Rated: 7+.
Story: You are the god of the Patapon - a two-dimensional race of stickmen vaguely resembling Mike from Monsters Inc. You must try to recapture the glory days of Patapon supremacy by using your divine powers of rhythm to lead them to a sacred relic at the edge of the world.
Gameplay: The Patapon move from left to right through the levels, taking on wildlife, monsters and opposing tribes. You must guide them towards the promised land by tapping out drumbeats on the shape buttons of the PSP in time with the beat. Different combinations of buttons issue different commands, such as advance, defend or attack. As the game progresses, you gain the ability to control various types of Patapon. Some have spears, some bows and some melee weapons. Different Patapon are more effective depending on which commands you give your army.
Between levels, it's possible to trade items acquired during combat for more troops and to select improved equipment and armour.
Save System: Manual save between levels only. The levels are pretty short, though.
Comments: Considering how many games I play, it's rather embarrassing how bad I am at them. I normally struggle through, though, quite often swapping perseverance and cunning for actual skill. By sheer force of will, I made it to the end of Tomb Raider III, which is probably a great deal better than most people managed, and, while ninja skills and twitch reflexes aren't my thing, if you want someone who's good at finding AI quirks or gameplay loopholes to exploit then I'm your man. Generally, I get by.
One genre that is pretty much beyond me, however, is rhythm action. I can't even clap along with a beat to save myself, so trying to press buttons in synch with music is harder than changing a nappy with one hand and feeding a toddler with the other. I just can't do it.
Despite this, I can usually have some fun with rhythm games by relying on the visual prompts. Which makes it a problem that Patapon doesn't really have any...
This is down to the game's relative complexity. It involves not only getting the timing right but choosing the bars of 'music' to command the Patapon in an appropriate fashion for their situation. Deciding what to do, remembering which sequence of buttons to tap and matching them to the beat is a lot of fast-paced multi-tasking. Other rhythm games give plenty of warning as a particular button press approaches but Patapon can't because it's up to the player which button to press. The only visual cue is that the border of the screen flashes with the beat. To the musically-challenged like myself, this is no help whatsoever.
I did OK to start with and, after a little practice, I even felt I was getting good at the game. Then, halfway through level five or so, the beat changed and I was totally unable to control my Patapon. At all. They just kept falling over and making sarcastic comments about how rubbish I was. The sad thing is, they were right. I had to give up.
This was a shame because the game has a refreshing visual style, decent sound and is quite fun. The length of time it takes to issue commands can be frustrating and there's a lot of replaying of levels required to build up resources but the idea of a rhythm-strategy game is unique. Whether the concept stretches for the whole game, I don't know... and I guess I never will.
Conclusion: A great and innovative game. Probably. If your percussion skills are limited, you might want to go with a rental rather than a purchase - there's almost certainly only so much being booed by stickmen that you can take.
Graphics Sharp, atmospheric and unusual. Like one of those silhouette puppet shows.
Length: A quick poll of people on the internet who have rhythm suggests Medium to Long.
Rating: 4/5 if you can clap to a beat and walk in a straight line at the same time. If this combination of activities is liable to cause you injury or misfortune, however, you might want to give the whole thing a miss.
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Showing posts with label PSP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSP. Show all posts
Dead Head Fred (PSP)
Rated: 15.
Story: You're Fred, a private investigator on a mission to bring down the mob boss (Pitt) who's ruining your home town. Except he kills you before the game even starts. You wake up to find that a mad scientist has brought you back to life with a brain in a jar for a head. Normally, this would make you a bit of a freak, but Pitt's nuclear power plant has turned much of the local populace into zombies, mutants, monsters and psychos. You set off to crack some heads and, er... borrow them...
Gameplay: Dead Head Fred is a third-person adventure with a heavy emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. You get to wander the town, fighting monsters, receiving missions from the inhabitants, unlocking new areas and locating extra heads with useful powers such as water-breathing and immunity to fire. You can swap between any of your accumulated heads quickly. Each is effective against different types of monster.
There's a linear main quest to defeat Pitt but doing other missions brings money, items, head upgrades, worms and fish. (Really.) You occasionally need a big wadge of cash to continue the main quest but most stuff just leads, one way or another, to obtaining extra healing potions.
Save System: The game can be saved at any time but progress is only recorded up until the last checkpoint. Checkpoints are usually extremely frequent, however.
Comments: This is one of those games.
