• Format: XBLA (version reviewed), PSN
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Konami
• Developer: Backbone Entertainment
• Players: 1-4 (offline), 2-4 (online)
• Site: http://www.konami.com/simpsonsarcade

If you’re cowering in your late twenties to mid thirties and you’ve been gaming since you were a wee lad or lass, you’ll almost certainly have fond memories of The Simpsons Arcade Game. It was arguably the jewel in Konami’s crown at one point, further cementing its position as one of the major players in arcades during the early nineties. Over twenty years later, a perfect home version is finally available; but with the rose tinted specs removed and crushed underfoot, what do we see?

For those that don’t know, this is a scrolling beat ‘em up for up to four people. Players take control of one of the four older Simpsons – Homer (who punches people in the face), Marge (who, being a woman, carries a vacuum cleaner at all times), Lisa (who hits people with her skipping rope), or Bart (who rides and – yes, hits people with – his skateboard) – and fight their way through eight brief stages. Why? Because an entirely out of character Smithers steals a diamond (what?), kidnaps Maggie when she accidentally takes said diamond (whatwhat?) and, when you finally catch up to him, he tries to kill you with explosives (whatwhatwhat??!?).

Whether you go for ‘sharp’ or ‘smooth’, the heavily pixelated graphics are undeniably dated – yet still manage to hold up surprisingly well in 2012. This is thanks to the Groening flavoured graphic design which, in turn, has changed very little in the Simpsons cartoon series over the years. Take note publishers, this is how to get your developers to create graphics that age well. Not lens flare, cleavage and muddy browns – smart and original art direction.

Mr Burns looks on as Marge and Homer... um... er...

The sound hasn’t aged too badly either, though the music and sound effects are supremely forgettable. Unfortunately, the rather more important element of gameplay has suffered the most bumps and crashes on the journey through the decades. You move from left to right beating up everyone and everything that gets in your way till the next stage – and that’s it. There’s the occasional health pickup, and it can be fun taking the opportunity to pick up and throw Snowball II or Santa’s Little Helper at an enemy – but, apart from two super-brief minigames you only play once each, that really is your lot.

Combat, such as it is, is achingly simple. There is a button to attack and a button to jump. Yes, you can jump attack – woohoo! Of slightly more interest are the combination attacks possible when two players team up, but they add little to the experience. You’ll still be doing little more than button-bashing your way through the same handful of enemy designs across eight stages, and it’s even possible (depending on difficulty chosen and number of players present) to finish the whole game in less than half an hour; indeed, there is an achievement/trophy for doing so.

The value of this package, therefore, hinges on replay value. There are no secrets to speak of, and no alternative routes, so the game itself contains very little. The Simpsons license has been squandered quite badly, too. Although the voices of the original actors are present, they only speak the same few words throughout. There is no original, fully-featured script; no easter eggs to hunt down. That said, it can be fun (the first time through, at least) to see how many characters and references you recognise in both the foreground and background – especially as the game was made so early in the cartoon’s life. People old enough to remember the original release will probably wistfully think “mode 7” when they come up against the giant Krusty ball boss…

This vacuum cleaner picks up dust from tiny nooks, cleans carpets, and easily kills human beings!

This release is a little more than a simple ROM dump. Local multiplayer is still present but online multiplayer has been added too, if you don’t have £120 worth of joypads to play with but want to try it as a four player game (which is easier and a little more enjoyable). There are online leaderboards too, with an admirably large selection of filters. Finishing the USA ROM grants access to the Japanese ROM; which is almost entirely the same game, the largest difference being the presence of smartbomb-style pickups now and again. Also, finishing the game as each of the four characters gives access to extras from the main menu – none of which, sadly, are very interesting. A sound test does have a certain retro appeal, though.

Finally, there is the issue of price. PlayStation Plus subscribers get the game for free, and they should rush to download it immediately if they haven’t already. It may crush fond memories of just how good it was, but it’s still far from being a terrible game, and is sprinkled with an important pinch of Simpsons magic. The XBLA release costs 800MP – which, to be frank, is far too much. Almost everybody who grabs this game will have exhausted its supply of fun in less than a week, and it’s easy to imagine many getting all they can out of it in a single day.

