XBLA review: Forza Horizon 2: Fast & Furious

No doubt the result of a quick marketing deal, Forza Horizon 2: Fast & Furious is a free-to-download standalone expansion to the Microsoft-exclusive Forza Horizon 2. While the relatively brief experience bears the Fast & Furious name, there is little in the way of story to tie this product to the film series. Ludacris does lend his voice talents to the menus and offers both pre and post-race commentary, an addition that provides decent context to the otherwise generic routine of competing with other racers for ownership of their prized rides. That said, this two-hour-plus experience lacks any other form of story content.

The routine of challenging other races in two-part competitions to win their cars is a predictable but fast-paced routine, and the game does provide plenty of varied locales and course setups to prevent things from becoming stale during its short runtime. A drift challenge, a timed return to your garage while keeping one of your latest acquisitions from receiving too much damage, and one particular race against a helicopter further spice up what might have otherwise become too predictable a game. Though the portion of the French countryside you are limited to is likely but a fraction of the area accessible in the full retail release of Forza Horizon 2, it is still quite expansive, stretching from a harbor town lined with old brick buildings out to hilly farmland, and on even further still to a long and winding stretch of highway that cuts over road leading to an airfield. Sunsets stream beams of an orange glow between structures, and even under the navy of night, the game’s lighting effects look phenomenal.

The same can be said for the cars, which look satisfyingly realistic. Though the Xbox One may be the console with higher graphical prowess than its 360 predecessor, these sporty cars look nonetheless incredible. Zipping down city streets at high speeds, buildings will mesh as blend of colors, offering an effective sensation of just how fast your vehicle is travelling. Slowing down to inspect these up close, however, will reveal flat, often blurry textures. The soundtrack, though limited to a handful of tunes, offers a decently-varied selection of current licensed hip-hop, rock, and technopop tracks. There is no option to customize the ten different main vehicles you collect over the course of the game, but considering how varied their makes and models are to begin with, as well as the fact that Forza Horizon 2: Fast & Furious is effectively a glorified demo, the lack of such a feature is none too surprising.

Of the ten different cars you collect on behalf of the Fast and Furious crew, the earliest ones handle clunkier than the late-game acquisitions. Practically every one of the automobiles has solid acceleration, while the top speeds only improve with each new vehicle added to your garage. The other consistency between nearly all of the cars, however, is the fact that the vast majority of them do not handle turns well. Drifting does not feel good from any but perhaps two of the vehicles, and while the frequency at which cars can spin out may be more realistic than other racing games, it also diminishes the fun factor. Even at the start of a race, cars will sometimes start veering off at an angle, despite you having not pushed the joystick sideways in the slightest. Regardless of whether you take a corner pushing ninety miles per hour or slow down to the crawl of twenty, your car is bound to slide all over the place in nonsensical fashion, as if the roads were covered in glare ice.

While most other racing games in this day and age adhere to the format of asking you to retry an entire race should you fail to place well or meet specific criteria, Forza Horizon 2: Fast & Furious allows you to make use of a rewind button between checkpoints. If you came into a turn too fast and spun out of control, a simple hit of the button will drag you and the competition back a few seconds so that you can better account for the zigs and zags of a particular course. It might lighten the challenge factor a bit, but it also lessens the frustration felt from the aforementioned not-so-great feedback the cars exhibit on anything other than a straight stretch of pavement. Offroad races are practically nonexistent, which is a shame, considering that the under-utilized Jeep Wrangler would be a perfect fit for romps down dirt roads or jump challenges over countryside hills.

