They both have ‘Awakening’ in the title. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, that miracle of an emotionally touching adventure on the original Game Boy, remains, for me, the best gaming experience to be had with a handheld system. But now it is joined by another titan of the small screen that squeezes everything out of its host hardware to deliver a deeply rewarding and decidedly hardcore experience – Fire Emblem: Awakening.

My most anticipated game of the year is finally here after what seems like years of waiting and it arrives in a blaze of glory. Finally this fantastic old series, once restricted only to its native Japan, is getting the attention it deserves in the west. Nintendo has placed a lot of emphasis on the game in their recent Nintendo Direct broadcasts and marketing strategies including the decision to bundle the game with a Fire Emblem branded 3DS XL. Better still the reviews have been universally adoring.

The series has always stayed in the shadows, occupying a niche status. This 3DS iteration represents the franchise’s first serious effort to break into something like the mainstream. One of the key ways in which Intelligent Systems has aimed to achieve this is by introducing a new beginner mode that switches the series’ trademark permadeath off. In this mode any units that fall in battle will be removed from play only for the duration of the map in progress, returning fit and well for the next mission. It’s a smart move and one that will surely ease a new generation of less hardcore players into the addictive mechanics of the game without forcing the stress and frustration of seeing carefully-raised characters taken away. Classic mode keeps the intense threat of permadeath and the countless soft resets that come with it. With both newcomers and long-term fans catered for, this is the Fire Emblem game for all tastes.

Since this is the sixth game in the series I’ve reviewed to date I won’t repeat the details of the gameplay verbatim except to say you play through a succession of grid-based maps organising your various characterful units, making strategic use of their weapons and advantages to defeat waves of enemies. The depths of the strategy come from unit placement, weapon choice and careful planning. There’s an awful lot more depth I could go into about the intricacies of play but I’ll leave it to you to uncover it all for yourself. Suffice to say you must diligently train a balanced team and progress carefully. Enemies will pick you apart if you make a mistake. It’s stimulating and challenging.

Awakening sets itself apart from the rest of the series with its relationship mechanic. Building support relationships between units that fight alongside each other is nothing new to the series but here the idea is placed front and centre. When entering a fight if you have an ally in  an adjacent space they will join you to lend a stat boost and maybe even offer a second strike at the enemy or block an enemy attack outright. Any time this happens the relationship between the two units improves and they will eventually be able to have a support conversation, an amusing text skit that develops the many colourful personalities, so improving their relationship. You can develop the friendship between countless combinations of characters until they have formed a very strong affinity, even to the point of marriage between male and female units reaching the S rank. Seeing your units bond this way is gratifying enough but marriage brings an extra special reward I’ll leave you to discover for yourself.

You can accelerate the bonding process by having two units pair up on the battlefield and move around as one with one unit in an active role and the other passive. This is a very smart concept as it comes with balanced advantages and disadvantages. You can protect a weaker unit by keeping them passive and gain the benefit of having two units double-teaming enemies but the passive unit will not be able to gain much experience this way and it means you can only ever attack one enemy unit with two characters. This whole system revamps the Fire Emblem experience in a smart, thoughtful way that only adds to the depth of play without sacrificing the core identity of the series. In short, it’s superb; rewarding and satisfying to delve into and full of new tactical implications to keep fans engaged.

It helps that this is a fabulous group of characters to get to know. The main Lord is Chrom, the prince of Ylisse and head of the Shepherds, a group of fighting people dedicated to protecting the Ylissean people. The story opens with him, his sister, Lissa and lieutenant, Frederick (who fulfils the traditional early tank role and is summarily ditched by most long-term FE players) finding your amnesia-suffering created character in a field. This avatar character plays a vital role in the story and will be a welcome addition for any fans of customisation. The rest of the group are a ragtag bunch of soldiers, mercenaries and villagers, each one given great personality through vivacious character art and especially the superlative writing. Standout characters include the amiably cocky fighter Vaike, amorous archer Virion and especially the deliciously twisted dark mage Tharja. Every interaction these characters have oozes with life and you will become extremely attached to them, a fact that only serves the power of permadeath all the more.

Sadly the same praise can’t be heaped on the story which is a somewhat token affair involving warring nations and plots to resurrect destructive dragons which should seem very familiar to anyone who has played a previous game in the series. There is one event in the plot coming about a third of a way through the narrative that is delivered with beautiful emotional heft and makes you wish the same level of care could have been applied to the rest of the story. It’s not a bad plot, just a familiar one and it lags far behind the intricacy and intelligence of Radiant Dawn. The saving grace is the aforementioned quality of the writing, which is nothing short of the best I have encountered in a video game. The script is smart, witty and intelligent, conveys character brilliantly and is enjoyable just to read. To put it simply, as a writer, I’m jealous of how well this game is written. I cannot praise the localisation team responsible for the English translation enough and, given the voluminous content of text to be found in the game, the extended wait for a localised version is completely forgiven.

The same attention to detail also extends to every aspect of the production. Every single facet of this game’s presentation is of the highest quality. The graphics are just beautiful; map screens shimmer with subtle details such as weather effects, ambient lighting and even wildlife. The screen is always full of detail with a colour-scheme that finds the perfect balance between realism and stylised vibrancy. The battle scenes are all well-animated and characters all look unique rather than generic colour-swapped models and the use of 3D is excellent. Some have criticised the presence of 2D sprites on the map screens but Fire Emblem has a long history of brilliant sprite work so it’s great to see that continue. The gorgeously animated FMV cut scenes that crop up in important places in the story are undeniably brilliant.

Better still is the soundtrack which is simply phenomenal. Every tune is melodious and detailed, full of orchestral splendour and spine-tingling expression. Themes range from the subtle to the grandiose, powerfully emotive and stirring. The idea of keeping map and battle themes separate has been abandoned for a single continuous theme that remains softer whilst on the map screen, growing bolder and more energetic in battles. It works fantastically well and aids the sense of immersion no end. The voice acting is similarly excellent. Most of it is limited to single expressive lines that play either in various battle situations or when characters pipe up during static text scenes but the voice work conveys massive amounts of personality across the board.

So is there anything the game doesn’t get right? Sure, the map design could be more interesting. I don’t mean aesthetically, just that the arrangement of units and landscape could be more varied. The vast majority of missions require you to simply rout the enemy which is disappointing as I like a little more variety in my objectives. These things are not remotely problematic and the design is still very good, just not to the level of something like the more adventurous Radiant Dawn.

There is, however, a whole lot of content to get stuck into. If you just stick to the main story maps you’re looking at a few dozen hours of play as it is but that would just be scratching the surface. Between missions you will find parties of zombie-like Risen popping up on the world map for you to take down at your leisure. These guys are joined by groups of actual characters that will visit your game via both SpotPass and StreetPass. You can parley with them to recruit the leader (which will be an avatar character) or fight them to add them to your army for free. Then there are the DLC maps which can be replayed as many times as you wish. The wealth of content is staggering especially when you remember there are two modes of play each with three difficulty settings.

However in these optional extra skirmishes there lies what might be a problem depending on your point of view. One of the great things about past FE games is the way the linear progression and finite battle potential limits the scope for grinding quite considerably. The Sacred Stones’ optional dungeons made it easy to train a perfect team but Awakening takes this much further. If you want a greater challenge you can always avoid these extra battles but the mere presence of the option could still be a problem for some purists. Only one thing is certain; you will never want for things to do.

The big question is; how does Awakening compare to other games in the series? Many reviewers have labelled it the best yet and while there are certain aspects such as the production values that have clearly never been better, I don’t agree. I still hold the double-header of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn in higher regard. I love the characters, the story and the variety in the map design of these games so much it would take something truly incredible to ever supplant them and as fantastic as Awakening is it still doesn’t quite measure up in those regards. But perhaps the best thing to take away from this 3DS game is the knowledge that it has tapped into a wider audience than ever before and garnered a lot of attention. Just imagine the kind of production values on show here applied to a Wii U game. Since Fire Emblem is Intelligent Systems’ flagship franchise I’d be surprised if they weren’t at least planning to develop a new game for the console. We can only wait and see.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is every bit as brilliant as I wanted it to be. Better still it completely transcends the limitations of handheld gaming to deliver an infinitely rewarding game that is equal to a high-end console-level experience. I urge you to buy it and help put the series on the map because it deserves its place in the spotlight and the more successful this game is the better future games can be.

Verdict

Design – 9

Gameplay – 10

Graphics – 10

Sound – 10

Content – 10

Overall

Nothing less than the best handheld video game for twenty years.

9.7

After the world-conquering success of The Avengers, Marvel’s on-going mission to completely dominate the movie industry begins much as Phase One did, with a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist played by one of the world’s biggest stars. It also serves as an important opportunity to get Iron Man’s own franchise back on track after his messy second outing.

