Import Review: El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron (PS3/360)

I don't think I have ever been at a loss for words when it comes to a game, but El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is simply beyond description. It is the latest game to come out of the creative teams that made Devil May Cry & Okami, and boy does its pedigree show.

The game is a 3D/2D hack-n-slash platformer with visuals that make Okami look like a kindergartner finger-painted it. This game's visuals, backgrounds, level design, and art style are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Just a few examples of the overwhelmingly impressive environments available: a stained glass platforming section with depictions of the archangels for the background; a world where the sun and moon are constantly battling for control, which in turn effects the weather, and as a result your platforming ability; an “underworld” level that looks as beautiful as it does strange. The game's main title/opening credit sequence is incredible, and really sets the visual tone for the game early on. This is the most amazing, visually stunning, absolutely mind-blowingingly beautiful game I have EVER seen!

The premise of the game is loosely based on the Book of Enoch (look it up on Wikipedia if you like). In the game, five angels have fallen from grace and have stolen the wisdom of God. They have established their own kingdom on Earth and now humans are worshiping them instead of God, as they are speeding human evolution along thanks to the “technology” of heaven. In addition, the fallen angels are now interbreeding with humans, creating a new race of beings. God is naturally displeased with the whole thing, and decides to send a flood to Earth to destroy all mankind as punishment. The archangel Lucifel (Lucifer, before his fall from grace) is able to convince God to send Enoch, a human scribe that lives in heaven, to try and kill the angels and save mankind from destruction.

To help in this task Enoch is granted access to three heavenly weapons: The Arch is your “sword” style weapon, The Gale is your long range “shooting” weapon, and The Veil is your “gauntlet” style heavy weapon. During the course of combat your heavenly weapons will become tainted by the enemies they have defeated and will need to be purified, or else their combat effectiveness will go down. You can always tell when your weapon is tainted, as it will change from its “pure” blue glow to a “tainted” red glow. Unlike Devil May Cry & Okami, you don't just press a button and change to whatever weapon you want on the fly. In El Shaddai, you actually take the weapons from the enemies you are fighting. Once you have sufficiently pummeled an enemy they will fall to one knee and glow blue for a short while, which is your signal to run up to them and steal their weapon, with much show and panache. Personally, I found the other two weapons fairly useless and always stuck to The Arch, unless prompted by the game to switch to another weapon due to enemy specific weaknesses.

Now that all these completely inadequate words are out of the way, I present to you a video of this amazing game. Stunning doesn't even begin to describe it. When this comes out in the US (look for a release date to be announced at this year's E3) you NEED to buy it.

Submitted By: Aaron McKeever (Employee)

Review: Pilotwings Resort (3DS)

Every gamer has their wish-list of games that they pray get sequels someday. For me, my wish-list includes sequels to Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon, and of course the last game in the “Legacy of Kain” series. Most, if not all of these, will unfortunately stay exactly that, just wishes. However, up until recently, another Pilotwings game was also on my list. With the recent release of the Nintendo 3DS, one of my gaming wishes finally came true, so it just goes to show you that good things come to those that wait.

The Pilotwings series has been absent from gaming for a long, LONG time. 15 years to be precise. The first two games were released on the SNES & N64, and were praised for their beautiful graphics, breathtaking visuals (at the time), and fun, enjoyable gameplay. Pilotwings Resort continues this tradition, masterfully taking full advantage of the 3DS's capabilities.

Pilotwings Resort is set on Wuhu Island (the island environment first introduced in Wii Fit), as you pilot either an airplane, hang-glider, or jet-pack around the island in one of two different gameplay modes. The first is "Mission Flight", which requires you to complete a series of objectives (such as fly through all the rings, or land within the target zone) within the time limit. “Mission Flight” mode spans Training, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond classes, with each of these classes containing two to three missions for each of the different aircraft types, each more challenging than the last. You are graded between one and three stars on your performance in each mission. Three additional aircraft can be unlocked if you are able to get perfect rankings in all of the game's different difficulty classes. The second gameplay mode is "Free Flight", which lets you freely explore Wuhu Island using any aircraft, simply enjoying the scenery. You can also search around the island for different collectibles that can be picked up to unlock extra features in the game.  It may be a simple gameplay mechanic, but it is one that most assuredly falls into the “simple to play, difficult to master” category.