So who is this for? If you have young kids yourself who love The Simpsons then they’ll doubtless have a blast with this, though it’s difficult to say for how long. If you’re determined to revisit the game for yourself then go ahead – but don’t say we didn’t warn you. If you never played the game the first time round and find yourself playing this home re-release, well… you may find yourself wondering what all the fuss was about.

This is what your local GAME might look like soon enough.

It has been widely reported by the gaming press, including Eurogamer, that the UK’s largest independent video game retailer is in financial difficulties. The firm had a poor 2011, and whilst many had hoped the Christmas season might bring a last minute reprieve it was not to be and sales were down close to 15% compared to the year before. To put this into context, most major high street retailers in the UK experienced a rise in sales compared to twelve months earlier, as Christmas 2010 had been so poor due to excessive snow and ice keeping shoppers away from their town centres.

To be fair GAME have, for a while now, been issuing profit warnings and talking of reducing the number of shops they have over the next one to two years. This of course is taking place at the same time as HMV recently having to reorganise its debts with its lenders. However, HMV have a broader range of products, less stores but larger ones (and hence can sell more and try a greater variety of activities) and have earnestly started moving the business into new areas, albeit some more successfully than others. The firm has invested in live music and venues, and started to transfer space in stores (which was set aside to plastic boxes) to fan related merchandise and technology.

This is not to say that HMV has the answer, but I mention it as a way of demonstrating that specialist music, film and game retailers are having to find new ways and that this is hardly new. Over the last few years we have gone from having, perhaps, 3-5 retailers offering such products per high street to 1-3, with some towns having barely 2. Those two are often HMV and GAME. There is now a serious chance that over the next 2-3 years this will reduce further to one or in some cases none.

The all conquering Amazon. It's taking sales from bookstores, toy stores and of course videogame stores. It's also the perfect platform to migrate from physical product to digital download or stream. Something it is pushing more and more.

Let’s look at the reasons why and what this means for both the games industry as a whole and the consumer. Whilst it would be easy to say it’s down to the increase in downloaded content (legal or illegal), it would not be true for the overall market. For PC, clearly, it has had a huge impact but the average store dedicates very little floor space to PC titles. Meanwhile in console land, whilst you can get a small selection of titles as downloads, most are retail only, or are retail only for a long time before they go onto Xbox Live, for example. Sony has started doing near simultaneous releases for a few titles, but it does not release numbers for the PSN store; though it’s safe to say that if a game is on for significantly more money there than it is priced in shops that it can’t be picking up many sales at present.

So what does the trouble at GAME signify? It could just be that the business expanded too fast and inherited too many shops, with a range of leases and costs which are unsustainable. In other words the business has put itself into the situation it now finds itself and is not systematic of any type of global change. I suspect though that this is not the only reason the firm finds itself in trouble. It expanded rapidly, largely on being the only place which had a good selection of titles and in more recent times in supplying a strong second hand offering.

Both areas are now under attack, from both Supermarkets such as Tesco and due to the online side of the business such as Amazon, Play and many independent ‘warehouse’ only operators using the Amazon/Ebay marketplace. Whilst GAME also has a strong online presence, it’s not actually that easy to use, and doesn’t offer great prices. This is because the focus of the business has remained its stores.

So we have established that most consumers are buying boxed games still, but the market is being redefined by the online retailers and supermarkets. Yet that is not the only factor in play here. We are buying less games. Sure some games are selling in huge numbers, and for more money per purchase, but we are buying less overall.

When discussing market size, services such as PSN, STEAM and others are rarely included in such figures. However, it's clear that if you are a PC gamer, you download, you don't get the box.

The size of the UK market shrunk last year. The UK is not alone. Some people are hoping a new console generation will solve this. I doubt it will in the short term. In the medium to long term it will as people who currently play games continue to, whilst new younger generations join the ranks of hardcore gamers. However at present, there will be no sudden demographic shift where we immediately find new consumers to join our ranks. Such a culture change last took place during the Wii/DS generation and at least 30% of that has since found that smartphones suffice, as they were never hardcore gamers to begin with.

