SlashDash (Xbox One) - Review

SlashDash is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

SlashDash is a local multiplayer only game where you control some cute little ninjas through a few different game modes. And by local multiplayer only I really mean multiplayer only. Yes SlashDash can only be enjoyed if you have 2-4 people in the same house who all want to play the same game. I live with my partner and our two kids and I still didn't get to play much of this game.

Maybe that's all the review I need to give really, but obviously I'll carry on. That is the biggest problem by far with this game, the lack of any kind of single player mode. I actually really like SlashDash, but I'm only able to play it when I can prize my son off Skylanders and/or my partner off of Batman. My daughter is still too young to play properly, but I send that she'll be the most difficult one ever to coerce. Trust me 'headstrong' is just not strong enough to describe her.

Anyway, I digress. In SlashDash you can play as a team or in a free-for-all. Unfortunately the four modes included don't allow you to change between these; only two of the modes allow for team play, these are Capture the Flag and Assassination and are by far the more interesting modes. And these are the modes I have spent the least time in due to not having 4 people willing to play SlashDash at the same time. Bummer.

So I played Death-Race and Mirror Match the most. These were, I suppose, interesting enough for some quick party play and whilst we were playing everyone did have fun. But it does soon feel a little tired and there are only nine maps to choose from so everyone got bored by it pretty sharpish. I suppose if we'd had a few friends round we could have got some kind of tourney going, but in all honesty my hearts just not in it. 

Maybe it'll be a game I'm grateful for in a few months time, but reviewing this has felt like a chore so I won't be turning it back on anytime soon. The graphics are cutesy and the game does control well, but for me if a game has to be played multiplayer then it should include an online multiplayer too, if only to make the job of reviewing it that bit easier!

3/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Spectra (Xbox One) - Review

Spectra is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £5.99.

Spectra had me intrigued from the moment I first saw it. I'm a sucker for simple music games and in my head Spectra was going to be a game where you moved with the music. A game which had your little ship on a track, that was interchangeable with either a flick of the stick or a tap of the trigger.

Unfortunately it isn't any of those things. Whilst the music is fantastic it feels like just an addition to the level. The obstructions you will encounter along the way don't happen in time to the music as I thought they might and crashing into them has no effect on the music whatsoever, which I found pretty disappointing. 

The ship isn't on tracks either, you can move it as little or as much as you would like. Which does bring an extra challenge as you now have to battle to simply stay on the track, but because you have no control over the speed at which your ship travels it doesn't fit very well. It feels just like an infinite run kinda game, but it lacks the precise movement the best games in that category have, meaning that it falls short of being a big hit. 

None of the tracks on which you race seem to be any different from each other either. If you play a few levels on this game in one sitting boredom really begins to set in, it's pretty tedious. Add to that that you can't just simply restart through the pause menu if you've made a mistake and this game really starts to get annoying. 

Spectra is cheap and as I said the music is so brilliant, but unfortunately having no real change in track design makes the music pretty arbitrary. There's no real sense of progression with the game, yes you progress through levels but you only end up on a very slightly different level. I'm struggling to think of anyone to recommend this too, maybe fans of this style of music? But even then I'd say you can afford to wait for a sale, and see whether the soundtrack is available elsewhere. The music is definitely the best thing to takeaway from this mediocre game.

4/10

SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Game of Thrones Ep. 5 (Xbox One) - Review

The next instalment of Telltale's Game of Thrones game came out last week. Episode Five of Six (eurgh how can it be almost at the end?!) is entitled 'A Nest of Vipers' and picks up where we left off, obviously. But is Episode Five as good as its predecessors?

I have to admit to being bitterly disappointed with this episode. It definitely feels like the lull in the series and has left me wondering whether Telltale should have just stuck to a five episode series as they have done with all games prior to this. It clocks in at very little over an hour long, and when you consider that much of this hour is spent watching cutscenes this episode really does fall short of what you would expect from Telltale.

I could forgive this though if it was edge-of-my-seat storytelling, but aside from the last few minutes which were pretty damn good, it really isn't anything that special. It feels very much like they are tying off a lot of lose ends ready for the next episode, but none of it is that exciting for now. And maybe I was being silly but I was kinda expecting this to be the best episode of the game, seeing as the penultimate episode of the show is usually the one where all the shit goes down.