One of those games that's always OK, sometimes good and frequently promises to be great... but never actually is. It's fun enough but somehow lacking. It should be an excellent cross between Ratchet & Clank, Zelda and Resident Evil. In reality, it's a weird mish-mash of beat-'em-up, platformer and adventure that never completely succeeds at anything.
At heart, there are some great ideas here. The head swapping should have produced clever puzzles. The role-playing elements should have added depth to the combat and jumping. Unfortunately, the level design is basic and much of the gameplay is merely walking from area to area, putting on the appropriate head and then hammering the attack buttons. The developers seem to have attempted to cover over this by adding in any number of superfluous features like working pinball machines and fishing mini-games but the game is too long and it's all just spread too thin.
This 'throw everything at it and hope it gets better' approach is exemplified by the vast numbers of side quests. Nearly all of them involve going somewhere, killing some monsters, collecting an item and then returning to the place you started. Since going through any doorway results in a pause, a short cut-scene and then a lengthy loading screen, traipsing all over the shop for the sake of a few dollars hardly seems worth it. There's really little need anyway. Once you've got the hang of the combat, there's seldom much call to use potions, so money is only required to buy essential disguises. It's possible to pick up sufficient for this without too much effort.
Still, there's just enough variation to maintain interest and the story is intriguing. The Film-Noir-with-zombies setting sometimes becomes a little too bizarre but the script contains a number of good jokes and keeps you persevering.
Even taking all its failings into account, Dead Head Fred is a decent game if you like third-person adventures and you've already worked your way through both PSP Grand Theft Autos, Daxter and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Be prepared to be patient with it, though, and don't expect it to suddenly flower as time goes on - the first couple of hours are pretty representative of the whole game.
Conclusion: A great concept let down by lack-lustre level design.
Graphics: Competent. The game runs smoothly but many of the locations are quite bland and angular. It looks like an early PS2 game.
The loading screen will be burned into your brain by the end.
Length: Long.
Rating: 3/5.
Story: You're Fred, a private investigator on a mission to bring down the mob boss (Pitt) who's ruining your home town. Except he kills you before the game even starts. You wake up to find that a mad scientist has brought you back to life with a brain in a jar for a head. Normally, this would make you a bit of a freak, but Pitt's nuclear power plant has turned much of the local populace into zombies, mutants, monsters and psychos. You set off to crack some heads and, er... borrow them...
Gameplay: Dead Head Fred is a third-person adventure with a heavy emphasis on hand-to-hand combat. You get to wander the town, fighting monsters, receiving missions from the inhabitants, unlocking new areas and locating extra heads with useful powers such as water-breathing and immunity to fire. You can swap between any of your accumulated heads quickly. Each is effective against different types of monster.
There's a linear main quest to defeat Pitt but doing other missions brings money, items, head upgrades, worms and fish. (Really.) You occasionally need a big wadge of cash to continue the main quest but most stuff just leads, one way or another, to obtaining extra healing potions.
Save System: The game can be saved at any time but progress is only recorded up until the last checkpoint. Checkpoints are usually extremely frequent, however.
Comments: This is one of those games.
One of those games that's always OK, sometimes good and frequently promises to be great... but never actually is. It's fun enough but somehow lacking. It should be an excellent cross between Ratchet & Clank, Zelda and Resident Evil. In reality, it's a weird mish-mash of beat-'em-up, platformer and adventure that never completely succeeds at anything.
At heart, there are some great ideas here. The head swapping should have produced clever puzzles. The role-playing elements should have added depth to the combat and jumping. Unfortunately, the level design is basic and much of the gameplay is merely walking from area to area, putting on the appropriate head and then hammering the attack buttons. The developers seem to have attempted to cover over this by adding in any number of superfluous features like working pinball machines and fishing mini-games but the game is too long and it's all just spread too thin.
This 'throw everything at it and hope it gets better' approach is exemplified by the vast numbers of side quests. Nearly all of them involve going somewhere, killing some monsters, collecting an item and then returning to the place you started. Since going through any doorway results in a pause, a short cut-scene and then a lengthy loading screen, traipsing all over the shop for the sake of a few dollars hardly seems worth it. There's really little need anyway. Once you've got the hang of the combat, there's seldom much call to use potions, so money is only required to buy essential disguises. It's possible to pick up sufficient for this without too much effort.