As I’m sure many of you will have noticed the games we buy take longer than ever to complete. Aha, I know what are thinking; Modern Warfare 3. This takes a bus ride to complete. That as we know is the single player experience only. The online is an ongoing all consuming social experience, with more special op operations being added, more multiplayer maps and modes. Even the Elite experience is designed to take up your gaming hours with stat analysis! Yet check out the games sale’s figures. It made more than Black Ops but sold less copies in 2011, as reported by Eurogamer.

So back to the idea of launching new consoles. The Vita is out pretty soon and as it offers an HD experience in your hand it, ironically, will split consumer spending even more. It won’t increase the size of the hardcore market but take purchases away from the PS3, Xbox and WiiU. In case you missed it we are now in the midst of a deep economic slow down, which for some people is starting to look like a depression, or at least a slow and ongoing contraction (which could last up to a decade). Whilst the entertainment sector as a whole is less effected during downturns (as reported by TIME, quoting the ever popular Michael Pachter), as people need escapism and spend less on holidays and other high price ticket items, it’s clear that new consoles and games costing £35 or above are now falling into the luxury area of disposable income for many, bar a few yearly purchases where value is eked out through replay and DLC offered throughout the year.

So less games are being bought, which means less games being traded, which results in less profits on second hand sells for the retailers such as GAME. The more money we spend on AAA titles and then investing in DLC to go with them also means we are more likely to play them to death and not trade them in (compounded by the ‘online pass’ feature meaning second hand copies lack online functionality).

So back to the present. In the short term this has been an awful week for GAME. Whilst they have managed to secure support from publishers and creditors it seems logical that consumers will slowly start to place pre-orders elsewhere in case the inevitable happens soon. Also will you be taking your games there to get reward points? What happens if the company goes down the pan and you haven’t spent those points? The time to redeem could be now, which could actually give the firm a short rebound, but if we don’t take in new games to part-ex against other new titles their business model will dry up. Publishers meanwhile will start to encourage the platform holders to push digital delivery, at decent prices (perhaps) and at the same time as the game launches on the high street. The days where they had to protect their retail distribution is perhaps starting to end.

The loss of GAME or HMV won’t mean the end of retail or a lack of competition for the consumer. We have 3-4 supermarkets in the UK of a decent size. In addition we have a plethora of online retailers all able to sell a product which is not required to be sold on the high street. After all it’s just a box with a disc in it.

The next generation of consoles will offer discs, but ultimately though, game retail will stop being physical and the next generation of consoles will offer all titles as near simultaneous digital copies, at competitive prices, as the publishers will learn a lesson from the (eventual) demise of GAME. Whilst it’s always been in their interests to protect and look after their retail channels, times are a changing and they now must look after themselves and their future distribution partners i.e. the platform holders themselves.

As predicited TVs are now shipping with game streaming software built in. This of course is a threat to everyone in the industry, but is much more of an immediate threat to one trick ponies such as GAME.

Assuming the next generation of consoles also offer a streamed game service in parallel to downloaded content for those with broadband fast enough (it’s safe to assume that a large enough market will exist 5-7 years from now with super fast broadband in many countries), it is clear that there is no hope for businesses such as GAME and HMV. In the UK it could be argued that the decline in the high street retailing of games really started with the demise of Woolworths and Zaavi (which is now online only), but the troubles at GAME have demonstrated that perhaps we have become perilously close to the tipping point which will lead to a fundamental change in the way in which the majority of gamers purchase and access future content.

SSX joins the slew of games set to ship with an online pass code included with new copies of the game. The good news is that it is not required to enjoy the game’s multiplayer mode.

An EA spokesperson told Game Informer that the code will not affect how you play the game’s two multiplayer modes, Explore and Global Events. However, in-game credits earned from the Global Events mode will be withheld from players without an online pass.