Step up Shane Black, a respected Hollywood writer whose only other directing credit is the excellent RDJ-starring Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Black knows how to get the best out of Downey and his sharp, quick-witted scripted fits both the actor and character like a metallic glove. His usual tropes are all here including the all-important Christmas setting and his skills inject some much needed freshness into Stark’s story. He handles the action brilliantly and the comedy is right on the money but the film is not without fault.

The opening takes us back to 1999 via Eiffel 65 to a fateful meeting with Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian, a dorky scientist with a proposition Tony duly ignores. Fast-forward to the present and a reformed Killian again moves into Tony’s space, this time through Pepper. His plan is derived from the Extremis story arc from the comics which involves a substance that can regrow lost limbs with some fiery side-effects. It’s a muddy and often confusing story at best with unclear motivations and underdeveloped characters and plotlines. At least Ben Kingsley’s turn as the Mandarin is memorable if not in the way you might expect.

The film is at its best when it focuses on Tony. It’s not long before he’s thrust into a situation where his super-suits become unavailable, forcing him to rely on his super-brain and the assistance of a smart kid instead. The middle act of the film plays out similarly to Sherlock Holmes with Stark showing his resourcefulness and improvisation skills in a succession of engaging scenes. Meanwhile his relationship with the aforementioned youngster shines, any tiresome sentimentality it might bring in smartly nipped in the bud by an apparently ad-libbed line from RDJ.

Verdict

There are flaws but this is still a highly entertaining film full of exciting action and well-observed character comedy that sets up Phase Two very nicely.

Games

1080˚ Avalanche (GC)

The sequel to the N64 snowboarding gem comes with a greater focus on speed and thrills with a simpler but more accessible trick system and much more forgiving gameplay. It’s enormous fun hurtling through the brilliantly designed, dynamic and diverse downhill courses and the graphics and especially the sound offer a marked improvement over the original. It could still do with having more game modes and options.

8.6

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension (Wii)

The first home console outing for Wario’s 2D adventures maintains most of the series’ excellent gameplay mechanics while introducing several unobtrusive uses of motion controls. The hand drawn visuals look pretty good but not dazzling and the level design borrows from Wario Land 4. Unfortunately the game never really constructs a strong unique identity in the series and while it’s pretty fun it can’t manage the immersive and often exhilarating experience of previous entries.

7.3

Films

Oblivion (12A)

This Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi is enjoyable but rather derivative. Cruise plays yet another hero called Jack, whose job it is to maintain robot drones that protect automated installations extracting the last of the planet’s resources. Inevitably he finds that things aren’t quite as they seem. The Apple-White future-tech and visuals are marvellous, as is a lot of the action but it’s hard not to watch the film whilst making a mental list of other sci-fi movies it borrows from and it never manages to reach a truly gripping level of immersion.

Olympus Has Fallen (15)

Gerard Butler takes on the North Koreans in this credibility-stretching but entertaining action thriller in which Aaron Eckhart’s POTUS is taken hostage inside the White House. A lot of inevitable and justifiable comparisons can and have been drawn with action classics like Die Hard which casts the film in a harsh light it can’t live up to. Still, the elements for a fun, violent romp are all there and it should satisfy your blood-lust.

Books

Mist (Kathryn James)

A girl must enter a mysterious other world populated by sinister Elven to save her kidnapped sister in this ponderous and frustrating fantasy. The story fails because Gwen, the abductee is so unlikeable it’s impossible to become invested in her rescue. There’s some decent mythology and tension built into the narrative that makes it occasionally engaging and there are some good shades of grey in the struggle between opposing forces but a total lack of appealing characters and distracting overuse of similes and the phrase ‘as though’ undo what good work there is here. Worse still is the reinforcement of negative teenage stereotypes, particularly galling in a book aimed at teens.

I spent one summer doing nothing but play Banjo-Kazooie. I’d start playing in the morning and carry on until about six and a half hours later I’d beaten the game 100%. The next day I’d do it again. Of all the games I’ve played it’s probably the one title I’ve played through from start to finish the most number of times and was instrumental in my becoming a Nintendo fan.

Banjo-Kazooie is one of the great number of platformers that owes everything to Super Mario 64. It’s the best of that game’s many copycats, not because of how well it emulates the earlier classic but because of how it carves out its own identity. Dual-character single-player gameplay was nothing new in 1998; it was something Rare had been doing since the original Donkey Kong Country, games like Sonic 2 and Mickey Mousecapades did it before that. But where in all those previous games the second character was a tag-along, contributing little real gameplay merit, the dual-character concept of Banjo-Kazooie is at the heart of everything.

Banjo the bear is the hero who does all the leg-work, running, jumping climbing etc. He wears a blue backpack which is home to Kazooie, a red-crested breegull (whatever the hell that is). Kazooie is the lifeblood of everything that’s cool about the gameplay and her presence gives context to all the complex moves you can perform. She lets you jump higher, swim faster, run up steep slopes, attack with greater force, shoot eggs as projectiles and, of course, fly. The two characters blend so perfectly they become like one and playing the game is every bit as fun as Super Mario 64 as the move-set gets everything out of the controller. One of the best abilities is the feathery flap, in essence a second jump. Press and hold A in mid-air and Kazooie will flap her wings to extend the length of your jump. You can use it to change direction in mid-air and to slow your descent. Rather like Yoshi’s flutter jump it’s a very empowering move that allows you to approach platforming with complete confidence.

The story involves the ugly witch Gruntilda (who looks like a reject from The Wizard of Oz). When she kidnaps Banjo’s little sister Tooty with the aim of stealing her cuteness, Banjo and Kazooie set off into the witch’s lair to rescue her. With the help of Bottles the mole (who teaches you new moves) and Mumbo Jumbo the shaman (who turns you into different animals) you must make your way through the nine diverse worlds and progress to the top of the witch’s lair.

Banjo-Kazooie is a collect-em-up. Instead of giving you linear platforming challenges you must explore the open-ended worlds in search of various collectibles. Each world contains ten golden jigsaw pieces called Jiggies which are needed to open new worlds, a hundred musical notes which open doors to let you delve further into Gruntilda’s lair, and two honeycomb pieces to extend your life bar. You must also track down mumbo tokens to pay for your animal transformations as well as ammo for your egg-shooting and flight abilities. Jiggies are typical rewards for more difficult challenges. Some are out in the open and take some skill to reach, others are rewards for winning mini-games or helping the various characterful NPCs. You might have to track down some missing presents for three polar bear kids, compete against a crocodile in an eating contest, copy a piano melody played by a ghostly hand or rescue a dolphin trapped under a ship’s anchor. Then there are the boss fights which include scraps with an angry, orange-lobbing gorilla, a giant hermit crab and a massive box of explosives that hops after you. There’s so much to see and do it’s almost overwhelming and it’s fun just to explore and see as much of the world as you can.

Some don’t like the collectathon structure of these types of games but it works really well in Banjo-Kazooie. The worlds are all designed in ways that challenge your exploration, combat and puzzle-solving abilities and building up your collection is very satisfying. You don’t need to find everything to beat the game but going for 100% is a very stimulating challenge and you’ll need little incentive to want to explore the colourful worlds.

Many of the nine worlds follow the usual location themes for platformers. There’s a snow world, a desert world, a swamp and a haunted house but a couple do stand out. Clanker’s Cavern takes place in a sewer which is home to a huge mechanical garbage-eating shark in need of a few favours. Rusty Bucket Bay is a polluted shipyard containing a huge steam tanker. But even the more clichéd levels are a lot of fun to spend time in. The best of the bunch is Click Clock Wood, a forest level you must explore separately in all four seasons. Actions you take in one season will affect things later, for example in the spring you can hatch a baby eagle which you must nurture throughout the year until it’s big enough to fly in the winter.

This is one of the best-looking N64 games with plenty of detail in the textures and vibrant use of colour throughout. The soundtrack is just as good, packed with bouncy, upbeat tunes stuffed with personality. The same goes for the sound effects and especially the voices. Each character speaks with a series of comical grunts, growls and chirps, each one different and often hilarious. Look out for pirate hippo Captain Blubber who communicates in belches.

Banjo-Kazooie is a beautifully-presented, confidently-arranged package that is challenging and lengthy with loads to see and do. Exploring Gruntilda’s lair and the worlds contained is a real joy that nails that feeling of discovery that made Super Mario 64 so special. It may not be as important as that game but it’s one of the best games on the Nintendo 64, still enormous fun to play and a proper platforming classic.

Verdict

Design – 9

Gameplay – 10

Graphics – 10

Sound – 9

Content – 9

Overall

Everything about Banjo-Kazooie feels just right from the gameplay to the graphics and the quirky storybook comedy. One of the most genuinely fun experiences you can have with your N64.

9.6

So how does The Croods stack up? Somewhere in the middle, I’d say. The story about a modern pre-historic family escaping a vague idea of the end of the world finds pretty much nothing original to say, the setup, story and character relationships recalling The Land Before Time, Dinosaur and, of course, the Ice Age films, particularly Ice Age 4 with the way it trots out the very tired overprotective dad bit yet again.

