Hello peeps. been a while.

Sorry for the complete lack of updates, and site actually belly flopping. But everything is back on track once more (liking the snazzy template too… very nice)

But something beautiful is about to be born.

A new website which will make this (short lived) site look tiny in comparison.

I am moving from Tumblr to my own site where me and a few peeps will be posting new info as much as we possibly can and it’s not just going to be about games themselves but also everything about the industry.

I’m working hard to learn the ways of the industry so one day i can finally join the ranks (at the bottom to be perfectly honest but i’ll be happy being surrounded by something I am so passionate about.

Stay tuned for when I post a launch date!

I’m so excited!!!!

Singing out,

FinxOmally

I’ve actually been really looking forward to doing a write up for this game.

When the game starts with a “That’s what she said!” joke you know your onto a good start.

Raskulls is another game that quickly wins you over with the cell-shaded appearance and loveable characters.

The game play is similar to mario with a racing/puzzle twist added to it. Busting coloured blocks to get to your objective at high speed leads you to light heartedly start screaming “Come ooooooooooonnnn!!!!” at the screen while frantically bashing the hell out of the ‘zap’ button destroying anything in your path.

The racing side of the game is fantastic, a real crash, bang, wollop method of racing very similar to mario kart’s slapstick crashing around. I’m not sure if it was intentional but they’ve managed to keep the difficulty quite high as your competition can get quickly through the wake up destruction you leave behind you some of the time, making most of the races a near photo finish.

Online is pretty fun too. Variety of tournaments and so forth but offline has most of these to offer if friends are offline.

The level story mode takes a leaf from mario’s book which is a nice creature comfort to a lot of gamers and sure does win nostalgia points.

The scripting is what really drew me into this game, the characters are really funny and will get you laughing through most of the cut scenes.

In all this is a very well polished game, ranging in difficulty as some of the extra side missions even towards the beginning of the game are extremely challenging. But the whole game can be completed with the natural curve of the difficulty of the game keeping you on your toes and being challenging through out, giving a good sense of achievement after each level.

I highly rate this game, maybe one of my top 10. But most definitely one of my top 3 for the smaller development companies.

Yet another one of my must have list. Available on xBox Live Arcade. Get it.. Get it now!

Signing Out,

FinxOmally

Ok, If anyone wants to know what it’s like to take acid then play asteroids.. this is the answer!
This game is quite literally the most colourful and brilliant games I have ever played.such a simple concept too, left analogue stick to move, right analogue stick to shoot and right trigger for bombs if your about to get smooshed.

There are 6 main modes to the game.

1/ Dead Line

3mins to score as high as you possibly can with unlimited lives

2/Pacifism

No Weapons, just gates the explode as you travel through them (By far the best and most addictive mode)

3/King

Can only shoot when in circles that the enemy can enter which shrink as you enter them. (Very tricky)

4/Waves

Lives up to the name lines “waves” of enemys fly at you from one side of the arena to the other and back. (Sounds easy but gets hairy very quickly)

5/Evolved

A “Lets see how long you last” styled mode. Limited lives and bombs but can earn more at certain scores

6/ Sequence

20 stages, 30seconds long. Ridiculous scenarios, good luck!?

I don’t really need to explain the game any more then this as it is brilliantly simple, and from above you can see exactly what this game is like.
There is so much to praise this game for I don’t know where to start.The visuals are enough to stop anybody walking past in the same room, they are utterly breath taking. A way which can best describe the gameplay is “if there was a fireworks display in Tron, it’d look like this”

Gameplay and physics are very good, controls are mastered within 10seconds of playing the game. Motion of the ship and enemies is very smooth they flow beautifully and the camera follow stops the game from looking too static.The leader boards are purely between your friends and not everyone on xBox live, this in my eyes is fantastic. (See upcoming post as to my reasoning for this.)

It’s not trying to be anymore then an arcade game. HUGE factor as it’s obvious they’ve taken this into consideration when the (what I call) “play again” can be achieved before the dust has even settled from when you last exploded.Example. You die in a game. You wait till the “YOU LOSE” comes up, retry eventually realises it’s ment to be on the screen. Once selected loading bar comes up, 10seconds finally you get back into the game.Well not here, you die, hit A to fast forward to scoreboard A again to restart without any loading needed, double tap the A from death and your straight back in. Brilliant. Continual game play in an arcade game finally achieved.

If you would like a little bit of a read about the development team i’ll be typing up an “RIP we’ll miss this dev team” post at some point.

This is a must for anyone, especially if you have a short attention span. Short, quick fire gaming. LOVE IT

Signing Out,FinxOmally

Yes I know, another 360 arcade review. I promise I will be a bit more varied in my console selection in the future. But the game library on the Live store is fantastic. And all the gems deserve to be recognised.