Cars automatically repair at the start of a new race, which is appreciated, as scraping against or slamming into fences and trees can and will tear pieces off your car and scratch it up. While it may remove much in the way of repercussions for dinging up your ride, it keeps the relatively short-lived gaming experience to a fittingly fast formula. The game will predetermine which car you will be using for each race, and offer the use of nitro on only a couple of races, which only proves an annoyance late in the game, when you are restricted to one of the earliest, less elegant cars in your collection. Forza Horizon 2: Fast & Furious does offer up a moderate amount of extra content: a checklist for driving down every street, knocking over signboards, discovering one hidden car, and challenging time trials in ‘rival races’. Beyond that, there are speed zones where you can attempt to reach breakneck speeds in setting a record for the online leaderboards, the option to take photos of the cars in your collection, and the opportunity to try and beat your personal best chain combo of skill points, the latter of which are earned from doing just about anything and everything behind the wheel – drifting, reaching high speeds, performing burnouts, and dipping in for near-misses close to other vehicles.

My rating: 6 (out of 10)

Xbox 360 review: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

To tide fans over until the proper release of the fifth numbered entry in the Metal Gear Solid series, Konami released Ground Zeroes in both physical and digital formats. Intended as a teaser for all that is to come in the open-world Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes runs on the Fox Engine, and even on the now-last generation Xbox 360, the graphics are damn impressive. The rainstorm that shrouds Big Boss’ mission excels at highlighting raindrops streaming down textures and assets like tarps flapping in the wind in highly realistic fashion. While Kiefer Sutherland’s takeover as the voice of Snake does reveal a noticeable difference to what fans have come to know and love from the efforts of veteran David Hayter, the experience is not a massive upset to the familiar, as Snake/Big Boss does very little talking for the duration of Ground Zeroes.

In short, Ground Zeroes does not feel the part of a Metal Gear game in gameplay or spirit. The heads-up display, while simplified, is highly unspecific and does little to give players any real indication of where enemy troops are or how many of them are patrolling an area. This is something that would not be terribly difficult to keep track of, given the tiny size of the map the main mission takes place on, were it not for the fact that there are so many structures of varying heights and widths. This results not only in enemies being difficult to keep track of, but also a degree of uncertainty with how well-hidden Snake is. And the slow-down sequences when Snake is given a few brief seconds to respond to his being spotted do virtually nothing but incite panic in the player, as Snake is most frequently spotted from a distance, and firing upon foes will alert anyone nearby, putting the whole area on alert status.

Because the main story requires no more than two hours to complete, it lacks any time necessary to develop Snake, Chico, or Paz, much less give players a reason to care about the supposed ‘high-risk mission’ or the brief appearance of Skull Face, whose voice actor provides deadpan efforts that imply he has as little interest in the character as most anyone else who will play through this glorified demo. The weird and goofy factors that make a Metal Gear experience so endearing and one-of-a-kind are gone – Ground Zeroes is gritty and serious, building off the Snake Eater and Peace Walker formulas, but lacking almost any creative end. While the finale does sufficiently set the stage for The Phantom Pain, there is only one moment at the end that will prove particularly exciting, or give fans of previous Metal Gear installments any real sense of fulfillment.

There are bonus missions to take on, and collectible cassette tapes and XOF badges littered around the environment that extend the lifespan of Ground Zeroes, if only as a thinly-veiled fetch-quest. The dialogue on the cassette tapes themselves reveal far more about any of the characters than the in-game actions do, and are overall better-scripted than the couple of action-heavy cutscenes. If Ground Zeroes is a genuine taste of Phantom Pain, I for one am extremely wary, due to just how bare an experience this is, and how much it appears to be adjusted for mainstream audiences.

My rating: 4.5 (out of 10)

XBLA review: Skullgirls Encore

Fighting games have never been my specialty, which is a bit of a shame, considering how cool I find many of the character designs in series like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. It’s simply been the case that, much as enjoy watching others play fighting games, I’ve never been particularly skilled at the genre, save for a few oddball exceptions like Street Fighter III: Third Strike and the Smash Bros. series (the latter of which I hardly consider to be a traditional fighting game). Skullgirls was brought to my attention a couple of years back when the gang over at Two Best Friends Play talked it up as one of the most bold undertakings from a small studio – a fighting game developed for those who love fighting games, but with artwork that was entirely hand-drawn.

