Toto Temple Deluxe (Xbox One) - Review

Toto Temple Deluxe is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

Toto Temple Deluxe is a simple local multiplayer game that sees you battling to keep a goat balanced on your head. No, really that's what this game entails.

It reminded me a lot of #IDARB as it is a game that is simple to pick up and difficult to master. Obviously this game doesn't feature rick-rolls so #IDARB wins out but you can't have it all, right?

Keep the goat on your head and collect coins and power ups to beat your friends or family. It really is that simple. There are a few other game modes that can involve blowing up the opposing team with a bomb you trigger when they're in the vicinity. Toto Temple Deluxe is just fun for everyone. We have tried to play #IDARB with my son, but he find it a little too frustrating to get the ball in the goal. No such worries with Toto Temple Deluxe though, which means he is whooping me on a game fairly frequently these days - I thought I still had a few years of being better than him. Dammit.

Try it out if you have a decent Rewards pay back this month. Otherwise wait it out, with it's family-friendly feel I imagine this game will go on sale before the holiday season.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Super Toy Cars (Xbox One) - Review

Super Toy Cars is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

Ever wondered what it would be like to play a budget version of Mario Kart? Wonder no more!


Nintendo won't give us Mario Kart on our beloved Xbox One's and Sega have still not inserted my pleas to bring the excellent Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed to it either, which leaves the playing field wide open for someone to release a kiddie-friendly racing game. By which I mean a game so colourful it'd make LSD induced hallucinations look bland.

Super Toy Cars gives you a few different race tracks for, you guessed it, toy cars to race around. There are a number of cars to buy and mod, with an upgrade available for each part and a few different colours and paint jobs to choose from. You get points for completing races, and these points unlock the next sets of races.

The problem with this game is that everything feels half-assed. I cannot enthuse about this game at all because it is just so lacking. I spent a few hours with it, as has my son, but really neither of us were having fun! We we're going through the motions because it needed to be reviewed. Everything about Super Toy Cars feels like a cheap rip off of the bigger budget racers. Even the power-ups you can collect are boring. And none of the AI character's seem to use them, which is just weird!

This game could have been salvaged had it been for a few things, if it was more polished it would have been infinitely better, but as it stands I keep driving through the environment. A little creator mode would have gone a long way to entertaining my son and I too. The ability to make tracks for your family to play may well have kept us playing that bit longer. As it stands this game simply isn't worth even the relatively small £7.99 price tag, which is a huge shame. Skip it guys.

3/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Broken Sword 5: A Serpent's Curse (Xbox One) - Review

Broken Sword 5: A Serpent's Curse will be available on September the 4th on the Xbox One and will be priced at £19.99.

I've been a fan of Broken Sword games as far back as I can remember, when I used to sit and watch my Dad play the first game, The Shadow of the Templars on the old Playstation as a little kid. There was something about it that just captured my attention, and I remember begging my dad not to get rid of it when he'd finished with it because 'one day I want to play it'. I tried and tried on the Playstation to play through it, but only being young I lacked the know how. Years later I got it on the PC and locked myself away until I'd completed it. Since then I've completed each game multiple times and honestly, haven't bored of them yet. I actually bought the first game in iPad too, just because.

Broken Sword 5: A Serpent's Curse was released on Vita about a year ago in two parts. I bought the season pass straight away and threw myself into another adventure with George and Nico. As sad as this sounds, it felt like meeting up with old friends again, the characters are just how I remembered from my last foray into the Broken Sword world. Hell Nico still hasn't changed her outfit!

When I heard about the upcoming release on Xbox One I was super excited to play it again, man, I'm still hoping they'll somehow bring all of the old games to the console!

It doesn't disappoint. For ANYONE who has been a fan of the Broken Sword series, for no matter how long this game is a must buy. It goes back to the Broken Sword days of the original two rather than the fancy 3D graphics of the latter two. And it is all the more brilliant for it! As much as I enjoyed all of the games that Revolution have given me, my heart really does lie with the original two, they are by far the best in my opinion. With 5 they have brought back the 2D backgrounds, but have mapped the characters in 3D, giving it a slightly strange look, but one that totally works.

If you haven't already played the Broken Sword games WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Go and get one of the older ones on iPad or something and play it. Then come back and play this one. For anyone who hated the 3D games don't be put off buying this one, as it honestly recaptures the greatness of the original two.

