• Format: Wii (version reviewed), PS3, 360
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
• Players: 1-4 (offline only)
• Site: http://raymanorigins.uk.ubi.com/#

If you owned a SNES and/or Mega Drive (AKA Genesis) way back when, your gaming life would have been spent riding a surfboard of pleasure over a stormy sea of side-scrolling platformers. Many were terrible. Many were not; many were carefully crafted adventures that considered fun and wonder rights rather than privileges where gamers are concerned. Do you remember these games? Rayman Origins certainly does.

The first thing to hit you about this game, long before you even get to take control, is the amount of time and love that has clearly been poured into the graphics. Hand-drawn, sumptuously animated and relentlessly detailed, it looks like no other commercial release of the last ten years or more. Though the shamelessly bright colours and bloodless violence invite comparisons to a cartoon, in truth it looks more like what it truly is; an inventive, aggressively non-aggressive videogame.

The sound too stands out for all the right reasons, with the nonsense language (including split-second snatches of real words) refusing to ever make you cringe, with the moments of unintelligible sing-song delightful rather than twee. The music too is wonderful. Rather than a looping soundtrack that could be slapped onto the end of any cutesy-looking game, this is a title that has been scored. Two orchestras, a wealth of instruments, and a range of styles ensure that you’re presented with a perfectly happy audio-visual marriage.

Despite running at a lower resolution than this, the Wii version still looks wonderful.

Children of the eighties will remember the best of the 16-bit platformers, and to say that Rayman Origins plays like one of these goes a long way to making any review redundant. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the basic premise runs thus: each level starts at the left of the screen, and the exit is somewhere (very) far to the right. A combination of enemies and tricky jumps – often resulting in instant death – stand between you and success. To get through you’ll be jumping on heads (and here, punching faces) and using a range of abilities, most of which are unlocked as you progress through the game. Many moments require very precise manoeuvres and lightning reflexes. You will die often, and be thankful for checkpoints. Above all, you will have an enormous amount of fun during the ride.

To an extent, difficulty is dictated by how much content you want to experience in your first run through the game. Like any platformer worth its proverbial salt, there are collectibles; ‘Lums’, vaguely fairy-like creatures which hang in mid-air (sometime stationery, sometimes not). Grab a king Lum and, for a brief period, all other Lums turn red – doubling their value. Do you go for the highest Lum total you can manage in the level – usually meaning close encounters with invincible enemies and bottomless pits – or just grab what you can while making your way safely to the exit as soon as possible?

Lums, in turn, unlock Electoons (think Super Mario’s stars/shines). There are 246 of these in total, though only a relatively small number are required to unlock each world; and collecting a total of 200 will allow access to an extra eleven levels. Almost all levels have three Lum target numbers to achieve; the first two will give you one Electoon each, while the third will award you with a medal to look at. Each level is ended by freeing an Electoon from its cage, and there are hidden areas sprinkled throughout the game hiding extra Lums or cages; and once completed, each level has one last Electoon to surrender as a reward for a speedrun.

Ah, underwater sections. You were never allowed to make a platformer without them.

Though it works superbly as a singleplayer game, up to four of you can run, jump, glide, wallrun, and walljump your way through simultaneously; and, of course, stop to slap each other about should you feel the need. Extra players can certainly help during the side-scrolling shooter sections (which, incidentally, somehow fit in perfectly). There are extra characters to unlock but, as many are too similar and there is no coherent story within the game at all, it doesn’t act as much of an incentive.

You won’t much care who you’re playing as. Partly because you’ll be having too much fun and/or concentrating too hard on a particularly tricky section, but also because you’ll want to see how many industry references you can spot. There are subtle, never-intrusive nods in the level designs to Mario, Sonic, Angry Birds, Snake, Super Meat Boy, and doubtless many more we’ve missed. These tasteful homages go hand-in-hand with the intricacy of the graphical detail and the power of the soundtrack to create levels that look, sound, and feel alive. It’s so much more than idiot smiles and squeaky voices. Every single level is bursting with character, energy, and an utterly unique sense of self.

It is, sadly, not an endless parade of positives. Though it took us a respectable ten hours or so to run through the story, collecting roughly 60% of the Electoons along the way, it was mostly fairly easy to get through. That’s not necessarily a problem; the fact that the game occasionally leans too heavily on trial and error – particularly for the bosses and the final leg of the story – is. There’s nothing wrong with the time-honoured balancing act of quick reflexes and unexpected circumstances, but the ball is now and again dropped here.

