game itself within a few months as a phenomenon outside the norm, with record hearings on the internet and tens of millions of followers.

             ‘Fortnite’ game of survival in a wacky universe made of parachute bus, grenades disco and humorous costumes. EPIC

Platform Played PlayStation 4

Developer Disney Interactive Publisher Disney Interactive

The powers that be at Disney Interactive have been doing their best to stay current with their movies. With Disney Infinity 3.0, we have seen the launch of Star Wars, Inside Out, Zootopia and more on their toys to life platform. They also published real money slot games based on the world of Disney. These are naturally aimed at adult players who want to play casino games and try their luck on huge jackpot prizes. People who are intrigued by these games can use an online casino welcome bonus from this page that will match their deposit, doubling their money for free. Disney really tries hard to have games for people of all ages, which in our opinion, is an excellent strategy. It should be no surprise then, that their latest offering is Marvel Battleground. Which is a play set that brings all of the Disney Infinity 2.0 characters along for the ride with a fresh crop of new ones, in a very Super Smash Brothers style game that brings as much frustration as satisfaction? But is the battle across the galaxy worth your time?

I had been looking forward to this game for the wrong reason. I expected the ability to play in an online battle arena against people all over the internet. But that just isn’t the direction Disney Interactive seems to be taking. Their approach is more “build it, share it, and walk away.” The game encourages local couch co-op, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Most gamer frustration I hear comes from being sick of requiring an online internet connection to play a game. The issue I had is that this game should have been a no-brainer to incorporate online co-op or versus mode but never makes the commitment. We all know the importance of co-op and online gameplay nowadays, it’s almost essential. People like to connect, chat, and play together so how a game like this didn’t get that feature is a real failure on the developers side. Fortunately, there are plenty of games on various sites that promote online play, most notably the one we linked above. It promotes online games that you can play on your phone and these are not basic games, but while having fun with friends you can win real money. Now that’s a winner feature to have in a game.

Execution

In previous games, you synced one or two characters to your portal, threw on whatever play set crystal, and then moved on through the story or toy box mode. Marvel Battleground takes a different approach. You’ll get to a Battleground screen and see the opaque silhouettes of the key characters from 2.0 and 3.0. As you sync your characters to your portal, each character becomes it’s solid looking self or is added into the mix, and saves to your game. From there, you can select up to four characters on the fly without having to replace the characters on your portal. That mechanic alone has been sorely needed throughout the entire franchise and is a welcome addition. The problem is that only works in the arena style modes.

The story will still make you swap characters when you die like previous games. And the most interesting thing is your inability to add the Star wars, Inside Out, or Zootopia characters in the game. Settle down; I fully understand it doesn’t make any sense to mix those properties. But this is still a Disney Infinity fighting game, and as I look to my right and see Darth Maul, Finn, Luke Skywalker, Poe Dameron, Ray, and Han Solo all staring in different directions, I can’t help but feel cheated that I don’t have an additional reason to bring these guys back into circulation. I get that they have no place in the story. But you’re telling me it wouldn’t be amazing to have Luke square off against Iron Man? Han Solo against Hawkeye? Rey against Black Widow? I’m sure it was a continuity issue, but it just seems like they should have at least added a Star Wars Battleground side to the game at least.

Story

As with every play set crystal, you are treated to a story based around different aspects of the Marvel Universe. You’ll visit Wakanda, Knowhere, and other places but only ever as backdrops. There is zero exploration to be had here. You will be fighting, and fighting often. The story is relatively weak compared to how solid The Force Awakens and The Clone Wars playsets were. Two villains that you should have no trouble guessing have decided to team up and steal the only element worth stealing; Vibranium. You’ll fight your way through waves of weak enemies, stronger doppelgangers, and a few challenging boss battles as you work your way through the story to completion. Sound basic? It is.

Game Play

This game is a button masher, make no mistake about it. Where The Clone Wars encouraged layers of timed button presses and holds, Marvel Battlegrounds just wants you to beat-up the other guy before they get to you. The variation comes in the form of ranged attacks, held power moves, and the finishers that build up by collecting purple “sparks.” Much like items in SSB, power discs are dropped into the game, and add ally’s, shields, or call in air strikes. You can block, dodge roll, parry blasts, but it just all seems ridged and under cooked. Heaven help you in a four-person arena because you can’t lock onto anyone, and switching from character to character is more tedious than rewarding.

