. It’s with a flawed execution. I love the frustrating but almost necessary since idea of the game. A game featuring the later levels are locked until the nonograms would be a perfect fit on earlier ones are completed in time. the Vita. Sketchcross starts out very And with just 50 puzzles to play, (and promising. When the puzzles work, many of the early ones completed in the game is a lot of fun, but when it just seconds) the game’s light content suddenly becomes a guessing game doesn’t help. rather than a puzzle, it falls apart.

Sketchcross brings a new type of logic puzzle to the Vita, and while these nonograms start off interesting, they eventually become a frustrating guessing game. Some odd design choices are confusing, but when the puzzles work the game is solid.

Presentation

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Execution

2.8

REVIEW SUPER EXPLODING ZOO

Reviewed by Paul Murphy It’s very easy to be dismissive of Super Exploding Zoo. The colourful animals and seemingly simple mechanics encountered in your first few levels belie some real depth and charm, the kind that you have come to expect from HoneySlug, as well as a long lasting challenge. Anyone that has played Hohokum will know what I am talking about here. The aliens are coming, and they are hungry. After spying a world with a plentiful supply of animals to consume, you would think that they would be set for world domination and mass extinction. They made one fatal mistake; every animal where they invaded has explosive capabilities! Starting with a solitary penguin your objective is simple; recruit more living bombs and slay the aliens before they reach the egg that you are tasked with protecting. Initially it’s quite easy as the enemies have a certain amount of hit points. Grouping enough animals together and swarming into the extra-terrestrial invaders however will result in success, and subsequently progression to the next of the total of eighty missions. The snag is that you must ensure that at least one of your critters survives, or you’ll be doing it again! The game is charming and looks very catching – with a an incredibly colourful, cartoon style and very endearing characters (until you rather

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498 MB

graphically detonate them in a flash of explosives and body parts that is). The animal noises are bound to make you smile and it’s hard not to be captivated as you move your horde of portable explosives about, but it’s not exactly one for pushing the system. Speaking of movement, the controls are rather simple with the stick maneuvering your collective around, and the square button manually arming your chosen animal or activating it’s special skill. Using the shoulder buttons in tandem with the analogue sticks will cycle through your available animals and direct them to various parts of the world, enabling you to micro-manage the situation at hand. This handy if you don’t want to waste a creature you will later need, or

need to set multiple things in motion simultaneously. The strategy comes into play via the different animals and the situations you will encounter. Penguins have no special abilities and serve as your standard fodder. Crocodiles can be used to bridge water and Monkeys can climb vines and detonate charges. Meercats can also activate charges, as well as dig through holes into new areas or to set off mines, which are set off by Elephants. There are also Lions, which when set up on a pedestal can slow down the progress of the aliens. Still with me? Llamas can also climb up on the same stands, but in typical fashion spit towards their foes. Towards the end of the game you will also discover Jellyfish, which slowly poison the enemies. Rounding off the selection you have Rhinoceroses, which are propelled across the area for a limited time, decimating all that they touch and Pandas, which execute a similar action once they have eaten some bamboo. All of the characters available also have differing amounts of damage which they can

and a welcome addition to the main game. With collectible stickers strewn throughout the various missions and over twenty different skins to apply to the basic characters there’s a little longevity to be had with the game in addition to the multiplayer, and the game also packs a very manageable platinum trophy, which is worth mentioning if that sort of thing is important to you. Excluding the multiplayer you are probably looking at upwards of around five hours (depending on how hard you find the last few levels).

I did experience a few crashes with the game, and since I started playing there has been a patch which rectifies that. I am also aware that many gamers did experience some late game save issues, so make sure you have the latest patch version and/or utilise the cloud save function with PlayStation Plus if you want to make sure everything’s smooth and risk-free. I have really enjoyed my time with Super Exploding Zoo, so it’s really difficult not to recommend it. Packed with charm, it will keep you occupied without really testing you too much – and if you are looking for something simple to play there is no reason not to get this.

deal, so effective planning is needed to raise the amount of hits required to complete the level before moving onto the next. With over eighty missions available, you will be playing for some time – but I was a bit frustrated with how some of the missions were laid out. You would think that the difficulty would increase as you progressed, but for many of the levels it seemed that there was no real structure or organisation. Aside from these spikes and drops in difficulty throughout, it was mostly enjoyable and fun; with most levels taking only a few retries if I was stuck. It’s not all a single player affair though, and the game also packs a versus mode where two opposing players have to group together as many animals as possible and wipe out the other player. At points the game will activate “rampage mode” for the player with the biggest army and the lower leveled creatures will start exploding, but in exchange for a faster movement speed. If the other player can survive, it will then be their turn. It’s quite comical

It's simple and won't last you very long, but packs a lot of charm and fun in there. Suited for those that like a slightly taxing challenge and colourful animals. Or blowing them up.

