It's great to see that there is a bit of a slowdown in releases after this week, as that means that the backlog of games I need to review can be tackled and completed. This week's update includes two early releases for the PS3 and PSP and a backlog release for Xbox Live Arcade.

Buzz! Quiz World is the follow-up to last year's Buzz! Quiz TV, which adds more variety to the rounds that can be played through for a game and some much-needed online features like voice chat and an increase to eight-player MP. LittleBigPlanet on the PSP is Sony Cambridge's port of the popular PS3 platformer with new levels of its own and a chance for more creators to make new levels, but forgoes the co-op that the PS3 version is centered around for a focused single-player experience. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space continues where the first season left off as Sam & Max visit some more exotic locales that is actually funny this time around.


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Despite the large amount of delays into 2010 that we saw, there are still more than enough games coming out that I'm satisfied with what I've seen and played so far this fall. The PSP especially has had a good lineup of quality games so far this holiday season that probably hasn't been true for the system since maybe 2007. That includes two of the reviews in this post, which include quirky games like XSeed's Half-Minute Hero and Atlus' Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble that adds nicely to the big-named games that surround their releases. On the PS3, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is one of the few Sony-published games in their unusually thin holiday lineup for this year, though there is a lot of quality in the two games they've put out so far. Let's move on to the reviews themselves.




"Half-Minute Hero does a great job of being a refreshing experience that combines unique takes on four very different genres...

It's been a busy couple of weeks on the downloadable games front, which is why this update has five downloadable games for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP.

Digger HD updates an old PC arcade game that copied heavily from a couple of arcade hits for this PSN remake. Alien Havoc is a stealth PSP Mini about an alien abducting cows the old-fashioned way. South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play is a multiplayer focused tower defense game with tons of fan service for XBLA. Critter Crunch is a disturbingly cute puzzle game with a cheap price tag. Topatoi: The Great Tree Story is a puzzle platformer starring a weird elf thing that rides a mechanical top vehicle.




"Digger HD doesn’t really have the addictive gameplay and number of modes we’d expect for a $10 PSN game, but what is here is a fun game that captures the simple, retro vibe you always look for in a retro remake. If Digger HD ever goes on sale for $5 or so, you...

What a busy week. I've been really busy lately with all of the releases that have happened lately, which has continued with four reviews in the past week or so.

NBA 10: The Inside is the new Sony basketball game that is now a PSP exclusive, which isn't a good sign for a series that was on PS3, PS2, and PSP in the past few years. Gran Turismo is the new PSP iteration of the series that everyone's been waiting about five years for it to be released now. Ion Assault is an interesting shooter that can be best described as a spin-off of Asteroids' basic concept. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the highly-anticipated return of Nathan Drake on his latest adventure while investigating one part of Marco Polo's story.




"When all is said and done, Naughty Dog has done an amazing job of fixing any issues that the original game had for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves while adding more to make this a package that...

With the launch of the Go and the entire industry's annual flooding of the market in progress, it's been a busy few weeks so far with many busy weeks ahead as I try to cover as much as I can for SmashPad. I've been able to get just half of the games I have at the moment reviewed within the past week, so there might be another roundup later this week as I knock them out and free myself up for more games that will be out this week and next. This week's roundup includes EA's latest iteration of the Need for Speed series, the definitive port of the PS3's best tower defense game to the PSP, and a WiiWare title that challenges your hand-eye coordination and color mixing and matching skills at the same time.




"While Need for Speed: Shift is certainly a different direction for what this series has been for the past four years, the guys at Slightly Mad Studios have done a great job of bringing a simulation style to this...

It's nice to see console IP's get a good translation to the PSP that doesn't sacrifice what made them good. A lot of racing series have had success on the PSP, mostly due to the controls and visuals being enough to do them justice. From Ridge Racer to Wipeout to Burnout, the PSP is a great racing platform and MotorStorm continues that trend with Arctic Edge.




"Bigbig Studios did a great job of shrinking the great MotorStorm gameplay and feature set for MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, making it one of the better console transitions to the PSP so far. With the deep Festival and online modes, the package is worth the $40 for what is probably the best racing game for the PSP this holiday season."

MotorStorm: Arctic Edge for the PSP received a Buy It recommendation. You can read the full review over at SmashPad.

September's been a good month for gaming so far, though I'm easily looking forward to October a lot more despite some of the good and great games I've played so far. This week's update includes reviews for Defense Grid: The Awakening on Xbox Live Arcade and The Beatles: Rock Band for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii.




"The Beatles: Rock Band is a great music game, a new standard for band-specific games and, unlike previous incarnations of the franchise, not even all about the gameplay itself. As a piece of fan service and an introductory guide to The Beatles for a new generation, The Beatles: Rock Band is a fantastic experience. The only real exceptions that won't enjoy this very widely-appealing game are those only looking for a challenge and those that are close-minded to thought of liking this music."