It’s not a difficulty setting issue either; it’s just the mechanics of the game. The most fun I had playing, was during the 1v1 battles because I could just focus on one character and beat them mercilessly. In 4v4 or 2v2, it’s impossible to select a character to throw an item at. The game chooses all that for you. Having played SSB in the past, currently playing Pokken Tournament, and Street Fighter V, I have certain expectations as to the fluidity of a fighting game. It doesn’t need to be free flow combat like Batman: Arkham Knight, but I shouldn’t be getting mad that I can’t cancel an action to block or choose who I shoot webbing or throw my shield at. And we aren’t talking about some small indie developer with a ten-person team. We’re talking about Disney, here. I can’t make an excuse for a company with seemingly unlimited resources.

Overall

I realize I’ve been pretty hard on this playset so far, but I didn’t just review a free version of this. I purchased it because I wanted to try it out, turned out to be one of the best game reviews ever and a lot of this is criticisms as a game editor and a fan of the franchise. I like collecting the characters. The art style of Ant-Man and Black Panther are fantastic. I can’t tell you how much fun I have re-creating battles between Hulkbuster and The Incredible Hulk. Between Spider-Man and Venom. There is a lot of lore to sift through and having the IGF figures save to the console makes those fights all the more easy to accomplish. It’s just hard not to be disappointed in the clunky fighting mechanics, lack of online gameplay, and disregard for other 3.0 content.

Marvel Battleground adds a lot of important elements in a very competitive field. But they make the main component of the game, 4v4 combat, too ridged and frustrating to enjoy. With a weak story and clunky fighting game mechanics, this is a game that will be a welcome addition to Marvel fans and Infinity collectors but is sure to be hated by fighting gamer’s looking for a new version of Super Smash Brothers.

The Good

• Up to four players
  
• IGF’s save to the game
  
• New characters!
  
• Destructible Landscapes
• Unique abilities and finishers

The Bad

• Limited Combat moves
  
• No target lock on
  
• No way to cancel attacks
  
• Weak story
• No online battle or co-0p
• Most 3.0 characters left out

Xbox One owners will have access to TellTale Game’s episodic The Wolf Among Us (regularly $24.99 USD) from April 1 until the 30. On April 16, Sunset Overdrive (normally $29.99 USD) will become free of charge and remain that way until May 15.

For Xbox 360 owners, or Xbox One owners looking to take advantage of some backwards compatibility, the two free titles are not nearly as new, but are both fantastic titles. The first, free from April 1 until the 15, is Dead Space (regularly $14.99 USD). As Dead Space returns to its typical digital price, Saints Row IV (normally $34.99 USD) will take its place from April 16 through the 30.

Are you planning on downloading any of these free titles? Are there some which leave you feeling underwhelmed? Are you excited to play some of these games? Let us know in the comments below!

Editor’s thoughts: While Dead Space is roughly 8 years old at this point, anyone who has yet to play the title absolutely needs to take advantage of this offering. The other three games being offered were all released within the last three years, making this a more recent batch of free titles than recent months. The genres of these games also vary pretty significantly, meaning that everyone should see some appeal in at least one of the four titles. The Games With Gold program isn’t perfect, nor will it likely offer brand new AAA titles like many people unrealistically desire, but it continues to evolve and fine tune itself, offering wider ranges of titles and more recent ones as well.

The new series titled, Makers & Gamers, aims to showcase how games can have a substantial effect on players, and this series will allow these gamers to tell these stories to the makers of the game in each episode. The  first episode in this emotional series tackles one of the most critically acclaimed releases in recent history – Full Battle Rattle.

The Makers & Gamers: Journey episode was directed Jesse Moss, the filmmaker behind critically acclaimed documentaries as The Overnighters and Full Battle Rattle.

Editor’s Note: Gaming is a beautiful art form, and I too have been effected in emotional ways. Feel free to check out my emotional journey through The Unfinished Swan, a game that will always have a place in my heart.

The first video in this new series features producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who describes his experiences with the development of the original Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6. Kobayashi also describes some interesting facts from the development process, which include how players reacted to the horror in games, as well as the push to always improve the graphical fidelity of the series.

The Resident Evil series debuted on March 22, 1996 and Capcom has stated they will continue to celebrate the anniversary “over the next year” and that the “team is already hard at work to deliver some amazing new surprises.”

Video game news and reviews all year long.

Platforms Playstation 4/Xbox One/PC

Developer Nadeo  Publisher Ubisoft

Genre Racing  Platform Played Xbox One

With a visual style that screams “arcade racer,” Trackmania Turbo will shock everyone as they discover the gameplay does not match this first impression whatsoever. Demanding precise, subtle movements, the game is unforgiving and forces countless race restarts if a player is looking to do anything more than merely complete the track.