Replay value is a thorny issue. Many (though not all) will happily work for and play the ten exhilarating, peril-laden chase levels that must be completed for the final hidden area; but only the most hardcore platformer freaks (or trophy/achievement addicts) will go through the same levels again and again until they have every last Electoon, medal and speed trophy.

Considering the tidal wave of price cuts due to lack of sales, this last is perhaps not an issue. If you loved the platformers of the nineties you’ll love this; and if you weren’t there for that era, perhaps Rayman Origins will make you regret the fact that you missed out.

• Format: PSN
• Unleashed: December 21^st (EU), December 27th (NA)
  
• Publisher: Oddworld Inhabitants
• Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants/Just Add Water
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.oddworld.com/?page_id=778

Is it a first person shooter? Perhaps a third person platformer? Surely it must be an action RPG of sorts? We’ve had five years to think about it, and the answer is still “yes” to all. This high-definition remake of Stranger’s Wrath stands proudly on an outlandish hill of its own and continues to live up to the Oddworld name by being, quite fittingly, odd.

The dusty stage is set by a fur-faced bounty hunter known as Stranger; he’s got survival on his mind and an awesome hat on his head. For reasons unknown, Stranger is desperate for an outrageously expensive medical operation, and tracking down wanted criminals is the only way to scrape up that much moolah. Given this uncreative income solution, one might assume the gameplay hits a single note: shooting outlaws. However, that would be glimpsing only a single piece of this irregularly-shaped puzzle.

At first glance, Stranger’s Wrath resembles something like Jak & Daxter, albeit with a heftier jump. You’ll do some light platforming here and there, but it’s only a matter of time until the bad guys show up. While smacking them around with a torrent of punches is a viable option, taking the sneaky route can also pay off; either way, a mini-map that shows enemy movement is indispensable for letting you know what the odds are. Once you’ve wrapped your head around this, try clicking the right analogue stick. 

Don't look now, but that freakish chipmunk thing may be staring into your soul.

Just as you’ve shifted paragraphs in this review, the game’s genre changes before your very eyes. In your hands is a strange crossbow; what’s more, you’re looking at it from Stranger’s eyes. Enter a surprisingly comprehensive first person shooter that rarely rewards trigger-happy mindlessness. Stranger isn’t much for guns and bullets, so your ammo will be of the living variety: bizarre little critters can be hunted and plopped into your crossbow, one for each shoulder button. Anything but ordinary, the arsenal includes spiky balls of teeth that latch onto unsuspecting prey, spiders with neutralizing webs, and rapid-fire bees that sting with a righteous fury.

Using both third and first person modes in conjunction, along with the particular abilities they have to offer, is key to taking out even the most imposing cluster of cronies. Big, varied environments offer plenty of opportunity for stealth and shootouts, rewarding – even requiring – clever tactics. Mashing the triangle button drains stamina in return for health, which will keep you on your toes and ducking for cover. The unconventional controls take some getting used to, but the fun hybrid Stranger’s Wrath presents is worth the effort.

You’ll head into a neon-lit bounty store to accept missions, each of which are concluded with a boss fight that may or may not be a drawn out battle of frustration. They (and any other foe) can be captured dead or alive for some extra change, which can in turn be spent on upgrades and ammo at the local shops. Bounties will send you all over the quasi-open world (sometimes without much direction), but given a long enough stretch, Stranger will break into a dash that cuts travel time in half. This familiar pattern of seeking out new bounties and towns continues late into the game; then the plot takes a sharp, unexpectedly interesting turn.

Stranger's Wrath and HD make a good pair.

Before that point, the story holds very little with which to be interested. Aside from a few well-produced cutscenes, it consists mainly of random gates that need opening, bounties that need hunting, and obnoxious voice work that tends to repeat ad nauseum. Far more engrossing is the peculiar land you’ll be exploring. Chicken people and deformed chipmunk ammo alike live in barren canyons and along verdant riverbanks, always fearing the monstrous outlaws that lurk nearby. The art design is simultaneous earthy and alien; complimented by beautifully reworked graphics, a frame rate of silk, and sharp textures. It’s easy to forget that this was once a game that ran on the original Xbox. The music is almost non-existent and we ran into numerous audio stutters, but your ears probably gave up after the chicken people started squawking regardless. Although a day one patch is promised to fix the stuttering, it is impossible to turn off the chicken voices.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath was already a fine product, but this updated version sold at a budget price is a regular steal. Putting up with some irritating design decisions will make a few sequences feel unfair, but you’ll still get in a meaty number of enjoyable hours before you reach the end. If you love Stranger’s Wrath to death but lifting your old clunker of an Xbox out of storage is giving you back problems, this is the version to own; alternatively, if you’ve never touched an Oddworld game in your life, this is a great standalone game. Just keep an open mind and prepare yourself for a severe dose of weird; you’re playing Stranger’s Wrath now.

