Tactics Ogre!

Looking back: Zelda Ocarina of TimeDungeons and Dragons is back!Sexy Facebook games

Also...

Do you like to write about games?

Digitally Downloaded is looking for passionate gamers to write about the games they play.

If you’d like to be part of a growing brand, drop us an email at: digitallydownloaded@gmail.com

Digitally Downloaded is looking for passionate gamers to write about the games they play.

If you’d like to be part of a growing brand, drop us an email at digitallydownloaded@gmail.com

Your ad goes here

You have developed a game. It’s great, but getting exposure in such a saturated industry can be a challenge.

We have a range of online and print solutions to suit any budget. send any enquiries to:

digitallydownloaded@gmail.com

Welcome to Digitally Downloaded!Thank you very much for reading the pilot edition of the Digitally Downloaded magazine!

This is something of a passion project of mine. As a big fan of digitally downloadable games, the Website (http://www.digitallydownloaded.net) was my first toe in the water. When it proved more popular than I expected, it was only natural to find other ways of covering one of the most exciting things to happen to the games industry.

Gaming is moving to download. From the popularity (and business profitability) of DLC content, to the ability for indie developers to find greater exposure with less expen-sive overheads compared with releasing a game to retail, digital downloads are a win for everyone.

While we wait for broadband speeds and coverage to im-prove further before blockbusters move out of retail, the smaller, bite sized games available on all major download services can still prove to be a pleasant surprise. Throw in the ability for developers and publishers to offer retro games much easier (thanks to the likes of the Wii’s Virtual Console), and there’s something for everyone.

Please excuse the primative nature of this pilot issue of the magazine - this is all very much a work in progress, and it will grow and improve as we do. I welcome any and all feedback on how I can improve the experience for readers further - please email me at digitallydownloaded@gmail.com

In the meantime, enjoy, and look forward to seeing you next month!

Matt SainsburyEditor-in-chief

Digitally Downloaded team

Editor-in-chiefMatt Saindbury(waltzit@gmail.com)

Contributing writers:Christopher Ingrampixelman

Please direct all correspondence and advertising queries to:digitallydownloaded@gmail.com

Digitally Downloaded is © MndM Media.

ContentsPage 8

Daggerdale might just save Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons has lost much luster over the years, but perhaps a new episodic download series can save the flagging series.

Page 10

Q & A with Black Lab Games

Having already had a successful debut on the PlayStations Minis ser-vice, things are looking up for Western Australian indie, Black Lab Games.

Page 12

Reviews

Tactics Ogre’s newest entry on the PSP, a look back at Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and a handful of high profile iPad releases dominates this month’s reviews.

Page 19

DSiWare we’d like to see remade for 3DS

DSiWare had a few good games in its time. We take a quick look at those games we think could be even better in 3D.

Looking HotGames on the horizon that we’re excited for

Fireburst (PSN, XBLA)

r

Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot (PSN, XBLA)

escapeVektor (WiiWare)

Islands of Wakfu (XBLA)

News ShortsThe interesting and weird from the last month

Brand marketers are coming to realise the value of using video games as advertis-ing tools, and Lynx is looking to sexy things up on Face-book with a game star-ring Kelly Brook. You can click on over to www.face-book.com/lynxeffec-tuk to look into it for yourself.

An ex-periment from East Carolina University’s Psycho-physiology had nearly 60 sub-jects – all meeting the criteria of clinical depres-sion – play three casual games – Bejeweled 2, Peggle and Bookworm Adven-tures. According to the study, those that did play the games experienced an average of 57 per cent reduction in symptoms.

Firemint, the guys behind Flight Control, have announced its third game will star a mouse and is called Agent Squeek.

Robot En-tertainment, a breakaway company featuring staff from Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires, Halo Wars) have an-nounced its first game, creatively called Orcs Must Die. You have an arsenal of weapons and traps to do with, and the game plays like a 3rd per-son action game.

Mobile games vendor, Gamevil, has enjoyed a record year in 2010, in terms of sales and income. Driven by titles such as Baseball Superstars,

Zenonia and Illusia, South Korean-based Gamevil reported a 17 per cent increase in sales to 28.5 billion KRW ($US25.5 thousand). Income was also up 25 per cent.

renowned locations within the very popular Forgotten Realms setting – the same game world that the likes of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights are set in.