Due to the large disconnect between appearance and actual gameplay style, the early minutes playing Trackmania Turbo are likely to be incredibly frustrating. Beyond these initial moments, it becomes more apparent what the game expects of you, although knowing how picky the game’s physics are will not necessarily help you as there are many times when you will find yourself scratching your head wondering why something just happened the way it did. Taking the exact same jump in the same way ten times will generally result in your car turning or twisting in ten different ways. Things such as last minute adjustments to your steering will inevitably change how your car behaves, but even without modifying my trajectory, I witnessed my car rolling to the side, rotating horizontally, and even starting to flip on occasion. The game has a feature called “air control” which requires you to press the brake button while soaring through the sky in order to stop your vehicle from spinning midair, but for a game that claims “you can’t cheat physics,” (yes, that is an actual quote found frequently in the game), physics are cheated around every corner. The best comparison to be made is Trackmania Turbo handling similarly to the Trials titles. They both require very specific, precise movements, both get to be relentlessly difficult if you want gold medals on all the courses, and yet both have very unique definitions of physics at times. Unfortunately, Trackmania Turbo does not fare nearly as well as the Trials games do simply because the physics found in frequent occurrences such as jumps or grazing a wall are so ludicrous.

Delving beyond the finicky physics of the game, there are several different game modes offered to players. The solo campaign is precisely what the name suggests, letting players race for the best time possible against ghosts representing the various times needed for gold, silver, or bronze medals, but without the distraction of other actual players. Double driver campaign is identical to its solo counterpart except the car is controlled simultaneously by two players, each using a different controller. This is one of the most unique modes ever seen in a racing title, but has little more purpose than causing some laughs. That is perfectly fine, except that the game gives you specific time targets to hit for various medals in this mode as well. Given how infuriating it is trying to obtain gold medals on many solo tracks, why on Earth would you wish to have two people attempt to overcome the fickle physics at the same time while trying to beat a certain time? The mode still holds a great deal of merit for amusement’s sake, though, so its inclusion cannot be written off, as at the very least, it provides some laughs or true challenge for anyone not demoralized enough from the single player venture.

To the game’s credit, there are several features built into the tracks which help offset the cruel difficulty. If the player fails to best the time required to earn a gold medal, they can earn a “joker” allowing them to earn the gold medal simply by meeting the silver standard enough times. This is also possible for the other two medals, although including a feature like this makes it feel as if the developers knew they were making an unnecessarily fickle game and wanted to include a workaround to ensure nobody would be unable to progress past the first 40 races in the campaign (at which point you need to have a certain number of bronze medals to unlock the next 10 races). Throughout the courses, there are also signs which help you assess how to proceed such as “Drift Here,” or “Chicane.” The game could simply expect you to memorize each course in your bid to earn the best time possible, but by providing the occasional hint, it becomes slightly less frustrating.

Online multiplayer is also included in Trackmania Turbo, allowing players to create their own playlists using any of the tracks within the game, or their own custom tracks, and opening up rooms for anyone to join. You are not always guaranteed to play directly against others, as I had several games with absolutely nobody else on the track despite Trackmania telling me there was someone else there. If you do play against others, the course becomes absolute mayhem simply due to the perfection in steering the game demands of you combined with the number of individuals looking to speed past each other. The final mode found in the game is the Trackbuilder, which grants players the ability to construct their own levels using any of the four environments found in the game and any number of obstacles, roads, turns, or general scenery. To ensure no incomplete levels are published, each created track must be test driven by the creator before it can be completed and shared. This safeguard is a small but appreciated inclusion as the number of impossible or incomplete levels which may have been published otherwise could outnumber complete tracks. As is increasingly popular, this also places a large amount of responsibility on the community to extend the game’s life cycle long beyond the 200 tracks found in the campaign. The tools and props available in the track creator have a phenomenal amount of variety and navigating the system is relatively intuitive and streamlined. For these reasons, the Trackbuilder mode is easily the strongest feature found in Trackmania Turbo. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a streamlined way to try out other peoples’ creations other than going to the website in a browser, logging in to your Uplay account, and tagging it as a favourite for you to later find in an in-game menu.