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Execution

3.5

REVIEW LEGO JURASSIC WORLD

Reviewed by Tyler Olthoff The LEGO games on Vita have been up and down ever since they made the jump with LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7; I’ve enjoyed a few, but the last couple I played (LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and The LEGO Movie Videogame for the record) have been terrible.

1.6 GB

select which movie you’d like to play through you simply walk to that movie’s entrance door. Think of it as an exhibit at a zoo or museum, which each movie being a wing or area.

Hearing that we’d be getting a new LEGO game based on one of my all time favorite movies I got very excited, and yet very nervous at the same time. Were they going to go the same route they did with the previously mentioned “terrible” games, or would they bring it back to the good ol’ formula that made them famous? To keep you from wondering, LEGO Jurassic World goes back to that enjoyable formula that brought them this far in the first place – ditching that terrible isometric perspective to bring us up close for some awesome dinosaur-infused action.

After choosing your movie you then head to these blue platforms with control panels on them. By standing on one of these you can then select the level you’d like to go through. This can be somewhat time consuming as you have to run to a total of four control panels to select all the levels within that movie – and no they aren’t right next to each other either, as that’d be too easy right?

LEGO Jurassic World is based off all four Jurassic series movies; if you haven’t seen them then maybe you will feel a bit lost, because this game jumps from level to level in regards to the actual story from the movies – mainly focusing on key points or famous scenes from in the movie. Now for someone that has seen all the movies including the newest one (which this game is titled after), it is quite exciting to play these scenes in LEGO form. Although things have been changed to appeal to a younger audience than the teen-oriented thrillers they’ve drawn from, it still works quite well. Without dropping any real spoilers for the fourth movie, the game has you in the main building in the new park and to

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For those that don’t know how a LEGO game works it’s pretty simple. You break stuff, collect LEGO studs, find hidden collectibles, and progress through a goofy but enjoyable story. It’s a very simple game that makes you laugh and gives you mostly enjoyable tasks. Controlling your LEGO buddy is quite simple with the square button assigned to attack, “X” letting you jump, triangle switching your character, and circle using your character’s special ability (if they have one). Oh and I should also mention this applies for the dinosaurs as well. Yes, I said dinosaurs; you can control T-Rex, Velociraptors, even the new bad-ass dino from the Jurassic World film in this game. Another feature of the LEGO games is to have to solve puzzles that really aren’t that difficult. Again this game is

meant for a younger audience, but still is great for the older crowd as well. All the characters in the game have their own abilities that must be used to progress through the game – for instance, most females in the game can jump higher than the male characters so they can access higher ground. Alternatively, there’s Alan Grant who is the only character able to use a Velociraptor claw to cut rope and vine. Luckily for us if you have the character available but not selected the game will prompt you to tap ‘R’ to switch to the correct character for the job.

doesn’t sound right at all – you can clearly tell it’s cut from the movie, and as such it just doesn’t fit with what they’re trying to accomplish here. It’s a minor flaw, but thankfully it doesn’t ruin the game.

My only issue with the controls in this game would have to be that the touch screen is always active and I’d find myself accidentally touching it, causing my character to change directions and run to where I’d tapped. Just because the Vita has a touch screen doesn’t mean it needs touch controls, or that optional touch controls should always be on. It works great for the menu, but other than that nobody really needs it in this game.

With only minor issues in regards to the touch controls and sound design, TT Fusion (the developers behind this title) have done a great job of mashing a beloved movie franchise into a beloved game franchise. With amazing scenes to relive and the ability to control your favorite dinosaurs, all they’ve been trying for and building on seems to come together quite nicely with LEGO Jurassic World – bringing my faith in the LEGO games on Vita back out of the ground. If you’re a fan of the LEGO games then what are you waiting for? If you’re new to the franchise… then still, what are you waiting for? This would be a great starting point for any LEGO fan or dinosaur/Jurassic Park lover – and that’s coming from someone well versed in both.

