Children have no problem making their own fun.  Give them a few outdated toys, a handful of couch cushions, or a backyard, and a child will use their imagination as the catalyst to somehow create something entertaining for themselves.  This is an ability that’s likely lost on most people as they age, but Double Fine Happy Action Theater is a quick and enjoyable return to form.

DFHAT is a composition of 18 scenarios, the vast majority of which impose no goal or direction on the player.  The game simply provides a setting and lets the player make their own fun.  Smashing a city and swatting at helicopters a la King Kong, or feeding and subsequently scaring a group of pigeons is surprisingly cathartic when you aren’t prodded to do these things; rather, you do them because you can.

It’s immediately clear that while developing DFHAT, Double Fine made sure to place an emphasis on accommodating the way kids would play it.  DFHAT has no menus that are necessary to play the game; each situation starts as soon as the last one ends, and they cycle endlessly.  There is no drop in/drop out process to go through; players can join and quit DFHAT seamlessly and the game does a great job acclimating accordingly.  Lastly, each scenario only carries on for a few minutes, which is probably on par with the attention span of most children.

While the functionality of DFHAT is tailored to children, it doesn’t mean that the game is made exclusively for them.  Adults will be able to find enjoyment in each of the scenarios at least a couple of times through, and it certainly works better as a party game than a solo endeavor.  However, it seems that adding young ones to the equation will make for exponentially more opportunities to replay the game.

Ultimately, it’s near impossible to provide a review for a game that doesn’t strive to be a game.  DFHAT quite competently puts all the pieces in place for players to have fun, but it’s up to the players to make something of those pieces.  So, in lieu of a collection of deep statements about where the developer succeeded or failed, all I can really offer is that I had fun while playing DFHAT, which must mean that I was doing something right.

Scarygirl is a fairly typical blend of side-scrolling 3D fun, with a uniquely psychedelic art design complimented by decently implemented gameplay and traditional platforming charm.  While it may not be a groundbreaking or sensationally must-have experience, Scarygirl does elevate itself above most other subpar adaptations of popular non-video game franchises. That’s right, Scarygirl is actually an adaptation of a flash game which is in and of itself based on a popular graphic novel. Scarygirl’s  first foray into the gaming community is a solid one to be sure, but I found myself wishing it could have been a tad more compelling.

You take control of the titular Scarygirl, an adorably creepy orphan who has been brought up by a giant octopus and an esoteric rabbit (who gets on onion highs and shares his trippy trances). She’s been suffering through some pretty gnarly nightmares featuring a strange, big-headed man and she must journey to the Big City to seek out this mysterious interloper and unlock the secrets of her sinister past. For a lead character, Scarygirl possesses the appropriate amount of charisma and quirk, a tenacious little monster who can transform into an actual terror once enough foes are vanquished. Enemies and side characters are equally eclectic, ranging from talking eggs, toy cats, and ego-maniacal chihuahuas.

Gameplay boils down to a tried-but-true platform based combat where traversing the levels, defeating swarms of kooky enemies and collecting gems is the name of the game. Scarygirl is gifted with a tentacle arm that serves a multitude of functions; whip-like melee weapon, grappling hook, lasso, and even a helicopter (for chasms and cliffs and such). This singular appendage is the cornerstone of the Scarygirl experience, helping to both defeat enemies and survive the environmental hazards thrown at you when endeavoring to reach level’s end. Coupled with the ability to temporarily defend attacks and grapple/toss enemies at one another without a thought, Scarygirl has plenty of tricks up her sleeve while handling with great precision (once you get the combos down).

Exchange your hoarded gems with ambling salesmen for new moves and weapons to attach to your tentacle. Moves include things like squeezing the life out of foes and bouncing them into the air like a pogo stick while new weapons like Chinese fans and Rage Hook mean you have some options when dispatching your enemies. These enemies often swarm you from both sides, and will pounce from all directions as soon as you let your guard down. Often, this means you get saddled with some cheap hits and unfair damage, but as you collect more heart containers this doesn’t prove as big of a problem although I personally found the sucker punches to be frustratingly annoying.