The official statement reads: “In SSX, players without an Online Pass are able to compete and play in both of SSX’s online game modes, Explore and Global Events with no restrictions. In Global Events, the top finishers from each event are awarded with in-game credits. These in-game credits earned during play will not be awarded to the player if they do not have an Online Pass; these credits will be stored so that at any time, if a player redeems an Online Pass code, all the credits that they had previously earned in Global Events will be immediately awarded to them.”

Credits in SSX are used to unlock extra equipment for characters and to gain entry to some events. EA’s statement goes on to reassure that those without an online pass will not be barred from any content in the game.

“Economy balance makes it possible to unlock all available content and allows you to participate in all event drops across both Explore and Global Events, with credits earned solely in Explore.”

SSX will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in Europe on March 2, following the US release on February 28.

• Format: PC (version reviewed), Mac, PSN, XBLA
  
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Lace Mamba Global/Focus Home Interactive, Atlus
• Developer: Frozenbyte
• Players: 1 – 3
• Site: www.trine2.com

Having a knight, a wizard and a thief simultaneously adventuring together seems like a fairly reasonable Halloween costume line-up or an unspecialised MMO raid party. It also sounds like the most obvious cast for a side-scrolling adventure game. In 2009, Frozenbyte struck the hearts of many with their game Trine that perfected this seemingly obvious formula. Two years on and they have made a sequel, but does it live up to the original game’s charm? If you just want this review in its simplest form, the answer is an absolutely corking “Yes and more.”

If you missed the first game then we’ll recap. It all started when a wizard, thief and knight touched an artefact called the Trine. It bound their souls together and sent them on an adventure. Part of being Trine-bound meant that players could instantly switch between characters to overcome certain puzzles and obstacles. The wizard conjures physical objects into existence and levitates them, the thief is highly mobile with her grappling hook and the knight is proficient at bludgeoning nasties to death. This aspect has not changed at all in Trine 2.

The knight makes short work of goblins but can't solve puzzles unless they involve a good bashing.

What has changed are a number of features from the original game that have been chopped to make the experience flow more smoothly. The inventory and special items have completely disappeared. You can no longer give specific characters benefits like unlimited air underwater or extra health with random trinkets. The only collectible items are experience orbs, poems and pieces of concept art. Characters no longer have an energy reserve either, meaning there is no penalty to constantly using fire arrows or spamming an area with summoned cubes and planks. This streamlining makes the game a lot easier to pick up and encourages experimentation and using abilities, instead of punishing overzealous use. It makes the game a lot more fun.

Puzzles are usually a case of navigating tricky terrain to get from the left side of the screen to the right, with the occasional door mechanism or gaping pit thrown in for good will. Whilst this might sound quite samey, each situation feels unique and can require some real brain power to solve. The one downside we found was the overreliance on the wizard and his block conjuring abilities. Summoning physical stepping stones into the world was always the most obvious (and in many cases only) way to get through most tricky areas. The thief can get herself through some situations with her grapple; but the knight seems fairly useless outside of combat or tasks that involve breaking things. That is of course the knight’s function, but we found ourselves puzzling and platforming a lot more than we were fighting.

Joining the improved mechanics are the gloriously designed environments. Level design remains as fiendish as ever, with several puzzles making you um and ah for minutes before the necessary element snaps in your brain and you discover the solution. Couple this with beautiful scenery and animated 3D backgrounds that are genuinely awe inspiring and you get a visual treat that even the fussiest of graphic grinches can’t grumble about.

And you thought the dragons in Skyrim were big...

The excellent presentation doesn’t stop at the amazing graphics; just about everything you experience serves as an immersive influence that compels you to play. Trine 2 feels like an interactive fairy tale that caters to everyone. The narrator tells the story as you go along and each character occasionally chirps in with their own bits of quirky dialogue. These serve to advance the story, but also provide the player with hints should you find yourself staring at the same chasm or sealed door for long enough.

The major new feature in Trine 2 is online multiplayer. The original game only allowed local co-op play, but the sequel has now opened the floodgates to the scary wide world of the Internet. Use the server browser or jump into a quick match though matchmaking to drop into the main adventure with up to two other players. Having three people tackle the puzzles and goblin ambush attempts is a fantastic experience and unlike the majority of current online games out there.