Coming in as a close second for strongest feature of the title, local competitive multiplayer is present. With a plethora of different game modes to choose from, the game can even provide you with options if you only have one controller to share. Hot Seat is a fantastic example of a creative multiplayer mode, as it pits several players against one another to get the best time possible on a single track. Everyone makes their initial run, and the individual with the highest time is forced to run the track again until they beat someone else’s time. As you are racing to beat other times, your gas gauge is constantly decreasing and once you run out of gas, you are eliminated from the game. This is one of the modes which can be played with multiple controllers or just one, making it not only immensely enjoyable, but also versatile.

The Trackmania series has an incredibly devoted fanbase, and fans of the franchise will undoubtedly love the familiar formula found in Trackmania Turbo. However, those who have not played the series before should be warned that it feels like an awkward cross between Forza Motorsport and Trials, with the physics being notably picky and seemingly random a large portion of the times. The game seems to adhere to certain laws of physics but completely ignore them at other more convenient times, resulting in a confusing experience. This does not stop the title from demanding near perfection from you, although the definition of “perfection” in this instance is whatever Nadeo considers its definition to be. There is still enjoyment to be had, particularly in the variety of multiplayer game modes and creating custom tracks. Between these two modes, there are hours upon hours of amusement, although finding created tracks to play needs to be made more accessible to individuals playing on consoles by including some sort of search tool in a menu. Trackmania Turbo presents an awkward combination of simulation and arcade racing while challenging players to “perfect” their driving. The title will continuously push you to improve and chasing ghosts along tracks certainly helps motivate, but many will find their desire to keep playing wanes long before they finish the 200 campaign tracks.

The Good

• Incredible track creation mode
• Both local and multiplayer mode, with local supporting single-controller play
• Campaign tracks have creative designs

The Bad

• Physics are incredibly punishing but not realistic as the title claims
• Any mistake generally results in failure and restarting a race
• No in-game method to search for and play tracks created by other players

The Score: 6.3

New Video Game Releases This Week

This past weekend saw the beta for Homefront: The Revolution go live. The basic premise of the title is leading a resistance force against the Korean army, also referred to as the KPA throughout the game. The new beta game only offers three missions for players to complete in the “Resistance” game mode, providing a sampling of several different objectives and environments. However, regardless of where in war-torn Philadelphia you find yourself, it’s going to look about as bleak as you can possibly imagine. Despite the overwhelming amount of grey, brown, and black found in the environment, the missions do provide some varied scenery. Infiltrating a KPA base, escorting a caravan through several suburban blocks, or helping another squad fight off the KPA in the downtown core are your missions in the beta, and when you’re not fighting the hordes of enemies, taking a look at your surroundings allows you to realize there is actually more diversity in the level design than you may believe. I found myself initially brushing off the environment as all being too similar, but it was because of the bleak colours and complete destruction of the city, resembling large piles of rubble. That being said, the three levels chosen for the beta do a nice job of forcing players into close-quarters combat in one level while providing much less cover in another.

Unfortunately, the beta had incredibly clunky shooting mechanics and very lackluster enemies. I’ve never experienced so much recoil from assault rifles in games before, let alone in an FPS title. After your first shot, the gun shoots upwards, making the weapon all but useless in any situation that puts more than 3 feet between you and your target. The enemies that make an appearance in the beta happen to be soldiers wearing different colours of armour based on how much damage they can sustain and two or three combat vehicles. The soldiers can be lethal opponents, but only in large groups. If one soldier finds you, he will immediately get at least one or two others to join him in the hunt to kill you, but simply hiding behind a corner or car often seemed to be enough to catch them unaware again. Conversely, the vehicles are far more intimidating and will rarely be seen in packs, at least in the beta. These initially pose a great threat until you realize that their weak spot is a massive gas tank that runs the entire width of the vehicle and sticks out like a sore thumb. Getting a good shot at this gas tank does require you to sneak behind the vehicle, but if there’s more than one person playing (as there will be since every Resistance mission requires online multiplayer), the turret will inevitably focus on one individual while the other walks around to the other side. I understand that the game tries to offer the player hints such as painting the gas tank red to signify its explosive potential, but the sheer size and stark colour contrast makes it less of a hint and more of a flashing neon sign.