• Format: PSN, PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Fatshark
• Developer: Fatshark
• Players: 1-2 (Offline co-op)
• Site: http://hamilton.fatshark.se/

Hamilton’s Great Adventure does not start out on the right foot. After skipping through a storybook-reading session that serves as the bulk of the game’s plot, you will guide a portly Indiana Jones knock-off across a grid-like maze, quite naturally themed after the most generic of jungle ruins. Music of soul-crushing boringness is accompanied by sound design no doubt ripped straight from 1001 Super Sound FX rescued from Office Depot’s bargain bin. A slew of tutorial boxes interrupts your solving of the exceedingly simplistic puzzles, followed by a final score that may or may not make sense. However, we urge you to continue reading (or at least scroll down to the score below, which you’ve probably already done), for Hamilton has an ace up his sleeve that takes a while to develop; namely, legitimately great gameplay.

You see, this is a game that gets better and better as the levels become more complex and the player begins to understand what, precisely, makes it fun. Each square is a single step for Hamilton, and choosing the wrong path can spell certain doom– a fact you’ll most likely learn the hard way. Some panels collapse the moment you hop to the next one, cutting off any potential backtracking, and others will fling you into empty space if you get the order of events wrong. Getting Hamilton to the gold key and unlocking the exit isn’t very difficult on its own, but earning a shiny medal can be a tricky business indeed.

And you thought the ancient civilizations from Uncharted built impractical structures.

If you want to earn the elusive gold medal, you’ll have to step up your tactics. Grabbing each and every piece of treasure in the level is required to achieve this most esteemed rank, which is hands down the most challenging and entertaining way to play the game. Every step counts; it’s all too easy to trap yourself within your own carelessness, so paying close attention and thinking ahead will pay big dividends. Roaming enemies will keep you on your toes as you trace a mental path through switches and conveyor belts, but cognitive effort can only go so far. Trial and error will become your close associates as levels force you to race boulders to glimmering coins, and hesitation could lead to an unceremonious demise. Another close friend, the restart button, is only a tap away and will be used often; but that only makes nailing a level top to bottom all the grander.

Oh, and there’s a mostly forgettable parrot named Sasha. You can swap to her at any time, allowing you to fly unrestrained around the entire level, regardless of Hamilton’s ground-bound X and Y axis restrictions. Hitting hard-to-reach switches and distracting enemies with a squawk is all well and good, but its use as a co-op mode is unnecessary; between the limited camera and boredom of Sasha’s life, the second player will probably just get in the way.

And you thought the yetis from Uncharted were terrifying.

Audio and avian issues aside, you’ll find a pretty-looking budget title with a world-spanning slew of imaginative levels (along with extra tough bonus challenges) to justify its affordable price. It’s hard to avoid the obsessive-compulsive draw of gold medals, and leaderboards make this hobby all the more lasting. This title has one important thing going for it: gameplay. And in a world that clamours for flash, pomp, and a daily diet of marshmallow fluff, this alone is quite admirable. Yes, Hamilton’s Great Adventure is worth giving a chance; it very well may surprise you.

• Format: PC
  
• Unleashed: Out now
• Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
• Developer: Wadjet Eye Games
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/bwbundle.htm

As the gaming public happily rushes head first into the tedious and eye straining world of fully 3D, isn’t it nice to get nostalgic once in a while for genres you just don’t see enough of these days? One particular genre to suffer as graphics have improved is the 2D point and click variety. Thankfully though, smaller indie developers lacking the big budget of major developers can find a comfortable home in waning genres such as this.

The Blackwell trilogy from Wadjet Eye Gamesis is comprised of three point and click adventures brimming with nostalgic flair of more than one kind. Composed of The Blackwell Legacy, Blackwell Unbound, and The Blackwell Convergence this review covers all three which can, if desired, be purchased separately.