Multiplayer can also make it much easier in places, and it almost feels like cheating. There are so many occasions in singleplayer that will leave you thinking “This would be much easier with another person helping.” If you can trust yourself not to simply levitate your teammates on a wizard plank to the other side of the problem and then wait for the game to respawn you with them then online is a real laugh. Even if you do decide to cheat the game a little bit, it is very fun and a joy to play. You will giggle every time someone accidently summons a cube above you that thwarts your heroic jump attempt.

Stand on the knight's shield in multiplayer for a cheeky leg up.

Local multiplayer is also very well implemented. Good support like this is to be expected on consoles, but even the PC has brilliant local play capabilities. You don’t even need a set of spare USB gamepads to play on the same PC. The game supports multiple mice and keyboards which works brilliantly, if you can find the space to use them. It took us a slight fiddle in the game options to get it all working, but it wasn’t a huge feat and definitely worth the effort.

Trine 2 is an incredible game and easily tops the brilliant original. It is a charming adventure that can appeal to a very wide audience, but at the same time does not compromise on the challenge with several brilliant physics and platform based puzzles in the mixture. The boxed collector’s edition even comes with an artbook, original soundtrack and a copy of Trine 1. If you like your swords and spells applied to side scrolling adventures then it doesn’t get much better than this. Likewise, if you’re looking for an adventure game that is easy to get into and great fun to play, Trine 2 will not disappoint.

This image has threatened traditional gaming since around November 2006.

It’s been a year of worry for the traditional gamer. Whilst gaming might seem to be an ever growing past-time, some of the traditional elements which make up the industry have seemed fragile. Publishers have been busy shutting down traditional developers, especially those famed for 3D racers, but beyond too.

We have seen shops such as Gamestop starting to seriously invest in alternative delivery platforms such as their own tablet and streaming services, fearing a fast-arriving dead end to their current business model. Indeed in the UK, where GAME have been less aggressive in moving into new areas of the business, we are witnessing the start of what will be a contraction of its street presence over the next five years. HMV, too, are struggling and are being quite open about the idea that they might not be around in the next 2-5 years in any shape or form.

Alongside this we have seen traditional hardware providers, such as Microsoft and Sony, in effect pour cold water on the idea of an early start to the ‘next generation’ as it is only really now that they are generating real profit dollars from their investment in current hardware and software. Whilst they might feel the urge to produce something new in the face of the soon to be released Wii U, both companies will resist in the knowledge that they have healthy, steadily improving install bases and technology which still won’t look outdated, even compared to the Wii U. I suspect they have noticed that the current generation of hardware is actually perceived to be cutting edge by many consumers today, despite being very behind suped up PCs. Hence there is little demand to bring a new, expensive console solution to the market in these difficult economic times.

Look, look I got some new plastic! But no games or applications to use with it!

Nintendo’s own year has been a difficult one, until the final quarter came around with the upturn witnessed in the holiday season. The launch of the 3DS was undermined by a range of mistakes. A high price, which did not actually put off day one early adoption but which did kill day two, three and further afield purchases. This drop in sales and consumer relevance was then compounded by the device having no actual new software (quality or otherwise) for months after release! It was almost as if Nintendo itself was surprised by the release of the console. One suspects that this observation might be closer to the truth than some might realise. Could it be that Iwata suddenly panicked when he saw the drop off in DS hardware and software sales in late 2010 and early 2011, and thought a hardware launch, which was due for November 2011, should be brought forward? Could it be that he actioned this change of timeline, forgetting that the software development teams couldn’t speed up, pro-rata?

This would explain the lack of software, both in terms of game titles and the also slightly unfinished operating system, which is still having parts of its online functionality added by firmware to this day; but which the software team have admitted were due to be there from day one.