LEGO Jurassic World‘s graphics are what you’d expect from a LEGO game, though this time the presentation fits what they’re trying for without being muddy like the older LEGO games were. It’s actually a really colorful game with all the forest and plant life on the screen, but if you’re expecting to be wowed though I wouldn’t hold your breath – the LEGO games are not known for eye popping visuals. As one would expect from a Jurassic Park themed game the sound is very important. There’s some good news and some bad on that front, as this game gets some things right and some things wrong. For the most part it’s amazing; the music, the dinosaurs they all sound just like the movies. Now what could be bad you say? Well, they also thought it’d be a good idea to cut the actual movie voices and insert them into the game. This just

For old gamers and young gamers LEGO Jurassic World is a great game to make it to our PlayStation Vita's. Even with it's minor flaws It compacts four movies into one fun LEGO experience.

Presentation

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Lasting Appeal

The Vita Lounge

Execution

4.3

REVIEW ELEMENT4L

Reviewed by Brad Gruetzmacher “Artistic platformer” seems to be a genre of games that is becoming a lot more prevalent lately. Games such as Limbo and Thomas Was Alone managed to add a unique and memorable art style to a relatively simple game mechanic, creating something special. Now joining the fray is Element4l from I-Illusions. It manages to bring the charming beauty of Thomas Was Alone and mix it with the platforming challenges of Guacamelee. The result is a wonderfully endearing game that is both beautiful to look at and frustrating to play. It’s a perfect combination of pleasure and pain that makes me love to hate it. Or is it hate to love it? Whatever. In the end, Element4l is a game that I want to love but just can’t.

439 MB

some getting used to, but once you figure it out, it works really well. Changing between the elements is very easy and the controls work pretty well. Using either the face buttons or the D-pad to change shape at any time. The layout is also well thought out since pushing up will switch you to Air (and let you go up). Down turns you to Rock (shooting you down). Right propels you forward with Fire and pushing left will turn you into Ice. It’s an easy thing to overlook, but the thoughtful layout of the controls aids the player enormously.

But it would be too easy if there wasn’t a catch. In Element4l you’re presented with the limitation that using the elements’ power depletes energy (except for Ice). This means you can’t just infinitely leap higher with Air or constantly shoot yourself forward with Fire. You need to conserve the number of changes you make so as to not wear out your power.

In Element4l, the player controls four different elements. Each has a different ability to help the player make it through the level and only by switching between each element on the fly will you be able to succeed. First there is Air with the ability to jump. Then there is Ice which can slide along flat surfaces (and melt into water when it touches If you can master all this, the result is a beautiful platformer something hot). Rock can plummet downward to either build momentum or smash through barriers. And finally Fire that tells a simple story of progression and the journey in life. In much the same way that Thomas Was Alone injected has the power to propel you forward. personality into simple shapes through narration, Element4l The key is to constantly switch between the elements to uses on-screen dialogue to make the elements feel more give you the result you need. So for example you can burst personable. There was one reference to The Goonies that forward with Fire and then quickly switch to Ice to glide had me doubled over laughing. For the most part these bits along the ground. Repeat the combination a couple of of dialogue work to make you feel an emotional connection times and you really start to build up speed. Then when an with what would otherwise be a basic platforming game. obstacle confronts you, switch to Air to leap up high before you pound down with Rock and build up some speed on a On paper, this all sounds perfect. It sounds like I should love hill. Mastering which element to use at any given time takes it. So what went wrong that makes me so hesitant?

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Element4l represents both the best and the worst of the indie game genre. The beautiful art and interesting game mechanics are something only seen in these smaller, independently made games. However, there is also a certain level of polish that seems to be missing.

One of my main issues comes with the energy that each element uses. It never felt consistent to me. Sometimes it felt like I could leap to enormous heights while at other times it seemed to peter out after I barely left the ground. Try as I might, the level of energy I had access to always seemed to be a mystery. This meant that I’d have to relearn how to play each section of the game as I came to it. What worked in one level suddenly wasn’t possible in the next.

That leaves me feeling very mixed about Element4l. When it works, it really works. It has a great premise and a charm to it that is hard not to love. The problem is that when it falls apart, it really gets frustrating. I don’t like having a game that I’m afraid to quit for fear that I’ll lose 15 minutes of progress. Nor do I enjoy the unpredictability of the way my character moves.