The Blackwell family, for reasons unknown, have been granted two gifts. One is that they are mediums (those who can see and communicate with ghosts) and the other is a spirit guide in the form of Joey Mallone. Those who form the link with Joey must then spend their lives finding spirits trapped in the real world and help them go on to the next life, usually by unravelling some mystery surrounding their death and/or convincing the ghost they are actually dead.

The first game centres on the latest medium of the Blackwell family, Rosangela, discovering her gift after hearing of the death of her aunt in a psychiatric ward. The second game leaps back into the 1970s and has the player actually controlling said aunt for an especially dark adventure that then links into the third game which has you back with Rosangela.

While the basic point and click gameplay remains the same in all three games, as they progress new elements are introduced. The first game is extremely basic from an interactive point of view, while the second game adds moments where you will need to input names or search terms and also grants the ability to play as Mr Mallone. Joey has the super human power of being able to blow a slight breeze, scare animals, float through walls and (more importantly) to eavesdrop on conversations unseen. The third game offers slightly different outcomes to situations depending on how you handle them.

Each game is set within New York and the music is very fitting for the sombre and slightly macabre locations you will explore. Lovers of jazz or piano percussion will especially love the tracks on offer in the second game. The voice work is fairly strong with Joey easily putting in the best showing across all three, and growing the character nicely by the third. Rosangela is voiced by two different people which is a shame, though her voice in the third game no longer sounds like someone talking with two noses, so it balances out.

As already mentioned the plot, pacing and setting of the games are fairly dark. It isn’t so evident initially but doesn’t take long to surface. This may put some people off as, generally speaking, the classic point and click games that people tend to remember have a heavy comical edge (Full Throttle, Monkey Island, etc). Don’t be put off though as Dave Gilbert has done a good job creating a largely serious story that will keep you interested till the end and beyond.

Though all three games are fairly short, it is hard to estimate an exact play length given that different people will take different lengths of time solving each puzzle. There are no puzzles which beggar belief per say and most solutions can be logically reached; so nothing should really keep the player stuck for that long. Come the third game if you really are stumped you can actually ask Joey for advice on what to do, which usually pokes you in the right direction. Even if you get through without being particularly stuck even once the length would still balance out well against the average cost per game.

Once finished there isn’t a huge amount of replay value to be had after you’ve seen the story through. There are unlockable bonuses to find which give you access to blooper recordings, concept art and more – but that is it.

There are no major flaws or nit picks to be had for the Blackwell games, beyond only appealing to what is most likely a niche group of gamers. From a tedious technology point of view it would be nice to be able to change resolution, as on a widescreen monitor the bottom chat option was often half cut off. This wasn’t much of a problem most of the time since the bottom option is usually the one to end the conversation; but every so often it did cause difficulty. There was also one moment where the clicking sound when closing the menu got stuck in a loop and played over everything until a restart fixed it.

The Blackwell bundle of all three games is $19.99 (or around £12.84 in the Queen’s money) and averaging that out across all three makes it a very reasonable price to ask. If you are missing some old school point and click gaming or just want a story with a good premise and execution you wouldn’t go wrong with these Wadjet Eye games.

• Format: iPhone, iPod Touch
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Bulkypix
• Developer: Pastagames
• Players: 1
• Site: http://pixnlovepublishing.com/topic/index.html
  

Anyone here remember green-screens? Okay, how about the Game & Watch series? Gameboys, Tetris!? Ah, right, okay now I’ve got your attention. Well, honestly if you can’t remember these then half this game will be wasted on you! Pix n’ Love Rush is a game from nowhere, and its roots are actually publishers of books on gaming history. Starting in France three years ago, they became a well known source for the archaeology of games and have recently decided to go international. One of their “check-mate” moves for global recognition has been to release an iPhone game bearing their name, Pix n’Love (Rush).

Pix n’ Love Rush has an instant feel of quality at the intro screen and as most gamers with an iPhone will know that quality feel is hard to come by, most of the time. The infinite mode here is inaccessible off the bat, and the only option open is ’5min play’, which serves as a tutorial and a goal of skill to reach before hitting the full-on infinite mode. It’s laid out like a scrolling platformer and as such, the controls are as simple as an Old Skool game should be; run right, run left, jump and shoot. Though you can only shoot up, the projectiles come back down at an angle and this lends itself to more tactful progression as you’ll quickly have to learn. You can also hurt yourself with your own shots, so they need to be well timed and if you miss, pay attention for their return or you will ruin your own combo-streak. Be warned, this is gaming from yesteryear where you will be punished for incompetence!