Emma Stone voices Eep, a teenage cavegirl frustrated at her confinement to the safety of the family cave by the word of her paranoid father Grug (a sympathetic Nicolas Cage). Sneaking out one night she meets teenage caveboy Guy (Ryan Reynolds), who possesses the unique knowledge to make fire. When her family’s cave is destroyed by an earthquake they must follow Guy through a colourful and imaginative landscape in search of safety.

It’s a linear A to B adventure movie about breaking free of fear and embracing new ideas, which is ironic given that it has no ideas of its own but fortunately The Croods does have other things to recommend it. It’s absolutely dazzling to look at for starters, with textures, particle, lighting and water effects that confirm the studio is very much at the cutting edge of animation technology.

Also, critically, it’s quite funny; no Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs but I found there was plenty to laugh at, and I’m not just talking about that sloth in the trailer dramatically going ‘da-da-daaaaaa!’ a cheap but effective kiddie-baiting gag that’s milked for all it’s worth. The characters are all appealing, animated with amusingly exaggerated physical behaviour that paints a comical view of prehistoric people and the family dynamics invoke films like The Incredibles and My Neighbours the Yamadas.

So they’re a decent bunch to spend time with, well-voiced and well-observed and plenty of fun is had with their surroundings, particularly the outlandish fauna. There’s a menagerie of rainbow-coloured hybrid creatures such as elephant-mice, piranha-birds and land-whales and the film gets a lot of mileage from its creations. There are some inspired sight-gags to go with them, including an inspired idea for how the Croods can take a family picture. The energy of the film keeps it constantly watchable but all its good points don’t hide how unambitious it is narratively. The Croods gets a recommendation, it will entertain kids effortlessly and it will probably get a sequel, just don’t expect a classic.

Verdict

The number of other films I’ve referred to in this review should indicate how derivative The Croods is. As lacking as the story is it gets nearly everything else right. There’s just enough comedy, heart and visual invention to make it worthwhile.

The first part in Anthony Horowitz’s series The Power of Five is an efficiently told and highly effective supernatural mystery thriller that knows what it’s about and delivers a pretty gripping story but borrows from some old routines. You’ve heard it before, an outsider turns up in an out-of-the-way community, attracts the attention of the unsettling locals, conspiracies, strange-goings on. It’s The Wicker Man for kids.

But in spite of the clichés everything about the story works. The protagonist, a victim of tragedy, failed at every turn by the people who should protect him, is easy to root for and the loneliness of his situation effortlessly encourages sympathy. Horowitz keeps the air of mystery going for chapter after chapter as the reality of Matt’s nightmare slowly becomes apparent. The feeling of futility that pervades his escape attempts make for very frustrating reading, but I mean that in an entirely good way. You’ll want Matt to get away because it’s so easy to imagine yourself in his shoes.

It’s also pretty unflinching in its description of the horrors he faces. There are several grisly deaths and no detail is spared. The sense of threat and Matt’s vulnerability never wavers and the mystery is punctuated by a handful of very exciting sequences including one standout in a famous museum. There are some fumbles; one important character’s backstory is crowbarred in with distracting obviousness and a number of frenetic moments suffer from too much description but these are minor faults in what is a highly entertaining series opener that teases part two without resorting to a cliff-hanger ending.

Verdict

Highly recommended mystery reading that takes well-worn supernatural ideas and makes them relevant in a skilfully-told thriller.

There are few British films that look as good as this. Shot in a contemporary noir style London is presented as a glossy, near-futuristic metropolis, all glass surfaces and reflections. The cinematography is framed confidently and compliments a sharp script that delves into the slightly seedy romance of the capital’s underworld. But the story brings together betrayals and conspiracies in a very familiar routine of dirty cops and double-crosses that, while always engaging, fails to truly ignite.

But it’s not for want of players. McAvoy convinces as the damaged young Lewinski, everything from his accent to his world-weary glower coming across as authentic while Mark Strong proves yet again he is an irresistible screen presence, imbuing his former crim with sympathy. The support all seem to be on the same page with the likes of Andrea Riseborough and especially Peter Mullan providing ample entertainment value.

The main criticism of the film seems to indicate that it is hollow, with nothing below the pretty surface. I agree with this up to a point but appreciated some the shades of grey found here in certain characters that are too often missing from other films happy to keep the good guys and bad guys clearly defined.

For all the Hollywood sheen on display there’s a lack of ambition. There are a number of standout scenes; a shoot-out in a night club and one late episode that balances tension and comedy beautifully; but the film could do with more excitement to give it lift-off. I definitely recommend this film as a worthwhile and stylish cop tale that’s well-acted by all involved but don’t expect too much depth or originality.

Verdict

With an eye for Hollywood flare and a confident approach, Welcome to the Punch is worth a shout even if it is style over substance.

In 1080˚ Snowboarding you can choose from five adrenaline-junkies and a range of boards to compete in a number of events including match races, time trials and trick attacks, all of which are self-explanatory. Races are all one-on-one but that doesn’t mean it’s easy; you’ll have to master some nuanced and sometimes harsh controls to get ahead. The programming does a very good job of mixing heart-pounding speed with fairly realistic boarding physics that manages to produce a pleasingly believable simulation of the sport that still works as an arcade-style game.

The key to success is judging the risk of speed and carefully picking your route through the terrain. Speed downhill to fast and you’ll find it harder to turn away from obstacles and if you don’t line up your jumps carefully you risk wiping out upon landing. The L button handles both tucking your boarder for extra speed and executing a soft landing and there’s a subtle art to both. Carving is also essential; you can turn in big arcs to veer round obstacles but you must find a rhythm to keep yourself on course and moving fast.

It’s difficult at first; the game can be quite unforgiving to newcomers who will find themselves crashing and falling quite a lot but once you’ve got a feel for the delicate, precise gameplay it becomes fluid and exciting. Knowing how easy it is to take a tumble while you bomb downhill and manage to stay upright is a high-adrenaline experience that fits perfectly with the concept and while the game can be harsh (there’s one jump in the first course I never figured out how to land with any consistency), it’s enormous fun.

Executing tricks is a fiddly and complicated business. Grabs can be performed with a flick of the stick combined with the B button but flips and spins require much tougher inputs especially for the bigger moves. But tricks are only really relevant in the trick attack mode and offer no advantage in downhill modes in which catching big air actually slows you down. It would be mental to have a snowboarding game without a trick system but here the execution is a little off-putting and the integration lacking.

The game looks good by N64 standards with good use of lighting and a level of graphical fidelity that conveys the mountain setting very well while the courses are nicely-designed with plenty of challenging obstacles and features. The soundtrack is not so great, the music setting a slightly odd tone but at least the sound of your board carving in the snow is good. The only real problem with the game is its lack of content. With only six courses and a handful of modes there’s not really enough to do. Maybe in 1998 the game would have been fun enough to make you want to keep playing past completing everything it has to offer but that doesn’t ring true today. But while it lasts it’s a really enjoyable snowboarding experience.

Verdict

Design – 7

Gameplay – 8

Graphics – 8

Sound – 5

Content – 4

Overall

With its polished, refined controls that pose a challenge to newbies, 1080˚ Snowboarding is a very satisfying game to master and a lot of fun to play. A few more things to do wouldn’t have gone amiss though.

8.0

DKC3 follows much of the same routine as its two predecessors; you guide monkeys through an increasingly difficult series of side-scrolling levels gathering bananas and other collectibles and occasionally recruiting the aid of a menagerie of other animals. The gameplay is just as precise and fast-paced as ever and Dixie and Kiddy make an excellent team, the former making good use of her ponytail twirl ability to fly across large gaps while the latter dominates larger foes with his bulk. The balance is good but it’s Dixie you’ll want to spend the most time with.

The game branches out from previous entries with its revamped world map and focus bigger focus on collectibles. You must traverse aquatic zones on the map freely using any of Funky’s various aquatic contraptions, each new model giving you access to wider reaches of the world. Meanwhile the game is littered with various new treasures that completionists will get a kick out of hunting down for the ultimate goal of a 105% rating. That said there’s not a huge incentive to put yourself through such trials and the simple, or rather very difficult, task of reaching and beating the final boss is plenty satisfying enough.

There’s a tremendous amount of freshness in the level design that will keep you constantly on your toes. Each level seems to have some new gimmick or quirk to test you with and the ideas are often inspired, such as an automatically scrolling level that sees you climbing through a tree that is being ripped apart by a huge saw and a poisonous water level where the controls for left and right are inversed. Each new concept comes and goes quickly and usually aren’t repeated so players will have to learn new rules all the time which keeps the business of progressing interesting.

And yes, it’s hard. Beating the game without using cheat codes will take a considerable effort especially in some of the later levels but aside from some enemy placements that seem to require clairvoyance in order to avoid them first time, the game is pretty fair. Everything has been considered carefully and the challenge should never feel beyond a competent gamer. You just might have to employ some ninja-like finger-gymnastics. It’s also another stunner to look at with the same detailed sprites and environments that made the first two games such a visual treat. The soundtrack isn’t quite so memorable but is still delivered with high quality.

