Ultratron (Xbox One) - Review

Ultratron is out now on Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

I have had this game since release, so as you can tell this review has taken me awhile to write up. I bet you're probably wondering how the hell I could have taken this long to review a simple twin-stick shooter? Well here is the very embarrassing answer: I SUCK at this game.

Before I wrote my review I wanted to actually get to the end. I cannot get to the end :( I have tried and tried and tried, but I am just not good enough to actually finish this game. I am really, really bad at twin stick shooters.

So now my gaming embarrassment is out there lets get into the review.

Ultratron is an old-school arcade style twin-stick shooter. God that was a mouthful. Yes I speak as I type too. Everyone has been killed by robots and you are the last humanoid battle droid with one mission and one mission only, AVENGE THE HUMANS!!

We all know how a twin-stick shooter works at this point. If you don't WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? You get to upgrade your battle bot if you collect enough floaty bits that disperse when you kill the nasties. The upgrades are absolutely necessary to get further into the game, so think about what you upgrade carefully. I'm not so good with the dodging so high shields was a must have for me from early on.

The game handles SO well. The controls are super-responsive and you never feel like you lost the game for anything other than your own lack of skill, which is how a twin-stick shooter should be. The screen gets mega busy with nasties and I didn't notice any lagging, the game works seamlessly. It really is a masterful example of the twin-stick genre.

There's even a coop mode. Although I didn't fare much better playing it with my partner, it is nice to be able to share the blame.

I need to get over my dislike of the pricing of the ID@Xbox games, and stop comparing them to the much cheaper XBLA and XBLIG games of the previous generation. This is simply where we are now whether we like it or not. So considering that games like Tower of Guns are £4 more expensive than this, I'd say this is a steal at £7.99. It's a great, fun little game that you will keep picking up to have just one go at. Then lose two hours to it.

8/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Funk of Titans (Xbox One) - Review

Funk of Titans released this week on the Xbox One priced at £7.99/$9.99. Billed as a fast-pace side-scrolling platformer you play Perseus, a guy told by Zeus to go and slay the musical titans that are Pop, Rap and Rock so that Funk can prevail.

To do this you must master the art of 'Funk Fu' which means basically you must be able to time your button presses, on the Xbox One 'A' jumps and 'X' attacks. To get through each level you must basically jump and attack at the right time. And that's it.

Perseus does not stop moving so timing really is everything. You'll find various obstacles in your way, including random fires and spike pits, as well as the weedy little guards. Bounce on their heads a la Mario or cut them up with your weapon the choice is yours...but this is the only choice you have in this game really. And if you're looking for 100% completion you don't even have that. To get 100% on each level you must earn three medals; 'Intactus' (completing the level with your jacket still on), 'Vinylus' (collecting all of the vinyl) and 'Pegasus' (for getting the Pegasus, a wooden horse with a rocket attached). The vinyls will sometimes be resting on an unknowing guards head, therein forcing you to jump on it.

There are some customisation options, but except for some of the weapons (which you will need to unlock certain gates) they offer no difference in gameplay. I would have thought that having a helmet on would you give you one extra hit pint, but that isn't so. If you get hit once then your jacket falls off. Get hit again and you die and can retry from the very beginning of the level. There are no checkpoints, which usually I wouldn't miss given that the levels are so short, but they are so dull that having to go from the beginning again honestly feels torturous.

Getting the Pegasus from each level grants you a 'Flappy Bird'-esque level in which Perseus flies on his Pegasus and tries to collect coins and most of all, not crash. The whole game just feels like a fish-mash of non-original ideas. The 'Titan' levels are a dance off between Perseus and the Titan of that level. You watch them do a dance and then you press buttons to complete your dance. There is no rhythm in these button presses - they just pop up in the position they are in on the controller randomly. I mean you have to press them before they disappear but for a music game this should really have been a more timed event. Something scrolling along the bottom I feel would have been much better, where you have to hit the button at the right time, and most importantly in time with the music to progress.

Graphically the game is pretty nice and the music would have been great...if it didn't repeat quite so much. The controls, whilst nothing new, do work well and are responsive. The game has clearly been made well, it is just the idea of it that I can't get behind.

I feel awful slamming this game, I really do. I wanted to like it. I always want to support indie devs, but I can't recommend this game. It should have been a mobile game. But saying that, that market is so saturated with games like this that Funk of Titans maybe wouldn't have gotten the recognition it deserves on that format. It would have worked wonderfully there though the price point would have had to drastically change on mobile devices for it to ever get a look in. As it stands I think this game will flounder somewhat in the competitive console market, and whilst it's priced at £7.99 I believe it is just too high to just take a punt on.

4/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.