Indeed Nintendo have taken a bashing on behalf of traditional gamers everywhere. Analysts the world over have decided that Nintendo could be the RIM (the makers of Blackberry products) of the games industry. Everyone likes to be the one who can call the end of the world (just ask the Mayans) and analysts are as human as the next guy (really they are) and Nintendo was their punching bag in 2011. The narrative went like this – people are moving from dedicated gaming devices to iPads and smartphones. Why spend £30 on a game, when you can get freeware or £1 software? The logic was sound, but too simple. People will always buy something they want, you just need to give them something they actually want, and come the end of the year Nintendo seemed to be achieving this. The 3DS sales are now running ahead of all predictions and confidence is not only building in the platform, but in the traditional games market in general. What started as a bad story for Nintendo and the industry as a whole has started to evolve into a success story.

Of course the area of growth which has probably received the most headlines, is the continued march of the social and casual gaming market. This encompasses everything from the Just Dance franchise, to the exponential growth of the Farmville type experience. There is no question that the online ‘Sim’ style of gameplay is not only hugely compelling but ideal for multi-platform, cloud play. Users can switch from the PC to their tablets, and in theory continue on the Sony Vita, as many of these games start being released in the platform agnostic HTML5 coding language. Indeed as televisions become ‘smarter’ with their own implementation of Kinect-like experiences, merged with an appstore, we can expect to see continued growth in the use of such genres. For hardcore gamers, this can be seen as a threat, as it potentially pulls funding from the type of projects they would traditionally welcome. Indeed if one looks, as an example, at Disney Interactive, it is moving evermore into this social and casual space and further away from traditional AAA game titles.

Should we as traditional gamers be worried by this? Probably not. Firstly the world is not black and white (even though according to my dad, when he was a boy it used to be – just look at old films back from when he was a youngster he tells me) and hence some of us also play those social games (maybe less so the dance titles). After all they are really very similar to RPGs, but often the character is the ‘farm’ or ‘restaurant’. However it also means that those AAA titles that are released get an increase in funding, and hence we should see an ongoing rise in production values and overall quality. The end of year titles released in 2011 are probably the best evidence for this. The range of software in your local GAME or Gamestop is reducing, but who can dispute the quality of Batman Arkham City, Skyrim, Uncharted 3 and the top shooters, MW3 and BF3?

Let us not forget the great games that have come out on XBLA, PSN, Android/iOS and recently on the 3DS, which is starting to have some quality digital titles. If you are a dedicated gamer, and not just someone who dives in to kill some time, you have never really had it so good.

What will 2012 bring to the story? For sure, we will see the ongoing decline of brick and mortar shops. Boxed product will still exist, and we will probably continue to see the ongoing investment into ‘limited edition’ versions which will help to prolong the life of this boxed product. However for many they will only order via online, postal only services. Shops will simply start to close or become trading and part exchange locations.

Game of the Year 2012?

The year ahead, when it comes to software, is going to be a very exciting year. Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto 5, MW3 map packs and BioShock Infinite (have Take 2 already sewn up 2012?) are already in our consciousness. The 3DS has some superb first and third party exclusives arriving in early 2012 too, and the industry will have the US and European launch of the Vita to look forward to.

The Wii U will release. Nintendo will see this as a slow burner, as the Wii at its new price is still selling strongly. However for those wanting to upgrade it could spoil the party for the current levels of PS3 growth and Xbox steady sale projections. Why? Because for those who already have a Wii (and only a Wii) and are considering what to step up to then if the Wii U ticks a number of boxes, it’ll be the natural platform to choose. What are those boxes?

• If the Wii U has the same range of ‘adult’ software as the 360 and PS3 in addition to being 100% backwards compatible with all their Wii content.
• If it allows them to play all the new Mario titles, along with new Nintendo only IP. Expect Nintendo to make a push to position the Wii U as the first console to take MMOs seriously with a controller designed for them.

The ultimate home based tablet and server solution?

If the above happens, then who would not buy the Wii U over one of its HD counterparts? Those of us already with a Wii and 360, or PS3 will probably fail to become early adopters. That’ll be fine by Nintendo though, as once the new inevitable Mario games and Pikmin are released, and once the hardware does eventually drop in price, they know we will still invest.

