Albatropolis. A country occupied by an evil penguin regime. It’s up to you, the feathered hero Hardboiled Chicken, the original Cock of War, to rid the world of that stain. This is basically the premise of the game. For those unfamiliar with Rocketbirds, this is technically an expansion to the universe pf the browser-based game titled Rocketbirds: Revolution! In this game, Hardboiled must stop the penguin army’s leader, Putzki, at all costs. With the premise of the story out of the way, it’s time to focus on the actual review. The game launches with an $11.99 price tag, so the question is, will that investment be worth it? Gameplay Single Player – Of course, the biggest feature in a game is the gameplay. You can have the best looking game in the world, but if it doesn’t play well, there’s no sense in playing it, right? With that said, this game is very fast paced. You’ll be doing a lot of running and gunning, that’s for sure. My very first impression playing it was that it reminded me a bit of the old Oddworld games. Anyway, as far as the single player goes, there are a variety of weapons located throughout the levels/chapters, with each weapon having a little bit of a cutscene introduction (even if it was a weapon you had picked up before, but it’s not like they’re all over the place; at most, a chapter will only have access to 3 guns max). Weapon firing is generally simple. Move your stick in the direction you want to fire and hit R1. You can also crouch by pressing down, which helps to hit some enemies, like when they’re hidden behind a crawl space or vent. And yes, you’ll do a bit of crawling in those spaces. The levels themselves aren’t that big, but navigating them does require a bit of backtracking every once in a while. A lot of doors are secured by security cards, so you’ll have to go on about finding those, which are sometimes in the possession of an enemy (usually the last one to spawn in a wave sequence, for instance). Wave sequences are certain parts of the game where waves of enemies come in to try to take Hardboiled out, and you have to stop them to progress to the next area. Resources are often scarce here (ammo and health packs; you can track how low you are on either using the HUD), so you’ll have to conserve your ammo and only grab health packs when you need it. The big penguins with the shields you will have to sneak behind, as you could potentially empty a clip of ammo and not do anything to the enemy himself. Also, be sure to let dead bodies fall to the ground, as you will juggle their bodies and potentially miss enemies behind him because of that (though, there is a trophy for juggling an enemy for 10 seconds). One of the available weapons you’ll eventually gain (through one of the cardinal brothers, which are imprisoned by the regime) is the Brain Bug. The brain bugs work similarly to grenades, except they jump and explode in the air. If an enemy is close enough, when they explode, they’ll allow you to take control of an enemy penguin, allowing you to slip by enemies unnoticed and open secure doors you can’t otherwise reach. Or you can use them to shoot up the enemies in an area without rustling up your own feathers. Hidden throughout the levels are hidden protest signs. Admittedly, I haven’t found all of them, so I am not sure what they unlock, but they usually require some thinking to achieve them, or just simply coming across them. One of them I was able to get by shooting an enemy and juggling him in the air until his body crossed the sign and activated it. Simply shooting the signs, however, doesn’t activate them if I recall correctly. Now, I assume the main title of Rocketbirds comes from the fact that Hardboiled, through a few of the levels, comes across his rocket/jet pack, and must take out a zeppelin or two. You basically strap on the pack and head for the skies, where you have to fire at enemies that launch from the dirigibles. Some enemies are also what I assume to be remotely controlled helicopters, which fire homing missiles at you. If you’re good, you can circle around an enemy and have a rocket take one of them out instead, but they do eventually lost their tracking (just fly in circles if you have to). For the most part, these levels are zoomed out quite a bit, so your character might be a little hard to see, but I think it works better this way, as you have more awareness of what’s going on around you. Personally, I liked these sequences quite a bit, but they are few. Being able to shut the throttle off on the rockets and float down while firing at enemies heading toward you is pretty fun. Of course, after you defeat all of the waves, you have to head inside of the ships and blow them up. Upon leaving the ships, you’ll either have to go to the next one, or head back towards the ground for the next chapter. Overall, I’d say the game is a bit fun, but at only 15 chapters (each being relatively short), it’s also a quick game to get through. Beyond trying to find all of the hidden protest signs, I don’t see there being too much replay value with this title. Co-Op – If you feel the urge to play with a friend, the game does offer local cooperative play. Instead of playing as Hardboiled (or, say, one of the Cardinal brothers), you play as smaller Pudgies, each with a specific weapon/difficulty. The story is different, too. Rather than trying to stop the penguin regime, your task is, instead, to rescue ‘some chick’, which happens to be the general’s daughter. It’s different enough to mention, though, because, even though the levels are basically the same ones from the single player campaign, certain things are laid out differently in an effort to force you to take on a situation in a different way. This includes one player standing on a button to deactivate a laser grid so the other player can stand on the next, or having to take different floors and solve a puzzle that way. Most of the time, it doesn’t take much thought for the puzzles, but communication between you and the guy/gal sitting next to you could mean the difference between life and death, so to speak. A lot of times, you will need to jump on your partner’s shoulder (or vis versa) to reach a ledge neither of you can reach by yourself. You can also do this and just be a totem of death. This is also helpful in some cases, as the base Pudgie can jump while the top one fires (since you can’t jump and shoot at the same time). Overall, though, co-op is quite a bit easier than single player, but it is also only 10 chapters. My brother and I probably finished it off in about an hour and a half, and that was with him dying a bunch of times, too. Still, it was a pretty fun experience (both with single player and co-op). It could have maybe used more than one boss fight, though. Graphics First, I’ll tackle the cutscenes. For those familiar with high-quality flash games, these really fit the bill. Personally, I thought the cutscenes were very well done, even if they did look like a flash game. There isn’t much as far as vocals go, and everything is mainly interpreted by the action on the screen, but it looks good doing it. The game itself is nicely done as far as level aesthetics go (outside areas look great). I would say they’re like a quasi-2D/3D world. Everything is on a 2D field, but objects will move based on perspective as well, giving the game a pretty unique look. There is no jaggedness to any of it, either, so it all looks really smooth, despite the characters being 2D themselves. Everything fits in very well and, I would say, high quality. The only thing I thought was out of place was actually the evil general’s force field/barrier (I forgot his name; I wanted to write it down, though), but it did make for an interesting boss fight in single player. The game also supports stereoscopic 3D (as well as a variety of colored lens-based 3D). I couldn’t test any of these out, however, as I don’t have a 3D TV, let alone, old school 3D glasses, but these options are there if you are able to use them (you can also adjust the 3D depth in the options). Sound and Soundtrack The musical score in the game is solely credited to an indie band by the name of New World Revolution. Though I am not a fan of that kind of music, it fits the game’s cutscenes VERY well. I was surprised how well it worked with them (you could, in that sense, call the cutscenes music videos, so they’re very multipurpose). Outside of the cutscenes, however, there isn’t too much music playing, except for in certain parts of a level (like over loudspeakers, etc). Other than that, it’s mainly ambient noise (which are also well done) and, of course, gunfire and explosions. As mentioned earlier, there isn’t too much talking going on in the game. There’s maybe like 5 lines of vocal dialogue throughout. Other than that, the dialogue by characters is through text bubbles and simulated bird calls. Personally, I think they could have maybe done vocal lines, since even then, there aren’t too many. Conclusion Overall, I do think the game is a high quality title. It may not be the longest title in the world, but it is still a lot of fun. At least, for an initial playthrough. Unless you’re simply playing for trophies, I don’t see too much replay value. In that case, $12 might be a bit hard to swallow, but even then, price is still subjective. The game does have a decent storyline, and definitely leaves room for a sequel, though, so I’m hoping Ratloop Asia can build more onto the gameplay, which I think is pretty fun (save for getting shot myself, and there’s a bunch of enemies shooting at me, leaving me incapable of defending myself ). You can, at least, play the demo so you can get used to the basic gameplay mechanics and decide whether a purchase is worth it from there, but I do recommend checking it out. Who knows? You might enjoy it more than you think! Especially when you take into consideration the score I gave it. Review Pros Cons Graphics and Style is High Quality Fitting Musical Score Simple Controls Puzzles Add to Gameplay Very Short (Both Co-op and Single Player) Could Use More Spoken Parts Only One Boss Fight Not Too Much Replay Value Rating 73%