Still, there's just enough variation to maintain interest and the story is intriguing. The Film-Noir-with-zombies setting sometimes becomes a little too bizarre but the script contains a number of good jokes and keeps you persevering.
Even taking all its failings into account, Dead Head Fred is a decent game if you like third-person adventures and you've already worked your way through both PSP Grand Theft Autos, Daxter and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Be prepared to be patient with it, though, and don't expect it to suddenly flower as time goes on - the first couple of hours are pretty representative of the whole game.
Conclusion: A great concept let down by lack-lustre level design.
Graphics: Competent. The game runs smoothly but many of the locations are quite bland and angular. It looks like an early PS2 game.
The loading screen will be burned into your brain by the end.
Length: Long.
Rating: 3/5.
Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics (PSP)
Rated: 12+
Story: Honestly, I have no idea, despite the fact I played this for several hours. There's something about a prophesy and impending doom. Since the first cut-scene doesn't appear until after the second mission, it's like the game itself doesn't even care what's going on.
Gameplay: Painstakingly guide a group of up to six adventurers around dungeons and battlefields, fighting monsters and gathering treasure. Combat occurs in a turn-based fashion. Most of your time will be taken navigating menus, moving the characters laboriously down corridors and managing what they're carrying.
Save System: Save at any time.
Comments: Some games require a beard. Facial hair is essential for stroking while considering the next move, for scratching while pondering the impenetrable rules and for pulling out in clumps while wrestling unsuccessfully with the controls.
Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics is one of those games.
If you have never played any Dungeons and Dragons before, then steer well clear. The learning curve isn't so much vertical, it actually overhangs. I played plenty of D&D as a teenager, I'm a fan of turn-based board games and I have a physics degree. I still found this game hugely difficult to understand. That might be forgivable as 'depth' if the whole thing weren't such a tedious faff to play. In theory, computerising the complex D&D rules should have taken the effort out of playing but, in reality, the simplest actions, like changing weapons or moving across a room, have been transformed into something lengthy and involved. Meanwhile, since the dice rolls and calculations are now hidden from the player, it's very hard to work out why the zombie your entire party has been hacking at for the last five turns is adamantly refusing to fall over.
Even if you can recite the latest Dungeon Master's Guide off by heart, the frustrating interface and thread-bare story are worth avoiding anyway. Break out some miniatures and invite a few friends round instead.
Conclusion: Not worth growing a beard for.
Graphics: Nothing special and the magical effects are disappointing. Cut-scenes consist of text and a few static drawings.
Length: Long.
Rating: 1/5.
Story: Honestly, I have no idea, despite the fact I played this for several hours. There's something about a prophesy and impending doom. Since the first cut-scene doesn't appear until after the second mission, it's like the game itself doesn't even care what's going on.
Gameplay: Painstakingly guide a group of up to six adventurers around dungeons and battlefields, fighting monsters and gathering treasure. Combat occurs in a turn-based fashion. Most of your time will be taken navigating menus, moving the characters laboriously down corridors and managing what they're carrying.
Save System: Save at any time.
Comments: Some games require a beard. Facial hair is essential for stroking while considering the next move, for scratching while pondering the impenetrable rules and for pulling out in clumps while wrestling unsuccessfully with the controls.
Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics is one of those games.
If you have never played any Dungeons and Dragons before, then steer well clear. The learning curve isn't so much vertical, it actually overhangs. I played plenty of D&D as a teenager, I'm a fan of turn-based board games and I have a physics degree. I still found this game hugely difficult to understand. That might be forgivable as 'depth' if the whole thing weren't such a tedious faff to play. In theory, computerising the complex D&D rules should have taken the effort out of playing but, in reality, the simplest actions, like changing weapons or moving across a room, have been transformed into something lengthy and involved. Meanwhile, since the dice rolls and calculations are now hidden from the player, it's very hard to work out why the zombie your entire party has been hacking at for the last five turns is adamantly refusing to fall over.
Even if you can recite the latest Dungeon Master's Guide off by heart, the frustrating interface and thread-bare story are worth avoiding anyway. Break out some miniatures and invite a few friends round instead.
Conclusion: Not worth growing a beard for.
Graphics: Nothing special and the magical effects are disappointing. Cut-scenes consist of text and a few static drawings.
Length: Long.
Rating: 1/5.
