While there are a few issues with the emulation - a few sections, particularly when Banjo is swimming, suffer from horrendous slowdown - this is otherwise perfect. Indeed, it begs the question, why on earth hasn’t Microsoft allowed Rare to release more of its back catalogue on Live Arcade?

After all, aside from Nintendo, only Rare themselves came close to creating essential N64 titles, and while some of them - Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing - still belong to Nintendo, there’s still plenty of other titles that we’d love to see resurface. Where is Jet Force Gemini? Where is Blast Corps? Where is Perfect Dark? It seems bizarre that Microsoft spends a small fortune on the popular British developer and doesn’t actually allow them to do what they do best; create highly innovative and genuinely great games.

Granted, the likes of both Viva Pinata, Kameo and Banjo Kazooie 3 are a massive return to form, but I don’t want to see them creating (admittedly good avatars) I want them to be able to do what they’ve always done and the release of Banjo Kazooie makes me want it even more.

Beautifully structured, full of genuinely engaging characters and extremely tough in places, this is easily one of the best games currently available on Microsoft’s service, and when you consider some of the past titles we’ve rated over the years, that’s high praise indeed.

Rare has already revealed that Banjo Tooie will be arriving sometime next year, let’s hope some of its other classics aren’t too far behind.

ShareThis

Nice one Shaun, and good luck for Friday. Make sure you get in touch to let us know how much money you raised for charity.      

ShareThis

High-Definition awfulness

Pixel perfection.

ShareThis

Well, surprisingly enough, this list is also quite full. More recent examples of videogame-themed footwear have included the fresh Adidas ZX range, the ugly looking Gears of War skate shoe and these tastefully themed Air Max Classic from Nike, which somehow manage to make the colours gunship grey and pillar-box red work well together again. Note the little nods to the NES D-pad and the ‘Select’ and ‘Start’ button references, and the laces, which ought to have been thick black leads we reckon. 

Apparently, the visible bubble of air trapped in the sole is a neat homage to the ridiculous amount of cartridge-blowing everyone had to suffer to actually get the machine to pick up the bloody games.

ShareThis

That’s right, standing loud and proud and protected from the environment in a nice plastic bag was the Gauntlet issue of everyone’s favourite retro magazine. It looked so nice and shiny it brought tears to our eyes.

If you’ve discovered the magazine in a country you were visiting, send us a picture and we’ll be sure to put it up on the blog.

And people say they can never find the magazine…

ShareThis

We thought Zelda’s Adventure was the laziest box art we’d ever encountered (basically a picture of a windowsill). However, we do stand corrected.  One astute reader sent us in this JPEG of Parker Bros. 2600 port of Reactor - a game that finds you piloting a spacecraft through an unstable nuclear reactor to prevent this dull image from manifesting in the game.

How Parker managed to make an explosion look drab is the only (arguably) impressive aspect about this whole image. The stock explosion, which seems to be coming from a picture frame, or maybe it’s a playing card, looks like something a four-year-old could scribble in two minutes.   

ShareThis

Ok, so far we’ve returned tennis balls, steered trucks, punched eggcups and wielded ‘The Force’, but there’s still one thing we’ve yet to do with the Wiimote: use it to swing from vines. Well worry not because Activision has recently announced that they’re planning to bring back their intrepid platforming explorer Pitfall Harry for an all new 3D adventure that promises to let you do just that.

Developed by Edge of Reality (the studio behind The Incredible Hulk), the game is said to finally give gamers the chance to use their Wiimotes to dodge snakes, swing like Tarzan, and solve a whole bunch of physic-based brain ticklers. This could be the Pitfall game Wii owners * have been waiting for.

*around and about the age of 12, and who have never played a Pitfall game before 

ShareThis

Now I was hoping to get one of these up a month, but time is proving to be a rare commodity for me lately. Finally getting a foot on the property ladder and finding the first rung in dire need of some TLC is the main culprit - and that’s not any kind of moan by the way, just my lame attempt at an excuse. 