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[Official Review] Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

Max & the Magic Marker is a physics based 2D puzzle platformer, in which the player controls the boy Max and his Magic Marker. While Max enables good old platforming fun, the marker provides the game’s signature feature: the ability for the player to draw directly inside the game world where everything drawn becomes physical objects. This feature is used to complete levels and overcome challenges but it also provides the player with a unique tool that in itself is fun to play around with. Max is a young boy, and like most boys he loves to draw. One day he gets a mysterious marker in the mail. There is no letter attached – only the plain orange marker. Max decides to test it right away, sits down and starts drawing. He draws a monster but as soon as he finishes the lines on the paper start moving and to Max’s great surprise the monster runs off the paper and into another drawing. Stunned Max now sees how the Monster messes around with his drawings. Max realizes that he has to stop the monster. So he draws himself on the same drawing that the monster is in and immediately finds himself inside the drawing. The game begins. 1. 15 inventive and puzzling levels 2. Unique drawing control in a truly dynamic physics environment 3. 3 beautiful worlds inspired by childrens drawings 4. Death traps, monsters, and challenging puzzles 5. Unlockable challenges, secrets and rewards 6. Original and awesome soundtrack by Analogik I got to play Max and the Magic Marker last year when I bought it at launch for Wii thanks to Wiiware (the equivalent to PSN for those that have never seen the Wii Shop Channel) and had a lot of fun with it. Really felt that my $10 had been spent on a game that delivered on all it promised. Now we find ourselves before a PSN HD version of the game (which is also available for Windows 7 Enabled Phones, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Mac and Windows PCs and will SOON be released on DS as well) and can be controlled either with the Playstation Move Controller (and you’ll mimics the Wii controls) or with a Dualshock 3. How does this version stack up to the original release? Let’s find out! Oh, but first, be sure to go to the official Max and the Magic Marker and read on how the game started all those years ago! We’re in the presence of a very colorful game that, as you’ve read above, presents to us an everyday scenario that can totally happen to any of us (ok, suspension of disbelief is a requirement for playing platformers. All good to go? Great!), a scenario in which a Magic Marker is dropped in the hands of Max, a simple kid who only wants to have fun by drawing monsters and landscapes for his entertainment… until said monster (Mustacho) comes to life and starts to wreak havoc. It is now Max who must put a stop to him before it’s too late! Magic Marker Ink Spheres must be collected in all levels to full up the Marker so you can draw your way to the exit portal. Since the ink is orange, the spheres are orange and you draw orange things. Makes sense, right? You can create anything your imagination and your artistic ability can think off… as long as you’ve got enough ink for it! You can even push or pull said creations to better place them in the screen so you can make the best use of it so don’t forget it! The bigger the structure/object/doodle the bigger effort the effort needed to move it around. The heavier the structure (lots of ink used in a small object) the easier it is to use it to kill your enemies (called Gobos) and defeat Mustacho in any of the three boss fights you’ll encounter during your quest. Heavier structures also help you jump high into the sky when you drop them on a seesaw (which are always conveniently placed in spots where you’ll definitely need them) and fly away into adventure. No seesaw around? Make your own! You can draw “live” while playing the game OR go into sketch mode and draw with everything looking like a hand drawn image done by someone not as … artistic as the ones that helped with the main graphics. Oh, and time freezes everything as well which allows you to take your time and really nail down that long staircase balanced over a circle that is held in place by a triangle. Game is easy to control and offers a lot of different ways to solve the puzzles you run across since you can easily get rid of one of your drawings by sucking back in the marker ink you’ve spent OR you could erase ALL your drawings to offer a fresh start. Just be careful you’re not removing a platform that is keeping Max from danger or you’ll have to act FAST to recover! Things are easier overall with the PS Move controller since drawing feel more natural and you can do it faster than with the dual analog layout so if you own a PS Move controller (or are thinking about getting one) this game will really make good use of it. This is one of those PSN games that just LOVES to have a lot of trophies for you to unlock but in order to make it so that number is as high as possible we’ll only be going after Bronze trophies during our hunting activities (as was the case with Hamilton’s Great Adventure ). The first couple of levels you tackle are small (take a minute at most to complete) and are designed like so in order to allow us to get used to the controls, physics and elements that need to be perfected before new puzzles, enemies and hazards are introduced to make things go up difficulty-wise around every turn. You might have noticed Black Ink spheres and Bright Yellow Orbs in the video or the screens above and are wondering, what do they do? They act as a way to increase replay value since you’re graded on each level for the time it took you to finish the level, the total of Bright Yellow Orbs found and on finding the 1-3 Black Ink spheres. Should you be fast enough and collect everything in a level you’ll be awarded up to 3 golden stars and the level.. which will in turn help you unlock several trophies! Just remember that all 3 golden stars have to be obtained at the same time for them to count towards your total. Max and the Magic Marker is a very fun game that all PS3 owners (and definitely those that have a PS Move Controller) must add to their collection. The colorful environments, tricky puzzles, high number of trophy-unlocking possibilities, amount of content and indie cred that this game oozes make this an easy purchase and $9.99 well spent. And before closing this up, here’s a trophy guide for all fellow trophy hunters. Enjoy! Review Pros Cons Interesting idea Lots of ways to complete a level Collectibles don’t get in the way of the fun Could have used more levels like the last 3 before the final Boss Battle Rating 91% Published by Pan Vision Developed by Press Play Cost – $9.99 (Available in Europe right now. Launches on October 18 in the US) Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review and 20 trophies were obtained. – Total amount of time played: 10 hours. Want to get this game? Then you can: Buy a $20 PSN Card! Buy a $50 PSN Card!