I was worried about playing it on a console after really only playing these games on PC's for the most part, but the mapping to the Xbox controller is brilliant and works seamlessly. There were a few moments where I had lined up to click something to examine as George made his way there and missed because he was moving, but that was my fault. I was too impatient to move on and didn't want to wait for George, or Nico to get there. Unfortunately they haven't mastered the art of teleportation just yet.

I'm not gonna ruin story for you, but suffice it to say that it is too the usual standard for a Broken Sword game. There are plenty of characters to talk to as you get to the bottom of what's happened and plenty of good old fashioned puzzles to solve. I really hope that this game is the first of many MANY more to come.

10/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Ziggurat (Xbox One) - Review

 

Ziggurat is out now on Xbox One priced at £11.99.

Up to now, to my knowledge at least, there have been no other games truly like Ziggurat on the Xbox One. Steam and PSN have rogue-likes aplenty, but this seems to be the first one to come to the Xbox One. I think the closest game to this I have played is Diablo III, although it's not really a rogue-like you can't deny that the repetitive dungeon crawling is very much like that. But Diablo III featured robust customisation, a narrative, the ability to save progress. Ziggurat takes everything I enjoyed about Diablo III back to the very basics...and I love it for that! I feel like this kind of game is a perfect fit for the Xbox One, and it was a game type I was certainly craving for.

The game doesn't take itself too seriously...Carrot Minions!

A little video when you load up Ziggurat shows you the premise of the game. You are a sorcerer that must battle their way through the dungeon of Ziggurat. You will always start on the bottom floor, there are no options to save your progress through the tower and this is part of its brilliance - this game is meant to be enjoyed NOW, picked up when you have a spare five minutes but ending up making you late as you progress further than you thought you would. To get to the next floor you will need to find the portal key for that floor which will summon the floors boss. Beat him and you get to battle through another floor. If you don't manage to make it past the boss (or even get to the boss like I did a few times) then you start right back at the very beginning again. As any good rogue-like should be Ziggurat is procedurally generated, meaning no two games are never the same. Dungeons will be laid out slightly differently. The minions held within may also differ as will the locations of any upgrades and extra weapons for you to pick up.

Bosses are usually a bigger, badder version of a minion

You begin each game with a magic wand and will collect more as you progress. You can carry up to four weapons, all of which spend mana, with some spending it all extremely fast. This means you will have to exercise some control, you can't just nuke everything with the best weapon you have, you will soon find yourself with no mana and a ton of pissed off minions ready to eat your face. The shooting is good though, really accurate, particularly with the magic wand so luckily I never felt too hard done to having to use it. Ziggurat is a game that handles itself really well. It feels perfectly paced and doesn't throw too much choice at you at once. Indeed any customisation is in the form of picking out one card (of two) when you progress, making it really quick and really simple to make your character that little bit stronger.

Ziggurat is a great game. It is simply fun. The minions you come up against aren't always the usual fantasy fare, and include carrots (yes really) and magic mushrooms, but there are skeletons, wraiths and other more traditional enemies to fight too. Ziggurat doesn't take itself seriously, and it is all the better for it. There are a few issues with a drop in frame-rate when certain enemies are killed, but honestly this is easily ignored in the face of such a fun game. I feel like it is one of the first indie games on the Xbox One to be competitively priced, and I can wholeheartedly recommend you pick this one up sooner rather than later.

9/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Riptide GP2 (Xbox One) - Review

Riptide GP2 is out now on Xbox One priced at £3.99.

Yes you read that correctly, an Xbox One game that is less than a fiver! This price point is quite possibly this games largest saving grace. Who can argue with paying less than the price of a McDonald's for a game? Well I can, for one. Even though I do actually believe that this may be the cheapest game available onto Xbox One (is it? Let me know if you find cheaper!) I cannot recommend that you buy it. I am sorry, but let me explain...

I love my readers. I want you to be happy. I want to help you spend your hard earned cash on entertainment that is WORTH IT. And I just can't say that Riptide GP2 is.

Even the tricks can't keep this game interesting.

I believe that the main problem with this game is that it is a port from a previous release onto mobile devices in 2013. Yikes. Now this may work for many games, and indeed it has, but for this it just does;t. It feels like you're playing a mobile game. It is an enormous grind to feel like you're getting anywhere, which I think may be remnants of the free-to-play model on mobile. You have to earn stars to unlock future levels, which many games have pulled off with aplomb but in this it just leaves you incredibly bored. The levels just don't have enough diversity to keep you going. The AI is incredibly fierce in their fight for pole position, leaving you sometimes having to repeat the already repetitive races so as to unlock some more inevitably boring tracks.