This episode was the first one where I found myself plagued with bugs too, which was really unfortunate. For the vast majority of my playthrough I had little to no sound, something which was definitely not a problem on my end as some sound was getting through. There is nothing more disengaging in a game like this as having to do the RTE's with no sound effects. I found myself having to dodge blades with no real indication of whether I had actually dodged it effectively or not and with no real warning at all. For the most part the speech came through fine, it was the sound effects that didn't and I have to say I'd have preferred it the other way around, at least with speech you have the option of viewing subtitles.

All this being said it was still a fairly enjoyable foray into the world that Telltale has envisioned. We got to find out who was the traitor inside Ironrath, and I would be interested to see whether it changes depending on decisions you have made throughout the game. Things come to a head for the Limping Lord of Ironrath and the end of the episode is truly frantic.

Overall I'd say this is definitely the weakest episode of the Game of Thrones series so far, but I am still excited to see what is coming next. And anyway, if you wanted the Game of Thrones game you've bought the Season Pass, so it's no extra money out of your pocket for this episode. I just wish it could have reached the climes of the previous ones, as they were bloody fantastic.

Quantum Rush: Champions (Xbox One) - Review

Quantum Rush: Champions is available now (US Marketplace only) and is priced at $14.99.

Yes for my readers outside of the US you will have to change your Xbox locale to be able to download this Wipeout-esque racer. So is it worth it?

Well in a word, no. Unfortunately Quantum Rush: Champions feels very much like a budget version of Wipeout that has been rushed out to cash-in on the gamers that are hungry for them to make the jump to the current gen of consoles. I feel like there were plenty of good ideas that went into making Quantum Rush: Champions. There are some really well designed tracks and a plethora of game modes to play, but unfortunately it seems that the developers definitely leant more towards quantity than quality. Whilst it is nice to have such a large amount of choice, it would have been infinitely better to have, say, three game modes done well rather than loads that are just alright.

The graphics leave a lot to be desired too, Quantum Rush: Champions will definitely not be grabbing any awards for its graphical beauty. It's blocky and does feel very much like a last gen offering, made worse by the issues I was plagued with. There was a bit of screen tear, but to be honest that could be ignored, the jittery frame-rate however could not, and means that this game really suffers from feeling like a budget release. When it is priced at $14.99, which I'm guessing would be £11.99 in our UK Marketplace, I just don't feel like it's cheap enough for the game we are given.

I could ignore the graphical problems though if this game was really fun to play, but unfortunately it even falls short on that front. Yeah I suppose if you picked it up and did one track at a time then maybe you'd find it fun, but for me it just wasn't, and definitely isn't a game I could while away an hour or so on. It controls quite well and feels responsive which is a huge plus, but unfortunately everything else just takes too much away from the experience for it to ever be a massive hit.

It's hard for me to recommend this one guys, as I know there are many people waiting for a Wipeout game to come out this gen. But I'd say keep holding out hope for that instead of spending your hard earned money on this one. It feels cheap, and really it isn't, there are many games on the Marketplace at this price point that are infinitely more fun. Save your money.

2/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Toro (Xbox One) - Review

Toro is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £15.99.                        

I will begin this review with a brief WTF moment. First of all I hope by now that you see that I truly consider the price of a game before I recommend it to you, my dear readers, and notice that it is very rare that I recommend a relatively unknown title that is priced this highly. Secondly, where the hell did you get this price from Reco Technology?! Seriously?!

Now even if the game was good, which it really isn't, I'd likely say wait for a sale. Consider that it is a game centring around a bloodsport that is pretty much only still popular in its country of origin and I'd probably say skip it altogether. Hey, I'm not gonna preach at ya, if you wanna play at being a bullfighter then go right ahead, but do yourself a favour and find a better game to do it on!

Have I accidentally put a PS1 disc in?!

I'm gonna keep the text brief and let the picture speak for itself with this review. The music in this game is great, really authentic feeling. The ambient sounds, not so much. Graphically the game is appalling, which is a real shame as the loading screens are actually pretty beautiful, and show some real potential. But no. Reco Technology saved the pretty for the loading screens and gave us graphics circa 1996 for the actual game. GREAT decision guys! Gameplay is dull and unresponsive, and in all honesty playing it is a complete chore. Even navigating the menu is a pain in the arse, no analogue stick allowed on these fugly menus! 

Honestly, skip this game, even if it is a free Game with Gold at some point in the future. It's not worth the download time or the HDD space. It joins Tower of Guns in the list of games I have uninstalled from my harddrive. This was SO bad though that I'm tempted to go back to Tower of Guns and be nicer to it. Hmmm, maybe not.