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[Review] Max and the Magic Marker: Gold Edition

After all the releases from the last two weeks we all knew we’d eventually get to a point where the PSN Store could not keep up with the pace and we’d have to make due with just a couple of new games up for grabs on the digital side of the equation. At least things are looking healthy on the retail side with three new releases and a Game of the Year Edition for the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption. That will give all those holdouts a LOT of content for only $49.99! 70+ hours of content AND 90+ trophies for a low, low price will surely convince you to finally dive into the game. Full list of releases for this week after the break. What will get a chance to help you part with your hard earned cash this time around? Also, see how the term “PSOne Classic” can be twisted into any shape and size! PS3 RETAIL RELEASES You Can Buy Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Right Here! You Can Buy Dead Rising 2: Off The Record Right Here! You Can Buy Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny Right Here! PSN RELEASES

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Releases for the Week (October 10th-16th)

The best-selling indie hit The Impossible Game comes to PlayStation®3 system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system! Jump your way through the levels, where any mistake sends you back to the beginning – with an awesome soundtrack you’ll quickly become addicted! Simple controls – time your jumps to perfection with just one button to guide your orange square through the levels. As well as the original levels and level packs, this version of The Impossible Game also contains a new level exclusive to PlayStation® platforms, making it the definitive version and a must-buy for fans of the series. • Rhythm-based platformer game. • Great retro graphics. • Practice Mode – lay checkpoints along the way to practice your timing. • Stats page and Medals – show off your achievements! The Impossible Game… what an excellent name for the game. Really nails down the feeling and it DOES come pretty close to being impossible. But it’s a lot of fun! Everything starts slowly and since you only need to hit one button to jump you figure… how hard can this be? Well, the first level? Took me 78 attempts to complete. I actually made it until attempt 33 before caving in and using “Practice Mode” so I could finish it. In this mode you press R or Triangle to set down a flag which acts as a continue point for when you die (yes, that is a when and not an “if you”. You’ll die. A LOT) and should you feel adventurous you can delete your flag by pressing the L button but if you die you’ll go baaaaaack to the start of the level. Finishing while in practice mode does unlock the next level (thank you!) BUT you miss out on the special medals awarded for completing a level in one go. At least we get a shiny “Completed in Practice Mode” medal for our puny performance. Music plays a huuuge part in being able to get to the end since music and level synchronize as one. When the beat drops so does the level layout (metaphorically speaking). Playing with headphones is a must since it allows you to focus on the visuals while at the same time allowing the music to enter your brain and never leave again. I unlocked my first medal (make 999 jumps) at around attempt 60 on Level 1 which gave me enough of a confidence boost to complete the level before shoving my PSP across the room. Ok, I TOTALLY tried to do it but since I was wearing headphones it didn’t go very far and fell right in front of me without any harm to either said portable or my physical form. Stats help you keep track of the total number of jumps made, total number of attempts and exact progress made on each stage (with separate tracking for Normal and Practice Mode) so you always know how far along you’ve come thanks to the blood, sweat and tears left in the battlefield. You do get better with practice as I was able to do the next level in 63 attempts (with flags) as it was a “variation” on Level 1 (called Original which might mean is the first level ever created for the game) and the one right after it in 57 attempts. Then again, levels get harder by a factor of “x8″ once you get into the next level and my total number for attempts before finishing the level was a very respectable… 206. A new element was included in this level that threw me off for a bit: the level flips upside down! Everything else is still the same and the controls don’t change but having the cube “jump down” messes around with your perception for a bit. How do you solve this? Well, you just flip the PSP itself upside down (sorry PS3 only users!) if any section is giving you trouble and then just pause and return it to it’s original position until such a drastic action has to be taken again. Level 3 took me 420 attempts and you can imagine how big the number was for level 4. Suddenly, blocks, spikes and everything nice start to pop up out of nowhere which reduces your time to react to said obstacles from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 (or by half, whatever is easier for you to wrap your head around) and THEN is when the game gets even more fun! The Impossible Game. For those times when Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls are not a masochistic enough (but fun) experience. Review Pros Cons Hectic and fun game Anyone can beat it with practice Finishing a level in a single run without flags IS very close to impossible Rating 87% Published and Developed by GripGames Cost – $2.99 Other Information Disclaimer – A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this review. – Game was completed before writing this review. – Total amount of time played: 3 hours. Want to get this game? Then you can: Buy a $20 PSN Card! Buy a $50 PSN Card!