There are many phases that Pix n’ Love Rush will run through as you progress which are determined by your combo-counter. Obviously the better you do the higher your combo rises but this is where the magic is; each time you hit a new combo ‘block’ (x2, x5 and then x10) the graphics take a turn to a new era of gaming history. The effect is really second to none, as you score your way through the years of Red L.E.D, Green-screens, 8-Bit and L.C.D displays with a transition that rarely puts you off your stride. Smiles will dawn on faces as homage is paid to certain games that stood above all others in their heyday, and gritted teeth and frowns will stretch the facial features as the unrelenting pace and demand for pixel perfect jumps are coaxed from the player. Underpinning all this is a clever little programme that randomises each level, so you’ll be continually tested. The music too is more than worthy of praise; joyful chip-tunes that hark back to a lost era of computer made music are fitted perfectly into Pix n’Love’s ambience.

Sadly, as usual the iPhone’s touch controls are what let this fantastic little game down the most. Why the Left and Right ‘buttons’ aren’t further away from each other is a little confusing, more so is why the jump and fire buttons are so far apart! These two oddities lead to silly mistakes being made frequently and continually detract from that “Perfect” score at the end of each level, as do falling down holes and running into enemies that are covered by your thumbs, which all can be blamed on the iPhone as a platform itself. What Pix n’ Love Rush does do well though is pay its respects to gaming’s history, and it does so with love, class and affection.

4/5

• Format: PSN
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
• Developer: ThatGameCompany
• Players: 1
• Site: http://thatgamecompany.com/games/flower/

Flower is not the kind of game you’ll find an alpha-male playing with his mates on a ‘beer and the boys’ night in front of his PS3; maybe when his girlfriend has gone out for the night and he’s all alone he’ll download it like a dirty little secret, and stash it with his other ‘secret’ files, but he’ll never ever tell you about it. Which is an unfortunate thing for Flower because it’s one of the few games out there that can allow the player to connect with their PS3 in a unique way. See, Flower is about controlling the wind, and although that sounds like an idea born from a ‘fun fag’ session it’s actually more of a philosophical point of view than a stoned one.

What ThatGameCompany have created here is something special, and something that’s impossible to be recreated on the other two consoles. First off there’s the control system, and by using the Sixaxis you can separate the player from the feeling of having ‘solid control’ if you will. Controlling wind is not about having a true sense of pitch and yaw, it’s more floaty than that as it can suddenly switch direction or slow down to a halt completely at any given time. The developers have managed to find that intuitive sweet-spot for something that’s not on wheels or wings and deliver the feeling of weightlessness with almost supernatural ease. The other thing is the grass – yeah that’s right we said ‘the grass’!. Each and every blade will bend and move with the wind’s touch (that’s you) as it swoops and glides though it, and all of this is thanks to the PS3′s unique SPU layout. It can render 200,000 blades simultaneously while in motion, and it’s this that gives Flower its beautifully natural look and feel.

The first time you take control a little confusion might set in, but as you glide around the landscape objectives will become clear: gather petals. It sounds ridiculously simple (and it is) but once you become accustomed to the controls and begin to harness the power of what you are, Flower reveals itself as a new experience that’s calming yet stirring at the same time. Each flower you gracefully brush past releases a petal and as it does a note is played, swooping around to the next one does the same and as you gather momentum each note collides in a crescendo of chimes that ring out a unique melody dependent upon your movement. It’s an intoxicating experience just ‘being’ the wind, rushing through the wide open grass planes and projecting yourself off slanted rock formations to gain height, only to swoop back down and abscond hurriedly with more once peaceful petals. All of this serves as an introduction to the controls and the goals of the rest of the game, but boy, what an introduction.

The levels that follow are varied and go from haunting dusky meadows and sunny California inspired wind farms, to the bleak, achromatic city that beseeches you to bring it to life, Flower will take you on a captivating journey of redemption from the festering pit of FPSes, RTSes and film tie-in ‘games’ that have bogged you down for years. Get away from the drudgery of powering up and stat-bashing for once and take a break, try something new. It will induce wonder, captivation, urgency and fun; if you let it.

Truly, this is Flower Power at its peak.

