Gaming with Killatia Comic Jumper

After a month hiatus Killatia returns with a branks new review of a sweet DLC game called Comic Jumper, made by the fine people at Twisted Pixel.

Cam's Eye View: New Years Special: DLC Domination part 4: Costume Quest for PSN and Xboxlive review

Hey, gamers, and welcome to my New Year’s Special here on Cam’s Eye View. I am not going to do something elaborate, like my back-to-back Batman Christmas Special, but I do have something for you boys and girls to get on the PSN and XboxLive that, well, isn’t holiday-based. I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but I kind of ran out of time, and I decided to do a special DLC Domination that was released in October, decided to keep it locked up for New Years. Don’t ask me why, but here is Costume Quest! The first downloadable title by Double Fine Productions is definitely ambitious. Yes, these are the creators of two of my favorite games of all time, Brutal Legend and Psychonaughts. It definitely has the Double Fine feel with a creative premise and smart humor, but does it fully deliver as their first downloadable title? Get your noisemakers out and put in your favorite holiday movie and get ready for my New Year’s Special of Costume Quest.

Costume Quest stars two twins named Reynold and Wren who are new to the neighborhood they moved into. Their parents suggest they use Trick-or-Treating to make new friends in the suburbs, and the player can choose to play either kid. The only thing that changes is the starting costume. Reynold is a robot and Wren is a unicorn. While trick-or-treating, one of the kids gets kidnapped by a sweet tooth monster, and it is up to one of the kids to save the other, along with two other kids, using the power of their costumes to fight evil and save the holiday! It’s a creative idea and it’s a game made for kids so don’t take it too seriously.

The gameplay featured in Costume Quest often feels like a homage to old RPG-style games, like Final Fantasy and, more importantly, Earthbound. You travel along a couple of areas from the neighborhood, the mall, to a village in the countryside, collecting candy and completing side quests like bobbing for apples and finding kids who are hiding in the levels. The main goal is to stop at every place that has lights on and knock on the door. Some result in people giving you candy, and some result in a random encounter. When you encounter enemies in battle, it switches to you transforming into whatever your costume is, like a robot, knight, spaceman, unicorn, Dracula, and you get the idea. Each suit mainly has different abilities, but some share the same abilities. The battle system is turn-based, but when you plan an attack, there is a timer, like pressing a specific button at a specific time. There is also a charge meter, where you can use a special attack depending on what costume you are wearing. There is also a timer when an enemy attacks, where you can take less damage if you press the button fast enough. There are no potions or phoenix-downs, so be prepared to watch the screen for which button to press. The suits also have abilities outside of battles, like the robot suit will make you go faster, the knight will protect you from stuff falling from above, and the spaceman suit will light your way through dark areas. The suits are not so easy to find, since you need to search the levels for most of the stuff required to make specific suits. Don’t worry though; you can teleport to specific levels to finish some stuff that you might have missed. Oh, and one more thing, you can also sneak up behind enemies and whack them on the back of their heads, so in the beginning of the battle, they lose a bit of health, which is pretty cool.

The graphics for the game definitely get some extra points for charm, with a Wind Waker and Earthbound-style look that has a lot of charm. The music is also well done with creepy yet silly intense music for exploring the different areas on the game. The humor is also very funny and clever since this is Tim Schaeffer and Double Fine we are talking about, so it isn’t really a surprise that the lines are very funny.

Though this game isn’t perfect by all means, there are a few things this game has working against it. While the game is fun, it’s pretty short. I got through most of the game in a day and I also think it’s because of the easy difficulty. Granted, the timing during the battles can be challenging at times so I won’t blame the difficulty too much on the game. However, this game can get a little repetitious since you basically do the same thing every level with the only things that change are the bosses and enemies. I just wish this game was a little longer because I was really enjoying it, and in the end, is a bit overpriced since it cost 15 dollars to download this game. The issue could also be that it was aimed at kids, so it isn’t as time consuming as games like Final Fantasy 6 or again, Earthbound. I mean, I am all for making creative and fun kids games that are not shovelware that you can find on the Wii, but at least make them pretty long, like 10 to 12 hours. I think the other thing I would have liked to see in the game is a map. The places aren’t long, but when you are trying to find the last lit-up house, it can become a chore to find that one house since you don’t have a map.

Yes, the game is pretty gimmicky with its Halloween themes, and there are some small faults with the game, but I think it’s a really good downloadable game. It’s 15 dollars, but it is definitely a better buy than Blade Kitten and Deadliest Warrior: The Game. (Seriously. Who thought those two games had potential?). Either way, this is definitely another great title put out by the genius minds of Double Fine and I would recommend it fully for families or for Double Fine fans. Oh, and if anyone has a spare Earthbound copy, please send it to me.