My other major concern was around the game’s ability to autosave and being able to continue with the progression I made. It seemed like every time I would quit the game, my progression would be lost. This meant that every time I came back to play, I’d have to replay several levels again just to get back to where I was. It’s an unnecessary frustration that would test my patience.

In the end, I felt a little let down. The game has a really interesting premise and occasionally lives up to its potential. However there were also a number of flaws that made it a chore to play. Thankfully the game isn’t very long (I guess keeping in with the tradition of this genre), but it does try to entice you to replay levels by introducing a race mode. This however feels a bit hollow since the main draw of the game is the beauty of the environment it puts you in, so rushing through it as fast as possible seems to bely the point.

Element4l is an ambitious and artistic platformer that tries to shoot for the moon but unfortunately falls short. There are moments of pure delight presented alongside areas of enormous frustration. This left me feeling ultimately unsatisfied. I loved the look, the premise, and the vision of Element4l, but the end result left me feeling burned.

Aside from those gripes, the game is stunning. It’s absolutely beautiful to look at and has a simplistic art style that seems to be a blend between Limbo and Thomas was Alone. There are a lot of dark silhouettes that are accented with bright, bold shapes. Likewise the music is both somber and gorgeous. The audio elevates the level of the visuals to create a complete experience that is both compelling and satisfying. I can fault the game for many things, but its presentation is not one of them.

Element4l is a beautifully conceived platformer that presents a charming experience with a few flaws that ruin the game's flow. The challenge was borderline frustrating at times which sat in contrast to the artistic charm of its presentation. It's a game I want to like more than I do, but it's current issues prevent me from truly enjoying it. Presentation

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REVIEW BREACH & CLEAR

Reviewed by Will Hernandez 1

694 MB

It’s really difficult for me to tell you who Breach & Clear is for. On one hand, I want to recommend it to people who dig strategy games, but on the other I’d rather tell them that their time will be better spent playing literally any other tactical strategy game, like the vastly superior Frozen Synapse Prime. Here’s the bottom line, Breach & Clear is one of the most boring games I’ve ever had to endure on Vita, and here’s why. Just like it was hard for me to figure out who this game is for, it’s hard for me to figure out where to begin. How about one of the first things that you’ll see? The visuals.

What grabs people towards Breach & Clear is the fact that it is a tactical strategy game, as I mentioned above, but that even starts to wear thin as you go through the game. The missions don’t get better, they’re just repetitive. You may get a bomb that needs to be taken care of thrown in there every once and a while, but the game you’re playing at the start feels like the same game you end with, and that’s the biggest problem with Breach & Clear; it’s just so boring and repetitive.

What I did enjoy was the options to customize your team the way you want, from choosing their names, to picking their classes. There is the Fire Team Leader, the Medic, Weapons Sargent, Intelligence, and the Breacher. It’s important to choose your team wisely, because your team’s movements are made all in one turn, so you’ll want to have the best men for the job. There are also various breach beacons in a stage where you can send soldiers to enter from. Pairing soldiers with ones that compliment their skills is very important for your team’s survival. You can have one soldier take care of the shooting, while the other throws a flashbang to stun your enemies, or one of the soldiers can be a primary target, while the other takes care of the opposition. There’s a lot of mix and matching, which is where Breach & Clear shines brightest.

more stars. This is why you’ll want to do your best the first time around. The three game modes, Terrorist Hunt, Bomb Defusal, and Escape Plan are exactly what you think you are. You take down enemies in Terrorist Hunt, diffuse bombs in Bomb Defusal, and escape in Escape Plan. Crazy, I know. All are challenging in their own right, but I like how the enemies aren’t visible in Terrorist Hunt until you get near them. This adds a nice challenge to those who like getting tortured by video games. And if you’re playing a strategy game, then you most likely do! Like stars, as you do more missions you’ll get more cash that can be spent on the marketplace. Here, you can buy weapons, devices, and other items for your guns, or you can spend that cash on outfits that give you stat boosts. The marketplace is quite cool, but it’s a shame that the menus are completely counter-intuitive. Dealing with that after a frustrating mission is what led to many rage quits.

I suppose the strategy nuts will find some kind of enjoyment at first, but I honestly don’t see how anyone could put up with this game after about too long. It becomes a repetitive mess, with nothing new to keep you hooked.