What Nintendo decides to do with its online provision for the Wii U though is very exciting. Nothing is really known, but all the rumours suggest a very open online service, perhaps with multiple portals such as EA’s Origin and Steam. However, if they could be linked with a single Wii U identity (not a friend code!) it suggests a range of delivery services, offers and perhaps even streaming services being offered through the platform, alongside its own propriety content.

2012 could be Take 2's year, at least when it comes to Metacritic scores. Sales will surely follow.

As the economy continues to stumble, the games industry will clearly find that growth and expansion is stunted by the social and economic factors around them. Yet if any leisure industry will succeed in these tough times, it’ll be ours; and 2012 will be another step forward.

• 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.

To mark today’s release of Back to Karkand on PlayStation 3, EA has released a new trailer that showcases the Wake Island map.

Originally part of the map rotation in Battlefield 1942, the map has appeared in most subsequent games in the series and was even resurrected in a mod for Battlefield Vietnam. Its Frostbite 2 makeover has packed the horseshoe shaped island with all of the things that make Battlefield 3 exciting.

As is the trend with the Back to Karkand trailers, things get quite explosive during the carnage filled tour of the new island map. People get shot, jets strafe runways with machine gun fire and helicopters chase boats menacingly. As with every other glimpse of the DLC so far, it looks stunning.

PC and Xbox 360 players have to wait another week before they can play Back to Karkand on December 13. The new content is free for Limited Edition versions of the game, whereas everyone else must pay 1200 Microsoft Points or $15 for the new maps and toys.

Last week, EA released a similar gameplay trailer for the Gulf of Oman map. You can check it out here.

Ready to return to the haunts of Battlefield 2 and kick up the dust as you collapse a city’s worth of buildings? Back to Karkand for Battlefield 3 is officially released December 6 on PS3 and December 13 on Xbox 360 and PC.

The eagerly anticipated expansion adds the Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula maps to the game as well as three vehicles and ten additional weapons. It also reintroduces the Conquest Assault game mode.

Owners of the Limited Edition version of the game will get this DLC free of charge, whereas those with regular copies will need to pay 1200 Microsoft Points or $15 (around £10) to gain access to the new content.

As well as the exclusive week early release of Back to Karkand, PS3 Battlefield 3 owners can also download a free copy of Battlefield 1943 from the PlayStation Store.

An explosive new trailer for the upcoming Battlefield 3 DLC Back to Karkand has broken from cover and stormed onto the frontlines of the Internet.

The trailer takes us on a tour of the Gulf of Oman map, an urban playground of destruction with plenty of buildings that seem eager to crumble with each hard impact. We also get to see some of the new vehicles in action, including the STVOL jet which is capable of vertical take-offs and hovering.

Gulf of Oman joins Strike at Karkand, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula in the soon-to-be-available DLC package that arrives next month. The pack also features weapons and vehicles returning from Battlefield 2, as well as the Conquest Assault game mode.

A release date for Back to Karkand is yet to be revealed other than December 2011, with PlayStation 3 players getting access to it a week earlier than players on other platforms. It will be free for owners of the Limited Edition version of the game, whereas regular edition holders will need to pay 1,200 MS Points or $15 depending on your platform. You can find out more information about the pack here.

Last week it was also confirmed that PlayStation 3 players of Battlefield 3 could claim a free copy of Battlefield 1943.

• Format: PS3 (PlayStation Move required)
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Developer: XDev Studio Europe
• Players: 1-2
• Site: http://uk.playstation.com/movemindbenders/

Playstation Move has never really taken off as well as Sony had hoped after the mainstream success of the Nintendo Wii, partly due to the lack of games supporting it. Move Mind Benders brings three PSN titles together on one disc, with puzzlers Tumble, echochrome ii, and a newly Move-enabled version of the classic Lemmings sparking some life into the glowing embers of the Move controller.