Graphically the game looks really nice, better than some Wii games in fact, and I am really excited to see what kind of performance developers are going to be able to get out of the 3DS hardware, especially considering that this a launch title. As far as the 3D effect goes, Pilotwings Resort uses it effortlessly. In fact, the game absolutely has to be played using the 3D, otherwise it appears to be flat and lifeless, and loses a lot of the fun that flying around the island gives you. However, I can say that after about 45 minutes I started to get a headache from the 3D effect. On the plus side, playing in short stretches is a nice fit for the gameplay style of Pilotwings Resort.

I have such fond memories of playing the original Pilotwings & Pilotwings 64, and I am happy to say that the third entry in the series definitely does not disappoint. If you own a 3DS and are looking for something to play (while we all wait for the remake of Ocarina of Time to come out) do yourself a favor and pick up Pilotwings Resort. You'll be glad you did.

 Submitted By: Aaron McKeever (Employee)

Review: Arcana Heart 3 (PSN/XBLA)

Aksys and Arc System Works, the fighting game masters that brought you Blazblue and Guilty Gear, just released their newest installment to the Arcana Heart franchise, Arcana Heart 3. As with most Arc System Works games, there is a learning curve to Arcana Heart 3, and you will have to study mechanics and combos in order to get the most out of it. That being said, this is one of the deepest and most balanced fighting games out on the market right now, and it should really appeal to any fighting game fans who are willing to put in the effort. There hasn't even been any character tier lists released because of how balanced everything in the game is!

The Arcana Heart series wasn't always so balanced, however. It started from the humble beginnings of a fan service game, with people being interested in it more for the all generic, pretty, anime-girl fighting cast than for its gameplay, which was actually fairly slow and clunky. It really fell flat, but the later incarnations slowly started to speed up the gameplay and widen the characters in variety.

The story in Arcana Heart, however, has not improved. It's some convoluted thing about how Japan is going to be destroyed if these girls don't fight... something something something blah blah blah... who cares. This game is definitely not about the story, but to be fair, most fighting games aren't, they are about the gameplay.

Arcana Heart 3's gameplay, as mentioned before, is where this game really stands out. It manages to take 23 characters and evenly balance strength, speed, and ability brilliantly without having any "clone characters". Along with that, you are able to select from 23 "Arcana", which give you extra passive and active abilities during battles. In the end, there are about 529 different combinations of how you can pair the characters with the Arcana, making it the most diverse character selection of all time. In addition to the balance and the diverse characters, another welcome addition to the gameplay is the new "homing button", which when pressed will make your character fly directly toward your opponent. This speeds up the fighting immensely and also makes it hard to play the ever so annoying game of 'keep away'.

Overall, this is an amazingly deep and complex game that any true fighting enthusiast will enjoy, and for only $30 on the PSN and XBLA, it's a great deal as well!

Submitted By: Tom Ferko (Employee)

Review: Portal 2 (360/PS3)

Our staff at Level Up Video Games loved Portal 2 so much we actually have two reviews for the game; Twice The Portals, Twice The Reviews!

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I never really got into the first Portal, and wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. What I saw was a free 3 hour title that was more of a test of technology than a serious attempt at a game. With this in mind, when Portal 2 came out I wasn't expecting much. I really didn't expect them to be able to pull off a 60 dollar, full sized game. The quote "The cake is a lie" is certainly applicable here, because I'm eating nothing but a piece of humble pie. The single player game starts off with some of the best twists in humor I've ever seen, and the gameplay throughout the entire game is clever and beautiful. This isn't Call of Duty (although I have to admit, I traded in Black Ops to buy it). Instead of the fast paced fragging that is normal FPS fare, Portal 2 pits you instead against the environment, requiring use of teleportation and gravity to escape from an absolutely mad AI (who rightly deserved her award as the most awesome villain ever from IGN). The campaign never has a lull, and you'll be almost more motivated to move from environment to environment to hear the hilarious dialogue than by the looming threat of death from your sarcastic and passive-aggressive antagonist.