Skullgirls Encore fits the bill of a fighting game designed for the most hardcore fans of the genre, with character motions that are arguably some of the most fluid in its class, and a high degree of mobility for nearly all eleven of its playable fighters. While that number may not seem a particularly impressive representation for a fighting game roster, it provides the most balanced roster I’ve personally come across in the genre. Each character has varying range and offensive power in their attacks, but they also have effective means of countering each of their fellow fighters.

For example, Big Band, one of the latest additions thanks to the extra Indiegogo funding, is a massive half-man, half-band wearing a trenchcoat. He takes up an insane amount of space on the screen, and is, by default, a large target. He’s not particularly fast, but can take hits like a champ and can deal out some decent damage via hits from the trombone slides, cymbals, and timpani drums concealed beneath his coat. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Frankenstein-esque cat girl Ms. Fortune lands rapid-fire claw strikes from both the ground and air, and can launch her head from her shoulders as a projectile. She ranks among the most fast and agile of all the playable fighters, but is appropriately not the most durable.

Stages such as a dimly-lit research lab, a calm neighborhood street, and an eerie chapel will be revisited a number of times over the course of each character’s story mode. And while none of the stories last particularly long, each of the cast members is provided ample time to develop into someone interesting and given a reasonable motive for either seeking out the Skull Heart for their own ends or attempting to destroy it. As they all converge toward this one key artifact, the characters of the Skullgirls universe will cross paths with mobsters, mad scientists, and – most importantly – one another. The endgame is surprisingly deep for such a game, however, and with three more playable characters on the way, there are no doubt many more surprises in store for this one-of-kind world.

In truth, the art style does wonders for Skullgirls. It not only sets the game apart from the competition, it reinforces a degree of dedication to shaping the overall quality of the game rarely seen from studios these days. While larger studios map their launch plans around paid DLC release schedules, Skullgirls has opted to offer these first two new fighters free of charge, and they feel like they have had just as much time in playtesting as all the rest – in short, they feel like they were designed as part of the core cast from the outset, despite the fact that this was obviously not the case. The bright cartoony visages of Cerebella, Squigly, and Valentine are a breath of fresh air in the modern era of video gaming, and the soundtrack being heavy on America jazz influences doesn’t hurt either.

Skullgirls is a game that is equal parts form and function, and it excels at both. It is one of the most polished fighting games I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, while also proving easy to access for those not long-since devoted to the genre, thanks to its intuitive control scheme and intelligently laid-out tutorial mode. The degrees of difficulty maintain a very natural progression, while the classic horror film-inspired characters squaring off in art deco environments proves an utterly bizarre but entirely welcome hybrid. Skullgirls Encore plays fast, plays smooth, and does surprisingly well in outshining giants of its field in more ways than one.

My rating: 9.25 (out of 10)

XBLA review: The Wolf Among Us

Following up on their success with The Walking Dead video game, Telltale has chosen to tackle another comic book property in the form of a precursor to Fables. Titled The Wolf Among Us, the game is built upon the same engine used for The Walking Dead, and thus requires players make time-sensitive decisions and responses that will alter the way the citizens of Fabletown react to them. The story is centered on Bigby Wolf, sheriff to the magical folk now living in hiding among the commoners (or ‘mundies’, as they are referred to in-game) of New York. What begins as a visit to the Woodsman’s apartment to break up a domestic disturbance quickly leads to something much larger – murder, hired thugs, and magical artifacts simultaneously detract and aid Bigby’s mission to seek out the truth behind what is really going on in the shadows of Fabletown.