The Beatles: Rock Band for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii received a Buy It recommendation. You can read...

With a lot of buzz about the PSP's surge of Persona news, including the announcement of a Persona 3 and the upcoming release of the original Persona later this month, Persona fans have a good to get a PSP if they do not already own one. Persona on the PSP gets a new localization to make up for the poor localization the original received about 12 years ago with content being left out and one character's race changing to suit the US audience. Is this re-release a must play game for Persona fans and newbies alike?



"Shin Megami Tensei: Persona provides a very good experience for Persona fans to see the series’ origins, which are a bit rough around the edges. New players will find a somewhat simpler experience than either of the recent sequels, which makes it a decent introduction to the series with an announced Persona 3 port and the possibility of others coming if this game does well, too. This game is definitely...

With things kicking into gear on the releases side of the schedule, I've been playing through the Persona remake on the PSP for review for the past couple of weeks. Until the embargo for the review lefts next week, I've written up a preview on the differences between Persona and Persona 4, the only sequel I have experience with, that I imagine most recent Persona fans will notice when they get their hands on the game on September 22.




"The major differences between Persona and Persona 4 are the ways you create Persona and the controls for moving around outside of battle. The latter is fairly easy to get used to once you get some time into the game, but the former will make you appreciate the progress the series has made in this aspect to simplify the process of getting new Persona. This definitely seems like a quality history lesson in where Persona started for those that have enjoyed the more recent sequels."...

As we near the end of the summer, the retail releases start to become more enticing as we near the fall season, but before we look ahead, we still have some downloadable releases coming out now that may or may not deserve some attention. The first game is the highly-anticipated multiplayer PSN game Fat Princess, and the second is a remnant of the Neo Geo's legacy and an era of shmups that is on its way out as the dual-stick shooters take over, Strikers 1945 Plus Portable.



"Fat Princess has the potential to be a very enjoyable and entertaining multiplayer game, but network issues that still persist from the beta a few months ago make it not a recommendable purchase right now. You might as well buy or stick with Battlefield 1943 at the moment and just wait until you hear about the definitive patch that actually fixes the online play and helps it live up to the potential that it shows right now, which is why this gets a Rent It...

And the drought continues for another week, as I have just one review to share with you guys. This time it's the PSN game that tries to do something new with the standard Arkanoid style of gameplay while adding some style to the visuals, as well.




"For the odd but slightly below average price of $7.99, Shatter offers an extremely enjoyable game with a great personality that has potential to be one of the best original offerings on PSN this year. The only real issue is the amount of modes and worlds, which you can get through fairly quickly since the game is paced a bit faster than other brick-breaking games."

Shatter for PSN received a Buy It recommendation. You can read the full review at SmashPad here.

Upcoming
I've still yet to receive a code for Splosion Man, so I'm close to just dropping it and moving on. Fat Princess will be out this week on PSN, so I should be getting a code for that...

With a drought in full effect in the gaming industry, this week's update is lean with just the one review I have to offer at the moment. It is for Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! for the PSP via PSN.

Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman!



"While Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! teaches you the basics of the food chain well enough in the tutorial missions, it never really touches on anything close to good techniques for designing the dungeon itself or even making it easy to get good feedback on what you may or may not be doing well. Even the simple option of saving between stages in the story mode would help greatly, so you could try different techniques to see how they fare instead of starting over and hoping the randomly-generated earth is more to your liking. Those that enjoy difficult games and this game’s concept will enjoy what they get for the $20 price tag on PSN. Anyone else not in that group would probably do well to just try out...

I've been a bit busy, which is shown by the four reviews I've put out in the past week. Three of them are downloadable games for Xbox Live Arcade and the other is this week's main retail release, NCAA Football 10. This pretty much clears out my recent backlog of reviews, so I'm looking forward to the upcoming glut of downloadable releases that fills the hole in the retail calendar this month.




"NCAA Football 10 isn’t really going to bring much that’s significantly new to any part of the game over its predecessor, but it does feature a well-polished game for those that are fine with that that makes it worth a purchase. The Season Showdown mode could be the dark horse mode that makes playing this game all season long a necessity, but there’s not really enough here that’s new to sell to anybody that wasn’t won over by the gameplay last year."

NCAA Football 10 for Xbox 360 and PS3 received a Buy It recommendation....

As we near the end of our server transition at Gamer 2.0, the staff and I are still working hard to put out content on SmashPad until that is complete and we get our site back. For me, I've been working on a few reviews this month on a cheap PSN game, Trash Panic, and two PSP games that aren't so cheap, Rock Band Unplugged and Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament.



"Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament does a nice job of being a fairly entertaining game, though the short experience that capped at 14 hours for us definitely seems to be an issue when you learn that the game will cost you $39.99. Such an expensive cost of entry for a game without much replay value, unless you’re engrossed enough to beat all of the missions and collect all of the parts, kills the appeal of the game when there are better experiences in recent memory to be had for much cheaper."