While each level had great designs and a unique look, gameplay eventually devolved into trying to get from point A to point B with little variety in the middle. Enemies were varied and their attack patterns switched up from time to time,  but really all Scarygirl boiled down to was the sum of its parts; beat up the badguys, find the gems, and get to the end. Don’t get me wrong, with its spooky atmosphere (with a pretty groovy soundtrack) and zany cast, Scarygirl has a lot to offer in terms of characters and world, I just don’t know if the gameplay will keep players invested enough to see things through to the end. Maybe the game’s drop in/ drop out co-op will level the playing field and encourage players to share the world of Scarygirl with a friend, but for me it was an appreciated but ultimately non-essential addition to things.

Interested terrors can try out the demo for free, or lay down 800 MS points and purchase the full game  on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

While the nitty gritty details surrounding the Xbox Live Arcade House Party have been slowly trickling down the grapevine for weeks, the last specifics were finally revealed today by, the host with the most, Microsoft.

The emphasis of the announcement may have been on the releases and their prices, but Microsoft also confirmed that the guests with the best attendance will receive a parting gift for their dedication.  Anyone that purchases all four House Party games will get a nice 800 MS Point kickback.

Here is the full list of games, release dates, and prices:

• February 15 – Warp – 800 MSP
• February 22 – Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – 1200 MSP
• February 29 – Nexuiz – 800 MSP
• March 7 – I Am Alive – 1200 MSP

Anyone interested in learning more about any of these titles would be well-advised to check out this post which gives a bit of a description about each one.

Sometimes, I forget what a wonderful thing Xbox LIVE Arcade is. When the right kind of content is released, it can be quite an incredible place, a platform for getting your hands on independent content crafted with love, care and a certain amount of hands-on flair that is hard to find in many of the major mainstream releases these days. Bogged down with marketing strategies, multiplayer servers and user demographics, too many below average titles get the exposure they don’t deserve. With Arcade, smaller yet better honed experiences get a chance to be played at a (mostly) reasonable price. Trine 2 reminded me of why I consistently fall in love with titles that stray from the beaten path, because they often stumble upon something quite magical.

Trine 2 is a 3D side-scrolling fantasy game, a sort of action/physics puzzler with heavier emphasis on the puzzling. The sequel to a rock solid title released 2009, I couldn’t help  finding myself wishing I had gotten my hands on the original. Don’t get me wrong, this entry does a great job of both providing some backstory to get new players invested while proving more than capable of standing on its own, I was intrigued with the world presented and wanted to go back and see the game’s heroes origin story. Alas, I’m getting a tad ahead of myself.

In Trine 2, you get to play as a trio of heroes selected by an ancient artifact known as the Trine to save the kingdom. These individuals (a thief, a mage, and a knight) came together once before to defeat an evil menace, and in the process became the stuff of legend. Some time has passed, and the heroes have fallen back into their respective lives only to find the Trine beckoning them together once again. The story is simple and effective, proving to be more an excuse to move things along as opposed to the cornerstone upon which the whole experience turns. What really gets you invested are the characters and how they interact with each other.

First, you have Amadeus, a nervous wizard who specializes in summoning mystical blocks (akin to Companion Cubes) out of thin air and levitating nearly anything on-screen. Then there’s Pontius, an overblown knight with a penchant for getting into trouble. He’s a combat specialist who wields either sword and shield or his two handed sledgehammer. Rounding out the team is Zoya, a quick footed thief whose ranged archery attacks and grappling hook make her quite the killer combo in either combat or puzzle solving. The banter and relationships that develop are endearing and do much to engage the player with the world. With this colorful cast of adventurers and their clever commentary, there’s never a dull moment.

Gameplay boils down to properly utilizing these heroes in the myriad of elaborate environments the developers constructed for players to traverse. At any point, you can swap between these heroes and you must use their specialized abilities to overcome the sizeable obstacles that end up in your path. When goblins attack, pull out Pontius to deal some heavy damage, while a fallen log will prove no match for Amadeus’s levitation spells. Is the key to a door floating above a spike pit? Have Zoya sever the rope bridge with an arrow, then grapple onto it with her hook. Even better, upgrade your hero’s skills by outsmarting the environment and retrieving hard-to-reach enchantment stones to earn skill points. Soon, you’ll be able to levitate enemies, freeze your foes, and create even more possibilities in terms of combat. Be careful, though; each hero has a life meter which if depleted will make that individual unavailable until the next checkpoint.