The true nature of the story is, intelligently, left somewhat ambiguous until the final two episodes. While the ultimate payoff is not the most shocking or creative spin on a detective tale, the journey there is certainly worth the trouble. What makes The Wolf Among Us so noticeably different from The Walking Dead is that it is, first and foremost, a detective story, and as such, Bigby will spend most of his time digging through desk drawers and basements for evidence, as well as gathering clues from Fables like Ichabod Crane, Beauty, and her lover Beast. However, there is plenty of action to be found, and when Bigby find himself in a scuffle with a drunk and belligerent Woodsman or chasing Tweedledee and Tweedledum through back alleys, acute attention to button prompts may provide Bigby with a means to more quickly gain the upper hand on a situation.

The art style is similarly cel-shaded as The Walking Dead, with pale color palettes filling in the background, and thick outlines around most characters and objects. Yet, it isn’t overbearing. Rather, the art style is perhaps even better suited for the likes of mythical beasts in a contemporary urban setting than small groups of survivors attempting to outlast the undead. The soundtrack is less extravagant, opting for soft, eerie chords during investigative sequences, and saving the boisterous action themes for – well – the aforementioned fights and chases.

If there is one noteworthy downside to the presentation factor, it is that the individual episodes have a tendency to lag at odd points, sometimes messing up your ability to quickly react to button prompts – a tad strange, considering it is a single-player experience released in episodic format. One would hope that these occurrences would become less frequent/nonexistent in later chapters, but alas, they remain a small blemish even in episode five. A pity, considering how much these hiccups distract the immersion otherwise perpetuated by the strong balance of fantasy lore and modern jargon in the writing and voice acting.

As a whole, the series is paced very well, with each episode clocking in at roughly an hour-and-a-half. Sure, the introductory episode serves primarily to set the stage for all that is to come, but it too has its fair share of intrigue and intense standoffs. Admittedly, the finale, while technically about the same length as the other episodes, feels as if it is cut a bit short, and another half-hour could have easily been added on to better cushion the endgame as well as provide greater closure for a couple of characters. Still, the series does well to close its final chapter on a note that both seals the current story and opens up enough possibilities for future seasons.

My rating 7.5 (out of 10)

XBLA review: Dead Rising 2: Case Zero

Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey are on their way to Fortune City when they make a stop in the small town of Still Creek. Host to a typical set of small storefronts, ma and pa restaurants, and a few means of local entertainment, Still Creek spans just over a block’s distance, with a small quarantine zone blocking off the highway. As Chuck steps inside the gas station store to look for supplies, someone hijacks his pickup, taking his much-needed supply of Zombex for Katey along with them. The fact of the matter is that Katey was bitten and infected, but Chuck has thus far prevented her from turning into a zombie by giving her regimens of Zombex medicine – without it, she runs the risk of turning into one of those bloodthirsty creatures, and Chuck runs the risk of losing the one person he still has to hold onto and care for.

Luckily, tracking down a new box of Zombex is the easy task. Chuck’s initial trek outside of the gas station/scrap yard safehouse has him push through a thick horde of infected into the quarantine zone just outside the other end of town. Once he’s nabbed the Zombex, his focus shifts to restoring a motorbike, the pieces for which are scattered about Still Creek’s handful of businesses. Some are already in the possession of other local survivors and can be acquired for money or taken by force, while others require Chuck to scour the interior of some of the larger buildings and access otherwise locked rooms.

There are a little more than a half-dozen survivors that Chuck can choose to aid at his leisure. Some will give him money for his troubles, while others simply reward him with a boost in experience points. As Case Zero lasts approximately an hour and a half for a single playthrough, this may seem a daunting task, but most of these rescue scenarios allow Chuck to easily string multiple survivors along at once, drastically reducing travel time back and forth.

Much like with the full Dead Rising 2 experience, Chuck can craft new, more powerful weapons out of the various tools and firearms he finds lying around Still Creek. This portion of the experience is nowhere near as in-depth as in the main game, but Chuck can still access some of the more entertaining weapons like the Electric Rake, Paddlesaw, and the tried-but-true Spiked Bat. Still, easier-to-locate weapons like the Broadsword and Moose Head can prove just as much fun to use when slicing and dicing the infected or simply mowing them over with brute force.