5/5

• Format: PSN
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
• Developer: ThatGameCompany
• Site: http://thatgamecompany.com/games/flow/

The PSN game flOw has been around for a while now. A long while. It was actually released on the 30^th of March 2007 (UK date) and made a good impression on those who were excited about Sony’s venture into the next-gen gaming scene. So were all the glorious things written about it just Sony excitement or a true summation of it as a game? Well, maybe a bit of both in those days to be fair. Recently we noticed that flOw has had a trophy update and decided that although it’s an old game, it’s one that deserves another mention. We’re sure some of you trophy addicts who want to give yourselves a little booster to improve your PSN ID ‘level’ will be glad we brought this up.

That Game Company (no we haven’t forgotten their name, that is the developer’s name) used flOw as their début on the PSN, which was met with applause, and rightly so. As the game starts up and the orchestral music begins, it immediately puts the player into a relaxed state of mind. As you take control of one of the creatures it becomes immediately apparent that the Sixaxis you use to control the creature has been refined to be not just well implemented but intuitive. Starting off as a small and vulnerable ‘little fish’ in a big pond, you begin to munch your way through schools of smaller amoeba sized organisms. As the music takes hold and begins to chime along with your on-screen actions you’ll find yourself sinking into your chair and just letting the visuals and audio suck you into its deep, colourful world.

There is something subconsciously blissful about playing flOw that makes you forget about the time and your surroundings, and an enchanting vacancy will enter your mind, if you let it. As you swim gracefully through this primordial pond this organism you puppeteer will grow and evolve into something much more foreboding to the other things that inhabit its space and the deeper you delve, you’ll find your confidence grow with it. It’s at this point a strange thing happens; an obsession for consuming everything on-screen will take hold of you and in an entranced state, you’ll start to systematically eat your way through the food-chain until there’s nothing left to consume. This is the totality of flOw; Swim, eat, grow and evolve. That might sound a little tedious, but that’s actually the beauty of it as a game, it is simplicity wrapped in radiance.

On the other hand, one could argue that flOw is nothing more than a tech-demo of Sony’s “me too” Sixaxis motion controls and while this assumption would be a fair point there’s no argument that flOw, as a game in its own right, has every reason to be praised for what it is. Even on the PSP without the Sixaxis, the charm of flOw has not been lost. Although it is easier to lose yourself in a 42 inch HD TV hooked up to a surround sound system, the PSP does a good job of re-creating it for the small screen. Simple in design and strangely compelling in its nature, flOw will deliver on its promise of sumptuously bright and beautiful visuals and seductive, soothing melodies. If you haven’t already, we urge you to download this for one of the most soothing and charming experiences on the PSN.

4/5

This is a text that I found to be nigh impossible to write without coming across as at least a little bit, shall we say, wanky. So I thought I should warn you right from the get-go that this could get a little ugly.

Now, let’s consider the word “beauty” (told you).

It is one of those words that people tend to throw about quite carelessly in situations when it might not be entirely warranted, like “love”, “hate” and “awesome”. We don’t really think that “black shoes are awesome” because simple black shoes are not as worthy of awe as, say, seeing the Earth from space or shaking hands with a dead royal. When we use powerful language like this in a casual way it causes the meanings of the words to deteriorate and lose their strength. Nobody is guiltier of this than writers and critics, because it is easy and tempting to sprinkle a text with superlatives to better convey your feelings for whatever cultural artefact you have the pleasure of writing about. God knows I have called a fair few relatively average games “beautiful” in my time, so I am just as much to blame as anybody else.

Makes perfect sense to me.

The reason I start this text like this is because I wanted to make it clear that this time I, for once, actually mean it. Windosill is a genuinely, undeniably, fo’ real beautiful game. On the face of it, it is a puzzle game with a striking visual style and a well-balanced physics engine. You use the mouse to drag, drop, throw, push and pull objects on the screen in order to uncover a simple white block which you use to move on to the next level where you will find a brand new challenge.

What makes Windosill so worthy of awe is the way it forces you to think creatively and not in a bogus Scribblenauts-sort of way either. It is only by experimenting with the levels and trying out different methods that you will be able to progress in the game as you are never given even a single word of instructions. The very first screen is a great example; you start off in a darkened room filled with various contraptions and toys that seem to serve no purpose. That is because almost none of them do, but in order to find this out you need to click everything and notice how it reacts to your interactions. Eventually you will think to drag a white block to the block-shaped hole in the wall and the door to the first level will open. In one screen, with no visual aids, the game has set the stage perfectly for the rest of the levels, subtly building a desire to click around and play with the environments.