Here is the original: 
The Impossible Game – Review (minis)

“4 Elements HD is a great puzzle game available on the PSN, that is easy to understand and hard to stop playing,” said EdEN on his full review of 4 Elements HD . I would agree, the game is a lot of fun, and here is your chance to win it for free!! We have 5 codes to giveaway, so your chances are very good! Details are below. Good luck! Please follow Boolat Games on Facebook. It’s because of them we are having this giveaway! So show them some love. [Worth up to 5 Entries] Click the button above to buy lottery entries with points earned on PS3Blog.net. Each ticket is 125 points each. Here are all the possible ways to earn points . After you donate, refresh the page to see your entry in the list on the right. On the left, you can see your chance of winning the lottery, points spent on the lottery, and how many times you entered the lottery. [Worth 1 Entry] Like the giveaway post on the lottery page (not the actual post itself) via Facebook. Then post a comment to your facebook wall from the lottery page. This will cost you 1 point [Worth 1 Entry] Follow @ps3blogdotnet on Twitter. Then there will be a tweet button. You just have to click that & tweet the exact text in the pop-up . Then a notification will pop up saying your entry was successful. Press OK & your entry is complete. This will cost you 2 points [Worth 1 Entry] Use the Google +1 button on the lottery page (not the actual post itself), then share on your Google+ profile to complete your entry. This will cost you 3 points [Worth 1 Entry] First, be a fan of our our Facebook page . On the left sidebar, there is a [Giveaway] link. Go there and at the bottom there is a “Enter Contest” button you can click for your Facebook PS3Blog.net Fan Page entry. Note: Make sure you’re logged into PS3Blog.net before you click the button. This will cost you 4 points [Worth 1 Entry] Subscribe to our YouTube Channel . We will post a bulletin. Follow the link & it will count as your YouTube entry. Note: Make sure you’re logged into PS3Blog.net before you click the link. This will cost you 5 points [Bonus 4 Entries] After you have donated at least once to the lottery you are eligible to get bonus entries. Make a video saying why you want to win. It can be funny, unique, strange, etc. Have fun with it. Include PS3Blog.net and the name of the item being given away in your video & in the title of the video. Then use the button above to submit your video for review. Also leave a comment below with a link to your YouTube video. Here are the most recent YouTube video entries for all lotteries on PS3Blog.net with the most recent ones displayed first. Make sure you get all of your entries in! The giveaway ends at 11:59PM MDT, October 5th, which will be at the time this countdown ends:

Original post:
[Giveaway] 4 Elements HD

This was our first big giveaway running the updated lottery system and it worked great! Even added some features to it along the way. In total we had 193 entries totaling 12,315 points! Then we had 5 video entries and those are worth 4 entries each so that bring the total to 213! Always fun to see video entries. If you didn’t get a video entry in you really should. You just need to donate at least once to the lottery then you qualify. It’s worth 4 entries, no points required at that point. This time I cut up numbers and placed them in a bowl for my wife to pick one at random. Video proof of this after the jump. The winner is nitestar ! Congratulations! Thank you to all that entered. We have another big giveaway coming up soon so keep earning those points!

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Winner of Resistance 3 Giveaway!