Upon completing any of the beta missions, each player is awarded a score based on their performance and medals they earned for completing certain tasks. This results in experience points and money being distributed, which is then used to purchase new skills or crates of various items. Unfortunately, rather than simply letting the player choose what they wish to purchase, you must blindly purchase a crate belonging to the category you wish to receive something from. Apparel, weapon modifications, and weapons are all separate, so even after deciding you need a better assault rifle or shotgun, you might unlock a new rifle instead. I’m uncertain of what logic was being followed while instituting this design choice, but it’s incredibly frustrating. Perhaps it was the thought that during a war, you only scavenge what you can find or that dealers on the Black Market might only provide certain items at certain times depending on what their sources have provided, but this is almost on par with the feeling of an MMO game giving you weapons for another class. Yes, you can in theory equip whatever you unlocked for your next mission, but if it’s not what you were looking for, you probably won’t. Simply allowing people to pick precisely what they want makes for a more enjoyable experience, particularly in the FPS genre.

The good news is that the skill tree found in Homefront: The Revolution‘s beta is phenomenal. From the outset, an additional perk is provided to your player based on the background you give them, and the tree itself has multiple categories and at least five or six options in each tier in those trees. With so many options to modify your character, there will likely be unofficial classes in the final product as people create protagonists who specialize more in crafting and scavenging or healing themselves or others more efficiently.

Overall, there wasn’t a great deal of content found in the beta which left the experience feeling incredibly underwhelming and generic. The randomized purchasing of items combined with enemies which felt less than threatening, and clunky shooting mechanics left a sour taste in my mouth. I was waiting for something to make the beta stand out from other shooters on the market but never found anything which did that, and in fact it was quite the opposite. This was a beta, and there is always the potential for things to be modified and tweaked prior to, or even after, release, but from what I experienced, there would need to be a complete overhaul of the Resistance mode or an absolutely stellar campaign for the game to be stand out.

Eric is an Xbox editor for Analog Addiction where you can find all the latest gaming news, previews, reviews, and everything else that rhymes with those words. ‘Like’ Analog Addiction on Facebook to receive all of the updates as they’re posted.

Midnight launches are a cornerstone in every die-hard gamers’ life. We want the game first. We want to be the first to experience what no one has yet. Especially when it comes to competitive games like Battlefield or Call of Duty, we want to have the highest rank and best weapons as fast as possible. So it is heartbreaking when we find out that once we get home and login to whatever game account we use, that we are greeted with system crashes, bugs, glitches, and unfinished products. This not only ruins customer satisfaction and buyer loyalty, but stands as an embarrassment to any company trying to build their brand.

Recently, the launch of Street Fighter V has been met with glitches, bugs, and server errors rendering online matches almost impossible. In light of that, I reached out to the AA team to see what our previous experiences have been with games that made us want to put our fist through our flat screen TV.

Jamie Briggs – Fallout New Vegas

When it comes to poor launches usually the online portion of the game is to blame, however, back in 2010 Fallout New Vegas provided one of the worst offline single player launch experiences I have ever seen.

I’m a huge fan of the Fallout series and after playing the life out of Fallout 3, my excitement for New Vegas was at a fever pitch. The problem was New Vegas refused to let me pass the opening missions, either due to certain items never appearing, or due certain building locking me in with no escape. I’m a gamer who is perfectly willing to endure constant deaths due to my own inferior skill, but when a game forces me to repeatedly replay missions due to technical issues, I find it hard to continue playing.

Unfortunately due to the many problems that plagued my opening of Fallout New Vegas, I have never got to experience what many claim to be the best entry in the franchise. I have never returned to Fallout New Vegasand it continues to lie in the depths of my Trophy library with a mere 1% – and I never know if I’ll find the heart to return.

Kosta Canatselis – Halo the Master Chief collection

It was advertised as the ultimate bundle, all four Halo games on one disc with an ultimate multiplayer mode to include maps from all of the games, it was so perfect… Or so we thought.

On release we all came to see what the result of a rushed release was. It was a really disappointing experience. Day one brought us a 6 or so gigabyte update and it still didn’t fix any problems. We couldn’t play online as it would take around 40 minutes of waiting before we could get into any sort of game.

Stay updated on new video game releases.

There were also a ton of glitches and issues when changing rounds in multiplayer, luckily single player was fairly smooth sailing but multiplayer alone was able to degrade my experience as it was about a month or two after release that I finally got to play multiplayer. Luckily we know Microsoft learn[ed] from their mistakes and launched Halo 5 with a robust MP.

Devon McCarty – Assassins Creed: Unity

I have played every Assassins Creed game they have made for a console. When they announced an opportunity to be an Assassin in a team retrospect, I got pumped. The marketing team told me everything I wanted to hear. That I could enter the front door and cause a distraction with a few others were focusing on the mission or causing distractions of their own.