So it has a recognisable setting, even for people that haven’t played the game in pen-and-paper or board game form. As part of such a well-regarded franchise, then, it won’t struggle the same market visibility problems that sometimes

Daggerdale might just save Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons Dag-gerdale might just be what the venerable RPG needs to get some relevance back with video gamers, after years of weak or unnoticed releases and franchise mismanage-ment.

It was announced back in Decem-ber for XBLA, PlayStation Net-work and PC download. It’s both single player and multiplayer, and set in Daggerdale, one of the most

plague new IPs.

But what’s most exciting about the game is that, according to the website, it’s episodic. Why is this exciting? Because Dungeons and Dragons (D & D) by its very nature is episodic. Before the fran-chise entered the world of video games, people would sit around a table to play D & D with friends and family, on a weekly or month-ly basis – i.e. in episodes.

An episodic format is a different way to experience a game – as it is essentially a series of shorter stories with numerous cliff hang-ers. By contrast, a typical full length RPG is one big adventure with a more traditional story tell-ing arc. In other words – compare the structure of a TV series to a feature-length film, and you’ll see a similar difference in basic structure.

So Daggerdale should have a more pulp-fiction than epic atmosphere to it. As a result, by being episodic D & D Daggerdale stands to be one of the most “true” D & D ex-periences to date.

The gameplay itself also looks to be standing proud. Looking at the gameplay videos, it appears that Daggerdale has more than a few shades of Dragon Age: Origins within it. This is by no means a bad thing, especially mixed in with the D & D 4th Edition ruleset.

Be part of the community

Did you know? Digitally Downloaded’s website (http://www.digitallydownloaded.net) has a forum.

For both gamers and developers, the forum is there to talk about games, making games, selling games, and being a part of the won-

derful industry that we all love so.

Signing up takes just a second, so come join in the conversation!

consoles before. (I worked on a DS port a while ago, but the project never got finished). I got in-volved in Xbox Live Indies Games (XBLIG) when it was first an-nounced - I was hopeful it would work out to me more commer-cially viable that it turned out to be. When Sony announced Minis, I thought it seemed like it could be a lot of fun and be a good fit for Black Lab Games.

2) Your first commercial game, Star Hammer Tactics, was a PlayStation Network Minis game. Why did you decide on that platform?

Tiny correction, Star Hammer Tactic isn’t really my first com-mercial game - I think I’ve written or been involved in about a dozen games over the years (it’s just that you probably would never of heard of most of them). But yeah, it’s Black Lab Games first release. It was originally written for Xbox 360 and released via XBLIG.

To answer the question though,

Black Lab Games talks PlayStation Minis, indie development and Western Australia

Black Lab Games is the indie project of Western Australian developer, Paul Turbett, and has already produced the (very good) Star Hammer Tactics. He recently sat down to chat with us about the Minis plat-form, plans for the future of Black Lab Games, and what it’s like being a developer in WA.

1) First up, could you please give us an overview of yourself and Black Lab Games? What led you to start up as an inde-pendent developer?

I’ve been developing games for quite a while actually. I started to learn to program on the Apple II in the mid-80’s and started a games com-pany called Silver Lightning Software in 1991. That com-pany released a few games as shareware and later through retail. When SLS closed in the late ‘90s I went and got a real job in IT.

I started Black Lab Games in 2009. Prior to starting Black Lab Games, I’d spent time at the ill-fated Interzone Games, and another smaller game company, and just felt that I’d be capable of building my own company again, so I started that journey.

Having always written soft-ware for PC’s I wanted to do something different, and had not really had much of a chance to write games for

one of the appealing things to me about Minis is that Sony oversees the games that get released. I know a lot of indies hate the idea of gatekeepers, but I think platforms like XBLIG or the AppStore tend to have a lot of less-than-awesome quality stuff, which makes it hard for a smaller company to get no-ticed. Whilst standout games are still likely to get noticed, I’m sure there is a lot of really good stuff out there that has been overlooked because the developers don’t have the reach to build an audience.

The PSP, whilst it’s not getting as much attention as iDe-vices are currently, still has a decent enough audience. There are less games in the Minis catalogues (but there is still a decent range to choose from), so from a developers viewpoint, it is easier to get your game into the hands of players, which is really what it’s all about.

Finally, I thought it would be good fun to make games for the PSP, and I can tell you, it is!

3) How have you found it working with Sony? What was required to become an au-thorised Minis developer, and what has Sony done to help in regards to support?