The learning curve for the game is excellently paced. The first few levels are extremely easy; the game uses this slight lull to teach beginners the basics and give Portal veterans a chance to hunt for Easter eggs. The mechanics are pretty basic; with the portal gun, you can create two portals on certain types of walls and floors. Go into one hole, and you come out the other. These basic mechanics get very complex later in a variety of different ways, when you move on to using your momentum from a portal to fling you across a room, or drop a box from the ceiling to crush a turret. Once you learn to think in portals the levels get truly mind-bending.

The game is also a stunning example of how a 2 player co-op should run (through either split screen or online play). Cooperation is absolutely vital to solve the various puzzles, and it's a very easy game to find yourself saying "just one more level" at 2am. The humor doesn't stop just because 2 people are playing either. The computer will constantly taunt the two of you, and every once in a while you won't be able to resist the urge to portal your teammate off a cliff, into a laser, or in front of a firing squad of turrets (Sometimes you'll do it on accident for results that are just as hilarious). 

The game isn't completely without problems. For example, despite being completely epic and awesome in every way, some still will be leery to give the game a shot because of the low body count. Actually that's the only fault I could find for it. You should buy it. Now. 5 stars, 10/10, A+, Anna Paquin, Jim Lee X-men. It's THAT good.

Submitted By: Daniel Dewey (Employee)

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Portal 2 is the much anticipated sequel to the smash hit featured on Valve's “The Orange Box” collection. The game is a First Person Puzzle game, in which players must solve a series of tests using a collection of devices and tactics which grow rapidly in difficulty. The main character, Chell, returns from the original game after many years of being in stasis, having been snagged by a “Party Escort Bot”after the end of the first game. Upon awakening, Chell finds herself back in the Aperture labs, greeted by newcomer Wheatley (voiced by Stephen Merchant). Thrust back into testing by a plot twist, Chell is now forced to test all of GlaDos' dangerously devious experiments to its satisfaction. This game was well worth the wait, and will be fan service to anyone who enjoyed the first offering of the series.

First of all, the game looks gorgeous. Level design is varying, using similar colorations for the testing facility but with a slight “world in ruin” twist. The inclusion of new tools such as hard light bridges and propulsion gel will aid, and hinder, players throughout their stay at the labs. The learning curve on this game was perfectly crafted, never once giving me the sense of helplessness that some games can instill; rather I was challenged but never once found myself giving up for longer than around a half an hour. The controls are tight and well maintained, even in the most difficult of tests. Portal 2 features not only a campaign mode clocking in around 10 or 12 hours in length, it also features a fairly in depth co-op mode, and director commentary to pique fanboy's interest on the replay of the campaign.

Co-op mode offers up a separate story, yet it finds itself intertwined with the campaign story at times, which warrants me to inform you to try the campaign all the way through before going too far in Co-Op. New characters Atlus and P-body are testing robots used in place of humans for GlaDos to constantly put through the ropes. Using similar tools as in campaign, Co-op players have two portals each, which has added an edge of complication to this mode. The Cooperative mode is around six hours which brings the game up to around 18 hours in total.

All in all, this game left me feeling extremely satisfied and not necessarily craving more. I felt the game was long enough to satisfy my urge, and provided me with a sufficient challenge, but did not push me beyond my desire to play. This game is by far the best game I have played in a very long time, and will be full of humor and challenging level design for any player. The story mode had several twists and some fan service which will make you glad you bought this title. My only complaint is that there was not even one cake reference in this entire game. Portal 2 is a buy in my opinion. No matter which platform you are playing it on, I would strongly recommend it.

Submitted By: Corey Hall (Employee)