The problem was, that is not at all how it went down. I went to the midnight launch, got home to install the game, and waited for hours before a string of glitches and bugs ruined my entire experience. I dove off buildings only to get trapped in hay carts. My stealth kills would crash the game. Most importantly, I would struggle to connect to an online server for hours, to no avail, which only made playing my missions more difficult. I liked that time period and really looked forward to building my own Musketeer style Assassin, and forming a small brotherhood of my own to play on a regular basis.

The game was so glitchy and unfinished that at the end of the week I brought the game back, and the store let me return it and exchange it for a different game. Something they had before never offered. AC: Unity made me second guess ever buying an Assassins Creed game again.

Eric Pepper – Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5
While attempting to breathe new life into a franchise that many gamers grew up playing, a broken experience was released to the masses. With an absolutely massive day one patch, there were still a significant number of issues to be found within the game, including a persistent bug which caused the game to crash after freezing at the Activision logo. To work around this problem, the player had to sign in as a guest on their console, load the game, and switch back to their primary profile at the main menu. Even after doing this, the game was not bug-free as physics were constantly questionable and achievements would not unlock.

There was a great skate park creation tool found within the game, and it was arguably one of the biggest strengths of the title, but considering you had to be able to get into the game to use it, the community support was obviously very lacking.

Activision stated that they were working diligently on creating a patch for the game in order to rectify the issues and provide gamers with the sort of experience they deserved. Unfortunately, while the patch has been released, the fatal bug causing the title to crash before even reaching the main menu is still at large. The end result is a patch which took several months of work to create and was roughly 7GB in size, and didn’t resolve the single largest issue the game encountered. Not only does Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 hold the dubious honor of being one of the worst releases in recent memory, it still has yet to be transformed into a consistently playable experience.

Nathan Manning – Grand Theft Auto Online

Apart from the single player portion of Grand Theft Auto 5, Grand Theft Auto Online was a much anticipated release in 2013 – especially since it was delayed for about a month and didn’t release with the single player content.

When GTA Online finally did launch, it was unplayable for 99% of the player base for about a week. An unexpected bug had occurred that wasn’t picked up in internal testing, meaning most players could not find other players to complete the compulsory introductory race in Grand Theft Auto Online.

It was frustrating, especially considering the online component was already delayed, now eager fans were going to have to wait even longer to explore Los Santos together.

Robert Key – Battlefield 4

There’s nothing like the launch of the next generation of gaming consoles. Whether you’re creating the games or playing them, it’s an exciting time for everyone in the industry. When I bought my Xbox One at launch, I couldn’t wait to dab myself in the waters of “next gen” goodness.

Unfortunately, it was incredibly hard for me to do so with Battlefield 4, and for much of the time following. With 22 games that launched with the Xbox One — seven of which were either sports or dancing titles — options were limited at the time, and with poor party chat on Xbox’s part and general, terrible connection problems from EA, I felt almost cheated with Battlefield 4 because it was hardly playable.

It took a year of updates to fix Battlefield 4’s problems, and I’m not sure if the game is still completely stable after literal gigabytes worth of updates. Adding insult to injury was perhaps the driest campaign I’ve ever played. I believe I lost interest within the first two chapters/levels.

These are just a small selection of terrible experiences we at AA have shared. But the conversation doesn’t end here. The struggle is real for all of us and we want to hear about yours too! Rarely is there a time when I will ask you to rant angrily but in this case, let the nerd rage flow through you here or on Facebook and Twitter!

Platform Played PlayStation 4

Developer Free Lives Publisher Devolver Digital

BROFORCE recaptures some of that classic platformer magic long lost by the current generation of software development. Where realistic graphics, massive installs and an internet connection are commonplace, BROFORCE hearkens back to a simpler time of campy 80’s action movies and 2D platforming.

At first glance, the art style is sure to cause hesitation for a lot of new PlayStation 4 owners. Some might think that buying a next gen console means the best graphic rendering possible, but they would be mistaken. The lack of HD realistic graphics are a big part of its charm and why it works so well.

Throughout my time playing BROFORCE I kept laughing at all of the fan service to action movies of the 80’s and 90’s. The concept is straight out of a Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger movie; America needs to assemble the finest fighting force the world has ever seen, to fight terrorism world wide!

Easily, the greatest thing about BROFORCE is that the majority of action movies that have influenced the game are represented in characters you can unlock and play as once you save a Prisoner Of War.  The team over at Free Lives don’t skimp on the “Bro’s” you unlock throughout the game. Since the worlds are fully destructible, how you save that POW is totally up to you. You can kill everyone and unlock their cage directly. Or you can shoot your way through the wall without anyone knowing you were there. The second you touch the cage, you instantly turn into whomever the game decides and If you’re wanting to find for yourselves, skip the next paragraph and try to not look at the picture below so I don’t ruin any of the surprises for you.

