Nintendo

The most anticipated Spider-Man game of 2010 is around the corner and will be available on Sony PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS on 10th September.

The plot is quite simple Amazing Spider-Man accidently, shatters the tablet of order and chaos during a scuffle with Mysterio. Now shattered into pieces the universe is in danger, any villain with the tablet is a threat.

Spider-Man must now obtain every single piece from 4 different dimensions, with the help of other Spider-Men. The dimensions that are featured in the game are the amazing universe, noire universe, 2099 universe and the ultimate universe.

The launch trailer focuses on each Spider-Man’s distinctive abilities which will help restore the tablet of order and chaos. You also get a glimpse at some of Spideys foes you will be facing next week such as Mysterio, Sandman, the Scorpion, Carnage, Deadpool, Hobgoblin, Kraven and the Vulture.

Unless you’ve had your head stuck in a box of the plastic bricks for the last five years, you will be well aware of the presence of the series of videogames which has been reducing the heroes of our favourite movies down to tiny plastic figures who possess a considerably higher level of charm and wit than the actors who portray them in the films. I am referring, of course, to the Lego videogame series developed by Traveller’s Tales, which so far has released two (soon to be three) Star Wars titles, two Indiana Jones entries, as well as a Batman game. While the critical responses to some of the more recent of these games have begun to wane in their original enthusiasm, which seemed to peak at the first Indy game, all of the games inhabit an irresistible likeability, particularly when it comes to accessibility for all types of gamers and friendly multiplayer, which has you and a buddy cooperating happily, working in unison to solve charming puzzles instead of trying to blast each other’s heads off with a sniper rifle, which has been the general objective for the most recent cooperative games.

Now Traveller’s Tales next Lego game is on the horizon and it looks to be the best yet. While the main flaw with the series’ latest games has been their persistent inability to improve on the weaker elements of their predecessors, never seeming to even try and fix problems which were present in the first Lego Star Wars which was released five years ago, a lot of effort seems to have gone into this next game. And what could bode better than it being based on one of the most successful franchises in history; Harry Potter?

Focussing on years 1-4 of Harry’s time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (which makes sense seeing as once Warner Brothers are finished with the series, there will be a total of eight films, allowing TT to make two games, each containing the content of four films), Lego Harry Potter boasts the biggest location ever included in the Lego series, Hogwarts, which apparently will constantly expand as your progress though the game. The latest two non-Lego videogames based on the Harry Potter movies have adopted a sandbox gaming format, where the character is free to roam around the massive virtual campus of the enchanted school. Presuming this game is going to follow the trend set by all the other Lego games, however, it can be assumed that this will have levelled structure. That’s probably for the best, really, as the two games in question were painfully tedious as you walked wearily from one end of the school to another doing boring tasks. Read More  »

Despite the DS outselling its Sony rival and even the big consoles on a regular basis, Nintendo are determined to get one into every gamer’s (and their relative’s) hands. With the children's market sorted they’re going for the grownups in force.

Handheld console manufacturers just can’t help but fiddle around. With both the DS and PSP getting numerous make-overs over the last few years getting bigger, smaller, slidier but rarely cheaper.

So it’s surprising to say that this is one upgrade that looks pretty good. Adding all the extra functions of the still recent DSi and supersizing the console to fit in adult hands and give them a screen big enough to make all the extra features worthwhile for once. While still not exactly cheap, the console will retail at £150 which is only £10 more than the smaller DSi.

So what does it do that we haven’t seen before on the DSi? Well not much to be honest. No Nintendo, new colours don’t count. There are only two colours available at launch, Wine Red and Dark Brown. It would seem Nintendo believe this the best strategy to attract the more ‘mature’ gamer, assuming they all like merlot and dirt. Read More  »

The ‘Day of Fury’ part of the title probably gave it away, but this isn’t part of the Wii Fit-style wave of games. So there’ll be no breathing games or dragging out the balance board, instead it’s good old-fashioned hit-things-with-a-stick gameplay.

Everything in the game seems to be enraging your guy, so in order to keep his stress levels (like a health bar) down you need to smash everything up and occasionally calm yourself down by finding money or a brew.

Playing from a first person perspective you guide your stressed psychopath through environments like your flat, a bridge traffic jam, your office and the airport. Using weapons varying from a slipper to a fire axe you must smash your way through doors, zombie cops, bugs, and hallucinations of traffic-signal men and other such demented ‘issues’.

Missions involve finding and destroying all your alarm clocks, breaking car windows, smashing phones and finding missing luggage at the airport. If you’ve ever seen the film Falling Down, just imagine that but with Michael Douglas on acid too. Read More  »

Who would have thought one of the Wii’s most engrossing games of recent months would totally forgo any motion controls and be a 2D side-scrolling RPG slash-em-up? That’s right; you can sit and play this Wii game all afternoon without worrying about waking up the next day feeling that familiar tightness in every muscle. Well, your thumbs might take a slight pounding, but nothing the little brutes can’t handle. So dust off the pad for this one folks.

The game plays across 2D screens of ancient Japan with the art-style done in a hand-drawn and cell shaded style to fantastic effect. Everything’s brilliantly smooth and a fine example of how to make a retro-styled game without blocky sprite animation. If you ever played Odin Sphere on the PS2 but felt it was too little, too late (not to mention too damn hard), think of Muramasa: The Demon Blade as the game you hoped Odin Sphere would be.

You run and jump across the short scrolling screens, that if empty of enemies can be ran through in under ten seconds. There are lots of screens though and many with multiple tiers such as the balconies of a Feudal Japan-style building or the inside of a cave or over the top of it through a forest. Some areas will have a door or a bridge for you to move up or down to another screen too. This is all easy to follow with a map that you can have over the screen while you play, highlighting colour barriers, treasure and entrances to challenge caves. Read More  »

This ‘fright simulator’ loosely borrows from the films to provide a few cheap jumps and puzzles. You control a girl that enters an abandoned warehouse to retrieve her wandering dog. Naturally it’s cursed, now you are too and you better start to work out how to appease the spirits of these spiteful child ghosts before they claims your soul, or something.

You navigate your way around the darkness in a first-person viewpoint with your wiimote controlled torch that works well when moving forwards but struggles to keep up if you try and turn too quickly. Poking around the chilling locations in the dark does feel quite immersive though as you are in direct control of what you aim the light at.

The main scares the game uses are similar to those found in the films. The creepy kid with the coal-black eyes appears when you open doors, pops up in your face or sticks his head through a window. It’ll make you jump and sometimes laugh at his cheeky persistence. The speaker on the wiimote is used to creepy effect when your in-game mobile goes off and you get an earful of that familiar croaking noise. Bits of ceiling fall near you and windows smash in the background to add to the atmosphere, but have little effect after repetition. Overall though the sounds are done well and occasionally catch you out with a cheap scare. Read More  »