Visually, Trine 2 is surprisingly stunning. The developers really fill the screen with some fantastically colorful vistas, elaborate creatures and magical atmosphere. Light seeps through windows in dusty motes, dragons breathe fire with a billowing intensity that causes the air to blur with heat, while enchanted water gushes and flows with sparkling clarity. The color palettes and level designs are both creative and unique, creating a vivid world that always seems to surprise in ways that are akin to James Cameron’s Avatar.

With a three player co-op system, some clever achievements, and an uncanny ability to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers without pandering or alienating anyone, Trine 2 has a lot going for it, especially considering it’s what some might consider to be a “mere” Arcade title. Trine 2 really does have something for everyone, and it’s a nicely sized game which should prove to keep players engaged for hours on end, or minutes at a time depending on your schedule. While it might not be reinventing the wheel or anything, this game is a really well made entry and a title worthy of a playthrough or two.

Mr. Hawk’s long-running video game franchise is getting a reinvention of sorts this summer.  The next installment of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater will be an amalgamation of the series’ first two titles, in an effort to revitalize the skating legend’s brand by taking it back to its roots.

Recently, the first seven levels to be included in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD were announced.  All seven courses are fan favorites and sure to resonate when the game’s released.  The revealed levels are:

• Warehouse
• School 2
• Mall
• Phoenix
• Hangar
• Marseilles
• Venice

As an aside, the screens that were released confirm the inclusion of Rodney Mullen, Nyjah Huston, and, of course, Tony Hawk.

As we get closer and closer to the agonizingly ambiguous “2012″ release date for the highly anticipated Trials Evolution, the folks at Inside Xbox have conducted an interview with RedLynx Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Jason Bates to help quell the anxiety.  Bates drew attention to a lot of the same things that we did in our preview, such as the mentality behind multiplayer races, the outdoor environments, and the inclusion of Skill Games.

We’ve contacted RedLynx about whether they have a more concrete release date in mind.  We’ll be sure to update you on the off-chance that they do.

Shank Uncut Gameplay Clip Jan 18 2012 from .

Award-winning independent game developer Klei Entertainment and EA Partners today announced that the 2D action brawler, Shank 2, will be available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade on February 8, 2012 for 800 MSPoints (or $10.00)

Set in a pulp fiction world, Shank 2 puts players back in control of their favorite ex-mobster hitman, Shank. Klei has evolved the combat experience with precise controls, new weapons, smarter enemies, and more advanced combo techniques, all set to the backdrop of beautiful 2D art and animation. Players can put Shank’s trusty arsenal of handguns, chainsaws, grenades, plus all-new weapons to use in order to protect those close to him.

Introducing an all-new Survival Mode, gamers can team up with a friend online or locally, working together to take down hordes of goons in an action-packed, arcade-style brawl. Featuring stunning visuals from Klei’s veteran cartoon director, Jeff Agala,Shank 2 raises the bar even higher for 2D brawlers with art and animation that won Klei multiple awards and nominations.

UTV Ignition Games, together with developer Denki, today announced that Quarrel will be released on the Xbox LIVE Arcade for only 400 MSPoints (or $5.00) on January 25, 2012.

In Quarrel, players must battle their opponents for control of an island split into territories. In order to do this, they must create the highest scoring word from a given eight-letter anagram, ultimately claiming the land on the quest for total vocabulary domination.

Adding an entirely new level of fun to the game, Quarrel for Xbox LIVE Arcade will support four-player multiplayer!

Additionally, the classic single player allows players to compete against nine fiendish artificial players, all of whom have unique personalities and play styles. There’s also Challenge Mode, which pits players against the AI like never before and sets new mini-objectives of battle.