The only segment where the gameplay becomes notably weaker is during the final minutes when Chuck and Katey make their escape run on the recently-repaired motorbike. It doesn’t control terribly well, and requires you to slow down significantly if you want to make even wide turns through the streets, effectively killing the high that one would expect of an ‘escape run’ scene. However, the rest of this prologue to Dead Rising 2 operates well enough. The other characters are a mildly interesting bunch, and do not share more dialogue than necessary due to the in-game time limit tied to Chuck’s to-do list. There’s a nice sampling of the larger gameplay offered by Dead Rising 2 throughout, and a lot of what constitutes Chuck and Katey’s dynamic shines through in fairly convincing, if not brief, interactions between the two. As for the replay value, it is centered primarily on unlocking 100% of the achievements tied to Case Zero, and a second or third playthrough won't offer anything beyond stacking Chuck's experience points until they cap out at level five.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

XBLA review: Black Knight Sword

From the mind of Suda51 comes another quirky release, this one a throwback to old-school platforming adventure games. Black Knight Sword follows the titular character and the spirit of his blade known as Black Hellebore as they venture through five different stages, confronting the forces of the White Princess. The presentation is that of a play, with the narrator reading poetic lines to preface each stage and the character models and enemies appearing as paper puppets - to be frank, the artistic direction is not so unlike the animated sequences of the Monty Python films.

Each stage that the Black Knight journeys through proves wackier than the last, with the first two stages apparently inspired largely by medieval and Greek fantasy. Later stages include motorcycle gangs and a missile launch site in the American west, and one part of the game even switches to a side-scrolling shooter akin to Gradius, except that the Black Knight is mounted on the back of a giant chicken. With regards to the core gameplay, the Black Knight's attacks are rather limited at the start of the adventure, though he can spend hearts he collects from fallen foes to earn a larger health meter, imbue Black Hellebore with greater power, or buy an extra life. At the end of each stage, the Black Knight will learn a new attack, though some of these prove far more useful than others, given the nature of enemies on any given stage. Also, the order in which the Black Knight receives these seems somewhat backwards.

The degree of challenge the game dishes out is significant - it isn't downright impossible, but it does follow a tradition long-since abandoned by contemporary platformers. While you are able to start the game on any difficulty setting the moment you begin playing, the game encourages multiple playthroughs, with the easiest means of acquiring better health and offensive measures coming from a playthrough of easy difficulty, then normal, and finally hard. Another archaic element is the lack of an autosave feature - players must pause the game and manually save, though they will pick up the game from whatever most recent checkpoint they have reached on a given stage.

Different enemies require different tactics, and there are a couple of recurring miniboss encounters. While these are moderately challenging, the end-level boss fights are truly the highlights of all the combat scenarios, as they allow the Black Knight to make the most use of both his traditional attacks and magic via Black Hellebore. Cat's Head Grass acts as a collectible, with a few hidden in each stage. Beyond the main game is a challenge mode and arcade mode, upping the replay value a notch or two. Black Knight Sword is clearly aimed at fans of rigorous old-school platformers, and as long as those gamers don't mind the moderately bizarre presentation, they should find the few hours spent with the Black Knight and Black Hellebore quite enjoyable.

My rating 8 (out of 10)

XBLA review: Jet Set Radio

Originally released for SEGA's Dreamcast back in 2000, Jet Set Radio bids adieu to the conventions of extreme sports games and places emphasis on tagging specific areas with graffiti. The game was a pioneer in its day for being one of the first major retail releases to use cel-shaded graphics, and gained a cult following due to its sense of style and gameplay. Now Jet Set Radio is back via digital distribution, and feels like a breath of fresh air to the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Jet Set Radio follows three teens, all members of the GG gang, in the fictional city of Tokyo-to as they mark their territory with graffiti and subsequently defend it from rival gangs and the police. When the GGs find a piece of a broken record dropped by one of their rival gangs, they find it is tied to a group known as the Golden Rhinos. As rogue DJ Professor K broadcasts across Tokyo-to's airwaves, the GGs recruit new members and dig deeper into the intentions of the Golden Rhinos.