Back to the game.. Blade Kitten.
From the beginning the advertisement that was being pushed for this game was quite big at the Oct 2010 comic con in London, for a downloadable game. So when seeing it on Live I thought I’d give it a go.
With the artwork all in fluro-pink you can guess this game is marketed to the female gaming population. (which from what I know is not a very big Market so can’t quite figure out why atari have done this) but after playing it for a while it does appeal in playing to all if you give it a chance.
A brief summary of the game, you play as Kit. A Neko (cat girl) who is a breaker (sort of mercenary) with a cocky arrogant yet cheeky attitude. It’s a platform game with all artwork done in cell shading. Now.. I am a complete softy when it comes to cell shaded games as I think the look is fantastic and if you are a fan of anime this completely plays on that look.

As for this platform game, it doesn’t set itself apart from the others in anyway shape or form from a gameplay perspective. Moves are limited and get very repetitive. Levels objectives are pretty similar, hit all check points and get from left to right. Also once you play the game for a prolonged period of time the levels become similar and easy to figure out. Hidden items in levels and unlock areas in the game if collect enough of them. Items to collect as you go through the game to gain points/credits (in this game Hex) although in this game collected Hex can purchase new weapons, health point/stamina extensions and new costumes which is a nice touch.

Although this does sound like I’m saying this is a bad game, I’m not at all. All platform games when looked at are exactly the same in most aspects. Get from one side of a map to the other and collect stuff on the way. The most important thing to make this work as a game is to make the player want to continue playing and this game definitely does that. The look of the game is so easy on the eyes with lots going on in the background in most cases also foreground environment will disappear in only what I can describe as a “looking glass” around Kit which looks great. Kit’s Blade which actually floats behind you rather then being held, can be commanded to strike long or short range attacks, has a really nice “tail” effect to it making combat look really pretty. Game physics and camera movement are always important in platform games and this has been executed perfectly. No “end of level” break/review means no interruptions to the flow of the game which many platform games I believe haven’t considered. Simple controls meaning easy to master and easy to return to after not playing for a while. The little sidekick/pet you obtain “skiffy” is adorable!

So yeah, in short.. I like it.
Platform games shouldn’t take themselves too seriously and should have a lot of charm. Blade Kitten delivers.
I’d advice this game to everyone of all ages as the game is not too difficult and don’t quite know who wouldn’t get on with the game.
It can be seen as quite girly from the Colour scheme but don’t let this put you off if you’re a guy. It’s an enjoyable harmless game that can be picked up and put down very easily and should be on everybody’s xbox in my opinion.

Also noticed it was added to the May Price Drops so is at 30% off Bargain!

Peace,
FinxOmally

Ok so I picked this one up on the cheap from the xbox live arcade, so wasn’t really expecting much.
To my surprise this game has ended up probably being one of my favourite titles I have picked up from live arcade to date.

I’m not one to spoil plot lines, so I’ll keep this part brief. The main character is Rick. A self aware comic book character who spends most his time kicking the teeth in of the hordes of bad guys that are sent his way by ‘The Maker.’
Now, like most of us, if someone was out to constantly disrupt your life, forcing you to fight your way out of sticky situations on a regular basis, you’d hold an understandable amount of resentment for them. So he’d love to get even with him.

Good concept for a story line so off to a good start.

As for a description of the gameplay, think of Streets of Rage II mixed in with Sin City (The Movie)
You spend all the game boxed into a frame of a comic strip beating the hell out of anything that moves, but when you are done in that cell the characters hurdle the border into the next frame and new environment. How cool is that! That’s not the only visually pleasing element to it either. Instead of the regular ‘bad guy walks in from the side of the screen’ a hand hovers over the comic cell and quickly draws them in around you! And there’s more.. If you slam an enemy into the floor hard enough you actually damage the paper!
These elements to the game do make it a game you are very unlikely to forget.

Right at the beginning of the game you get another character, Lori.
Lori is the side kick to Rick and allows players at home to play Co-Op which is great as I have a real soft spot for Co-Op games ever since Golden Axe and streets of rage.
I Never really liked the Vs multiplayer in games as it always started arguments in the household when I was little, between myself and my little sister, then the console would be confiscated by my mum. So not really any found memories.
Lori is controllable in both 1 and 2 player mode, which is good to have a choice between the 2 as their fighting styles are completely different. And unlike most games now days the multiplayer can be done locally as well as over xbox live.

The story mode is very smooth and does keep you smiling. Fast paced, lots of plot twists, but the only down side to it is that it can seem pretty easy at times and a little repetitive. Things to keep you interested are unlockable abilities and combo moves and a score board for xbox live. Some of the xbox achievements are very difficult to get so good luck with that too.
Survival mode is there to, it is challenging but really is only a small part of the package.

So as for a quick recap.
Visually very pleasing, game and story pace is fast and keeps you interested, very more-ish to unlock all moves and abilities, online/offline Co-Op.

Recommended for people who like Streets of Rage or any other side scrolling co-op punch ‘em up. Give it a Wurl as it’s cheap and definitely worth every penny.

Mucho loves peeps!
Signing out,
FinxOmally

P.s. I would advise playing it in hard mode from the start. Sounds a bit silly, i know, but in normal it can seem pretty easy and not very challenging. I didn’t even try easy, you might want to avoid that one because if you sneeze while playing you might unintentionally complete the game.