I discovered the Mark Hamill-era films pretty late in life. I was too young to get swept up inside the Star Wars maelstrom, and when I was older I had somehow dissuaded myself from watching the films. For me, when a large number of people tell me ‘I should/need/have to’ try something, I find myself avoiding whatever it is I’m being asked to experience. Which is stupid, and self-interested, seeing as I’m fortunate to be in a position where I get to give my opinion on things to people on a daily basis. 

If I am ever asked which my favourite film in the series is I sheepishly spout Return Of The Jedi, and this isn’t to strike any kind of debate. It’s for a number of reasons that I don’t really have time to go into here, but one of them is relevant to this review. I like the fact that Luke is dressed in black - he looks like a cross between a ninja and a futuristic Zorro. Luke’s also leveled up, he’s a Jedi, and by the end of the picture you know he’s going to prove it.

The Force Unleashed isn’t a great game. It has flaws. The way your character gets stuck on a piece of imaginery scenery is rare but extremely annoying when it happens. The game’s also too short (about 7 hours), the testing overuse of QTEs grates, the Force grab is sometimes horribly inaccurate, and the game’s levels can sometimes be confusing and frustrating endeavours - especially on the earlier stages, which are just too dark - full of cyclic-feeling scenery.

The first stage is a prologue. You’re slotted into the wheezing armour of Vader himself, fully powered and making easy work of obstructions, Wookies and Stormtroopers. Without wanting to spoil anything about the story, Vader finds Starkiller (the Secret Apprentice) and thus begins the real saga, with you playing the role of Vader’s apprentice with your powers suitably capped.

This is ultimately the problem with The Force Unleashed, it’s a slow burn. If I had to plot the thing on a review experience graph it would start off average, dip dramatically during the second and third stages of the game and then slowly but continually climb as its story develops and your powers increase. When I first started playing the game I stopped when I reached the third, Jet Force Gemini-looking, stage - a level decorated with giant mushrooms and acid-spewing vegetation. I stopped because I grew annoyed, frustrated and bemused at how ugly everything looked, and how infuriating the level design was proving (fighting to reach the top of a stage, only to fall to your doom because your character fell from a ledge because he was stuck inside an attack combo was one of the games more testing faults). After a week or two though I went back to it. The story took a turn for the better, trickles of fan-service finally decided to show up and my character had powered-up to a satisfying level. I was finally having fun taking on droves of Stormtrooper and AT-ATs. And finally my character started to feel a little like Luke looked in Return Of The Jedi. (Incidentally, when you reach the last stage of the game Starkiller’s costume switches to a similar dark getup.)

The Force Unleashed is by no stretch an amazing game, but it does contain some amazing moments. If you’ve bought it, started it, and find yourself quickly starting to despise it, just try and persevere with it. It does get better. That’s all I’m saying.

ShareThis

So we got sent a copy of GTI Club+ from Konami the other day, and, seeing as Sumo Digital’s name is attached to the thing - they’re developing it - we couldn’t wait to install it (sigh) onto our PS3 and take the game for a spin.

We are happy to report that the game is shaping up very nicely indeed (returning to Corte D’Azure, darting through the streets in our Mini Cooper and taking in the beautifully clement surroundings took us right back to 1996 again). 

Boasting enchanced sound and visuals, a neat mirror-mode (which we discovered when we raced on the Hard difficulty setting), online leaderboards and the coin-op’s brilliant Bomb-Tag mode, Sumo certainly seem to be conjuring up the same level of magic they demonstrated on Outrun. And with news that Konami are planning to expand the game, via regular downloads, it looks like GTI-Club+ will be an essential purchase for Playstation owners when it arrives this November on PSN.

Now if the team can only resuscitate Scud Race, I’d be a very happy man indeed.

ShareThis

We were pleased as punch to hear that Nintendo are bringing their calcium kid, Little Mac, out of retirement for one more round of considered cartoon fistwiicuffs. And we were even more excited when we discovered that the game, which is scheduled for a release early next year, appears to be reverting back to the NES era for its fighter roster and gameplay.

See for yourself by checking out the trailer for the game here: http://www,gametrailers.com/player/4075.html

ShareThis