Graphically, the game has aged much better than other games of the era, thanks in no small part to the aforementioned cel-shading. The lifelike motions of character models add a dash of attitude to the experience, and as a whole the HD re-release is one of the best looking of its kind. SEGA has done a wonderful and careful job of retaining the essence of Jet Set Radio, having brought back all but one of the classic tunes, which range from technopop to hip-hop to metal. Jet Set Radio is wildly experimental in its presentation, and this shows as much in the visuals and audio as it does in the actual gameplay.

Beneath the stylized appeal lie some dated game designs. Before you are allowed to acquire one of more than nine playable main characters, you must compete with them by either imitating the series of tricks they pull off or racing them to an objective. The latter often force you to play as the obvious underdog and find out which route you need to take via trial and error. Though brief, these challenges must be completed in order to progress through the story.

Compared to something like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Jet Set Radio runs at a slower pace, and tricks feel both less fluid and less exciting to pull off. However, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is a game that is entirely concerned with chaining combos and pulling off tricks, whereas Jet Set Radio ranks these secondary to graffiti, mainly as a means to gain momentum. Most of Jet Set Radio's tricks rely on grinding, and this handles well enough, though the accuracy of a character landing on a rail can be finicky at times.

The main storyline is relatively short, lasting only a few hours. However, Jet Set Radio offers a substantial amount of replayability. Races, free skate, and free tag modes can be unlocked for each region of Tokyo-to. New graffiti designs can be collected, or you can design your own for use in-game. Xbox Live leaderboards allow you to keep track of friends' scores or the full Xbox Live community. Should you find you just can't get enough of the game's eclectic soundtrack, all of the tunes can be accessed from the garage. A documentary on the game's development and HD re-release is new to this version of the game, as are a handful of unlockable songs from sequel Jet Set Radio Future.

Jet Set Radio offers up a wide variety of characters to play as, each with his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Though there are really only four major areas to skate around in, they are divided up nicely to provide a decent amount of room to skate and tag in for each new mission. A few elements of the game's design highlight its imperfections, though this is mostly due to the fact that Jet Set Radio is more than a decade old. If you're looking for something fun, bold, and different, Jet Set Radio is all sorts of immersive style.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

Jet Set Radio E3 gameplay trailer

More gameplay footage, with a few of the game's stellar tunes highlighted. I must say, from a graphical standpoint, this game has aged very well, which is probably due in large part to the cel-shading. Still no release date announced, but at present it looks as though Jet Set Radio might be part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade lineup for 2012.

DLC review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode Metal

For anyone who purchased Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I and Episode II on the same console, SEGA provided a bonus game, titled Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode Metal. It puts players in control of Metal Sonic, exploring just how he came to be revived by Dr. Robotnik as well as how he managed to track down Sonic and Tails. The story begins with Metal Sonic lying broken and battered on the Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD, a stage which has been gorgeously rendered in the Sonic 4 engine. Robotnik swiftly fixes up his creation, then sends him off to find a new source of power.

The game's introductory sequence is simple enough, but it does a great job of drawing you into the story of Metal Sonic. Unfortunately, nearly everything that follows is borderline-disastrous. Episode Metal, though accessible from the menu of Sonic 4: Episode II, is run entirely on the engine that was used for Sonic 4: Episode I. Whereas Sonic controlled less smoothly in the first episode, Metal Sonic does not slow down as quickly as one would hope and manages to crash into just about everything in his path.