Steambot Chronicles:...

I've been on a portable kick lately for reviews, which will change for the next week or so with what I've been working on. For now, I've put up reviews for Super Robot Taisen OG Saga on the DS, Texas Cheat 'Em on XBLA/PSN, and Crimson Gem Saga. The latter is a post on our blog, SmashPad, for the next few days as the result of a server transfer keeping us from putting up new content on the site directly. I will also add that you can find a nice article on Groov, an Xbox Live Community Game I bought recently and enjoyed enough to write up a post about it to get the word out. Anyway, let's move on to the reviews:



"Crimson Gem Saga does provide a fun experience as a simpler turn-based RPG, but the maze-like dungeons that don’t offer maps to alleviate confusion sour the experience quite a bit. It’s not a complete turn-off, but made what was an engrossing experience more of a chore as time went on."

Crimson Gem Saga received a Buy It recommendation....

This week was an especially busy week for me with a couple of previews and reviews I wanted to write up for Gamer 2.0. The lull in releases has left me with focusing on the handhelds, with reviews of Patapon 2 and Dokapon Journey that I finished today. As for previews, I wrote up my impressions of the Infamous demo along with impressions on Crimson Gem Saga, which I have a review build of to play before its release.



The demo does a good job of giving you a nice variety of missions and some time to explore the city before taking on the last few missions, but it's the simple, easy to use controls that really make it easy to look like a badass. If you don't want to preorder for access to the demo, it should be out for the public the week before the game is out on May 21.

You can read the full preview of Infamous at Gamer 2.0 here.



"Our first impressions of Crimson Gem Saga are very good so far since we were not...

In another busy week for me, I've had three reviews go up in the past week. Tokyo Beat Down for the DS is a beat-'em-up with a cheesy cop drama story. Comet Crash is the third tower defense game for PSN with an interesting twist that sets it apart from the rest. Burn Zombie Burn is an arcade-style shooter that focuses on zombies and setting them on fire.



"Tokyo Beat Down could have been a cheesy beat-‘em-up that is still enjoyable, but clunky controls and gameplay keep it from reaching its potential. Asking for $30 for a five hour game with maybe two hours of gameplay if you’re lucky just does not compute when there are better experiences to be had for the same price or less elsewhere. If you’re a DS owner waiting for the ultimate beat-‘em-up, you’ll have to continue waiting for a bit longer."

Tokyo Beat Down received a Skip It recommendation. You can read the full review at Gamer 2.0 here.



"The...

This week's been a busy one for me so far with three reviews going up this week, Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for the DS, Resistance: Retribution for the PSP, and Wheel of Fortune for PSN.



"Though Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling adventure kind of ends on a sour note with a particularly steep difficulty curve near the end, the entire adventure is very much worth experiencing for any gamer that would like a challenging and quirky platformer with a load of charm on top. Though it may have the air of casual style to it, this is definitely not a game for those not deeply familiarly to platformers to just hop in and enjoy."

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure received a Buy It recommendation. You can read the full review at Gamer 2.0 here.



"Sony Bend has done another great job in bringing good, solid shooter action to the PSP once again with Resistance: Retribution. There are a few bumps...

If you have yet to see the thread, I wanted to remind you guys that this year's CAG March Madness contest is open for entries and I encourage you to sign-up and make your picks before tip-off on Thursday. We've already got 56 entries and I'd like to see the field surpass the 145 we had last year.

If you're wondering about prizes, we've got 10 prizes already including stuff like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (PS3), Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii), codes for Peggle (XBLA) and Noby Noby Boy (PSN), and even Too Human and Fracture for the Xbox 360 that will be split amongst the top three finishers. I'm looking for a few more to throw into the mix, so it's likely to get bigger than that. Just click on the link above, read the rules/info posted, and feel free to enter before Thursday at noon to see who has the best picks this year.

Good luck.

This week was a busy week for me with three reviews that went live this week: MLB 2K9 for Xbox 360/PS3, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop for the Wii, and Zuma for PSN.



The best thing about MLB 2K9 is that the revamped analog controls for pitching, fielding, and batting have been reworked and greatly improved, but the rest of the game is a mess. Batting is an arcadey mess for a game that's supposed to be a simulation like its only competitor, MLB 09: The Show, so it wasn't hard for me to get 10+ runs way more often than it should. Fielding animations are horrendous with the first baseman randomly not having his foot on the bag during what should be routine outs, outfielders have greasy gloves when you hit the ball against the outfield wall to lead to lots of triples and even the occasional inside-the-park homerun, and outfielders frequently get leg cramps when they limp to catch flyballs that leads to too many hits in the outfield. Skip MLB 2K9 at all cost,...