Pretty good. To get author-ised, I just had to submit an

Page 10

application with info about the company, development experi-ence, etc and some details about game I wanted to make. I was sur-prised at how quickly the authori-sation came through.

Having never completed a console game before it was a bit of a learn-ing curve with regards to the QA and publishing side - the processes to get the completed game onto the PlayStation Store. I found the Sony support staff to be very help-ful with that.

4) Western Australia is a very small development community – has this been a challenge to build a business as a development company?

I think it’s a challenge to build a business as a game developer anywhere! That said, being geo-graphically a long way from the companies you are working with does have a bit of an impact, and it can feel a bit like ‘out of sight, out of mind’ at times.

The community here is pretty close knit and supportive. We have very well attended social gathering fairly regularly, and we help each other out where possible.

5) How large is the team at Black Lab Games right now? Are you looking to grow - what kinds of people are you looking to recruit?

It’s pretty small at the moment. I do the game design and program-ming. For the game I’m working on at the moment, I’ve got an artist helping out, and a freelance musician. That’s it at the moment.

I’d definitely like to grow! I don’t really have a specific number in mind for a target team size, and certainly don’t want to have a mas-sive team, but I’d definitely like to grow the company a bit. It would be handy to work with somebody who could take on some of the marketing and PR type stuff, and more help with art would be great too.

6) How do you see the industry far-ing into the near future?

Well, I think that games are al-ready an important medium for entertainment, and in the coming years will also become an impor-tant medium of cultural expres-sion. In years gone by, designers and developers where limited by what technology could do. I think that we are reaching a point in the evolution of the medium where we are getting beyond technology as a limiting factor, or a constraint, and I think we are starting to get a much better grip on what makes a game fun and appealing, not just to “gamers” but to the wider public. The reach of electronic games is ever widening due to new distribution methods, business models and platforms, and I think that bodes well for the industry overall.

Any new technology opens up new possibilities, for sure. Wheth-er it’s 3D or motion controllers, or even new platforms. I think tablets are likely to become very popular in the next few years as more com-panies enter the market, and the combination of touch controls and bigger screens will ceratinly allow for some interesting games. That said, I do like buttons!

Page 11

IN REVIEWWelcome to the digitallydownloaded.net reviews section!

Each month we’ll present some of the most exciting, newest, and classic games available on various download services.

We’ll aslo score them out of five. By nature, games scores are highly subjective but as a rule of thumb, 1 star is unplayable, 2-3 stars is very niche, poor value or highly flawed in some way, 4 stars is a game anyone should enjoy, and 5 stars is a must have.

We’ll be building out our reviews section in the coming months, so if you have any ideas how we could improve it further, please do email us at digitallydown-loaded@gmail.com

Matt SainsburyEditor-in-chief

Has Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time held up all these years later? Read on for our review!

Page 12

finest talent). It’s been a long time since the last new release in the Ogre franchise – 2002’s GBA gem Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, so it’s nice to see the series return with such style with the PSP re-make of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.

The first thing you’ll realise on booting the game up is that it is a mammoth endeavour. The story itself is incredibly long (and offers alternate paths depending on the

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling TogetherData

Publisher Square EnixPrice ($AU) $54.99Download on

PlayStation Network (PSP)

This is a big world you’ll be exploring

In 1988, a little development com-pany, called Quest Corporation, was formed in Japan. In 1993 it released Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen on the Super Ninten-do, and one of the greatest tactical RPG series’ was born.

Ogre Battle is a real time strategy game with some RPG elements, and is still loved today for the in-credible depth and epic scope that

was crammed within the relatively primitive visuals.

In 1995 came Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Same game world, but this time around it was a turn based strategy game, where you move characters around a grid, rather than direct them over giant maps. It was a very different style, but it too was magic.

In 2002 Square Enix purchased the Ogre franchise (no surprises there, since the publishing gi-ant had already poached Quest’s

decisions you make), but length aside, there is an intimidating number of things you need to do to even get to the end.

There is a mass of character classes and types available, from the mundane to the monstrous. Given that there can be up to 12 charac-ters on the battlefield at any one time, coming up with a winning combination of characters whose

skills match one another’s is a long process of trial and error and deep thinking.

There’s a definite sense of reward for coming up with a strong force, though, because Tactics Ogre can be a very difficult game, so each win – especially if it’s an easy win – is a pleasant experience. Part of the difficulty is alleviated by the ability to “rewind” turns – if you don’t like the result of one of your actions, you can just jump back to an earlier turn and try something different.

of plot that’s going to win any ‘best of ’ awards (and remember, this is a remake of a SNES game), but it’s also not going to bore you to sleep.