It could have been SO much better!

              0/10 SKIP IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Batman: Arkham Knight (Xbox One) - Review

Batman: Arkham Knight is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £59.99 in the Xbox Store. Obviously other retailers will vary.

I'm gonna start this review with a confession. This is the FIRST Batman game I have played. Please don't take my gamer status away from me. I have always had the intention to play them, but not done so well with the making the time to play them. So I had my fella (who's a massive fan and has played them all) give me a run down of the story from the previous games and I begun my foray into Gotham. Hopefully you don't hate me too much after that previous statement. I'll hazard a guess that at least some of you will stick around to listen to what I have to say about this game. Hell, maybe some of you will respect the opinion of a newcomer to the game universe. I'm guessing anyone who is annoyed about my lack of prior experience has already closed off this tab in a rage. But I'll continue...

I'm gonna keep this review spoiler free. It is my belief that you can review a game well without ruining the experience for people. Don't get me wrong, spoilers don't really annoy me, they usually get me more excited if I'm honest, but I know there are many people who hate them. My fella included. If you want spoilers or to chat about the game with me you can email me (danniekittengaming[at]gmail[dot]com) or come chat on Twitter (@DannieKitten).

The Arkham Knight.

The story of Arkham Knight I thought was pretty good although it took awhile to warm up. I think I was about 40% of the way through the main storyline before I felt like it was good. And it still had moments where it dropped off slightly but the last half an hour is pretty much gaming perfection, both the story and the gameplay. It has moments where it really shines, but just as many where the quality of the storytelling dips and isn't as exciting as a Batman game should be. I have to be honest and say that I was surprised when it was revealed that the Arkham Knight of the title wasn't Batman. I honestly went into the game believing it was another name Batman was known as, or would be known as, and was very surprised when he was introduced as a villain. I mean it all makes sense now, but I was really surprised at first. 

The bone of contention with many players...

Now unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about the Batmobile. You've no doubt heard some very bad things about it. It has caused quite the stir. I hated it. At least until I switched Battle Mode to 'Toggle On'. Then I spent a good while loving the freedom it gave me, the speed at which I could race between missions and the destruction I could cause along the way. It was fast and armoured so I could knock thugs off the road as I raced through Gotham. But this soon became a little tired. And more than that, it felt like it got in the way of the 'true' Batman experience. When you're playing as Batman, you want to glide around the rooftops, drop down on unsuspecting enemies and then grapple your way to safety only to come down on another unsuspecting bad guy. The Batmobile removed that aspect of the game, unless you made the effort to slowly and methodically work your way across Gotham. The Batmobile also spends a massive amount of time in this game being forced upon you. You have to use it to solve so many puzzles and kill so many tanks that you start to wonder whether the real superhero is actually the car, and begin to really dread seeing another bloody tank or winch hook. 

Be prepared to fight a LOT of artillery.

Actually I feel like I spent more than half my time in game in the Batmobile. There are a lot of tank battles. I mean A LOT. The bad guys seem to have a never ending supply of them. Don't get me wrong Battle Mode (especially when its 'toggle on') is slick and uber-responsive, control wise. And for a good while its lots of fun too, but you can have too much of a good thing. The driving of the Batmobile did feel very arcade-y, especially when you consider how much that thing must weigh! It took a lot of getting used to, and at first I was smashing everything up on my way to a mission. 

Flying around Gotham is not to be missed.

When I made the effort to leave the Batmobile behind unless it was absolutely necessary I had a blast. Roaming through Gotham as the Dark Knight is a great experience, one made even more great because of the spectacular visuals. No one can deny that this game looks absolutely beautiful, well except the poor PC lot. It is graphically stunning in every way, and most shots would make a great background for your Xbox dash. 

I had a few issues with the actual flying around Gotham. I found a lot of times my grapple wouldn't go where I intended it too, and instead sent me flying half a mile away from the battle I was engaged in. To be fair this is probably more down to me and my panicked pressing of the RB button, but it was pretty frustrating. When I got it to do what I wanted though I was in my element, Gotham is a great city to view from the sky. 

Combat was mostly super-responsive. 

The combat mechanic in this series of games has long been lauded for how responsive it is, and surprise(!) it still is. Batman's movements are slick and easy to control. The charging enemies did bug me slightly, many times I had just the one guy left and was running towards him myself pressing the counter button yet was still knocked on my arse. To knock down charging enemies you have to use LT too, something which I feel makes sense when there are more enemies, but when one-on-one doesn't. Come on, Batman could floor him! 