The first puzzle of the game.

The levels themselves vary greatly, from simple timing puzzles to devious chain reactions in which you need to activate certain functions in a very specific pattern. Some utilise the physics engine while others are plain old point-and-click fares. The variety is brilliant and every room feels like its own contained little world with brand new rules and factors to consider. Every time you drag that little wagon through the door to the right you feel a sense of excitement and curiosity about what you will find on the other side.

It obviously helps that the graphics and sound effects are stunning and do an excellent job in making every puzzle feel unique. But I award the biggest gold star to the controls. It is hard to explain in words, but when you drag, drop and throw objects there is an almost tangible sense of each individual object’s mass. That’s something you don’t even get with a lot of Wii games with similar controls.

I had this dream once.

So we come full circle again and I find myself again addressing that elusive term “beauty”. When I think of genuine beauty – renaissance painting-type beauty – I think it comes down to a mix of harmony, balance, skill and aesthetics. It’s that gut-rousing sense of satisfaction that ultimately determines it, whether it’s a poem, a movie or a game you are experiencing. Windosill manages to tick all boxes and then leaves you pining for more at the end. Awesome.

Play Windosill at Vectorpark

Jack is a very lonely man and he couldn’t tell you for sure why this is. There used to be somebody that he held very dear, but that person is long gone. All he has are his own fragmented memories of the past and a lone, silent visitor which he relays his story to. Jack is certain he can make it all by himself.

The Company of Myself is a puzzle-platformer made by 2DArray, or as his mother presumably calls him; Eli Piilonen. It is a game about loneliness and concerns the choices Jack has made that has brought him to this state of isolation from human contact. This is done both through his somewhat cryptic narration but, above all, through the level design. At first glance many levels will appear impossible to traverse without the help of a second character, but Jack will be quick to tell you that if you press Space the level will restart and this time there will be a second Jack, a ghost which will mimic the actions he performed before you restarted the level. You have to figure out how to make these multiple versions of Jacks work together in order to maneuver through the levels, which will become devilishly difficult very quickly.

It's just Jack and his hand tonight, it seems.

This is a puzzle mechanic that you will likely have seen before, most notably in Braid and the underrated Chronotron, but what sets TCoM apart from many of its contemporaries is how brilliantly the game manages to balance the story and the gameplay without making either seem superfluous. Braid was often praised for this, but it was only really in the last level where the story and the game fused to extraordinary effect. The rest of the game might as well not have had a story at all and it pretty much didn’t. TCoM manages to make the levels themselves seem like interactive metaphors for Jack’s memories and the choices and mistakes he has made. This is best portrayed at the point in the game we get to actually see Jack’s lost lover Kathryn and for a few levels you are no longer alone. You control both characters through a flashback and it somehow manages to make a series of puzzle levels feel like a love story.

Then you are presented with a level that you realise from the beginning that you do not want to beat, because in order to beat it you have to make a choice you do not want to make. The game throws you a curveball here and you realise that maybe you are not in fact merely a silent companion listening to Jack’s ramblings, but that you are Jack and you make the same mistakes that Jack makes. In fact, you are the one that makes Jack do them; it is your damn fault. Being a gamer I obey my instincts and I finish the level, make the inevitable mistake and I doom Jack, because my gaming instinct is to keep playing and keep beating puzzles. TCoM does something beautifully here; it forces me to redefine what I consider “winning” in a game, while at the same time asking bigger questions about determinism and the consequences of the choices one makes, not to mention the power of memories and how well they can be trusted. All this is done in a modest puzzle game which probably won’t take you more than an hour to finish.

Like the song says: "love doesn't last"

It is a shame that the epilogue is really disappointing and in a way it rids the game of some of its magic. It ties up the story and explains “what it all meant” when that clearly wasn’t necessary. Since the rest of the game told so much with such simple means, just having a scrolling text at the end tell us exactly what really happened and rid the story of its beautiful ambiguity feels a bit like cheating. Some endings and meanings are best left stewing in the player’s imagination instead of being spelled out black on white.

But TCoM isn’t all about story and fuel for pseudo-intellectual discussions like this; it is also a very competent and satisfying puzzle game. The levels require a lot of lateral thinking and impeccable timing, so even if you only want a brief platform adventure to play on a lunch break, this should still be very much down your alley. It’s an excellent example of a near-perfect fusion between great game design and involving storytelling and that’s hardly something you stumble upon everyday, now is it?