Additional features include:

• Collins Official SCRABBLE Dictionary (2nd Edition 2007 © HarperCollins Publishers 2005, 2007)
• Social network features including Leaderboards / Achievements / In-Game messaging and Voice Chat
• Microsoft Avatar Support
• Online 1-4 Player Multiplayer
• All-new Single-Player Challenge Mode

I hate overly negative reviews.  They don’t do anything but discourage developers from venturing out and taking a shot at creating something that could be truly special.  Behind every game are thousands of hours of manpower, and it’s unfair to venomously and unjustifiably rip a game to shreds in the interest of creating waves.  That being said, you must trust me that this review isn’t overly negative; it’s properly negative.

AMY is bad.  Terrible, in fact.  It’s a veritable Murderer’s Row of poor game design elements heaped on top of a hazy narrative.  It’s been a long time since the games industry has experienced a title this offensively awful, and the one good thing to come from AMY‘s existence is that maybe good games will be more appreciated in its wake.

AMY follows the story of a woman named Lana who finds herself in a temporary parental role to Amy, an autistic 8-year old girl.  As they’re travelling by train, an explosion derails them and thrusts them squarely into the zombie apocalypse.  This is all established in the opening cut scene, and it’s the clearest the plot ever gets.

The most disappointing aspect of AMY‘s shortcomings is that it was built around a genuinely interesting concept that had a ton of potential.  If VectorCell were able to achieve a narrative that was emotionally charged and focused on the mutually symbiotic relationship between Lana and Amy, it would’ve inspired the player to wade through the severely lacking gameplay in the interest of reaching a conclusion to the game’s narrative.  Instead, the story carries so little weight and the mechanics falter so profoundly that the player feels no investment in the characters and is easily (and almost constantly) detached from the experience altogether.

The most egregious of AMY‘s missteps is how it controls.  While it doesn’t have an excessive number of movements and actions, the controls are laid out in the most unintuitive way imaginable.  It left me routinely delaying several seconds while I tried to remember simple commands such as how to run.  However, just because the proper buttons were pushed doesn’t mean that AMY will actually respond.  Regularly, the game would stubbornly refuse to obey inputs; it would usually take a third or fourth try, a change of the camera angle, or a slight step forward for the game to comply.

Touted as a horror survival game, AMY puts more emphasis than is customary on combat.  Unfortunately, the combat system is also (unshockingly) sluggish and broken.  Battling the infected monsters is nothing more than an exercise in chance and tedium, as the player has no discernible control over Lana’s wild flailing attacks and her spotty dodging.  This, coupled with the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to use syringes that restore health while engaged in a fight make dying a deplorable inevitability.

By far the most frustrating and baffling facet of AMY‘s game design is the omission of regular auto-save points. The spotty controls and unpredictable camera swings lead to a lot of unwarranted deaths.  A bit of self-awareness on the developer’s part by adding gracious checkpoints could have gone a little ways toward salvaging any shred of dignity that AMY could muster.  As it is, dying will set you back a long ways, sometimes three-quarters of a chapter.  It’s completely inexcusable for a game to subject the player to the same 20 minutes of unbearable stretches of level, time and time again, due solely to its own incompetence.  It’s also the reason that the vast majority of players, including myself, will never finish this game.

After only a few hours with AMY, it’s evident that this is the most intolerable, infuriating, and inexcusable title in recent memory.  While it may have been passable in 2002, it certainly has no place in 2012.  This game has absolutely no redeeming features and is nothing short of a train wreck, as maybe the opening cinematic was inadvertently foreshadowing.  The best thing that we can do now is to move forward without looking back, and just pretend that AMY never happened.

Although we don’t know officially which game will kick it off, we have a strong feeling that Alan Wake’s American Nightmare will headline the party, followed by I Am Alive, Nexuiz, and lastly Warp. Let it be known that no dates (besides the first game releasing on February 15) have been announced yet, so any of the four games could be released anywhere after that date.

I Am Alive

In this post-apocalyptic adventure, survive the suffocating, murky streets covered in dust and search for your lost wife and daughter amidst the crumbling ruins of a once-thriving metropolis filled with distrustful survivors, dangerous armed gangs, and victims in need.