August's
PS Plus offerings have dropped and at first glance I'd say they're
kinda disapointing, but don't write them off yet. I'm not too excited
as I already own half of what is on offer, but that also gives me the
ability to point out there are some under-rated gems!
Retro/Grade
This
quirky game has shown up on Plus before, but if you didn't catch it
then check it out this time around. It looks just like a normal
sidescrolling space shooter but you actually join the action at the
end of the game... you're explosive victory suddenly causes things to go a bit wibbly-wobbly and time starts to
run in reverse, meaning you have to un-dodge projectiles and suck your
bullets from the enemy. This would be pretty difficult playing as a
standard space shooter, so you in fact play more like a rhythm game,
so much so that you can even connect one of your guitar controllers
to pilot your ship. There's an appropriately thumping soundtrack,
plenty of neon and a few gameplay twists and tweaks to keep you on
your toes. Even if you only play the first level it's worth
downloading for the experience.
Patapon 3
The
vita gets yet another PSP game this month, but I wouldn't complain too
much. It's easy to forget how many great games the PSP had and a lot
of them hold up surprisingly well. Patapon is one of them, it's
another twist on the rhythm genre with a quirky art style.
You
tap out different rhythms using the face buttons, each assigned to a
sacred drum (pata, pon, don, chaka). Each rhythm is used to command
your troops, a bunch of enthusiastic eyeballs in various classes
(swordsman, archer etc). I had so much fun with these games on PSP,
and this 3rd instalment may be the biggest and most developed as each
instalment added in new features, I still like the purity of the
first game but Patapon 3 has all the bells and whistles including
online multiplayer which actually still works on the Vita. If
the gameplay strikes a chord with you be prepared for weeks of
chanting the tunes as they get stuck in your head and bobbing your
vita along in time to the beat every time you play. The only thing to
be disappointed about here is that the Vita never got it's own Patapon
game.
Rebel Galaxy
Typical
that this game pops up as part of Plus just weeks after I bought it.
I have to say it's not quite what I expected, I'm still searching for
a current gen replacement for Colony Wars but this plays a lot more
like a bunch of PC games I was playing just over ten years ago.Roam
the galaxy, run trade routes and complete combat missions while
keeping an eye out for pirates, managing your relationship to
different factions, upgrading your ship and uncovering the mystery
through story missions and dialogue. All just what i'm looking for
but the combat is less dogfighting and more naval combat, all about
relatively slow positioning of your ship to bring the right weapons
to bear at the right time, just like those PC games I was talking
about. It's a pretty neat game and relatively well made, perhaps the
nostalgia hit is enough for me to enjoy it.
It's
nice to see this kind of game make it's way to console, but hitting
Plus only a week before No Man's Sky I doubt many people will be
giving it the time it deserves.
Tricky Towers looks like a Tetris clone, only imagine Tetris with physics enabled so you have to
balance each block which makes it close to a 2D version of PSMove
classic, Tumble, it should be fun multiplayer but does feature a
single player mode too.
Yakuza
5 is another worthwhile entry and a full game rather than a small indy
offering, I've always had respect for the franchise with all it's
side quests and distractions, now's my chance to sink some time into
one.
Ultratron,
isn't one I know much about but by all accounts is a competent fresh
take on arcade shooters, it's also worth noting I haven't been disappointed with anything from one of the developers, Curve Digital.
You
might have to dig a little deeper to find something you love this
month but there's still some quality gaming to be had. Have you tried
any of these games before? Feel free to pass on you impressions for
the uninitiated; comments below.
Feel free to add your thoughts on this month's update.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I've been enjoying Retro/grade again, it takes some co-ordination but I definitely recommend you give it at least one try.
If you enjoyed Super Stardust HD you might want to give Ultratron a try too.