Verdict

Design – 8

Gameplay – 8

Graphics – 10

Sound – 8

Content – 8

Another DKC adventure, another cracking platformer with oodles of challenge and personality and tons for the obsessive to achieve.

8.9

That’s two in a row. Hollywood has never had the best track-record when putting fantasy on the big screen but it seems they’ve finally got the hang of doing at least a half-decent job that isn’t an embarrassingly unironic mess. Oz: The Great and Powerful was a pleasing example of visually-driven fantasy world-building and now Jack the Giant Slayer comes along to provide another adventure that’s light on complexity but big on fun.

But it gets off to a rocky start with a purposefully unfinished CGI backstory sequence that looks like an FMV from a ten-year-old PC game. Early establishing scenes struggle to get into gear with a hesitant script and uncertain character introductions that don’t bode well for what follows. But it’s a hump the film clears with the appearance of the beanstalk and the call to adventure.

Jack the Giant Slayer is an entertaining romp full of gross giants and thrilling CGI-heavy set pieces that importantly don’t bury the actors. It’s quite a cast, boasting the likes of Ewans McGregor and Bremner, Stanley Tucci, Eddie Marsan, Bill Nighy and Ian McShane, all of whom are excellent. Eleanor Tomlinson is fine as the conscientious damsel-in-distress Princess Isabelle but isn’t given much to work with in a script that seems more interested in the various male characters. Hoult is great as Jack, subtly interspersing wide-eyed enthusiasm with his familiar boy-next-door charm in an unspectacular but appealing heroic lead.

This is one film that definitely builds, getting better as the set pieces rack up on top of each other. The beanstalk collapse is among the most spectacular and thrillingly original sequences in big FX films in recent years and the final act ruckus is consistently exciting. Despite this the film still lacks a little heart. The inevitable romance can’t find anything new to do and while McShane conveys some moments of quiet brilliance as the conflicted king, the story never offers anything more than the diverting adventure of its story, with neither the smarts of The Princess Bride nor the ambition of The Lord of the Rings.

Verdict

Sitting comfortably above average in a screen genre that has seen more flops than triumphs, Jack the Giant Slayer is another solid historical fantasy adventure with excitement in spades.

Trine 2 follows the adventures of Pontius the knight, Zoya the thief and Amadeus the magician and their continuing adventures to save the kingdom, a journey entwined with the story of two princesses. The game is a sidescroller that takes the heroes through a variety of locations including forests, castles, caves and dungeons where they fight goblins, solve puzzles and gather collectibles. In single player you control one character at a time and can switch between them with the touch of a button whilst in co-op each player controls one character and their different strengths are combines.

Each character has unique abilities. Pontius is the heavy who is best employed dealing with enemy threats using his sword, shield and hammer. Zoya’s grappling hook is your best aid to exploration as you can use it to reach high ledges and swing across wide gaps; she can also shoot enemies with her bow. Amadeus is in charge of puzzle solving and uses his magic to levitate objects or conjure boxes and planks for various purposes. Each character can gain new abilities or upgrade existing ones by collecting magical vials. You’ll have to master all three heroes’ play styles to get the most out of the game.

The gameplay works pretty well and is fun and engaging. At times it recalls classic point-and-click adventures as you face complex obstacles and ponder how to pass and making progress through the lengthy levels feels rewarding. Things can get a bit fiddly at times, though, particularly when trying to control Zoya’s grappling hook or Amadeus’ magic. Conjuring objects is very forgiving as you can be very imprecise without penalty but you’ll often find yourself conjuring things by accident and levitating things the way you want can become a bore. There’s also the nagging regret that the game isn’t designed to make imaginative enough use of fairly realistic physics.

The developers are also guilty of reusing the same tricks time after time. You’ll lose count of the number of times you’re challenged by collapsing wooden platforms and fire-spitting plants and I occasionally found I was able to progress by using Amadeus’ summoned objects in imaginative but very goofy ways that left me convinced I wasn’t doing what the designers had intended. Having multiple solutions to obstacles is no bad thing but I wasn’t convinced this was done intentionally.

Although the level design leaves something to be desired you cannot say the same about the aesthetics. This is one gorgeous-looking game that showcases some stunning rendered environments that bring the locales to vivid life without ever feeling repetitive or empty. The use of lighting for mood and depth of field in a 2D plane is fantastic and you’ll find yourself wishing you could disappear into the background up an enticing staircase or path. It’s also great to listen to with music that evokes classic fairytale and very characterful voice acting.

The main quest consists of thirteen levels and they last a good while with a few bits and bobs for completionists to hunt down. The Director’s Cut also features a handful of Wii U-exclusive levels to get stuck into and the online mode offers yet more longevity. It’s not an enormous game but it doesn’t outstay its welcome either. Overall it’s a very satisfying package with beautiful style and a fun multi-character dynamic that is well worth the purchase.

Design – 6

Gameplay – 7

Graphics – 9

Sound – 8

Content – 7

Overall

A 2.5D sidescroller with bags of style and enough substance to keep serious gamers entertained. There are some design and control issues but the hypnotic fantasy setting and forgiving structure make it a breeze.

7.8

10. Gilder’s Theme

9. Military Facility Dungeon

8. Battle 1

7. Valua City

6. Armada Battle

5. Blue Rogues’ Theme

4. Opening Theme

3. Final Battle

2. Little Jack

1. Credits

Oz: The Great and Powerful imagines the origins of the famous wizard. James Franco plays Oscar, a small-time illusionist with a travelling circus who dreams of achieving great things. Opportunity presents itself when his hot air balloon is sucked into a twister and he is transported to the magical land of Oz, a place brimming with colour and fantasy. The first person he meets is Theodora the witch (Mila Kunis) who believes he is the great wizard prophecy foretold would come and save the land of his namesake from the wicked witch.

Taken is a straight-up adventure fantasy Oz works quite well. The opening echoes the decades-old classic with its boxed, black and white mundanity populated by members of the supporting cast who show up later in the full widescreen colour of Oz in more magical roles. Later the plot becomes a road movie as Oz sets out first for the Emerald City then in search of the witch in order to defeat her and fulfil the prophecy. When the film plays to its strengths it is visually gorgeous, the jump from black and white to colour still an effective way of introducing this fantasy land after all these years. This Oz is a wondrous place to spend time full of spectacular geographical architecture and massive scale of depth and it naturally it’s full of eccentric flora and fauna and a host of loony characters and when taken as an escape into innocent fantasy the visual aesthetics and storybook quality are an utter delight.

It’s a shame that other ingredients aren’t as sweet. The script is very lacking with scene after stuttering scene of important expository dialogue feeling clunky and lifeless. Much of the cast don’t quite seem up to the task either, Franco lacking the kind of charismatic twinkle to elevate his self-centred Oz into any real state of likeability. Of the film’s three witches only Michelle Williams seems comfortable with the material, channelling an Enchanted era Amy Adams as the whiter than white Glinda and looking absolutely lovely to boot. Kunis, and even the usually more dependable Rachel Weisz aren’t able to get a firm grasp on their respective characters and make them compelling. Even Zach Braff’s trademark charm doesn’t quite penetrate the CGI layers of his flying monkey Finley as much as you’d like. But it’s another digital creation that proves the best character in the form of the Joey King-voiced China Doll whose fragility and playfulness combine into an incredibly sympathetic side-kick.

But for all these shortcomings, Sam Raimi’s vision of Oz does manage to maintain a strong and pleasing central theme of the power of illusion, which ties in beautifully and in one sense in the plot, very directly, with the magic of cinema itself. What we have is an entirely illusory world full of illusory people made possible by imagination and movie wizardry and though it might be as fraudulent as a stage-magician’s act, it contains just as many wonders.

Verdict

A few vital components short of greatness, Oz: The Great and Powerful, is nevertheless a very agreeable and entertaining plunge into other-world fantasy that will never live up to the classic that inspired it but might just raise a few smiles of its own given the chance.

As a basis for a future-dystopia it’s inspired but it comes with a glaring problem. Are we really expected to believe that post-nuclear war society’s answer to uphold peace indefinitely is to create a starkly segregated civilization that regards faction as more important than family? The flaws in this plan are all too obvious and it’s one of a number of flaws in the book that prevent it from achieving greatness which is a shame because otherwise Divergent is actually rather good.

The story follows Tris, a sixteen-year-old member of Abnegation, a faction so firm about directing attention away from the self that its people aren’t even allowed to look in the mirror. It seems Tris isn’t entirely happy with thinking only of others because at the annual choosing ceremony in which kids coming-of-age decide which faction to ally themselves to for life, she picks Dauntless. These transfers are rare (although nearly every character of any note in the book seems to be one), but rarer still is Tris; she is a divergent, meaning she doesn’t really belong in any one faction, something a highly advanced simulated reality serum reveals. She must keep this identity as divergent a secret or risk being killed.