This game gets an 8 out of 10



Cam's Eye View: DLC Domination part 3: Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue for the PSN and Xboxlive review

Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another episode of DLC DOMINATION! [Enter death metal song here]. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the previous episode of DLC Domination to Deathspank, and it kicked [insert bad word here]! I mean, wow. Ron Gilbert made a great gem for the PS3 and 360 downloadable market, with awesome characters, great graphics, mindlessly fun gameplay, oh, and some of the best humor I have ever heard in a game. So, when I heard that there was a sequel coming out two months later, I was excited, but a little skeptical. I mean, I thought it was like, “ oh, umm so soon?” After doing some research, I found out that this game was being worked on during the same time as the first game, and now, we get one of the weirdest, but most awesome names of a sequel of all time. First off, it doesn’t have crazy ninja monkey pirates with jet packs, though that would have been awesome. Instead, we get a title simply called Deathspank Thongs of Virtue! Again, we have our vigilant silly-named hero Deathspank going after the mystical Thongs of Virtues that have made the land corrupt, and somehow Deathspank is pushed multiple centuries into the future. Then again, this is Ron Gilbert we are talking about so don’t be surprised, but oh my gosh, this game is awesome! It’s more on the line of Deathspank 2.0 with some added gameplay elements and more diverse quests, but we still get all the top tier humor and wit, like the last game. So, how much does this sequel rock?  Well then, you will have to read on, fellow readers.

Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue takes place literally right after the first game, and is still considered a “true story”. Deathspank was captured and put into a P.O.W camp and then escapes. He finds himself in the middle of a huge war where the humans are fighting against the most evil person that only Ron Gilbert could possibly come up with. He is simply known as Santa Claus! Deathspank decides to join up with the human army and help them by getting rid of the Bearers of the Thongs that get in his way, eventually killing the business world’s most marketable character (S.C.), who wants to do nothing else but take over the world! I guess all those years of being the Coke mascot gets to you. It’s a simply silly story, but it’s so epic in its own way, that it’s enjoyable.

The gameplay in Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue is basically the same style of Diablo gameplay, but with a few tweaks here and there. You still hold 4 weapons at once and can link up weapons to make combos. There is more emphasis put on long-range weapons like machine guns, submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, bazookas, and multiple kinds of grenades. You can still carry around hand-held weapons like swords and axes, but the guns give the gameplay a little more variety. The guns do, however, run on ammo, so be careful not to waste them. There are also different side quests this time around, instead of just doing the same fetch quests like the last game. There are a lot of returning characters that bring their style of side quests back with them, like the cave explorer who is actually afraid of going into the cave. Some of the side quests include you helping tow rich tycoons outdo each other on how rich they are, putting up French flags, killing specific monsters that only pop up for that quest, and even one of my favorites, just leaving a hermit alone. Each quest has its own witty dialogue, and it’s really fun to listen to. There is still a co-op mode where you can play as two new characters along with the wizard from the last game. Expect a good challenge if you’re not vigilant enough, but don’t worry, it isn’t the hardest game in the world, just grind until you are happy.

The graphics still look pretty good, but are mostly the same as the last game since this was originally supposed to be one huge game, but got too big so it was split into two games like Sonic 3 and Knuckles. So, basically expect a mix of 3D and 2D stuff. The music is also the same, but it is still fun to listen to with my favorite song still being the start menu song when they show Deathspank continually running. The voice acting is also still great with new and old voice actors coming back to voice the characters in the game.

However, there are some bad things here that kind of annoy me with this game. The first and major problem is that there is a glitch in the game near the end where you need to kill Rudolph, but he never appears. Good luck if you saved your game after killing all the reindeer if Rudolph didn’t show up. This means you either have to save BEFORE taking the killer walking venison, or just restart the game, which by the way takes like 10 hours or more to beat. Hothead, have you fixed this yet? I really don’t want to be forced into replaying the game, even though it’s an awesome game. I also kind of wish they didn’t have to keep the ultimate armor the same as the last game, and just make it more modern, like the outfit at the start menu. I also wish they had added vehicle combat, like riding around in a tank. Think about it. Deathspank and all of his funny lines while riding a tank? Who wouldn’t want to see that? Maybe if we can get a new game in the series, we can see vehicle combat from time to time to break up the hand-to-hand combat and ammo buying.

All and all though, this is a really good game! I would recommend buying both games since it’s only 30 bucks total, basically half the price of newer titles. I just hope Hothead makes a patch for this game because it’s really good, and I hope that they can make Deathspank into a series. It is possible, since Ron Gilbert is the creator of Deathspank. I think it’s time now to take a break from the downloadable action game and play something different in the downloadable genre.

This game gets a 9 out of 10



Gaming with killatia Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1

Today on Gaming With Killatia we take a look at Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 and see if its good enough for episode 2

Gaming with Killatia Scott Pilgrim the Videogame

A downloadable game based on the moves based on a comic thats one huge homage to olds school videogames? Yes please! Enjoy this episode of gaming with killatia