PlayStation Portable (PSP) Games Console
Price: £130 for the PSP Slim & Lite. You might be able to pick up the older, heavier version being sold off somewhere for a bit less but you'd probably be better going for the newer version anyway - it has quicker load times and can output to a TV.
Essentials: Memory Stick Pro Duo (required to save game progress and to store music and video) - £30 for 4GB
Alternatively, if you want to store several movies at once, can't be bothered to ever swap cards and have too much money, you could always go for 8GB
Extras:
- Mini USB cable (for transferring files to and from PC or PS3) - £3.
- Carry case - £10.
- Screen visor - £5.
I do wonder which features people are buying the thing for, however. On paper the functionality is fantastic but the reality is that the PSP is a bit big for everyday use as an MP3 player, movies have to be bought on UMD disk or somehow transferred to memory card in a suitable format, the internet browser is slow and requires a wi-fi hotspot and, as for photos, is anyone really going to bother?
So who's buying the console?
Gadget fans mainly, I suspect. The PSP looks great, has a superb screen, does all kinds of things and let's you play Grand Theft Auto on the bus (if there's not too much glare and you're not concerned about getting mugged).
I mainly play mine on holiday. It lets me take home console style games with me wherever I go. Far easier than lugging round a PS2 and TV. Of course, this means the PSP isn't much use when I'm actually at home - the style of game it tends to host is readily available for me to play on a big telly with a proper controller. Sure, it's handy just being able to pick it up and play when the kids give me a moment of peace but Grand Theft Auto doesn't work as well in five minute bursts as many of the offerings on the DS.
Short sessions aren't impossible, though. Like the DS, the PSP has a sleep function allowing games to be paused in a battery-saving mode which lasts several days. In normal use, the batteries last between four and eight hours, depending what you're doing.
Probably the biggest disappointment with the PSP is the movie playback feature. The picture quality is excellent but getting hold of something to watch is a problem. Buying a film on UMD rather than DVD means being restricted to always playing it on a PSP. True, the new Slim & Lite model allows output to a TV (with the right cable) but building a UMD collection seems as sensible as starting a music library on mini-disk. Putting movies on memory stick, however, is a real faff. Converting a commercial DVD would require the use of dubious decryption software and then some conversion software, such as PSP Video 9, to put the video files into a suitable format and resolution. Recording stuff off the telly onto DVD and then converting that is easier but time-consuming. Downloading films is less hassle but costs more than you might expect.
If you want to watch films on the move, you'd be as well to buy a portable DVD player.
Long-term, plenty of interaction between the PSP and PS3 is promised, with the PS3 streaming video over the internet to the PSP and the like. That might be good but would require proximity to a wi-fi hotspot. At the moment it's possible to download PSOne games for £3.50 each onto the PS3 or a PC and then transfer them to play on the PSP. There's only a small selection so far, however.
Original PSP with its rather chunky charger and a Joytech visor which screws into a couple of handy holes for attaching peripherals on the top edge of the PSP.
Where the Nintendo DS has something for everyone in terms of software, the PSP is aimed much more at experienced gamers. The best PSP games include:
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - A proper, 3D Grand Theft Auto on a portable console! And, look over there, it's the Holy Grail as well!
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories - Oh, and another one...
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow - Third-person spy action which uses lots of buttons.
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - Clever, witty turn-based strategy.
Crush - Puzzle platformer where solving problems involves switching between 2D and 3D.
Other good games include: Final Fantasy: Tactics, Silent Hill: Origins, Daxter, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command, LocoRoco, Capcom Puzzle World, a vast selection of racing games and various retro collections (notably Sega Mega Drive Collection).
Notice, however, that most of these games are inferior re-hashes of PS2 franchises or have been ported to the PS2 themselves. Many of them suffer from the fact that the PSP has fewer buttons than a PS2 controller and a single analogue 'nub' rather than two analogue control sticks. First-person shooters really struggle on the PSP, for instance. On the PS2, the left stick would be used to move and the right to look around. On the PSP, the face buttons tend to be used for looking, which is clunky and inaccurate. Also, the PSP is much less comfortable to hold over an extended period than a PS2 controller.
The PSP looks cool, has many impressive features and plenty of decent software. It provides so many possibilities in the palm of your hand. Unfortunately, it seems that all of those possibilities involve some form of compromise. At any given moment, you'll find yourself wishing it was really an iPod, DVD player, PS2 controller or DS in your grasp.
Conclusion: A great machine that's still looking for identity and purpose.