The game’s only real Achilles heel comes from its visuals. The art direction within the game engine is typical Square Enix quality, with stunning character portraits, varied landscapes and beautifully pre-sented menus. The music sets an incredible atmosphere, and does indeed feature the classic Ogre Bat-tle theme that will hit series faithful with a solid dose of nostalgia.

In battle, however, the character sprites themselves have a fuzzy quality that looks strangely out of place with the crisp backdrops and those lovely menus. They’re still charming, and anyone who has played an earlier Tactics Ogre game will get a kick out of those sprites, but newcomers will perhaps find things a little basic – especially in the early stages where there’s not a lot going on and special effects and character variety are minimal.

It’s a tiny chick in an otherwise solid suit of armour, however. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is the first PSP title in a while that is worth buying a PSP for. Such a deep, lengthy quest is going to have you going for a long, long time to come.

wind effects and the sheer depth of customisation required outside of battle, and the plot advances at a very slow pace indeed.

It’s an enjoyable plot to play through, if somewhat clichéd and forgettable. There’s the usual political strife working behind the scenes (a hallmark of the Tactics Ogre series), and epic overtunes that somehow also manage to give the characters some genuine, if basic personality. It’s not the kind

The downside to this is it can make battles a very protracted affair. Many people will be com-ing into this game with a working knowledge of the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem, and perhaps less experience with Tactics Ogre. Both those other tactics RPGs are far speedier expe-riences. Tactics Ogre boasts large maps with lots of terrain effects to work around and some enemies that can soak up serious damage before falling. Throw in the re-

A serious discussion is going on here. Lots of serious stuff is being said

Burning towns are a well-trodden RPG cliche. That’s this game to a ‘T’

Score:4.5/5

- Matt Sainsbury

as always, but give the player the ability to rotate the screen to navi-gate the levels.

Standing at the edge of a gap that is much too large to simply jump over, what does one do? Rotating the screen 90 degrees will move the gap from directly in front of the on-screen character to the side, and the character will start to fall accordingly across the gap. Just as the gap is crossed a second rotation back and voila, the gap has been safely crossed. This is just a basic example of the things to come, as boulders threaten death as they follow the on-screen character during rotations, and moving obstacles must be pre-

And Yet It MovesData

Publisher Broken Rules

Price ($AU) $9.99Download on

Steam

And Yet It Moves is like playing an art work

2D Platformers have been go-ing strong for over 20 years now, which makes it even more impres-sive that And Yet it Moves man-ages to bring a unique game play element to the genre. The unique twist of being able to rotate the entire screen 90 degrees at will adds a completely new game play element to the standard run-and-jump 2D Platformers. Top it off with a unique cardboard cut-out art style, and And Yet it Moves is a ripping good time.

Get to Point B from Point A, the standard that we have become so familiar with over the years in 2D Platformers. Maybe there is a hidden door, or secret ladder to make things a bit interesting, but it’s always the same affair. We’re huge fans of the genre, but admit-tedly, until the recent resurgence of stellar titles of the likes of Mega Man 9 and Bionic Commando Rearmed, the genre had been all but played out. And Yet it Moves enters the saturated market with a simple premise - run-and-jump

cisely traversed in the later levels of the game offering a substantial challenge to even expert platform veterans.

And Yet it Moves is a game that is unique on so many levels, that it really takes playing to grasp the concept. Taking a new bold step into a worn genre and succeeding is not easy task, and yet And Yet it Moves does just that. Lasting only a few short hours isn’t even an issue as the replay value is so high that many will play through the game multiple times, or tackle Time Trials when the main ad-venture is over. Indy gaming has always presented unique game play styles to gamers, and And Yet it Moves sits in the top-tier of indie gaming, and we recommend it highly.

- Christopher Ingram

Score:4.5/5

Page 15

Alien Breed: DescentData

Publisher Team 17Price ($AU) $14.99Download on

PlayStation Network

Gettin’ moody in here

Alien Breed: Descent does noth-ing new. It’s a direct sequel to the two previous Alien Breed games, with the same gameplay, the same visuals, the same settings, the same gameplay modes and the same flaws. Given that between the three of them, Team 17 is ask-ing people to pay the same prices as a retail package, you’re going to want to be a huge fan to buy into the game again.