The main body of the story follows Tris through the ordeal of Dauntless initiation, a gruelling series of training and trials designed to rank new inductees according to their relative bravery. This involves brutal fights with other initiates, jumping off tall buildings and being subjected to horrifying simulated experiences of her worst fears. The book is at its best when its being nasty to Tris and those around her and a number of scenes of violence and other harrowing experiences really draw you in as does the character of the mysterious Four (yes his name is Four and yes it is quite annoying), an instructor that seems to fascinate her.

The narrative makes semi-successful use of the first person perspective, a writing technique I’ve never much liked. The problem with it is that by delving deep into one central character we end up being distanced from others. This actually works in Divergent because Tris is very much alone but she still comes across as more introspective and self-conscious than she would otherwise and reading about her every thought and feeling can get wearing.

The world of the setting is also very underdeveloped. There’s endless detail about the factions but little of anything else. The story features a very advanced serum to induce these incredibly real simulated experiences but there’s no word on any other technical advancements. Tris also takes time to warm up to. Hers is a story of a spirited survivor but she’s presented with too many negative qualities (selfishness, a lack of pity) early on to make her endearing, at least at first. The story takes her on a well thought-out journey of self-discovery put it takes a while to get a grasp on her nonetheless. It’s also rather difficult to believe that her new violent life is an improvement despite occasional affirmations that she’s much happier.

Verdict

Faults aside this is a rich and involving story that is well worth reading. The ending doesn’t offer that much closure but with another two books to follow that might not prove a problem.

When Bowser crashes the Mushroom Kingdom’s annual sticker festival (that place has a hell of a lot of festivals) the magical Sticker Comet explodes, releasing the six Royal Stickers all over the Kingdom. One Royal Sticker lands on Bowser, granting him enormous, something he celebrates by doing what he does best and kidnapping Princess Peach. It’s up to Mario and a Sticker Fairy named Kersti to track down the Royal Stickers, restore the Sticker Comet to normal and save the princess.

Sticker Star dispenses with a number of series tropes in a way that will be difficult for fans to swallow. There are no partner characters (Kersti plays a passive role rather like SPM’s Tippi) and many of the traditional RPG elements, including such basic things as gaining experience points, have been ditched. The turn-based battles are entirely focused on your sticker collection. As you travel you will find innumerable stickers attached to walls and objects waiting for you to peel them off to place in your album. Each sticker represents a single attack in battle. Most involve some sort of jumping or hammer attack but there are various other weapons such as the traditional fire flower and mushrooms for healing. Getting the best out of attacks requires good timing of pressing the A button at strategic moments to increase the effect. The kicker is that each and every sticker is single-use.

As a basis for an RPG battle system, this single-use sticker approach is fairly original but somewhat flawed as you will frequently find yourself in an impossible situation where you won’t have the right stickers to win a battle. This is particularly the case early on when your album is small and you will find yourself backtracking to a shop to buy what you need. Conserving important stickers becomes critical and, since there are no experience points, simply avoiding battle is a more viable option than usual but the whole system comes with a learning curve that’s just a little too steep and the game gets very frustrating when you don’t have the right stickers for the situation at hand.

It extends beyond battles too. At any time during exploration you can hit Y to enter pauperization mode. This mode freezes the action and allows you to peel loose scraps of scenery to place back somewhere else, an idea that makes for a half-decent puzzle element. The problem is that there’s often no indication of where you can do this so you will inevitably find yourself in a situation where you must have a scrap you’ve missed in order to progress, prompting tiresome back-tracking.

Then there are ‘things’. These are solid 3D objects such as scissors or a fridge that can be found throughout the world. By taking them to a specific place you can turn them into stickers for use either in context-sensitive situations or in battle. These thing stickers are particularly indispensable against bosses and there are several boss fights that are basically impossible unless you have a particular thing sticker in your possession. Don’t have it? Prepare for more back-tracking.

It’s a shame that this flaw in the progress design mars the experience because once you find the balance, Paper Mario: Sticker Star is a rather enjoyable game. The imagination employed in the presentation of the paper world is better than ever and it naturally all looks and sounds fabulous, packed with that essential Mario charm. As you gain more pages for your album and find more and more powerful stickers the battle system becomes very engaging. You can pay some coins for a shot at using two or three stickers in a row, an option that goes some way to make up for the lack of partner characters and when you are able to make best use of your stickers there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had.

The other problem with the game is only really apparent when comparing it to previous entries. The best thing about the Gamecube’s The Thousand-Year Door, the clear highlight of the series and one of my favourite RPGs, was the creative situations you constantly found yourself in. At one moment you might be fighting in a pro-wrestling league and at another solving an Agatha Christie-style mystery on a train. You could even play as a stark naked Princess Peach at one point. The Wii’s Super Paper Mario, for all its faults, maintained much of that imagination but Sticker Star reverts to a somewhat generic structure.

The world map resembles those found in many of Mario’s platformers, offering a series of levels with a straightforward find-the-goal objective. There is some variation, such as a quest to round up the wayward segments of a wiggler as they race from level to level and a few other concepts that break up the monotony but there’s none of the inspiration of previous games. The worlds themselves are also painfully generic, a forest, a desert, and ice world etc.

But for all these complaints Sticker Star is still a very enjoyable game when it’s not being insufferably frustrating. The degree of quality on show is just as you would expect from Intelligent Systems and players willing to give the game’s new concepts a chance will get a lot out of it. This is one of those occasions where a title that came with high expectations turned out to be a disappointment. It’s still a good game, it just turns out that the most remarkable thing about it is its flaws.

Verdict

Design – 6

Gameplay – 7

Graphics – 8

Sound – 8

Content – 7

Overall

An engaging and original RPG with a robust twenty-hour campaign that ultimately falls short due to some regrettable progress structuring. Fans and new players will still find plenty to enjoy but this is no The Thousand-Year Door.

7.9

I sometimes wonder what my life would be like now if I’d never played Skies of Arcadia. It’s a scary thought. Of all the books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched and games I’ve played nothing has given me as much inspiration as a creator of escapist stories. When I was in my teens, this game, above everything else steered my creative instincts towards the kind of wide-eyed, breathless adventure it has become my mission to write. The game’s breezy story, incredibly likeable characters and immersive world have helped me understand the kind of tales I want to tell. It’s difficult to compare games to books and films but I can say with confidence that there is not a single movie or novel I love as much as Skies of Arcadia and although there are two video games I hold in higher regard, neither of them convey the same sense of total adventure, which is really saying something because they’re both Zelda games.

Originally a Dreamcast game released in 2000, the game was ported to Nintendo’s Gamecube in 2003 under the title Skies of Arcadia: Legends, bringing with it a bunch of new side quests and content while cutting out some of the more adult references. Developed by Overworks, a developer that has since been absorbed into the main body of Sega, the game is a classic Japanese RPG that embraces the old traditions of turn-based combat and randomly generated battles. The story draws inspiration from the works of Jules Verne and presents a richly imagined and wonderfully appealing steampunk world of continents floating in the sky and the romance of Air Pirates.

The hero is Vyse, the adolescent son of the head of a band of pirates known as the Blue Storm, who belong to a wider brotherhood of heroic scoundrels called the Blue Rogues. The life of a Blue Rogue involves attacking and boarding military air ships, thieving valuable cargo and treasure and rescuing those in peril. The game begins with the Blue Storm assaulting a battleship of the Valuan Armada, a sequence in which Vyse makes his memorable and effortlessly cool entrance. Vyse is suave, brave, determined and resourceful and these qualities are not tempered by any of the cliché JRPG character flaws. He doesn’t have to grapple with personal angst or revenge issues, he’s just a well-adjusted young hero with a badass pair of cutlasses. He might be the most likeable character in video game history, the Marty McFly of interactive entertainment.

Joining Vyse is Aika, a bright-eyed tomboy with eccentric ginger hair who fights with a boomerang. Together they make one of the most appealing heroic duos in history and their exuberance makes the whole game an absolute breeze to play. At the beginning of the story they rescue a girl wearing strange white clothes who was taken prisoner on the Valuan battleship. The girl, Fina, is Aika’s opposite, demure and reserved, but conceals an important mission. After taking her back to their home on Pirate Isle Vyse and Aika set off in search of a moon stone they see fall on nearby Shrine Island only for the Valuan Armada to attack their home while they are away. They return to find Vyse’s father and the crew of their ship, the Albatross, as well as Fina, have been taken to the Valuan Empire’s capital city where they face execution for piracy. The pair set sail in an uncertain bid to rescue them and so begins an unforgettable adventure as Vyse, Aika and Fina travel the world of Arcadia to prevent the evil designs of the Valuan Empire and its imposing Armada.