Pros:
- Does everything - MP3 player, movie player, internet browser, PS2 quality games.
- Large, high quality screen.
- Plenty of good, cheap games.
- Doesn't do anything as well as a dedicated machine would.
- Awkward controls.
- Lack of really startling software.
- Getting movies onto memory stick is a pain and legally dubious (and you have to buy a memory stick!)
- Not very rugged.
- Playing one in a public place feels akin to writing 'Mug me!' on your back.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (PSP)
Rated: 15
Story: You're an operative for an American security agency so hard-core that it doesn't officially exist. You have to investigate a mysterious terrorist threat by shooting bad guys in numerous locations around the world. There's the usual entanglement with an old flame, a bit of off-the-rails revenge and a smidgen of ethical quandary.
Yawn...
I mean, honestly, when the main element of suspense in the plot is over what kind of weapon the terrorists have, you know that straws are being clutched. If this were a movie, it would be straight to Channel 5.
Gameplay: Third-person shooting. Much of the time is taken up by aiming from behind cover and then popping out to shoot henchmen. Stealth is an option. There are occasional boss battles, a few puzzles, infrequent gun-emplacement fuelled massacres and the obligatory sniper sections.
Save System: Auto-save at the end of each mission only - so be prepared to leave your PSP in sleep mode. Annoyingly, the save doesn't occur until after the cutscenes for the start of the next mission, which is frustrating if you're in a hurry.
Comments: My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20 and it came with four games on tape. One of them was a Frogger clone and two of the others I've forgotten entirely but easily the best was called Blitz. It involved dropping bombs to level a city before your plane crashed into any remaining skyscrapers. You can play a very similar game here. My mum really quite enjoyed it. She could get to grips with it because, although it was hard as nails, it only used one button. Tellingly, the first computer game my mum has played since then is Wii Sports.
My mum really wouldn't like Syphon Filter.
Dark Mirror is for people who play games a lot. It's the kind of game that gives you three different types of optical visor and a flashlight. One of your main guns has four different types of ammunition. Every button on the PSP is used, some twice. I've been playing computer games for twenty-five years and I kept getting confused over the controls the whole way through.
It's not that the controls are bad. Apart from attaching to cover being fiddly in the heat of battle, the controls work very well. The game is just complicated. My mum wouldn't know where to start and wouldn't want to.
But, then again, you're not my mum and you're probably wondering where I'm going with all this. Well, to cut the meandering short, if you're new to videogames then this isn't a good place to start. It looks cool but is a real struggle to get to grips with. If you've played plenty of games, however, you'll have probably seen it all before, only a bit better. For all the complications, Dark Mirror still seems strangely basic, from the lacklustre plot to the lengthy corridor sections. It has its moments but, after a while, it just becomes a chore.
Conclusion: If this were a PS2 game, it would be quickly forgotten. Absence of competition on the PSP makes it more memorable but still doesn't make it that special.
Graphics: Technically adept but lacking imagination. The endless, samey corridors begin to grate before the end.
Length: Feels longer than it actually is. (Never a good sign).
Rating: 3/5.
Story: You're an operative for an American security agency so hard-core that it doesn't officially exist. You have to investigate a mysterious terrorist threat by shooting bad guys in numerous locations around the world. There's the usual entanglement with an old flame, a bit of off-the-rails revenge and a smidgen of ethical quandary.
Yawn...
I mean, honestly, when the main element of suspense in the plot is over what kind of weapon the terrorists have, you know that straws are being clutched. If this were a movie, it would be straight to Channel 5.
Gameplay: Third-person shooting. Much of the time is taken up by aiming from behind cover and then popping out to shoot henchmen. Stealth is an option. There are occasional boss battles, a few puzzles, infrequent gun-emplacement fuelled massacres and the obligatory sniper sections.
Save System: Auto-save at the end of each mission only - so be prepared to leave your PSP in sleep mode. Annoyingly, the save doesn't occur until after the cutscenes for the start of the next mission, which is frustrating if you're in a hurry.
Comments: My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20 and it came with four games on tape. One of them was a Frogger clone and two of the others I've forgotten entirely but easily the best was called Blitz. It involved dropping bombs to level a city before your plane crashed into any remaining skyscrapers. You can play a very similar game here. My mum really quite enjoyed it. She could get to grips with it because, although it was hard as nails, it only used one button. Tellingly, the first computer game my mum has played since then is Wii Sports.