That said, if you’re only going to get one of the games in the series, this is the best choice. The story is at its most intense in the third act, the threats bigger and unlike the first two games, when you finish this one you’ll actually get a sense of closure. It’s not really any more difficult than previous games, but it certainly feels more impressive to play.

At its core Alien Breed is a dual stick, top down shooter with a plot pulled directly from Aliens. As such, you’ll be wandering down sci-fi space ship hallways, killing stuff with an impressive array of guns, and completing objectives to put a stop to the alien threat.

While it’s a great premise, in execution some elements fall flat. The game has a terrible habit of asking you to moving to computer A to unlock door B which will allow you to access computer C, which will then unlock door D at the other end of the space ship. It’s basically a great big key hunt, and while the backtracking is never too lengthy, completing objectives is not really engaging and you’ll eventually get tired of wandering back and forth from computer to computer.

The game also looks great thanks to the Unreal 3 engine, but is also hampered by a few annoying quirks – especially if you’ve played the previous two games. There’s not a whole lot of variety in the enemies, the weapons lack bite and the explosions are distinctly unimpressive.

Aside from the story mode, a (very good) horde survival mode and online co-op return. Trying to beat your previous best score is al-

ways a compelling experience, and while in some survival games the earlier, easy waves of enemies are too easy and mean the first five-10 minutes of each game is therefore dull, in Alien Breed the difficulty ramps up nicely.

Like with the previous two games,

the online co-op is dead, so the only way you’ll be playing this is if you can make friends with other PS3 owners of the game.

All said, Alien Breed: Descent is a difficult game to rate. It’s good (if simple) fun, but its hard to rec-ommend to fans of the first two games, as the only thing they’ll get out of this release is a sense of sto-ry closure, and between the three games, it becomes a very expen-sive series for a style of gameplay that isn’t really worth retail price.

- Matt Sainsbury

Score:3.5/5

Time was visionary and creative, the likes of Twilight Princess have been content to fly the flag of con-formity. It’s like comparing Lord of the Rings to the likes of Robert Jordan or George R. R. Martin – the former was visionary, the latter are competent and entertaining, but no more than that.

In part, Ocarina of Time’s ini-tial success was due to the sheer impact the move to 3D had on the series. At a time where the indus-try was still learning the ropes with 3D, Ocarina of Time provided many Nintendo owners with their first near-open world 3D adven-ture. By comparison to what had come before, those first tentative steps on to the huge field of Hyrule

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Data

Publisher NintendoPrice ($AU) 1000 pointsDownload on

Wii Virtual Console

The first time we saw this, we were spellbound. OoT’s world was pure magic

After all this time, The Legend of Zel-da: Ocarina of Time has still not been bettered. There’s a timeless quality to this game that Nin-tendo has simply failed to recapture since.

That’s not to say other Zelda games that have come since are necessar-ily bad – the series has maintained an impressive stand-ard throughout its history, But where Ocarina of Time is timeless, the likes of Spirit Tracks has been throwaway entertainment. Where Ocarina of

were epic and filled with promise.

Of course, nostalgia is often an enemy in the guise of a friend, and going back to these games after so many years often makes flaws quite obvious. This is especially true with games that have had a major technological impact (such as moving a series to 3D). These games are almost invariably filled with side-effect flaws that have since been rectified as develop-ers become more comfortable with the new technology, and the original, innovative games are left behind by their more refined suc-cessors.

A couple of Ninten-do games have suf-fered from this over the years. Mario 64 is a standout – such an incredible game back in the day as since lost a lot of sheen, and the likes of Mario Galaxy now leave it in the dust (in every con-ceivable way), but Ocarina of Time is almost the opposite case.

While the infa-mously clunky and irritating Water Temple is a progres-sively more ugly stain on the tapes-try, Ocarina of Time is still a flawless, highly replayable

experience. It doesn’t really play like a retro game, and indeed, the fact it’s free of silly gimmicks like the Spirit Train or Wind Waker’s boat actually makes it the more refined title.

- Matt Sainsbury

Score:5/5

Page 17

Infinity Blade (iPad)Few, if any, iPhone games have reached the level of hype that In-finity Blade reached. Within only minutes of its release, thousands of gamers had already down-loaded and played the game. Now there’s expansions to download, too.