Now, I don’t mind functional/mediocre graphics if there’s at least something enjoyable in another aspect of the game, but Breach & Clear is different. Visually, the faces of the soldiers will Breach & Clear is for mobile gamers make you want to vomit, and the bland that want a cool army simulator to play textures of the offices and buildings when they’re stuck waiting in a huge that you are breaching are about as Stages are unlocked by collecting stars line at Walmart. I just don’t think this boring as a real office job. As you from other stages, so there will be a lot game should have ever been ported get further into the game, different onto a console, let alone a handheld. of going back and replaying stages for locations will be playable, like a snow fort; but they’re still lifeless and you’ll be wishing for the Abominable Snowman to be bust through the walls to spice the game up for a bit. Breach & Clear is a repetitive mess that has no variety in its game modes. Tactical A military setting is sometimes hard to RPG fans may find some enjoyment in this be visually interesting, as we’ve seen game, but there's no way they'll make it to from years of dark shooters that lack a the end without dying from boredom first. color palette, so I will cut it some slack, but it really did feel like I was playing a PS1 game the entire time.

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Execution

Whether you’re a reviewer racing towards the lift of an important embargo or you’re a gamer trying to finish LaMulana Ex before the in-laws descend, it’s likely you have at least once gamed to a deadline. We have busy lives, weekends are too short and Monday morning pokes its ugly nose in every damn week. It doesn’t help that games are not only getting longer, but they’re getting better. The Vita has no games?? I wish it had less. No! I didn’t mean that, I take it back, sorry! If you’re a multi-system gamer like me, you’ll run out of games the day everyone on the internet stops arguing. I even have Wii U games in my backlog. I know that system only seems to get one AAA game a year but FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST SLOW DOWN, NINTENDO! There’s always the next game, it’s always coming too soon and there’s always a very real or slightly imagined deadline. Last month I was given a copy of *Steins; Gate* on the Vita by the kindly folks at PQube. For those who don’t know me, I’m a writer, author and the reviews editor at Punk and Lizard. We had exactly one week until release to play the game all the way through and write one of our incredible, outstanding and enthralling reviews (I’m not being biased; just ask the boss). *Steins; Gate* is a Japanese visual novel and if you’re familiar with those, you’ll know exactly how difficult this deadline was. Visual novels are long, winding, epic yarns. This was a stock-up on coffee and make very sure you set three alarms occasion. I checked the trophies and a terrifying thought came to me. Holy trophy list, Batwoman, I want to platinum this. My three-alarm coffee moment suddenly morphed into a microwave meals, no TV, no make-up, speak-to-me-and-die crisis. I’m sure you know the huge commitment platinuming is and what it does to your gaming schedule. It’s not just about the games in your backlog. You have to be aware of the games that are coming. You need to mark those dates on your calendar, clear schedules, book holiday, whip out your calculators and work out game time + eating + sleep divided by kids, pets, work, irritating friends and demanding partner. Going for an unexpected platinum? Strike through that equation and rip the calendar from your wall. That’s your whole gaming year annihilated. I was lucky enough that the review code had arrived on a Friday night so I had the whole weekend to complete the first play through. Now Monday was here and it was time to find all the alternate endings. It was time to remember what choices I’d made the first time and what collectables I needed for the extra trophies. As much as I resented my nine-to-five, I had to make the most of my office time. I wrote post-it after post-it, jotting down which character had already given me particular collectables, which characters I’d interacted with and who I’d ignored. By day, the platinum swung before me, taunting and blowing raspberries. By night, the game was on.