The plot is not the most intricate or even original; brave young heroes search for various MacGuffins against the threat of an evil empire, but it’s still the best story I’ve ever found in a video game. Where other JRPGs overload their stories with despair and apocalyptic disasters, Skies of Arcadia feels refreshingly light-hearted and free. This is thanks to a clear focus on the pure sense of adventure as you follow the appealing characters through an imaginative and immersive fantasy world.

Arcadia might be my favourite fictional universe. A world dominated by the power of its six colourful moons, it is a brilliantly realised frontier of mystery and discovery made accessible by the joy of sailing. But it’s not the massive, empty void that Wind Waker’s Great Sea sometimes felt like; this is an ocean world with a rich and varied geography. Islands and land masses are relatively few but there are plenty of huge rock formations and other elements of geographical architecture to give the world shape. The invention in the landscape even extends to the necessity of keeping the player confined to certain areas; hulking stone reefs and impassable sky rifts block your progress until you can upgrade your ship to pass through them. More than this the world is populated by a huge cast of larger-than-life characters and memorable locales to explore. The most vivid is Valua’s capital city, an unremittingly bleak urban dystopia where the poor are confined to run-down slums while the rich party it up in opulent surroundings. This contrasts boldly with the lushness of the jungle village Horteka and the vibrancy of such civilizations as the desert-bound Nasr or the oriental Yafutoma. That vivaciousness extends just as potently to the dungeons from the dark and stormy Valuan catacombs to the misty wonder of the Lost City of Rixis. It’s a rich, varied and interesting world full of secrets and new things to discover and you will definitely want to save it.

Finally the supporting cast enrich the story with flavour from the various amusing shopkeepers to the villains themselves. The Valuan Armada serves as a suitably imposing opposition throughout. One smartly conceived early scene introduces each of its admirals, all of whom manage to stand out by being very different, from the flamboyant and superior Alfonso to the crazed De Loco. Encountering and fighting them one by one whether in hand to hand or ship to ship combat throughout the game remains brilliantly exciting. The Lord of the Armada is Galcian, an imposing and mysterious military genius who lends a palpable sense of brawn to the threat posed by Valua. Even more mysterious is his vice-captain, Ramirez, a cold and callous young swordsman whose cruelty and darkness provides the story with a powerful sense of the unknown.

Meanwhile you will continuously find yourself swapping out your fourth main party member as the story progresses. First in line is Drachma, a hefty and crusty old sailor on his own mission to hunt and kill a gigantic arcwhale. His main weapon is his huge mechanical arm and his place in the team contrasts nicely with the energetic youngsters and despite, or perhaps because of his grumpiness, he is enormously loveable. Then there is Gilder, a Blue Rogue captain who spends his days searching for adventure and the good life and gets all the ladies. He’s the definitive loveable rogue, dashing in his long red coat and a badass with his favoured revolver. He’s almost impossibly cool. Finally there is Enrique, Valua’s conscientious prince who sides with Vyse to fight against the oppressive ambitions of his mother, the empress. Enrique is nowhere near as awesome as Drachma and Gilder, he’s a bit wet to be honest but he’s decent enough and his is one of the more stirring stories.

If there’s a complaint to be raised with the story it’s that the first half is probably better than the second. About half way through you gain control of your very own ship, the Delphinus, a powerfully equipped steel battleship of Valuan design. As captain of this ship you travel the world hiring crew members and operating from your own base while taking on all aggressors with the ludicrously powerful Moon Stone Cannon. As awesome as all that is there’s something somehow more exciting about playing the underdog as you explore with Drachma’s beaten-up old ship the Little Jack which comes armed with the less powerful but somehow cooler Harpoon Cannon. The adventures of the first half feel fresher and more exhilarating than the latter stages and while the game is never less than thrilling something is definitely lost at the mid-point.

Battles follow a strictly turn-based routine with the emphasis firmly on strategy instead of skill and in any given skirmish you have several options available. Everyone can perform a basic attack which has a chance of landing a critical hit and can also be countered. You can elect to guard, so reducing the amount of damage the character receives for the duration of the turn. If you need to heal or give your party some sort of boost you can use any number of items you’ve gathered. You can spend a single Magic Point and cast any magic spell the character has learned. If you realise you can’t win or can’t be bothered you can attempt to run from battle. If the situation demands you can execute any individual characters’ Super Moves. And finally you can Focus, which brings us to Spirit Points.

The party shares a pool of SP which is required to use Magic and Super Moves. Each character has a base level of spirit that will be added to the pool at the start of each turn – this base will slowly increase as you level up a lot. Each Super Move or spell comes with a set SP cost which will be removed from the pool when you make your selection. If you choose to focus you will manually increase the party’s SP by a value equal to the focusing character’s base SP amount, so doing so helps you store up SP for powerful attacks more quickly. Each character also contributes a maximum SP value to the pool which also increases as you gain experience so the stronger you get the more SP you can store at a time. Once Vyse becomes a captain he will be able to use two Captain Attacks to deal massive damage to opponents and possibly to heal allies. These can be unleashed only when you have increased your SP level to maximum, whatever that is, and doing so cancels all other actions both ally and enemy for the entire turn.

As battle systems go it’s well-balanced and very accessible and you will never be left without options. The battles themselves are animated dynamically with characters moving around the arena freely exchanging background attack animations at random. Most encounters with minor league enemies will require nothing more than a few basic attacks to clear but tougher enemies will see you dipping into your SP. The Super Moves are the stars of the show, each one coming with suitably grand and entertaining animations. Many of these moves are offensive, such as Vyse’s Cutlass Fury, which deals heavy damage to a single target but there are many more strategic choices. Aika’s Delta Shield blocks all magic including your own while Vyse’s Skull Shield negates all damage done to the party from basic enemy attacks while simultaneously countering. Most of Fina’s Super Moves involve healing in some way. The Super Moves are very useful and a lot of fun to use (my personal favourite is Gilder’s Gunslinger) and if you’re so inclined you can skip the animations, which is handy when Aika learns Lambda Burst, a move that damages all opponents, as you’ll spend most of the game using it to quickly blow through large groups of weak enemies.

Magic on the other hand isn’t so well integrated. You learn spells based on the colour of Moon Stone assigned to each character’s weapon which you can alter at any time in battle. The colour of the weapon can affect the damage they do when compared to an enemy’s colour, with various type advantages but it also dictates how Magic Experience, which is awarded with every victory, is distributed. Every character will gain Magic Experience of a colour any party member has assigned to their weapon but the amount is doubled in the case of their own colour. This way you can gain experience in up to four different colours at a time but the learning process is quite slow and some characters learn spells faster than others, Fina being the best.

There are six spells available for each colour, most of them simply offensive. Red fire attack spells damage all opponents while purple ice-based ones target one. Blue water and wind spells are aimed at a single enemy but will damage other nearby foes with the area of effect increasing with the strength of the spell. Yellow electric spells also focus on one target but can strike several foes positioned in a line between the caster and target with the damage radius widening the better the spell. There are a couple of green poison-based spells but the lion’s share of green magic is given over to healing. Silver attacks spells have a chance of causing instant death to targets in various ways, while the other strategic options can cure status ailments and resurrect unconscious allies. Other strategic spells can improve party stats or inflict negative statuses such as silence (inability to use magic) or confusion (unit attacks whoever is nearest, friend or foe).

Most of the time you won’t need to use magic. Early in the game the spells you have won’t be powerful enough to lend a particularly big advantage over normal attacks and particularly Super Moves which are often enough to get the job done. Each character comes with a set level of Magic Points which will deplete with each spell cast and this can work as a deterrent compared to Super Moves which only require SP. Still, the colourful animations are suitably spectacular when you do want to use magic and you’ll need to do so to get the best out of Fina.

Overall I find Skies of Arcadia’s battle system extremely enjoyable and satisfying even if it isn’t entirely original or challenging. I’ve never been able to understand why turn-based RPGs have become such a taboo. Identifying real-time RPGs as better seems illogical to me because they’re two entirely different styles of play, one that focuses on skill, one on strategy. To me it’s like questioning the relevance of chess when there is such a thing as boxing. In the modern era of gaming in which RPG elements are creeping into more and more games and blurring the genre’s identity, I mourn the loss of turn-based gameplay.

But it doesn’t end with normal party battles in Skies of Arcadia. This game also introduces the concept of ship battles. At various points throughout the story you will find yourself in a scrap with an enemy ship or some giant monster in which you must make good use of cannon to triumph. These showdowns are also turn-based but work quite differently from normal battles. At the start of each turn each character in the party must issue an order whether it be firing a cannon, using magic, focusing or guarding. These orders are placed onto a grid which determines the order of events. At the top of this grid a display indicates your strategic advantages and disadvantages depending on the scripted movements of the ships. A column marked with a C indicates a turn in which your attacks will be more effective while any headed by a yellow or red marker warns of the likelihood of a powerful enemy attack. Once you’ve issued your commands you will watch events play out as you exchange blows with your opponent. Cannon fire costs MP just the same as Super Moves, as does your Super Cannon, an extra-powerful weapon that can only be fired in specific turns. These Super Cannons, the Little Jack’s Harpoon Cannon and the Delphinus’ Moon Stone Cannon, are pretty spectacular to watch in action and deliver massive damage as well as a powerful sense of satisfaction.