My mum really wouldn't like Syphon Filter.
Dark Mirror is for people who play games a lot. It's the kind of game that gives you three different types of optical visor and a flashlight. One of your main guns has four different types of ammunition. Every button on the PSP is used, some twice. I've been playing computer games for twenty-five years and I kept getting confused over the controls the whole way through.
It's not that the controls are bad. Apart from attaching to cover being fiddly in the heat of battle, the controls work very well. The game is just complicated. My mum wouldn't know where to start and wouldn't want to.
But, then again, you're not my mum and you're probably wondering where I'm going with all this. Well, to cut the meandering short, if you're new to videogames then this isn't a good place to start. It looks cool but is a real struggle to get to grips with. If you've played plenty of games, however, you'll have probably seen it all before, only a bit better. For all the complications, Dark Mirror still seems strangely basic, from the lacklustre plot to the lengthy corridor sections. It has its moments but, after a while, it just becomes a chore.
Conclusion: If this were a PS2 game, it would be quickly forgotten. Absence of competition on the PSP makes it more memorable but still doesn't make it that special.
Graphics: Technically adept but lacking imagination. The endless, samey corridors begin to grate before the end.
Length: Feels longer than it actually is. (Never a good sign).
Rating: 3/5.
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (PSP)
Rated: 7+
Story: Ratchet is a big-eared, furry humanoid and Clank is a small robot who rides on his back. They are inter-galactic superheroes. (Well, they can jump quite high and use very big guns, anyway). The evil emperor of the technomites decides to create a clone army of Ratchets and take over the galaxy. Ironically, only Ratchet can stop him...
Gameplay: This is really a third-person shooter with a bit of platforming thrown in. There are also a few side-quests involving such things as duelling big robots, leading little robots through obstacle courses or racing on a glorified hoverboard.
Ratchet's arsenal can be increased by spending bolts collected from smashing crates and killing enemies. Each weapon also gains experience with use, becoming more powerful over time. Weapons include the usual suspects plus a few extras like the Suck Cannon which sucks up small enemies and then fires them back.
Save System: Auto-saved checkpoints.
Comments: If I never get round to buying a PlayStation 3 then I'm not going to miss playing Metal Gear Solid 4. I just can't be doing with the unending cut-scenes that are likely to fill it nor with the nonsensical chats with advisors back at base that are bound to be so inane they will make me want to crush my controller in frustration. I won't miss playing a host of Japanese RPGs for similar reasons. I certainly won't miss SingStar (and nor will my neighbours). I won't even miss EyeToy games - it's not like I've had the energy to play half the ones I have on PS2 yet.
Sadly, the games that are most likely to entice hundreds of pounds from my wallet are the latest editions of Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. Both series peaked with their second installments which provided balanced mixes of shooting, racing, exploring and platforming. Since then, Jak has been more about racing, Ratchet has been about the shooting. Platforming just isn't cool anymore. The gameplay in the two series is still usually varied and entertaining, however, and I'm fond of the characters. I always think I can't entirely be bothered with another one of their adventures but then I end up really enjoying them.
Well, until now that is.
Size Matters has a ton of issues. The levels are very linear and the camera can be unhelpful. The system of using the analogue nub to move normally and the D-pad to strafe works reasonably well most of the time but can make aiming erratic. The mini-games are rough round the edges and often not that fun. There are interesting gadgets to be found but they're seldom needed to progress and it's absolutely obvious when they are. The cut-scenes are less amusing than normal.
Size Matters is also very short compared to other R&C games. The main story would only last four or five hours if it weren't for a sudden, sharp increase in difficulty about two-thirds of the way through. Enemies become tougher and more numerous, checkpoints are further apart and instant death is always a possibility. A lack of bolts also means having to re-do earlier levels in order to afford the best weaponry (i.e. the Shock Rocket and Stasis Barrier) if you've wasted cash on useless stuff earlier in the game (i.e. the Suck Cannon, the Crossbow Thingy and the Kill-me-now-while-I'm-standing-still Laser). The boss battles are particularly, teeth-grindingly frustrating.
The whole thing just isn't up to the usual design standard of Ratchet & Clank. It's like this is a spare game put together by summer interns that someone at Sony found knocking around at the back of a cupboard and decided to shove out on PSP.