shave off a valuable forty-five seconds. I’m lucky enough to live a five minute walk from my office, so at 5.09 every day I was home, bum in chair, plate revolving inside microwave and Vita on. I had a very reasonable six hours each evening to work my way towards victory. This was my chance to platinum a game before it was even released. Nothing was going to stop me. Was it? Why is it, when you’re right in the middle of very important gaming, you suddenly become extremely popular? Yes, dear Sister, your wedding dress is divine. Yes, best friend, you should buy those trainers in purple. Yes, Lizard, I’m sure that weird Japanese shooter I can’t remember the name of is ace. Yes, Penny, that is a lovely turd you’ve just dropped on my rug. I should probably point out that Penny is a ten-month-old Chihuahua and she apparently still wanted to be walked every day. You would not believe what a distraction such a small dog could be. If she wasn’t doing zoomies around the living room while I was playing, she was on the sofa slapping the backspace key on my laptop while I was writing. Let’s also mention the neighbour who knocked to ask if my lights had gone out, the midnight punch-up in the carpark, and the roadworks outside my window, the bath I accidentally filled with cold water and the teabag in the bottom of my mug I nearly choked on. It was all going horribly wrong. It was now the day before release, the review was written but I couldn’t pop the last trophy. Those collectables were nothing but a cruel myth. I couldn’t think anymore. I hadn’t been shopping so there was only bread left to eat. I cut off the mould, stuffed the remainder of the slice in the toaster and sat drooping in my armchair like a wilted dandelion, Vita limp in my hands. Then, as I stared at a collectable I thought I already had, I pressed X just for the Hell of it. Pop went the last trophy. Pop went the platinum! POP went the toaster! I came very close to crying that night. There is no other sensation like getting a platinum and there is no feeling like completing a game you love on time ready for the next. Utterly exhausted, there was no rest for me. I was set back. LEGO Jurassic World Vita was on its way, I was only halfway through The Witcher and the Arkham Knight loomed dangerously in the darkness ahead. But that’s another story.

At five o’clock I scurried home wearing sensible shoes and taking the Sainsburys’ travelator under the car park to 39 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

VISIT PUNKANDLIZARD.COM FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF S J HOLLIS’S EXCITING TALE!

SEVERED It's as you were for this latest title (and Vita exclusive) from Drinkbox Studios. With an amazing art style, touch mechanics to remove enemy body parts and unleash offensive and defensive manoeuvres and a "fully stylised twisted reality" it's still the game we want to most. Hey Drinkbox - You said Summer, right?

DANGANRONPA: ANOTHER EPISODE: ULTRA DESPAIR GIRLS Moving up our list as we get closer to its release date, this third title - which bridges the two existing stories - has you taking on a whole host of new riddles, challenges, puzzles and a some familiar faces as they attempt to escape the city of despair. If you loved the other Danganronpa titles this must surely be on your list.

VOLUME The Vita port of Mike Bithell's take on the stealth genre is being managed by Just Add Water and now we know it will be out on August 18th! With over 100 levels and a level creator there's lots to keep you occupied and has a great story and voice cast - which includes Andy Serkis. If you love stealth and a challenge, you'll love this.

NOT A HERO Dropping down a couple of places but still in our top four, Devolver Digital will be bringing Roll 7's crazy side-scrolling cover shooter to the Vita soon. Serving an anthropomorphic rabbit by the name of Bunnylord, you are needed to rather violently clean up the city during his campaign. He gets our vote.

MIGHTY NO. 9 We still don't know when exactly we will see Comcept's reimagining of the Mega Man series on the Vita, but we are still excited to get to play with Beck and destroy the other eight Mighty units. How about you? Did you pledge any of the $4 million the Kickstarter received?

DID YOU THINK THAT THE V EXCITED ABOUT? WE TELL YO WE ARE MOST HYPED FO

VITA HAD NOTHING TO GET OU ABOUT THE TEN GAMES OR. ANY HERE FOR YOU?

PERSONA 4: DANCING ALL NIGHT This has now been released in Japan and sold over 95,000 copies in its first week and boosted Vita sales along the way. This rhythmic spinoff from the Persona 4 is set a short while after the events of P4G and boasts more than 30 tracks, with many remixed from the original title. Musical fans and Persona lovers will no doubt be excited.

RESIDENT EVIL REVELATIONS 2 Now we have seen the first footage and screens, this is becoming more real and hopefully we won't have to wait too long. Unless you don't like horror games or scare easily. Set between Resident Evil 5 and 6, you will be controlling Claire Redfield and shooting lots and list of zombies.

SENRAN KAGURA ESTIVAL VERSUS Popping up on our list for the first time and due out later this year, this game has the biggest roster in the seriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; history, and features more moves, more story, more attitude, and more destruction online with matches that can support up to four players.

HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER Another new entry in our list, Hyper Light Drifter is an action RPG which is considered to be a cross between The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past and Diablo. With a 8/16 bit art style and modernised mechanics, you'll explore a beautiful, vast and ruined world riddled with unknown dangers and lost technologies. Inspired by nightmares and dreams alike.

EARTH DEFENCE FORCE 2 Rounding off the list is another new entry in the form of EDF 2. Originally released 10 years ago on the PS2, this new version of the third person shooter has 4 player online, a new class and an English dub. If you want to exterminate hordes of enemy alien bugs, you can grab this later this year.