*MILD IN-GAME CHARACTER SPOILER’S below*

While I was playing, and just going off of memory and in no particular order, I unlocked characters inspired by; Ash (from the Evil Dead) Blade, Indiana Jones, Judge Dredd, Robo Cop, the Terminator, Rambo, Neo (The Matrix), Agent J (Will Smith, MIB), Chuck Norris (Like…every movie), and those are just off the top of my head.

RESUME READING SPOILER FREE*

The most interesting thing about the characters is that each one of them have different abilities and gravity adjustments. One of your characters may jump higher than another. Some may have a beneficial special move in certain situations. Some will have weapons and grenades while others have melee weapons and throwing knives. It is really a mixed bag because all POW’s look the same, so it isn’t until they’re set free that you find out who you’re playing as. The only issue with that mechanic is that you don’t have any control over keeping a character you want to play as. A few searches online landed me in multiple forums with a lot of the same complaints. Most people have been saying that small caveat is all that keeps this game from becoming perfect, and while I don’t necessarily agree with that sentiment,  it was a frustrating aspect of the campaign that would benefit from readjustment.

I will definitely give the BROFORCE team a lot of respect for nailing many aspects of a game style I love. But, there are a handful of issues that keep this game from being as great as it could have been. Which, is not surprising for an indie game but important for us to address all the same.

The first issue I kept having repeatedly, is the failure to jump. I can’t count the times my character just ran off a cliff, or didn’t jump over a bomb or bullet like he (This is a bro game) was supposed too, and I died several times because of it. Initially, I thought I may be hitting the action key too late, so I tried to better time my presses when I began to notice a pattern. There are so many things going on screen at the same time during different parts of the game, where certain key actions would forbid my character from jumping, like the two coding elements clashed with one another. On the fourth or fifth mission for example, a truck backs up, lets a lot of characters out of the back, and a suicide bomber jumps at you, but falls into the pit. If you try to jump during that sequence, you can’t, and there’s a quick screen flash as if the game is even trying to handle all of it at once. Now this definitely didn’t happen all the time, but enough times where I took notice and was able to notice a pattern in it.\

The second and main issue I kept having was the online component. I have yet to successfully join an online match without being riddled with rendering issues. There were moments where I could watch the three other characters play together, but no matter what button I pressed (Even trying the share button) it was like I wasn’t there. Other times the display was off centered, leaving me to stare at the bottom left corner of a screen where I can only assume the other two or three players were doing their normal thing, only I couldn’t see them, just their names represented. One of the most interesting issues I took a screenshot of, was joining a match with nothing but the background on it. No name, no character, no enemy, no option to press anything. I had to close and relaunch the application just to get back into the game because my options button didn’t let me bring up the pause menu to back out. BROFORCE is fun on its own, but spread out over the course of the weekend and again Monday evening, I still can’t find a successful online match to enjoy the full experience.

So while reading this review, take note that 98% of this is based on single player offline playtime. Not that I didn’t want to go online and destroy everything with my friends, I just wasn’t able to do so.

The totally destructible landscape, ridiculously gory deaths, campy 80’s fan service and old school feel make it easier to forgive some of the bigger issue you’ll most likely experience playing BROFORCE. Depending on your gaming historical knowledge, this is a game that will bring nostalgia to a lot of older gamer’s and movie buffs but hold enough fun for a newer audience.

The Good

• So many Bro’s to kill with
  
• Campy 80’s throwback references
  
• Old school platformer feel
  
• Destructible Landscapes

The Bad

• No Bro Control (Brotrol?)
  
• Coding issues preventing jump action
  
• Online server issues
  

The Score: 8.0

Its latest title, Blast ‘Em Bunnies appears to be no exception to this, with the two man development team deciding to have a shot at the tower defense/ endless shooter genre. With the launch of Blast ‘Em Bunniesimminent, Analog Addiction had a chance to speak to one of the creative minds behind these games, Nnooo Creative Director and Founder Nic Watt.

“I first came up with an idea about looking around and shooting things and we wanted to include cute, colourful characters,” says Watt, speaking of how the premise for the game was formulated. “The first idea was a space defence shooter where you were some form of orbiting space station which could move in 360 degrees looking through its sights. I felt that shooting aliens in space might be a little too niche and alienating for some users so I tried to think of a character type that would appeal to all users.”