Ship Battles are the USP of Skies of Arcadia’s gameplay and offer an excellent sense of variety that works brilliantly with the story. Battles themselves are relatively few but since they can be a bit long-winded this isn’t such a bad thing. They certainly make for some of the most memorable moments in the game and upgrading your ship with new cannons and accessories is every bit as rewarding as outfitting your party of heroes.

The rest of the gameplay revolves around the side quests, which are many and brilliant. The world is littered with Chams which can be fed to Cupil, a strange shape-shifting silver creature that is Fina’s companion and primary weapon. Cupil will transform into a variety of offensive things such as swords and strike enemies and he requires Chams to upgrade. In the Gamecube version you will also be on constant lookout for Moonfish, invisible floating creatures whose presence you are alerted to by a chime. These can be taken to Doc and Maria to feed to a strange bird who will regurgitate rare items as reward.

There are also plenty of optional and very challenging boss battles to tackle. When visiting the Sailor’s Guild, branches of which are found in settlements throughout the world, you can check a list of wanted pirates which will guide you to their whereabouts. Entering into a Wanted Battle will demand the most intense strategizing of you and the rewards for victory are very great. Furthermore in Legends you will also encounter Piastol, a female bounty hunter who kills Air Pirates and has a particularly vendetta against Vyse. Her battles are just as tough but come with an intriguing back-story that ties in with another part of the game in a rather touching way.

But it’s the Discoveries that really make the game’s side questing memorable. As you sail around the intricate world you will sometimes notice your compass spinning. Pressing A at this time will reveal a Discovery. This might be anything from an interesting rock formation to a remnant of an ancient civilization to an entire continent. Some Discoveries can be found in plain sight but many are invisible until you find them and doing so requires a great deal of exploration, which fits in with the themes of the game beautifully. Every Discovery you make is worth money at the Sailor’s Guild and tracking them all down, even with the clues you can pay for, is a daunting task, especially when it comes to the Discoveries that move around the map. Finding them all without the use of a guide will take an enormous amount of patience and dedication.

The last thing to mention is the Swashbuckler Rating. This is basically a title for Vyse that indicates his status as a Blue Rogue. He begins as Vyse the Unimpressive but gradually gains more and more admirable titles up to Vyse, King of Rogues. The only way to improve your Swashbuckler Ratings is to make good leadership decisions at frequent points throughout the story. You will always have two choices and you must select the scripted correct answer. This really makes you think about the context of the story in an engaging and fresh way and hearing the sound cue indicating a correct choice is rewarding every time.

There are a number of additional ratings you can achieve by completing various objectives that are ranked higher than Vyse, King of Rogues. For winning a lot of Ship Battles you will be crowned Sky Battle King Vyse while if you defeat all of the bounties on the Wanted List you will become known as Vyse the Bounty King. The ultimate status of Vyse the Legend is reserved for players who manage to complete pretty much every side quest including opening every chest, which is a considerable but hugely enjoyable undertaking. Seeing that glorious status on the final screen makes it feel like a worthwhile accomplishment.

Graphically the game looks pretty good for its time although it goes without saying that it looks fairly rough by modern standards. Some blurriness aside the game is bright and colourful and filled with detail but it’s the excellent art direction that makes the look of the world pop. The pirate steampunk themes come through in everything from the cool ship designs to the clutter found in shops and houses and there’s plenty to see wherever you go. Some of the environments can look a little bland and empty but even the dullest locales find a deep sense of atmosphere through the use of colour.

The real success of the visuals is in the cinematic direction which approaches a movie level of immersion. Cut scenes are enlivened by the bold use of camera angles and a real eye for the spectacular nature of the world and even in-game the simple presence of a free camera draws you into the reality of the locations far better than pre-rendered environments and static cameras ever could. Some areas of the presentation could use some work; text boxes are ugly and some of the menus could be prettier. The script does everything it needs to very capably but it could be sharper. The quality of the sound is rather up and down with several muddy and unpleasant sound effects mixing with better ones. The limited voice work is fairly decent on the whole and conveys character quite ably (the cast includes Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario) but the recording quality tends to vary. These criticisms do not apply to the musical score.

Video game music means quite a lot to me and there are plenty of classic soundtracks out there but my favourite, above even the best of Zelda and Sonic, is that of Skies of Arcadia. The music, which is almost entirely MIDI-based, compliments the story perfectly with a range of exuberant and boldly melodious tunes that guide the sense of adventure and escapism throughout. In that sense I cannot understate its importance to the overall experience of the game. I could happily listen to such themes as those of Horteka, Valua City and Rixis and various tunes that accompany story sequences at any time. The sense of mood, setting and character they convey is huge and extremely potent. Battle themes meanwhile are suitably exciting and dramatic, with the various boss themes becoming more and more serious and compelling as the game progresses. The final boss theme, Opportunity, perfectly evokes a sense of climax in a way that really makes you feel how long a journey it has been.

Then there is the theme of the Little Jack, which delivers a feeling of pure adventure more perfectly than any tune I’ve heard in my life and is another thing that is sorely missed after the halfway point. But best of all, and my number one piece of video game music of all time, is the fully-orchestrated credits theme. This is a remix of the orchestrated title screen piece, a moving and poignant tune in its own right. The credits version is just beautiful and hits a range of different moods from adventure to poignancy to climax. Listening to it as the credits scroll having finished a playthrough is an incredibly bittersweet experience, you feel elated and satisfied at beating the game but sad that it’s over. It’s a truly special piece of music.

Like all the best big JRPGs, Skies of Arcadia is long. Even if you blitz through you’re looking at forty hours of gameplay but seeing everything will take considerably longer. I went for 100% and that Vyse the Legend rating with this playthrough and clocked fifty-five hours which lasted the best part of a month and I loved every single second. It’s not the most difficult game in the world but it really doesn’t need to be. There’s certainly enough challenge to keep you occupied and first timers will find some of the bosses tough but the joy of the game is in the experience of the story and the adventure rather than the trials you’ll face along the way.

Playing Skies of Arcadia is like losing yourself in another world that’s much better than the real one. It makes me want to be an Air Pirate, to sail off in search of treasure, discovery and adventure. Joining Vyse and his friends as they set out into an unknowable world full of surprises and never knowing what you’ll encounter next is among the most sincere joys I’ve ever known with as a gamer. It’s deeply embedded into every corner of the game. It’s in the way your map starts out small and blank but fills in and expands as you discover more of the world. It’s in that feeling of excitement you get when your compass starts spinning and you make a new Discovery. It’s in every perilous and breathless adventure the script takes you on. The game has its rough spots and some aspects of the gameplay won’t appeal to everyone but for me it is quite simply one of the finest examples of escapist fiction, my favourite thing in this life, that I have ever had the great pleasure of knowing.

Verdict

Design – 9

Gameplay – 9

Graphics – 7

Sound – 8

Content – 10

Not a huge number of people have played Skies of Arcadia in either of its forms but those that have universally love it. As a cult favourite it stands alone and the prospect of a long-awaited sequel, something that has been rumoured since Sega renewed the trademark, is about the most exciting thing I can think of. The game is showing its age a little but has never been bettered at what it does. This game is a masterpiece of adventure.

9.9

John McClane’s (Bruce Willis, as if you needed to be told) son Jack (Jai Courtney) has landed himself in trouble in Moscow. Fearing what his boy, with whom he hasn’t spoken in a few years, might have got himself embroiled in, John flies out in the hope of tracking him down. He manages to trace him as far as a courthouse where a prominent Russian billionaire is standing trial but after the place is blown up, John comes face to face with Junior trying to get the man to safety. It turns out McClane the younger is a CIA man and some rather nasty people are after his charge.

The story is rubbish. The original film blazed a trail with its relatively ordinary central hero and delightfully theatrical villain but a quarter of a century on the series has regressed into painfully generic territory. It’s just some boring cobblers about Chernobyl and a plan to obtain weapons grade plutonium but as a plot it feels embarrassingly by-the-numbers and completely lacks a proper central villain with even a shred of character. Even Die Hard 4.0’s Thomas Gabriel was better.

Every single scene with any amount of dialogue falls flat thanks to a totally inept script that forces its token rocky father-son relationship. Bruce Willis looks like a just doesn’t give a toss, he knows the film is a dog as recent TV appearances have shown. Jai Courtney, to his credit, at least tries to make something of it but the material is so hackneyed and tired he’s fighting a losing battle.

The one plus note is the action which is actually quite decent, and given that this is an action film it’s a fairly significant plus. An early extended vehicle chase is the spectacular highlight even if it does leave you worrying how many innocent motorists are killed in the carnage, and not just by the bad guys. But the explosions don’t save the movie from utter mediocrity.