Takada the same composer for Danganronpa? In places there was no music playing though, which seemed like a strange choice to me, but it's only a minor gripe.

Hi guys, GadgetGirlKylie here! Since I last wrote for TheVitaLounge Magazine, I have been spending most of my time on Sword Art Online:Lost Song and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth. They have certainly kept me, and my beloved Vita busy! So let's talk about those two great games, and what to look out for in the coming months.

Now you can also play as other characters in the game, and you even have the ability to create your very own protagonist. This is excellent and I'm sure something the fans of the SAO games have been hoping for. It gives players the opportunity to experience fights and boss battles in different ways by controlling various characters. Having said that, the character creation feature is limited, and feels like an afterthought. Hopefully, this is expanded in future games to allow players greater customisation and creation options.

There are a wide variety of Digimon to collect, some of which will require special training in the Digifarm or a certain talent level. You can even DNA Digivolve and use an egg to get Digimon. It will take some time to collect all Digimon in the game, giving it some extra length for those completionists out there or fans of the series who want specific Digimon.

I have completed the story and thoroughly enjoyed the game overall, despite not understanding any Japanese. The gameplay is really good Sword Art Online: Lost Song takes place and the story is pretty long, filled with in Alfheim Online, following on from side quests and plenty of Digimon to the previous game. You can expect collect. If you are expecting a challenge similar gameplay with boss battles, from the storyline of this game, then sword skills and a plot similar, but not I think you will be disappointed. I did the same to the Anime. Lost Song Great news for anyone wanting to play not do much grinding to level my was said to not be a direct sequel, this game, is the announcement that it Digimon and I was able to play through but I would still advise anyone to play will be coming to the PS4, both digitally the storyline of the game with ease. Hollow Fragment first. There are plot As a result, I felt that the battles and physically in America and Europe points and events that tie in with the weren't hugely challenging. However, in Fall. In addition to this, Sword Art earlier game, plus you're missing a Online RE: Hollow Fragment will be difficulty isn't that much of a issue great game! The plot is fantastic and coming to the PS4 in Summer. If you when the game is so enjoyable, but it introduces new characters such as want to learn more about Lost Song is something to be aware of. If you do Seven, Sumeragi and Rain. There are and Hollow Fragment, then don't forget want to be more challenged, I would also characters from the ALO part of recommend going online with some the Anime, like Sakuya and Alicia Rue. I to stop by my channel and check out my let's play videos. I have well over Wi-Fi Digimon battles. There are plenty feel the storyline was better in LS due 300 videos for both games! of strong opponents waiting for you to the increased character roster, and online as opposed to the single player their character arcs. Moving on to Digimon Story Cyber part of the game. Sleuth now. There is still no official Onto some of the main differences word on a localisation of the game, but If you feel like importing the game or between Lost Song and Hollow Fragment. First things first, is the ability the petition was recognised by Bandai checking it out, then don't forget to Namco Europe on Twitter â&#x20AC;&#x153;Over 64k!!! head over to my channel for my let's to fly, which is a really fun feature. WOW! Thanks for your support to the play where I have covered all the story Getting from point A to point B is so Digimon franchise.â&#x20AC;? so this could be and side quests! There are also some much faster now you can fly between a good sign. I can only hope that this handy guides floating around online to the 4 islands that you travel through game gets a localisation, because I do help you through it. within the game. Now you can fight think it's a fun game, and not just for large bosses while flying, although the Digimon fans. Keep an eye out for the following lock on feature could use some work PS Vita games on my channel in the and may cause a bit of frustration in Both the characters and Digimon coming months, Red Goddess, Lost battle. look nice, although I will say that the Dimensions, Danganronpa:Another game does suffer from aliased edges Episode: Ultra Despair Girl, Another addition, is the ability to use at points. It is more noticeable on the Amnesia:Memories and more! I do also magic. Each race has it's own magic dialogue sections of the game where cover other gaming systems, so feel that it can learn. For example, Asuna the character models are shown in free to stop by my channel and see for can learn various types of healing yourselves. magic and she has strong water magic. close up. That said, I did not notice any lag or performance issues while Players are able to switch between Thanks for reading this, and as spells and build characters to their own playing. The music is wonderful, but what can you expect from Masafumi always, take it easy guys! liking. But this is governed by which spells each race can learn. It's a really nice touch, and I love the ability to use magic in this game. The menu system has been overhauled and in the heat of One of the best PS Vita channels on Youtube, GadgetGirlKylie battle feels more intuitive than Hollow is a massive Vita fan. She shares her highlights from the last Fragment. six months. If you love your Vita (and you obviously do) you should definitely check her out!