“This is where the ideas of bunnies came from. Once we had that, we started to think of all the cool things both the player could do in the form of crazy types of weapons (exploding, heat-seeking pepper bombs!), and enemies (burrowers, blockers, throatslitters for example)!”

My first experience with Blast ‘Em Bunnies was back in 2013, at the EB Games Expo in Sydney, Australia. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One had just been announced, and Blast ‘Em Bunnies was being used to showcase the gyroscope in the PlayStation 4 controller.

“At the EB Expo in 2013 we were showing an early build on PlayStation 4 and we actually hadn’t been approved for Xbox at that time,” reflected Watt. “We still had a lot to add in the form of different arenas, bunny skins and even weapon and enemy types. We also added refreshable missions which renew on completion and daily, as well as lots of medals to complete too.”

Blast ‘Em Bunnies will be a strictly single player experience. “There isn’t multiplayer as mainly it would have required online play. The game is designed to be a first person shooter and the gameplay we went for really suits single player,” comments Watt. “Multiplayer would be a very different mode and, on at least PSVita and Nintendo 3DS, would have had to support either local or online multiplayer. This was too big an undertaking and something we hadn’t done before so we decided to focus our efforts on making sure the single player was the best it could be.”

Nnooo has been focused on Blast ‘Em Bunnies for quite some time. It’s been a little over two years since I first saw Blast ‘Em Bunnies in action, and several factors have played a part in the long development time frame. Largely, Watt tells me, it was because of the number of platforms the game was being developed for.

“We were always planning on PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS and added PlayStation 4 when we received development approval. Xbox One we added when we got approval to develop. We mainly wanted to release on multiple devices to reach more people and make the game as successful as we can.”

“When we finally got Xbox One approval we decided we wanted to aim for a simultaneous release, so it took a fair bit of time adding all of the support for each platform’s idiosyncrasies.”

Not only is a simultaneous release on this many platforms something new for the small developer, it also made the quality assurance testing a much longer process. “Given that there are only 3 of us and we are supporting 4 platforms, it took a big chunk of time to get it all super polished and bug free. The EB Expo 2013 build had a lot of crashes and other issues we were quite skilled at hiding!”

Another challenge the team faced was utilising each platform’s unique features in the game. The PlayStation and 3DS versions of the game make use of each platform’s gyroscope as an alternative control method to move the gun turret, but the Xbox presented more of a challenge that could not be overcome.

“We would have loved to support Kinect but it is such a different user interface we were concerned about how well we could give the feeling of controlling a gun turret and how much code would be shared between [the different platforms].”

Having absolutely no knowledge of developing games for different platforms, I was intrigued as to which platform Watt preferred.

“I really enjoy making games full stop. I think Nintendo probably provide the most interesting hardware in terms of things you can do with it, but for me working on PSVita, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo 3DS is super exciting. It has been challenging trying to get the game working on such different hardware, particularly from the power of the PS4 and Xbox One down to the relatively lesser power of the Nintendo 3DS. Nevertheless, I think the game shines and has been tailored to work well on them all.”

“In terms of development ease I wouldn’t say any are much easier than the others, other than (because they are more recent) that the PS4 and Xbox One have got more modern tools and systems. Each generation the hardware manufacturers learn from the things they liked and disliked the generation before and make adjustments accordingly. With PS4 and Xbox One being the newest they have a lot more prior learnings to draw on.”

If you hadn’t picked it up by now, Nnooo has a development team of just two people. “The benefits are we can make the games we want, how we want and to the quality we want,” says Watt. “The challenges are we can only work so many hours and because we like to really polish our games they can end up taking a lot longer than we expect. Balancing the time, budget and quality is always very hard.”

It’s no secret that the current Australian government has not been very supportive of local video game development, but Screen Australia’s limited funding went a long way in helping the development of Nnooo’s latest title. “To be honest Blast ‘Em Bunnies would not have been completed without their support,” reflects Watt. “Screen NSW have been amazing, particularly given the tough times they have faced with their budgets being cut. They have really supported everything we have done and we are really glad they can still help out developers!”

Blast ‘Em Bunnies, the latest game from Nnooo, is available digitally this week for $4.99 USD (or regional equivalent). The PlayStation 4 and Vita versions of the game are available on March 8 in North America (March 9 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand). The Nintendo 3DS version launches on March 10 in the Americas, Europe and Australia and New Zealand, and the Xbox One version will be available on March 11 in the Americas, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.