You can buy new jet-skis, but they're insanely expensive so you will end up just upgrading your existing ski to the hilt. The numbers count in this game. You need them all to be as high as possible to stand a chance of winning but the upgrade menu (along with the regular menus really) are incredibly non-intuitive making it a drag to do any of the tasks. You can complete tricks in certain parts of the tracks, but even these feel tired.

Overall this is a game that feels like it has already had its day. It feels like a tired old man, desperately trying to compete on the consoles of today. And the sad news is that even at the really low price point it just can't. There is local multiplayer so that accounts for one star below, but there is no online multiplayer, which just seems like a silly decision really. If you are really really missing an arcade style racer then yeah I suppose you should get it, but for anyone else I'd say skip it.

3/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Ori and The Blind Forest (Xbox One) - Review

Ori and The Blind Forest is out now priced at £15.99.

This game starts out with seriously the most captivating, breathtaking beautiful opening sequence ever. And there is NO dialogue. None whatsoever. I cannot honestly remember the last time I was so drawn into a game right off the bat like this. It is simply gorgeous.

The music is sublime, a real joy to listen to. So much so that I have just left the game on in the background whilst I make dinner. It's gorgeous and so so fitting to the game. Its emotive music at its very best and is without doubt better than having a narrative voice for this game.

Upon saying that though, I realise I am mistaken. There is a narrative voice. But it is one that makes no sense without reading the subtitles, that are wonderfully blended into the picture on screen. The story is told by a man with a very deep and lovely voice, who to my untrained ears speaks in complete gobbledegook. But, like everything else in this masterpiece of a game it is divine to listen too. This is a game woven together with such attention to detail it is hard to not fall completely in love with it.

One of the most captivating opening sequences ever

I think you'd have to have a heart of stone to not fall for Ori and Naru. I confess to feeling utterly heartbroken by the end of the opening sequence. Whilst so many games seem to be shunning the idea of creating a lasting relationship between player and character, this game gives you that by the bucketload. It has ALL THE FEELS.

I'm not going to ruin the story for you so lets move onto the gameplay. The beginning of the story sees you playing for a little while as Naru, the big fluffy thing cuddling Ori in the picture below. He moves just how he looks he would. He makes the controls feel a little slow and pretty heavy. This is something you may not notice until you take control of Ori, the little white rodent thingy. My kids took to calling him a rabbit fairy, so I'll go with that. Once you take control of Ori the controls become fast, responsive, bouncy and a little skittish. Just like the animal that you are controlling. Just another little thing that leads to me believing this to be one of the more polished games I've played this year.

The sweetest characters ever

The game is a platformer, albeit a beautifully packaged one, but we all know there's nothing really new to bring to a platformer. Expect to be executing a lot of jumps where you have to get the timing just right, the run up distance just right, or do as I do, which is closing your eyes and praying to the gaming Gods that you'll land Ori on the other side rather than in the pit of spikes awaiting you below. Ori and The Blind Forest immediately reminded of Limbo, and at first I wondered whether this was purely down to the shadowy creatures you can sometimes see at the forefront of the picture. But it isn't just that. This game is a lot about trial-and-error playing, just as Limbo was. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just something to bear in mind if you're not the type of gamer that can deal with multiple deaths. Some parts of this game are really incredibly difficult so you will die.

Gorgeous level design

The game does have a skill tree, which enhances all of Ori's skills once you have earned enough experience. Whilst this does attempt to bring something more to what is essentially a simple platformer I do feel like the game didn't necessarily need it, although it does feel good to see your progression in a succinct way. The Soul Link enables you to save your game at any point as long as you have enough energy to fill one of the little blue balls at the bottom of the screen. This is a great idea, but sometimes I was left having to redo what felt like large parts of the game because I hadn't had enough energy to complete a new Soul Link. Still though this isn't a negative, it just makes you more accountable for your (or Ori's) fate.

I am really struggling to think of anyone who wouldn't like this game. True you may not love it, but I think it'd be really difficult to profess that you dislike Ori and The Blind Forest. It is an amazing game, absolutely gorgeous  and a great Metroidvania style platformer. At £15.99 I would have said it might be bit pricey, but with the slew of games coming out at around the same price point and not offering as much I'd say it is definitely one of the fairer priced games of recent memory.

10/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.