Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, at first glance, seems just like the type of peripheral-based title designed to draw Hamiltons out of parents’ pockets and refill them with action figures and useless game-based swag. The starter package is about $69.99 MSRP and includes three starter figures, the game, a USB pedestal you’ll hook up to your console (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS, or PC), and a host of other niceties. It seems that most pricey peripherals are doomed to fail. Just look at the Power Glove. Judging this book by its cover, it’s easy to adopt an overly negative stance to both the game and the idea in general. But when you look past the gimmickry and the collectible nature of the game, there’s actually a surprisingly entertaining, kid-friendly adventure at the core. It may not be the Spyro you remember from your youth, but it’s a colorful step in the right direction for a revival of the series, and one you’ll find yourself putting more time into than you might have intended.
All posts in Xbox 360
Review: Spider-Man: Edge of Time
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I rather enjoyed Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, but found ultimately that Spider-Man: Web of Shadows more expertly implemented the aspects I really enjoy about Spidey (namely his personality and his arsenal of attacks) as well as combined a viable open world ripe for perusing. Time travel and/or altering of the space/time continuum and playing as different Spideys just wasn’t truly my cup of tea, though Shattered Dimensions did put up an admirable fight. The latest addition to the string of Spidey sequels is Spider-Man: Edge of Time, developer Beenox’s next up to bat. It allows players to control two Spideys in two different time planes and combines many past elements from the previous games that seem to work well together, but in the end feels more claustrophobic than liberating.
Review: Just Dance 3
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Dance games have become a dime a dozen these days. And for good reason. They’re great diversions for parties or get-togethers, and it’s simple to jump in and get your groove on. With the rise of motion control, however, games such as Just Dance have risen astronomically in popularity – despite the precision and training available in the impeccably great Dance Central, the “budget” pricing and feel of Ubisoft’s franchise has simply seen more success. Now the sensation has made a home on the Xbox 360 with Kinect (and to a lesser extent, the PS3 with Move support) with Just Dance 3, bringing what felt like little more than a dance simulator (loose movement judging, lazy “gameplay”, etc) into the future with more rigid scoring and a broader range of top 40 hits.
Review: Worms: Ultimate Mayhem
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Having grown up with the Worms series, I’ve been around for their several incarnations over the years and have enjoyed most of them to some degree. However, when it comes to their three-dimensional installments Worms 3D and Worms 4: Mayhem, I’ve had to draw the line. For some reason moving from an isometric view muddles the entire ordeal of worm warfare into something unrecognizable and more like a chore to play. Worms: Ultimate Mayhem brings the two together in one tidy little package for purchase on Xbox Live Arcade, but it’s not exactly the starting point for the series that I would recommend.
Review: X-Men: Destiny
X-Men: Destiny seemed like a novel idea on paper: choose from three newly-initiated mutants, develop their fledgling powers, and fight alongside some of your favorite X-Men or Brotherhood characters. In practice, it feels much more like a horribly written fanfic than a full-fledged, completed video game. If you’ve ever written a Mary Sue character into the Marvel universe, beautiful, young, and naive, yet mysteriously able to join the X-Men after a mere few fights and near-instant mastery of powers, then you’ve probably got a good feel of how the game plays out. Here’s a hint: not very well.