youtube.com/user/GadgetGirlKylie

42 | The Vita Lounge Magazine

twitter.com/Gadgetgirlkylie

DIRECTORY THE BEST 2015 VITA GAMES SO FAR

1.5 GB 2 16

4.9

OLLIOLLI 2: WELCOME TO OLLIWOOD

KICK & FENNICK

4.6

436 MB 6 8

3.7 GB 2 16

4.6

2.8 GB 10 5

4.4

3.0 GB 2 7

HOTLINE MIAMI 2: WRONG NUMBER

808 MB 1 1

2.9 GB 4 10

4.6

403 MB 8 6

3.2 GB 2 11

1.6 GB 3 7

TOUKIDEN: KIWAMI

4.5 LEGO JURASSIC WORLD

SHOVEL KNIGHT

FLAME OVER

4.5

4.9

144 MB 1 4 7

ATELIER AYESHA PLUS: THE ALCHEMIST OF DUSK

BROKEN AGE

4.6

GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED

TETRIS ULTIMATE

STEINS; GATE

465 MB 3 6

4.3

The Vita Lounge Magazine | 43

The love love for for the the Vita Vita that that some some of of our our fans fans has has is is incredible, incredible, but but the the belief belief in in us us and and The this magazine magazine that that the the following following readers readers have have shown shown is is truly truly incredible. incredible. Thank Thank you you this for your your support support guys! guys! If If you you see see them them on on your your online online adventures, adventures, please please say say hello! hello! for

Patrick Albrecht

@albrechtpatr I'm loving Japanese games since I had a I'm loving Japanese gamesHollow since I've had a PS PSvita. Sword Art Online: Fragment Vita. Sword ArtStar Online: Hollow Fragment or and Phantasy Nova are my favourites.

Tom Grinnell

TomNinetyTwo @ TomNinetyTwo Favourite Vita games: Unit 13, Toukiden, Favourite Vita games: Unit 13, Toukiden, Killzone Mercenary Killzone Mercenary Playing this month Borderlands 2 Playing this month Borderlands 2

Lorenzo Samaniego

@ZoSamaniego I have been an avid Vita supporter since the Islim haveversion been an avid Vita supporter since the was launched. The main reason slim launched. Theversatility. main reason I loveversion my Vitawas is because of its I love my Vita is because of itsand versatility. Great Vita games, access to PSOne Classics, Remote Play Great Vitait games, access to PSOne Classics,games and Remote make a beautiful trifecta! My favorite includePlay make it a beautiful trifecta! favorite Freedom Wars, Velocity 2X,My and P4G. games include

Carl Jennings

almighty-slayer @PooWithEyes My favourite Vita games are Tearaway, Velocity 2X andare Gravity My favourite Vita games Rush. I'm trying to get backGravity into Tearaway, Velocity 2X and Persona Golden get Rush. I'm4trying tobut get always back into distracted. Persona 4 Golden but always get

Curtis

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Gary Huss

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Liam Allen-Miller

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Todd

Cowlauncher @Cowlauncher I love Danganronpa, Gravity Rush, Guacamelee!, Unfinished A Vita owner sinceUncharted. launch it quickly became my favourite Swan, Limbo and console of all time, everything about it is perfect to me. For Kody Storm the first time I want to own every game that comes out for it, I'm going for a @Updated8Seconds full English language set which I can pass on to my son when he's a bit older. Top 5 - One Piece youtube.com/Updated8SecondsAgo PW 2, SAO Lost Song, Ys Memories of Celceta, Don't Starve, (Youtube Commentator) Featuring PS Vita, PS4 & PC Games. Home Of The Series One Night Stand. @Updated8Seconds Jens Brinkmann youtube.com/Updated8SecondsAgo (Youtube Jens Brinkmann Commentator) generously Featuring pledged PStoVita, appear PS4 here & PC Games. Home but weOfcould The Series not getOne in touch Nightwith Stand. him to fill this section. Thanks for your generous support Jens!

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