The side quests are what stood out for me in this game. From speaking to other gamers the Riddler ones seems to be the most popular. I did enjoy saving Catwoman, but the Riddler trophies are just soooo annoying. There are far too many of them and I found myself sighing every time I spotted another. I couldn't be bothered, and for the last part of the game, I just scanned them in to come back to when I was less tired of them. I loved the Man-Bat side quest, and the serial killer stuff too, gliding through Gotham and hearing the haunting music that meant another body was nearby was brilliant. Other Batman bad guys make their appearance through side quests too, which is probably why I found them to be such a rich source of entertainment. Don't skip the side quests in this game, they are truly enjoyable. The side quests where you're getting rid of mines though are not so enjoyable, and yet another time that you HAD to use the Batmobile. 

Every. Single. Time. 

Another thing I really enjoyed about this game was the hacking. It's a simple task of twiddling the thumbsticks till you get it just right, but I thought it worked perfectly. There are times that you have to scan back through CCTV too, to find evidence and the like which was really well done and so enjoyable. I want more games to draw on the detective side of this game, as I felt it was done perfectly. The Voice Synthesiser was another of my favourite gadgets, and I loved fiddling around with the voice to get it to 100% accuracy. 

I have to admit to rather immaturely entertaining myself whenever I got a phone call (see above pic). Honestly, every time someone phoned me, no matter how grave the content of the call, I spent the entire time lining the callers head up with Batman's ears and screenshotting it. Don't judge me, I enjoyed it. 

Overall I'd say that Batman: Arkham Knight is a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt into Gotham. Yeah the story falls apart in places, but honestly the good bits more than make up for that. After the last half hour of this game I am desperate for Rocksteady to make a horror game, it feels like it would be a prefect fit. The Batmobile is annoying yes, but you can slightly counteract that annoyance by not using it when you don't need to. Once I stopped using it to travel between missions I found myself enjoying it a lot more when I did have to use it. Yes it feels forced in to the game with a shoe horn sometimes, especially when I found myself having to use it to winch down a fan that was so big I could have just walked through it (it was off), but you know what, it's there now and there's no point being upset about it. I don't feel like I lost anything coming to this as someone who hasn't played the games before, I still really enjoyed my time in Gotham, so for anyone I'd say this game is a must buy. 

Keep an eye here in the future too as I will be reviewing all of the DLC. 

9/10 BUY IT!

A copy of the game was provided for the purpose of this review.

SteamWorld Dig (Xbox One) - Review

SteamWorld Dig is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

SteamWorld Dig has been around for awhile now on other platforms. I played it first on the Vita sometime last year and I loved it. It's an easy game to pick up and while away a few hours on. That's not to say it isn't challenging though, as while yes any old dunce can pick up his pickaxe and dig up some dirt, there are few that will truly master SteamWorld Dig.

SteamWorld Dig has finally landed on the Xbox One, bringing all the digging fun to the big screens. There have been no new additions to this version of the game, it is basically a port of the previous iterations. That's not to say it isn;t fantastic though, I just feel that if you have already played it on another platform you have nothing to gain from buying it again. Unless you're a huge fan. Or need the bugger screen now your eyesight is failing. Otherwise, just keep playing it on what you have.


To the newcomers to SteamWorld Dig I'll say this; you could do much worse than pick this game up. I'd liken it to Spelunky, a game I got INSANELY addicted to on the 360 and ended up buying on the Vita too. You play as a little robot that comes to a little old town where his Uncle used to run a mine. He's dead and now it's yours to do with what you wish. The little town has an absolutely huge area underneath where you can mine away for hours on end. There are many secrets to unearth and lots of caves to explore, but in the end the game does become a little repetitive. You'll be up and down those shafts a lot. The game starts off simply enough, but I felt that the difficulty did spike, and that coincided with when I was beginning to lose interest, something which meant I wasn't exactly jumping at a chance to pick it up again.

Gameplay is slick and the graphic style is beautifully realised. There's not much of a story, but I think that only adds to the pick-up-and-play quality of this game. You're not gonna lose track of where you are up to with this game, but you may lose interest before you reach the end. I'd say pick this up if you haven't already played it, otherwise skip it, unless you're really hankering for some mineshaft action again.

8/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of the review.