The last Transformers movie ok. Nothing I’d buy personally but was fun to watch once. I just wish the movie actually revolved around the Transformers more instead of humans. I didn’t go to a Transformers movie to watch some guy whine about his life the whole time. Now the movie I’m excited for this week is Trigun: Badlands Rumble! It come out to select theaters in the US this summer but none came to my city so I didn’t get to watch it. Check out the trailer below. Anything interest you this week? Highlights for this week: Trigun: Badlands Rumble, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Ben-Hur (50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition), Mimic (Director’s Cut), Gamera – Triple Feature Collector’s Edition, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 & 3, Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos, Carlos (Criterion Collection), Yu Yu Hakusho: Season Three (Classic), Footloose.

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Blu-ray Releases For The Week Of 9.26.11 | Trigun Movie!

In a effort to get more people to show up for game nights. Each time I’m going to post a new poll to gauge interest on what games you want to play that night. I’ll play the top 2 games for that night if I have the game. I’ll remove the poll after the game night is over and post the results. PS3Blog.net Game Day | Sept. 26 Uncharted 2 (no doy!) Tekken 6 Killzone 3 Metal Gear Online Black Ops Driver: San Francisco Dead Island Add an Answer View Results I’m open to playing Killzone 3, Metal Gear Online, Tekken 6, Wipeout HD. But if you’d rather play something else, add it to the poll and comment below so you can meet up with other people that want to play the same game. When I invite you to the “PS3Blog.net Game Night” text chat on the XMB, please join it! It makes it much easier to communicate quickly with everyone. I’ll be hanging around in the PS3Blog.net Home Clubhouse about 10 minutes before we begin if you want to hang out there for a bit. We have arcades machines, pool table and a golden throne for you to try out. You will get 100 points for coming to a game night. When you show up for the game night I will message you on the PSN with a secret word which you can use below to get your points. Enter the secret word sent to you on the PSN by the game host to get your 100 points! We will begin around 5 pm PST, 6 pm MST ( UTC -7 ), 8 pm EST; I can play for at least 2 1/2 – 3 hours. If you’d like to join us, leave your PSN ID below. My PSN ID is xBerserker, but mention “PS3Blog.net Game Night” in your PSN friend request message or I will NOT add you. If you would like to set up another time for a game night, you can arrange it in the PS3Blog.net Game Night Group. Or even do a post like this yourself.

Original post: 
PS3Blog.net Game Night | Sept. 26

Results As you know, for the past few weeks, we’ve had the same poll running, since we usually change it when I do the Weekly Recap. Unfortunately, this past few weeks have been very hard on me to find the time to do the recaps and thus, the poll has not been updated. I hope to get back to doing the recaps soon, but I do have a couple polls in the next tab for you folks to partake in, one being the site poll and another about the Weekly Recap. As for this tab, the focus is on the previous poll. We asked “What do you look for in Collector’s/Limited Editions?” and, finally, the results are in . Unsurprisingly, someone added “All of the Above” and it got the most votes, despite most CE and LE games rarely coming with everything listed. Anyway, second highest was DLC content, which is always nice (but that DLC usually winds up on the store anyway). Statues and figurines came in third, which I find a little surprising, considering those are rarer and more collectable than the DLC. What actually surprised me most was how low art books and soundtracks were voted, even getting less votes than those who weren’t interested in collector editions. Although, if you combine the two and include them with the “Art Books AND Soundtracks”, it would have far surpassed it. New Poll First of all, the second poll is mainly for me, as I am asking whether or not you would like to see me do a recap of the past 5-6 weeks that I missed or start off on a clean slate. Anyway, since I don’t award myself points for poll ideas, I’ll grab one from our Poll Ideas thread in the forums. I used Cheeto ‘s idea because it was one I don’t think we’ve used before. I will get to others in the future, but for the poll idea being used, he will get an extra 200 points! He asks what people’s main reason for buying PSN games is. Since there might be more than these reasons, I left the option to add your own answers. What is the Deciding Factor for a PSN Purchase? Quality Demo All of the Above Price Favorite Publisher/Developer Specific Genre Favorable Reviews PSN Exclusive Not Interested in PSN Games Add an Answer View Results How Should We Do the Next Recap? Start from a Clean Slate Recap the Past 5-6 Weeks View Results