Each level that Metal Sonic traverses only lasts a single act. However, each of these levels is recycled from Sonic 4: Episode I. He will revisit Splash Hill Zone, Casino Street Zone, Lost Labyrinth Zone, and Mad Gear Zone, albeit in a somewhat reverse order. Lost Labyrinth Zone proves the most enjoyable of the bunch, as the rolling boulder puzzle element has been kept intact. Any puzzle elements from the other stages have been removed in favor of more linear pathways. While this does move Metal Sonic through each stage more quickly, it does not allow for much freedom in choosing alternate routes and effectively removes the entire challenge factor.

It's a good thing that SEGA included Sonic 4: Episode Metal as a free bonus, because no one should ever have to fork over money to play this mess of a Sonic title. It is true that Episode Metal was never intended to be as full and fleshed out a product as either Sonic 4: Episode I or Episode II. But it seems like SEGA put forth as little effort as possible into Episode Metal. Metal Sonic's controls are very clunky, the same levels are recycled in a lazy manner, and there are no boss fights. Episode Metal's one saving grace is that it takes than a half an hour to complete.

My rating: 5.5 (out of 10)

XBLA review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II picks up, naturally, where Episode I left off. Sonic and Tails are still in pursuit of Dr. Robotnik, chasing him across four new zones, each with three stages and one boss fight a piece. Aside from his new mechanical weapons, Robotnik has a surprise in store for the game's heroes - Metal Sonic has been revived, and is eager for revenge.

Whereas Sonic 4: Episode I was intended to be a general throwback to the Genesis-era Sonic games, Episode II pays homage to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and (to a lesser extent) Sonic CD. The inclusion of Tails allows for cooperative online play as well as some new combo attacks. These combos allow Sonic and Tails to avoid giant pits by flying over them and crushing obstacles by spinning forward in a giant wheel attack. The combo attacks are only used every so often, so it doesn't feel like the duo relies too heavily on them. That said, when they are in use it makes the gameplay a bit more dynamic. Sonic 4: Episode II is one of the few instances in recent years where Tails' inclusion actually feels worthwhile.

The look of Episode II is a massive improvement over Episode I. Everything is rendered with 3D models, and there is plenty of detail and color worked into every level. The lighting and water effects are nice, and the level designs feel far more original than in Episode I. The soundtrack isn't exactly full of standout tunes, but does not rank among the series worst either. Many of the songs in-game are repetitive, catchy, but not overly memorable. Metal Sonic's new theme is one of the more enjoyable listens.

The boss fights do well to incorporate the environment in creative and fun ways that present a significant challenge, but never to the degree where you want to pull your hair out in frustration. There is certainly an element of trial-and-error, and old-school Sonic fans will probably be quick to catch on to the strategy for taking down each boss. Still, climbing boxes as Robotnik scales a mineshaft in a crawling mech or looping around rings as you make your way toward a central control pod present memorable boss encounters. In the past, boss fights against Metal Sonic have often been among the best in the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series. Episode II pits Sonic against Metal Sonic three times, and while none of these face-offs are as impressive as the race in Sonic CD or Sonic Generations, they are still pretty well planned out.

There are a very few moments where the game hiccups and the lock-on attack does not seem to want to cooperate. It only happened to me in a few specific points late in the game, but at points where said attack was entirely necessary to advance through a level. For the most part, though, Sonic controls perhaps the best in Episode II when compared to any of the other side-scrolling games in the series, due to both the responsiveness of the Xbox 360 controller and the fluid motions of Sonic's character model.

The bonus stages take on what is essentially the same style they had in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - a race down a track to collect a set number of rings before passing through a checkpoint. It's not the most exciting process in the world, but it's more intuitive and faster-paced than the bonus stage mini-game from Sonic 4: Episode I. The final stage completely does away with the "greatest hits" style of repeating all of the boss fights in rapid succession, and instead has two boss fights - one against against Metal Sonic and the other against Dr. Robotnik. The end of Sonic 4: Episode II is built up well and feels like the climactic conclusion the game deserves.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II is not perfect. In the same fashion as Episode I, it only lasts a little over an hour. But nearly everything Episode II manages to do correctly acts as a vast improvement over Episode I. It controls wonderfully, there's a nice variety presented in the gameplay, and the design is far more original than Episode I's copy-and-paste approach. It may still fall short of the legacy of the original two Genesis Sonic games, but Sonic 4: Episode II is a fun trip back to simpler days of side-scrolling action.