So why all the hype? Well, for one thing, the game is powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3, which also just happens to power the Xbox 360 fan favorite, Gears of War 2. The graphics are nothing short of stunning, looking pretty much on-par with a current-gen console game -- a thing previously unheard of on a handheld device.

The actual gameplay is where everything falls flat. As you make your way through the citadel, you’re on a fixed, linear path, and in order to progress you simply touch at points on the screen. It’s functional; it works. But after having been taunted by the free-roaming Epic Citadel tech demo, we were expecting a bit more.

It’s hard to overlook how shallow the battle system really is -- the game is more addicting than fun.

Score:3/5

Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus (iPad)MC2 controls just about the same as Gameloft’s previous shooters, but it feels tighter thanks to a good dose of tweaking. The game utilizes a virtual analogue stick to move, and there’s an assort-ment of virtual buttons to shoot, throw grenades, and crouch.

You can look around by dragging your thumb anywhere else; you can also drag your thumb while shooting to look, which is absolutely neces-sary if you plan on not dying. The default set-tings position the icons in a very pretty, albeit extremely uncomfortable arrangement. Thankfully,

you can reposition all of the icons in the in-game options menu, and I strongly recommend that you do so.

Visually, MC2 is one of Gameloft’s best looking titles. Facial close-ups bring to mind visuals of a zombie apocalypse, but given their infre-quency it’s easy enough to forgive.

For $US6.99, this game is an ab-solute steal. I’ve logged a good 20

hours online, and have started playing through the campaign a second time. Of the currently available Gameloft shooters, I consider this to be far and away the best of the bunch, surpassing even Ga-meloft’s latest, N.O.V.A. 2. If you’re looking for a fun, intense and engag-ing shooter, then this is an experience not to be missed.

Score:4.5/5

- pixelman

-pixelman

Page 17 Page 18

DSiWare games we’d like to see re-made for the 3DS

While 3DSware is just around the corner, 3DS owners will still be able to access the DSiWare cata-logue. But on a sparkly new 3D console, will playing “mere” 2D games be enough?

Here is a few games that we would buy all over again if 3DS features were added in and the games re-released as full 3DSware games.

3D would be a cosmetic change to this brilliant little golf title, but what a cosmetic change it would be! The 3DS’s 3D effect works best when moving into a screen, which is precisely what a golf ball does as it flies down the fairway. Seeing the courses realised in 3D would

give them a much greater tactile sense, which would, in turn, create a more immersive experience.

A Little Bit of... Touch Golf

Art Style: KuBos

Of all the Art Style games, this one would benefit most from a 3D remake. The game was always designed around 3D, and visually it does suffer from being shoehorned onto a 3D plat-form. It’s like trying to shove a triangle through a circle.

In 3D though, the true understated visual style would be real-ised in full. Moving around the cubic environment would feel more alien, and at the same time it will be easier to navigate around the environment because there will be a more real sense of space.

Hello Flowerz

StreetPass could be used to trade people’s favourite flower arrange-ments. Pedometer-unlocked coins could be used to “buy” new seeds or garden objects. Given EA’s garden game has officially been canned, we’d love to see Flowerz pick up the baton and give 3DS owners the chance to grow a vir-tual garden.

Page 19

X-Scape

It looks retro, But Q Games’ X-scape is something of a masterpiece. The wire-frame visuals would make the game look even better. The enemies would look more menacing, the action would feel even more hectic.

Touch control would have to be done away with, but with a circle pad to re-place it, that should not feel too notice-able.

We’d like to see a multiplayer mode or two thrown in for good measure, but the original X-Scape was such good value in the first place that we wouldn’t complain if it was a straight port with 3D effects built in.

Dragon Quest Wars

One of the great strengths of Dragon Quest is its personality, and bringing the characters into full 3D could only help bring that personality out further.

Plus, we’d love to see Intelligent Systems take the opportunity to build on the basic gameplay further – expand the online options out, add in a few new monsters, create some map packs with additional environments.

In fact, we’d love to see Dragon Quest Wars develop an element of collectable card games – buying DLC ‘boosters’ to get new monsters and new abilities to build out your team. By doing that, Intel-ligent Systems would all but assure them-selves of a dedicated online community and a game that provides an immense amount of value for gamers.

The only downside would be because the touch screen isn’t the 3D screen, the gameplay would need to be shifted to the top screen, and touch controls would not work any longer. Given that the touch screen controls didn’t work that well (one of the few complaints) in the first place, this would not be a great loss.

Page 20

See You Next Month!