PSN / PlayStation Network Reviews

Blue streak

The backlash against Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I must have hit SEGA hard. Here was a game everyone said they wanted — a high-definition return to Sonic's 2D roots, and while it was a decent game on its own merit it didn't feel like a true continuation of those classic 16-bit adventures. It was almost like an athlete coming out of...

Awesome or naut?

It's the year 3587, and two robot armies are in a galactic struggle for power. It’s up to the elite group of combatants known as the Awesomenauts to determine the fate of this cosmic clash. Gameplay in Awesomenauts revolves around a series of three-on-three battles as each team attempts to break through the enemy's defences and...

Perplexing petals

Don't try too hard to understand. Datura is bizarre, a short adventure designed to be played in a single sitting with PlayStation Move, seemingly intended to bewilder anybody who comes before it. Yet that's one of its strengths. With no background information whatsoever, you take control of a man who is apparently as lost as the...

The weird warriors

2009's Street Fighter IV inserted plenty of coins into the ailing fighting genre, bringing it back to the forefront of competitive gaming. With six buttons on the agenda again, Reverge Labs is hoping to capitalise with Skullgirls, a new title aimed squarely at serious fighting fans. Skullgirls doesn't completely close the door on...

Kill 'em again!

Years ago, gamers' weekends weren't filled with online multiplayer binge sessions. Instead, they filled local arcades with a pocketful of quarters, ready to show off their skills and hopefully land a top score on a cabinet for bragging rights. One series that made its name in these arcades is SEGA's zombie-infested light gun shooter,...

'Armless fun

With his goofy haircut, non-existent limbs and a nose that threatens to eclipse the remainder of his face, Rayman's popularity is pretty surprising. After being sidelined in favour of screaming leporids for the last few years, the Glade of Dream's number one hero burst back in vogue after the exceptional Rayman Origins. Taking advantage...

Crash course

Between Twisted Metal, Smash ‘N’ Survive and the upcoming Fuel Overdose, PS3 has the monopoly on car combat. Gelid Games’ PSN exclusive Wheels of Destruction is yet another entry vying for attention in the crowded bracket, and it hopes to win over players with its budget price point and high-octane multiplayer. But does it...

Survivor

I Am Alive's road to release was as troubled as the journey of its protagonist Adam. Originally announced at E3 back in 2008, the project was passed between numerous developers before settling in East Asia at Ubisoft Shanghai. During its transitional years the game's changed a lot, switching distribution platforms from physical to digital...

The road less travelled

Journey is a seminal release; the kind of title that comes once in a generation. It’s PlayStation 3’s ICO: an interactive adventure that collapses the common expectations for the medium. It’s not always perfect, but its imperfections make it beautiful. Journey is a game about everything and yet nothing at all; an...

Smash and desist

Chances are, if you owned a PSOne in the nineties, you will at some time have been exposed to Destruction Derby, the main selling point of which was that violently smashing rivals' cars to pieces was actively encouraged and deemed a perfectly acceptable tactic in the rush for victory. Players understandably lapped it up and, despite...

No backbone, but still solid

Unless you live under a rock like the franchise’s titular heroes, you know about Worms. Team 17’s long-running series starring surprisingly articulate worms shooting, blasting and blowing each other up with firepower that would frighten the world’s mightiest armies has always had a loyal fanbase despite few...

Resurrected

Another one of SEGA’s classics stumbles its way onto the PSN with the zombie infested shooter House of the Dead III. With heavy roots in the arcade scene, the House of the Dead (HotD) series has been eating quarters worldwide as one of the most well-known on-rails light gun games in history. It doesn't get much simpler than HotD in...

Call of Batman: Gotham Warfare

Gotham City: the home of Batman, along with thousands of denizens who either look to the skies for the caped crusader when in need, or faithfully follow his crazed evil nemesis, the Joker. But there’s also the demented wannabes that will do anything to try and gain their 15 minutes of fame and Gotham City Impostors...

Excellent

The arcade scene of the early 90's was a great time for spare change. A handful of coins was more than money. In between laps of the roller rink and mouthfuls of pizza, any coinage you had left became tokens into another world, giving you one more shot at toppling your nemeses of choice, whether that be Shredder, Magneto or Mr. Burns. When...

Heaven or hell?

An enchanting and minimal experience, Limbo is absolutely essential. Limbo's minimalism presents itself from the outset. The opening is bereft of button prompts and exposition, settling for a delightfully simplistic title screen and an opening in which our protagonist — a silhouette of a small boy with radiating white eyes —...

Short on new ideas but strong in execution

Zack Zero is a robust platformer that's let-down by a low-budget art aesthetic and some cheap presentation. It reinforces the idea that appearances can be deceptive; what initially presents itself as a low-budget Cartoon Network tie-in actually emerges as a robust platformer with some strong combat...

AMY is an ambitious idea squandered by poor execution

Unintuitive level design and unresponsive controls headline the game's problems, but it's the utterly reprehensible save and checkpoint system that damages AMY the most. Squint and you can see what developer VectorCell was trying to achieve with AMY. Survival horror has been a heavily...

Revving restoration

We should be able to pin-point the exact moment we first played Daytona USA, but we can't. Our memory is hazy and imprecise, sending us mixed messages. It was probably in Blackpool, in the corner of a grotty arcade, with stained 70s carpet beneath our feet. Or was it at home, in the cold confines of our games room, with the glow...

Beat Hazard Ultra never lives up to the promise of its potential, but it's still a decent twin-stick shooter

Twin-stick shooters are dime-a-dozen these days. Ever since Super Stardust HD kicked off a downloadable revolution on the PS3, we've spent a good chunk of our time testing out the latest analogue-controlled blaster to launch on the...