Originally posted here: 
Poll Results and a Quick Update

SkyDrift is your typical power up arcade racing game, but with planes. Don’t be fooled, this is in no way a bad thing, the game is really good at what it does and, while it may not be the best, it certainly is worth your time. It offers great content for a PSN title, with a decent single player campaign and robust multiplayer options. The game is fairly simple, but you should always start by playing the tutorial, which will teach you the concepts and controls of the game, I mention this because it does a really good job at it and helps you to get familiar with everything fast and also gives you good tips about the best way to handle the races. As soon as you’re done with that, you can keep going and play though the campaign. The game has 33 single player races in total, separated in 6 main chapters and one Final Challenge which is, by far, the most awesome race. Each chapter get’s increasingly difficult and even on easier difficulties there’s no sure victory. It should take you anywhere between 3 – 5 hours to clear everything once, depending on your skills and it could easily take you another 5 if you decide to beat all levels on hard (which awards you three stars, easy gets you one). Single player is pretty important, because it helps you unlock most planes and skins (for a total of eight planes with four different skins each) as well as a bunch of badges and medals. These are awarded to you for achieving different feats while playing and are an interesting measure of your progress and deeds. All badges have three different levels (bronze, silver and gold) which are of course more difficult to get. Medals are one of a kind, but not as simple to get. All of them have nice illustrations and feel rewarding when you get them. For all the trophy hunters out there, worry not, there are also 12 trophies for you to get. All this should make you sink in some good hours into the game. Environments are incredibly detailed and level design is very interesting. On occasion you might feel like the bright animations of the power ups, combined with the high saturation of colors get a little distracting and could potentially lead you to error, but that only happened a couple times. Since you’re not obligated to follow any given course (sort of), it’s important that the tracks are well made and this game gives you some of the most creative levels out there. It’s a shame that only 6 different tracks are available right now (each with a reverse option, that will keep you on edge), but honestly, this is actually good, because it makes it easier to memorize all the nooks and crannies and you will need it, if you want to come out victorious. On top of that there are 3 different racing modes: Power Race: your run of the mill power up fueled race Speed Race: no power ups here, instead you get speed rings which will give you a temporary boost (fun fact, if you pass multiple rings fast enough you’ll break the sound barrier) Survivor: by far the most fun race type there’s. It’s like a power race, but instead of running laps, every minute or so the last plane gets eliminated until there’s only one left All the races are great entertainment, and the struggle to get the 1st position made me jump and scream (with excitement) many times. Power ups are very straight forward, you’ve got shields, missiles, machine guns, shock waves, repair kits and mines, one thing that was a bit disappointing is you can’t fire backwards and sometimes it’s hard to fend yourself from the enemies behind, specially because mines take a while to show up. You also have a boost that will refill as you complete stunts (like flying close to the ground, or passing through small gaps) you can also transform collected power ups into boosts. Each plane has a different set of skills (speed, acceleration, boost power, armor and maneuverability) and even though they get better as you unlock new planes, none are useless and it can be very strategic to choose one over the other depending on your skills, race type and course. Planes look a bit more cartoony than environments, but they’re cool to look at. Besides all the single-player races, you can also race online with up to 7 other players. You can obviously choose which level and race type you want to play, but it’s a shame there isn’t a “Final Challenge” option. Another downside is no local co-op, that was very disappointing because power up racing is just the kind of game me and my girlfriend really enjoy playing together. Another sad thing is that I could only find one room once and it crashed so I never got to experience the game online, however I don’t know if this is related to the region I play or not. I’ll take the word of others and say the game could be even better online, because as good as the AI is, real racers are a lot more unpredictable. SkyDrift is a game with few downsides and while it may not be best of anything it does, it certainly could be the runner up on all the categories, which makes it a excellent game. Good amount of content, with tight controls and awesome gameplay, this is what SkyDrift is all about. Unrestricted entertainment for short or long sessions of gaming, you decide. Review Pros Cons Tight controls Incredibly satisfying gameplay Great looking environments No local multiplayer Power ups can’t be fired backwards Rating 87% Get your copy of SkyDrift here! Get a $20 PSN card here! Other Information Disclaimer A copy of the game was supplied by the publisher Game was completed before writing this review Total time played: 6 hours Developed and published by Digital Reality Available on PSN Cost – $14.99

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[Review] SkyDrift