My rating: 8.25 (out of 10)

XBLA review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Some sixteen years after the releases of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, SEGA has heeded the cries of many fans who wanted nothing more than the return of the original formula. There have been a few side-scrolling Sonic games in recent years, like Sonic Rush and half of Sonic Generations, but most outings since the start of the 2000s have been from a third-person perspective. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is being released in two parts, and Episode I seeks to rekindle the flame for fans of the Genesis classics.

For starters, Sonic 4: Episode I controls almost exactly the same as the original three games, though the accuracy of the blue hedgehog's motions have been adjusted to play more smoothly on current generation hardware. The lock-on attack is carried over from the Adventure titles, and makes for a much more enjoyable experience, as there is no guesswork involved in attacking enemies. That said, strategy is no sacrificed, as each enemy has a different method of attack/defense that players will need to work around. Episode I favors high-speed thrills over lethargic puzzle-based segments, though the few puzzles that are included are quite well designed, requiring players to tilt a room to drain it of water or spin giant mobile gears to open doors.

Graphically, the game looks pretty good. Everything on the screen is brightly colored and there is some nice attention to the finer details, while the game design as a whole puts forth a solid effort to recall its classic roots. The new-school Sonic character model is used, albeit with some cel-shading that is a bit rough on the eyes.

As this is only the first half of Sonic 4, there are a mere four levels included. Each has three acts plus a boss fight, so they all last longer than a typical Sonic stage. The first level of Splash Hill Zone follows the pattern of Green Hill Zone and Emerald Hill Zone. Casino Street Zone is a nearly-direct copy of Casino Night Zone, though it does include cannons and card platforms as a means to traverse the terrain. Lost Labyrinth and Mad Gear are the best of the bunch, with the former feeling like a wildly original spin on the side-scrolling Sonic experience, despite a note taken from Donkey Kong in the form of a mine cart ride segment. The latter, Mad Gear Zone, is something of a hybrid between Chemical Plant Zone and Wacky Workbench, but still brings enough new gameplay elements to the table to merit its important role as the final true stage of the experience.

Boss fights are nicely varied and present a decent degree of challenge. At the end of the game, players must face off against all four of these once more, in a 'greatest hits' lineup. However, this is both unnecessary and unmerited due to the fact that Episode I only lasts a little over an hour. It feels lazy on SEGA's part, and they should have just cut to the chase and made the final boss fight more impressive and challenging.

The soundtrack gets off to a bumpy start, as the first few tunes are some of the most boring and uninspired since Sonic Rush. However, the tunes that play throughout all the acts of Lost Labyrinth and Mad Gear, as well as the boss themes, are very well done. They are as catchy as they are befitting of the levels they have been associated with, and are in keeping with whole 'throwback' vibe.

When SEGA says "Episode I", they really mean it. There's not a whole lot to this first chapter of Sonic 4, and the best part of the experience lies beyond the halfway point. Still, if you are a fan of classic Sonic and are in need of a quick fix, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I should serve as a decent solution.

My rating 7.75 (out of 10)

Pumped for Jet Set Radio

I know the re-release of Jet Set Radio on PSN and XBLA isn't really new news at this point. But I did want to make a point of giving you all a heads-up that I will be downloading this upon its release (and will follow this up with a review). I never played Jet Set Radio when it was out on the Dreamcast, but I'm really intrigued with the whole concept of the game. I love games that dare to be bold and artistically-driven, and I can't wait to see what it's all about come Summer time.