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PSP Review: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Hooray! It’s been half a year since my demo and Konami interview at San Diego Comic-Con, but I finally sat down to play Shattered Memories. So … did I enjoy it? Well, that’s a tricky number. The game is quite a mixed bag of good and bad, but ultimately one lone feature redeemed the entire game for me. Find out what over at OneMetal.

Silent Hill has dramatically evolved since the original game, presently a decade behind us. Now Shattered Memories lifts the ashes and exchanges the rust-colored decor for a colder touch. Put down the chainsaw and stop running—the latest installment dares you to revisit the classic town and remember everything you, and Harry Mason, tried to forget.

Shattered Memories logs a relatively short length, and the gameplay and story elements are profoundly redesigned. In fact, fans will recognize the changes before they even start pressing buttons. The game invents more personality for characters, polishes familiar locations with fresh attributes, and incorporates the depth absent in the first run-around. Borrowing the first-person technique utilized in The Room, the psychologist sessions allow the game to profile you by translating various exercises, like coloring a picture or answering intimate questions, into Harry’s adventure. The characters and locations might remain, but this isn’t the game you remember. Shattered Memories molds to your unique personality and develops a new and engaging spin on an old story.

Tags: Climax Group, Konami, OneMetal, PlayStation 2, PSP, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill, Wii
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PS3 Review: Mini Ninjas

Appealing to the stealthy ninja wannabe in all of us, Mini Ninjas sculpts eye-popping animation, cutesy forest animals, and all-ages entertainment into one package. Of course, more cynical gamers know that flowery aesthetics don’t equate to full genius, and even the stealthiest of heroes can’t ensure a mighty punch. Well, rest assured, because Mini Ninjas infuses all of its ancient samurai muscle into a presentation as reliable as bamboo-chomping pandas … predictable, mind-numbing pandas.

Mini Ninjas markets as a game satisfying to both children and adults, and the influence leaves a clear trail throughout the game’s entirety. The difficulty setting can be adjusted with one quick trip to the options menu, and even your enviable Kuji magic integrates various hint methods for when you get stuck chasing fireflies and picking tiger lilies. Luckily, there’s a lot to admire about such a feel-good game that doesn’t hesitate to pull at the heartstrings. As you zip through mesmerizing, gorgeous painted environments, you’ll relax with soothing music one moment and then glide into unleashing your fearsome ninja moves the next. Along with the user-friendly controls and activity pallet, the result feels virtually therapeutic—certainly advantageous when you need to unwind after a long day.

Regardless of the many hints sprinkled about, Mini Ninjas shows you the courtesy of free-style gameplay. You follow a basically linear course, but gamers are encouraged to meddle with different scenario approaches and take-down methods. The six ninjas at your beck and call each bring a distinguished technique to the array of challenges, and some are better suited to the present situation than others. Everything stacks together neatly; each level’s finish totals your score of freed animals, compiled potion ingredients and scrolls, special gold tokens, and Jizo statues and allows you to replay sections at more convenient times. The weaponry and equipment at your disposal wield impressive versatility, as well. Your ninja hat, for example, acts as a boat, snow sled, and overall protection against flying arrows and falling debris.

But behind the smoke and mirrors parlor tricks essential to the ninja trade, a handful of flaws rear their ugly heads. Mini Ninjas strays from its own beaten path disappointingly little. Eventually you’ll tire from gathering dainty plants, decking silly mini (or in some cases, giant) enemies, and breaking probably expensive pots. The commonplace hunt-and-gather missions render the more carefully hidden treasures into cheap yard sale trinkets. When the game does veer towards something new, it either fails sorely or taunts you with a fresh taste of ephemeral action. The avalanche aka sledding sequence nudges excitement with a stick, but the technical frustration nips any possible thrills before they can flourish.

Mini Ninjas sustains quite a few odd yet minor bugs concerning maneuverability and functionality, including rotating your makeshift boat and aligning your character with the ropes spanning buildings. Plus, although enemies gradually advance in more ambitious and trying waves, you’ll practically be swimming in health and other replenishing items; even in the toughest battles, deaths are few and far between. Despite all that extra magic and commodity, your supposedly convenient Ki wheel never expands slot-wise, forcing you to rummage through your inventory menu instead.

Mini Ninjas delivers better as a rental: It has an innovative concept and inspiring visuals, but replay value and entertainment rewards simmer down after several hours. Character extras delightfully tell the ninjas’ origins, but the in-game storyline could have benefited from such charming personality. Like the breathtaking world, the dominating features might be superficially breathtaking, but the qualities underneath lose their polish, sucking the mystery out of the ninja heart. 7/10

Tags: Eidos Interactive, IO Interactive, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Wii, Xbox 360
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Bleepin’ Blips: Nostalgia Goes Next-Gen

More rage than you can shake a stick at! That’s usually the tone of the ongoing Bleepin’ Blips feature over at RadNerd, but this time the rage really was sculpted in a positive way. In fact, you can barely tell it’s there at all … but it is, trust me. I mean, it’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Have you played that game?! It’s brutal—war in the disguise of little Italian plumbers and cute, apple-gulping dinosaurs.

Here’s a preview, but you can catch the full article over at RadNerd.

Do you suffer from uncontrollable, bleepin’ rage at something in the gaming industry? Have you smashed TVs by flinging controllers, or made your thumbs bleed with all that unrewarded determination and mad skillz you’ve been dishing out? Here at RadNerd, we feel your pain. Literally. This new ongoing feature will channel our anger in a healthy way … we hope.

New Super Mario Bros. for the motion-sensitive Wii stomped into living rooms, basements, and dorms this past month, inciting enough fun and backstabbiness to make Bowser take a willing dip in steaming lava just to avoid the quips. The game ropes in players by offering them a slice of the co-op pie and then chucking it in a Goomba’s direction at the last moment. Friends can work together to overcome the latest of Bowser’s princess-capturing antics, but more often than not gamers find themselves kicking their allies in the ye ol’ plumbing. The gameplay physics actually encourage such vicious cartoon behavior by causing an instant bounce reaction when one character collides with another and by allowing players to toss their fellow adventurers into an unassuming Koopa.

Tags: 3D Dot Game Heroes, New Super Mario Bros., PlayStation 3, RadNerd, Wii
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Konami Just Won’t Break the Ice

Our appointment with the psychiatric Silent Hill remake, Shattered Memories, has been moved … again. The game that was supposed to debut in late October was then pushed back to early November, and now Amazon and other sources have the title listed for even later dates. Currently, the Wii version is expected to hit shelves in early December, but for PlayStation 2 and PSP owners, Konami will be keeping the game on ice even longer. The inexpensive alternatives won’t be ready until late January.

That’s just cold.

On the other hand, a prolonged release usually means a better game.

Would you rather have the game now or later? What console will you buy the game for?

Tags: Climax Studios, Konami, PlayStation 2, PSP, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill, Wii
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