Lemmings is a title that most gamers will recognise immediately, and this new version of the classic series is just as enjoyable as it always was. It hasn’t changed a great deal from the original, but then why change a winning formula? You are tasked with steering your hapless green haired characters through trap filled stages by using the Move controller to choose a skill from the selection on offer, such as climbing, digging or the iconic umbrella parachute. There is a tutorial stage to ease new players in, which does help you get to grips with the different skills and also gets you used to the Move controls, which are easy to perform on earlier stages. Graphics are nicely drawn, but aren’t majorly different to the original. A few stages feel reminiscent of a Mario game, as our little suicidal friends light torches to see upcoming traps in a darkened level; even the music evokes Mario when he enters the haunted house levels. Some of the stages can take a bit of trial and error to complete, and finally completing that tricky level you’ve spent hours on can feel quite rewarding. It has to be said some of the later stages can get quite manic, and the Move controller can feel quite sluggish when you need to change skills. There were a few instances where we chose the wrong attribute, and had to start the level from scratch which was quite annoying. On the whole though Lemmings is a decent game, and we’re pleased to see it get a new lease of life with motion controls.

This level in Lemmings evokes memories of Mario's Haunted House levels.

The second game in the collection is Tumble, and this is probably the weakest game in the collection. It’s basically a cross between Jenga and Tetris, with players tasked to build towers with a selection of different shaped blocks, which vary in size and texture, or destroy towers of blocks by placing some bombs at carefully selected points on the structure. The Move controls work particularly well here, with the manipulation of the blocks feeling very intuitive and realistic. The physics are quite realistic too, and you have to be very careful with your block manipulation, or you will end up with your structure collapsing in front of you like a house of cards. There are three different height markers that you need to stack your blocks to. The lowest height gains you a bronze medal, and if you manage to reach the higher markers you gain silver and gold. These unlock new challenges for the level, like having to finish it in a set time, or stacking blocks to reach a distant target. If you earn enough medals on one zone you unlock the next zone with fresh levels and challenges. The first couple of zones are relatively simple, but things get progressively harder, and introduce things like mirrors to reflect light beams through coloured blocks; and some levels add limbo bars which sweep towards your teetering structure, that you need to stay beneath. There are plenty of fresh ideas here, and for the most part they work well, and it has that one-more-go factor. A couple of gripes are that it can take a long time for a challenge to restart if you fail it, and the camera takes an age to swing around to your ideal angle. But there are plenty of challenges in here to keep everyone happy for a good few hours at least.

Tumble has several game modes to keep things fresh.

The last game in the collection is echochrome ii, which is probably the best game of the collection. This sequel only bears a slight resemblance to the original. The goal is still to get your little marrionette character to the exit of each level, but this time your little character is now a shadow, and instead of moving the 3D levels around your character, you need to use the Move remote as a torch to cast shadows that reveal new paths that you need your character to follow to reach the exit. It’s an inspired idea and opens up all sorts of possibilities as you bend and stretch the shadows to create trampolines, doorways, and holes, as well as creating the exits by combining the shadows of an rectangular block and a circle. Some levels seem impossible to complete at first, but then the answer appears right in front of your nose, and you’re left cursing yourself for being so stupid that you didn’t see it before. The game gives you a generous time limit to complete each stage, but your man can die by falling off the level, or by being caught between moving shadows. There are two other modes available to play called Echo and Paint. Echo has you guiding your man to pick up copies of himself, which are strewn around the level, while Paint sees you guiding several marrionettes who are all coloured differently. These men paint the levels that cast the shadows. You basically have to cover a certain percentage of the level to progress to the next stage. All the game modes are played on the same stages, though there is an editor that allows you to create your own puzzle layout; but we found it just as mind melting as the main game, and it goes to show how much effort must have gone into creating the puzzles in the first place. Echochrome ii isn’t for everyone, the minimalist style and laid back gameplay could put a lot of folk off, but if you give it a go you’ll find a creatively rich experience that is quite brilliant.

It doesn't look like much fun, but echochrome ii is a great game.

Move Mind Benders could be called a cynical way of putting Move games on shelves in time for Christmas, but there’s no denying that all three of these games are very good puzzle games that will give the family plenty of reason to ditch that dusty old game of Kerplunk, and charge the Move controllers that have had their glow dimmed by lack of use.