Play The Company of Myself

• Format:Wii
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: EA
• Developer: Visceral Games
• Players: 1-2
• Site: http://deadspace.ea.com/

The original Dead Space was essentially a refinement of Resident Evil 4. In that sense, Dead Space Extraction is a more ambitious title, opting to tackle an entire genre. In almost every way it succeeds, offering up the finest light-gun shooter yet.

EA has billed Extraction as a “guided experience”, separating the game from simplistic arcade shooters like Virtua Cop, House of the Dead, and Time Crisis. While these popular series have made subtle advancements over the years, they never really graduated beyond brief, coin-munching entertainment. Extraction earns its distinction by eschewing arcade simplicity in favour of thoughtful, rewarding combat.

Taking a page from the first Dead Space, combat is based around dismembering monsters with a variety of weapons. You do this by aiming an on-screen cursor with the Wii remote and firing with the B trigger. In that way, Extraction can sometimes feel more like a point-and-click adventure than a shooter. It leverages this aspect with some tricky mini games that fit well within the narrative of a mining colony in deep space.

Using your suit’s telekinesis ability, you’ll also spend a lot of time grabbing at the environment. Gun upgrades, health, and ammo are all hidden in the background and you’ll spend almost as much time aiming for those as you’ll spend aiming at monsters. You’ll even collect the occasional note or voice recording which, although cool for playing out of the Wii remote speaker, are often missed among all the action and chaos.

Just like the first game, ammo is in short supply for most of your guns. You’ll always have one pea-shooter with unlimited ammo, and a melee attack to fight back monsters; but these are last-ditch options at best. This creates some uniquely stressful moments when you’re down to your last few bullets. Suddenly every shot counts, and you must use every tool at your disposal – the experience feels unlike any of the trigger-happy light-gun shooters that have preceded it.

And that’s only some of what makes combat in Extraction so unique. Shortly into the game, you’ll come across a stasis module that allows you to slow down enemies. Stasis can only be used on three targets before it needs to cool down, which adds a strategic aspect to picking out the most immediate threats.

Weapon selection is another huge game-changer for the genre. Sure, you’d pick up the occasional machine gun in Time Crisis, but Extraction allows you to carry three unique weapons at a time, each with alternate fire. Flamethrowers, short-range buzzsaws, and rolling mines are just a sample of the variety. Switching between them with a flick of the analogue stick, and mixing and matching weapon combos, is unbelievably satisfying.

But sophisticated combat is only half of what earns this game its “guided experience” moniker. Extraction stands above the pack by genuinely utilising the advantages of an on-rails experience. Imagine the scripted moments in Modern Warfare, Bioshock, or Half-Life, and then expand those moments into a six hour-long adventure. The result is not unlike taking part in a very long, big-budget, sci-fi/action movie.

The game begins as a prequel to the original Dead Space, casting you as one of the miners on the Aegis VII colony. Things go wrong fast and the colony is quickly overrun with monsters. From there you’ll bounce between roles over the course of ten chapters, making several friends along the way.

This is where Extraction takes a departure from the original game. It’s not nearly as much of a solitary experience – you actually spend almost the entirety of the game with a handful of survivors. Their banter is always a lot of fun and the trouble they get themselves into really keeps the pace up. If the characterization in the original Dead Space didn’t do anything for you, this one might not change your mind, but it’s still a marked improvement.

It helps that despite being on the Wii, character models have held up surprisingly well. The brilliantly animated cast feel realistic because they maintain that substantial and solid feel they had in the original Dead Space. The environments around them seem to be a bit more muddy as a result, but it’s a fair trade-off. What the setting lacks in graphical fidelity it makes up with little touches. When returning to areas from the first game, it’s clear where you are. Extraction is incredibly faithful to its predecessor in a way that fans will really enjoy.

Towards the end of this roller coaster ride, the gameplay really hits its stride. You’ll have your favourite weapons figured out and combat will become more and more rewarding. But then it ends. While Extraction offers up one of the finest Wii-exclusive experiences and is easily the best, longest light-gun shooter ever, it still clocks in a bit short. You can take on the challenge mode and aim for a high score, or play with a buddy in two-player co-op, but both of those options feel counter to the core, story-driven game.

Regardless, it’s an extremely polished thrill-ride that pushes a dying genre forward in significant ways. If you don’t mind a short adventure that’s worth returning to again and again, it’s hard to go wrong with Dead Space Extraction.

9/10