It's not a total disaster, however. The basic R&C gameplay is still there underneath and still fun despite various attempts to kill it. Nonetheless, Sony have dropped the ball again. The PSP really needs good, exclusive titles if there's any hope of it challenging the Nintendo DS. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters doesn't deliver. It also sullies the name of one of the key franchises that Sony will be promoting to help to sell the PS3.
It's almost like they're trying to turn away my custom...
Conclusion: A poor entry in a fantastic series results in an OK game.
Graphics: Amongst the best on PSP. (Apart from the dream level - that's just migraine inducing. By happy fortune, I already had a migraine while playing it and all the flashing lights mostly cancelled each other out. You probably won't be so 'lucky'.)
Length: Short.
Frustration Level: High.
Rating: 3/5.
Story: Ratchet is a big-eared, furry humanoid and Clank is a small robot who rides on his back. They are inter-galactic superheroes. (Well, they can jump quite high and use very big guns, anyway). The evil emperor of the technomites decides to create a clone army of Ratchets and take over the galaxy. Ironically, only Ratchet can stop him...
Gameplay: This is really a third-person shooter with a bit of platforming thrown in. There are also a few side-quests involving such things as duelling big robots, leading little robots through obstacle courses or racing on a glorified hoverboard.
Ratchet's arsenal can be increased by spending bolts collected from smashing crates and killing enemies. Each weapon also gains experience with use, becoming more powerful over time. Weapons include the usual suspects plus a few extras like the Suck Cannon which sucks up small enemies and then fires them back.
Save System: Auto-saved checkpoints.
Comments: If I never get round to buying a PlayStation 3 then I'm not going to miss playing Metal Gear Solid 4. I just can't be doing with the unending cut-scenes that are likely to fill it nor with the nonsensical chats with advisors back at base that are bound to be so inane they will make me want to crush my controller in frustration. I won't miss playing a host of Japanese RPGs for similar reasons. I certainly won't miss SingStar (and nor will my neighbours). I won't even miss EyeToy games - it's not like I've had the energy to play half the ones I have on PS2 yet.
Sadly, the games that are most likely to entice hundreds of pounds from my wallet are the latest editions of Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. Both series peaked with their second installments which provided balanced mixes of shooting, racing, exploring and platforming. Since then, Jak has been more about racing, Ratchet has been about the shooting. Platforming just isn't cool anymore. The gameplay in the two series is still usually varied and entertaining, however, and I'm fond of the characters. I always think I can't entirely be bothered with another one of their adventures but then I end up really enjoying them.
Well, until now that is.
Size Matters has a ton of issues. The levels are very linear and the camera can be unhelpful. The system of using the analogue nub to move normally and the D-pad to strafe works reasonably well most of the time but can make aiming erratic. The mini-games are rough round the edges and often not that fun. There are interesting gadgets to be found but they're seldom needed to progress and it's absolutely obvious when they are. The cut-scenes are less amusing than normal.
Size Matters is also very short compared to other R&C games. The main story would only last four or five hours if it weren't for a sudden, sharp increase in difficulty about two-thirds of the way through. Enemies become tougher and more numerous, checkpoints are further apart and instant death is always a possibility. A lack of bolts also means having to re-do earlier levels in order to afford the best weaponry (i.e. the Shock Rocket and Stasis Barrier) if you've wasted cash on useless stuff earlier in the game (i.e. the Suck Cannon, the Crossbow Thingy and the Kill-me-now-while-I'm-standing-still Laser). The boss battles are particularly, teeth-grindingly frustrating.
The whole thing just isn't up to the usual design standard of Ratchet & Clank. It's like this is a spare game put together by summer interns that someone at Sony found knocking around at the back of a cupboard and decided to shove out on PSP.
It's not a total disaster, however. The basic R&C gameplay is still there underneath and still fun despite various attempts to kill it. Nonetheless, Sony have dropped the ball again. The PSP really needs good, exclusive titles if there's any hope of it challenging the Nintendo DS. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters doesn't deliver. It also sullies the name of one of the key franchises that Sony will be promoting to help to sell the PS3.
It's almost like they're trying to turn away my custom...
Conclusion: A poor entry in a fantastic series results in an OK game.
Graphics: Amongst the best on PSP. (Apart from the dream level - that's just migraine inducing. By happy fortune, I already had a migraine while playing it and all the flashing lights mostly cancelled each other out. You probably won't be so 'lucky'.)
Length: Short.
Frustration Level: High.
Rating: 3/5.