Verdict

With none of the wise-cracks or genuine human moments that made John McClane so relatable, this is a good day to let the franchise die. Unfortunately part six looks likely.

10. Aurora – Sleeping Beauty

The girl known as Briar Rose, the Sleeping Beauty is the best of the classic era Disney Princesses. With an independent confidence and a more intelligent demeanour than Snow White or Cinderella ever managed, she stands out for her magnificent operatic voice and for being hands-down the prettiest Disney Princess ever. This is one lady worth slaying dragons for.

9. Calhoun – Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph­’s scene stealing space marine is not your typical Disney heroine. A brash, gravelly-voiced no-nonsense ass-kicker, Calhoun is probably the toughest woman in the Disney canon despite having been programmed with ‘the most tragic backstory ever’. But she’s got heart too as her determination to save Sugar Rush from the space bugs shows. Memorably voiced by Jane Lynch, Calhoun confounds expectations of Disney women as damsels in distress and then some.

8. Jane – Tarzan

A young British woman on a jungle expedition with her scientist father, Jane might not be a creation of WDAS but their representation of her is right on the money. Presented as an appealingly bumbling fish-out-of-water with a pleasing enthusiasm for the natural world, she provides Tarzan with most of its best comic moments whilst filling out the role of the romantic heroine very well indeed. She’s a charming character who manages to mix brains with beauty.

7. Ariel – The Little Mermaid

Okay, so Ariel’s motivations are mainly selfish and it’s not like her situation at the beginning of The Little Mermaid is as pitiable as, say, Cinderella’s, but there’s no denying her mass appeal. Combining being a princess with being a mermaid she automatically became every little girl’s perfect heroine and the fact that she’s a headstrong flame-haired cutie with personality to spare doesn’t hold her back. Most importantly her appeal is one of the main reasons The Little Mermaid was such a hit, kick-starting the animation renaissance. The American feature animation business owes a hell of a lot to Ariel.

6. Tinker Bell – Peter Pan

One of the things Disney got absolutely right about their adaptation of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan was Peter’s fairy companion, Tinker Bell. She’s a sexy, rude and spiteful sprite whose jealousy goes so far as to nearly get Wendy killed but she’s driven by mischief and for that we love her. If she needed redemption look no further than the moving scene in which she selflessly saves Peter from Captain Hook’s bomb, one of the most heroic moments in the Disney canon. It takes a special character to star in their own series of spin-off films several decades after her first big screen appearance. Not bad for a character who, in the original movie at least, never speaks.

5. Vanellope von Schweets – Wreck-It Ralph

The youngest entry on this list gets points for being simply adorable but it’s the combination of her constantly entertaining character and somewhat sad situation that really won our hearts. Vanellope is a glitch in the arcade game Sugar Rush and is banned from racing in case her glitching gets the cabinet shut down but this doesn’t dampen her energetic and jokey personality. Her unwavering optimism is stirring throughout the film and if there’s anyone not completely moved by the ‘it’s for your own good’ scene you can bet they checked their hearts at the door. This little speed demon is hugely amusing and layered.

4. Megara – Hercules

The girl commonly known as Meg turns out to be a bit of a surprise in Hercules. Appearing at first to be ‘your typical DID – Damsel in Distress’ she turns out to be anything but. Completely unimpressed by the burly Herc (at first anyway) and resistant to having her independence muscled in on by some dorky hero, she seems like the anti-Disney heroine. When you learn that she’s actually in the employ of Hades as payment for saving the life of a boyfriend who swiftly dumped her things start to get much deeper. Meg’s is a very emotionally satisfying arc and her presence in the story of Hercules is hugely important to why the film works so well.

3. Mulan – Mulan

There aren’t a whole lot of title-hogging Disney ladies that aren’t royal but Mulan is by far the best of them, and way better than Pocahontas. An ordinary Chinese girl, Mulan laments the way her society tries to dress her up as something she’s not but doing this becomes a choice when her injured father is conscripted into the army. Dressing as a man and heading out to war in his place, Mulan’s is one of the bravest acts of any Disney character and paves the road for one of the most entertaining animated features of the 1990s. Her character handles action and comedy with equal grace and by the end you totally believe that she is a woman the whole of China would bow to.

2. Belle – Beauty and the Beast

Ariel might have got the ball rolling on the animation renaissance but Belle provided its brightest highlight. As the most beautiful girl in her provincial French town, Belle turns a lot of heads and has no shortage of admirers, including the strutting Gaston, but she’s much more interested in reading and adventure. As heroines go she’s a bit of a geek and makes a convincingly rounded character with sympathetic hopes and provides one half of probably the best romance in the history of animation. Paige O’Hara’s wonderful voice-work makes her appealing and relatable and the story, which sees her offer herself to the Beast as a prisoner in place of her father lacks nothing in the courage stakes. As a heroine, a romantic lead and a character in whom to invest one’s sympathies there’s none better. Almost.

1. Esmeralda – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Judge Claude Frollo placed first in my list of Disney villains, both Quasimodo and Captain Phoebus featured for the heroes, now Esmeralda confirms that The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney’s most underrated film, boasts the studio’s best cast of characters. Esmeralda is a stunning, raven-haired gypsy dancer struggling to earn a living on the streets of Paris. With her people persecuted by the self-righteous Frollo, her desires are not remotely selfish as evidenced in her song, ‘God Help the Outcasts’, in which she asks for nothing but aid for her fellow gypsies. She immediately accepts Quasimodo for himself and displays tremendous kindness when the baying crowd torment him at the Festival of Fools. Demi Moore gives her just the right balance of spirit and sympathy and of all the many, many Disney heroines she is without a doubt the most beautiful. Captain Phoebus summed it up best; ‘What a Woman!’

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a ten-year-old Viking facing the daunting prospect of capturing and training a dragon, a rite-of-passage for boys in his island tribe. If Hiccup can’t train an obedient reptile companion by Thor’sday Thursday, an annual event designed to test the boys’ ability to become full-fledged Vikings, he will not be accepted into the Hairy Hooligan tribe and banished from the island. To make things more difficult his dragon is a tiny toothless creature and his tactic of speaking to him in his own language doesn’t seem to work.

This book is about humour more than it is about plot and by ‘humour’ I mean snigger-inducing schoolboy humour. Hovering somewhere on the edge of Roald Dahl’s style of delightfully revolting stories the jokes all revolve around mildly unpleasant things and bodily functions; mostly the sort of thing you’ll stop finding funny by age 13. If you’re younger than that then the book will hit its spot and the style of comedy stops well short of crassness or inappropriate vulgarity. It’s silly, harmless fun.

The downside is the story lacks pretty much anything else to recommend it. The plot is rather thin, charting Hiccup’s acquisition of his dragon chum, his attempts at training him and an encounter with an enormous super-dragon. There’s no emotional element to speak of even when there might be opportunity for it but given the style the author has aimed for this isn’t exactly wrong. Ten-year-old boys aren’t usually interested in that sort of thing anyway.

Verdict

A book aimed squarely at a target audience sure to get enjoyment out of it but unlikely to enamour anyone else much.

In Mario Party 9 instead of having four characters moving around a board independently, two to four players travel together in a vehicle. They take turns being captain, role the die and move up to six spaces. The type of space they land on triggers some kind of event; this might be starting a mini-game, gaining a dice block or various context sensitive events. The vehicle travels along a linear course with only limited branching paths that always come back to the main road and instead of doing laps round a circuit for a fixed number of turns the boards all lead to an end and a boss.

Your objective is to reach the end with the most mini-stars. Where previously you had to gather stars to win and use coins to help you do that. In the ninth game these two things are rolled into one and there are many different ways to gain mini-stars, winning mini-games, in events, even just waiting for you to pass them on the board. To anyone used to the series previously unchanging formula this shake up takes time to acclimatise to but it does give the series some new life. Games are now much shorter which is a plus as they could drag on somewhat in previous entries. The mini-games themselves are generally a good bunch that make thoughtful use of the Wii remote’s motion controls without relying too heavily on them. Waggle is kept to a minimum.

On the downside the whole game is ruled by luck. It’s true that success at most board games depends on the luck of the dice but good players are able to make good use of what resources they have to steer them to victory. Mario Party 9 doesn’t give you enough control over proceedings; losing half your mini-stars through no fault of your own is very frustrating. There’s also a lack of options besides the normal party mode. There is a loose single-player story mode in which you work your way through each board one at a time but it’s not the most compulsive pursuit. A handful of mini-game modes and some rather dull extras fail to enliven the content.

But Mario Party 9 is still quite a lot of fun if you don’t take it too seriously. The visuals are good quality, the boards are colourful and the familiar Nintendo charm is there. The board game structure still gives the mini-games more purpose than most compilations can manage and the games themselves are good fun.

Verdict

Design – 6

Gameplay – 6

Graphics – 7

Sound – 6

Content – 5

Overall

Not a great return to form for the series but an enjoyable party game all the same.

7.1