Tag Archives: insanely twisted shadow planet

See you when the summer’s through?

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If I had to pick my two favorite games from this year’s Summer of Arcade and PlayStation Play campaigns, I’d pick Bastion on Xbox Live Arcade, and Renegade Ops on PlayStation Network, with Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (XBLA) and Street Fighter III: Online Edition (PSN) coming in closely behind. Shame on me for not actually dedicating enough time to playing all of them all the way through – I’ve only beaten one-and-a-half of them (full point for Bastion, and only half-a-point for SF3OE because I’ve only beaten it with one characters).

I think this year I played way more downloadable games on my consoles than I did with disc-based games, mainly because I rent from GameFly now instead of buying most of my games at Best Buy or GameStop. Catherine is probably the only other “summer game” I can say I really enjoyed. I’d also count Child of Eden, but that was released maybe a week or two before the start of summer.

I kinda wish that there were more WiiWare games to talk about so that I could have something to say about all three downloadable services, but it looks like MotoHeroz may be the best one to come out of that camp this summer (if you’re curious, it’s made by RedLynx, the same developer who made Trials HD on PC and Xbox 360). Unusually for a WiiWare game, it costs 1500 Wii Points (or, to put it in simple dollars-and-cents terms, $15), so I’ve been cautious about buying it until I’ve heard enough about it to justify the price. Maybe I should pick it up before summer officially ends tomorrow.

PlayStation Play Pay Day

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Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition? Check.

(Deathspank 3:) The Baconing? Check (even though I haven’t actually played it, holding out on playing until I finish Thongs of Virtue).

BloodRayne: Betrayal: Check.

So all that’s left on my PlayStation Play list is to get Renegade Ops tomorrow and I’ll have collected the full set, making me eligible for Payday: The Heist, in the same way that getting all five Xbox Summer of Arcade titles (Bastion, From Dust, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Fruit Ninja Kinect, and Toy Soldiers: Cold War) scored me a free copy of Crimson Alliance. I dunno whether or not the game’s gonna be good or terrible, but any time I’m presented a chance to get something for free, you’d better believe I’m gonna take it.

Summer of Voltron

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Between sessions of the various video games I’ve bought and rented this summer and trying desperately to avoid any discussion of Ninja Theory’s upcoming entry in the Devil May Cry series for fear of being sucked into the shitstorm of fanboy rage over it (however justified it may or may not be), I’ve been loading up on Xbox Live Arcade titles this summer. Now that I’ve managed to “catch ‘em all”, my TV-addled mind has somehow found a way to compare them to Voltron…metaphorically speaking, of course.

Bastion and From Dust would form the feet and legs, obviously, since those two were the first ones out of the gate. You do a lot of running around in Bastion; not so much in From Dust, though, since you’re functionally a god.

Arms and torso would be Fruit Ninja Kinect and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, respectively. Fruit Ninja is, well…it’s pretty damn obvious (you’re flailing your arms about a whole lot in order to maintain a high score). ITSP gets the “torso” treatment because you’re literally exploring the body of the eponymous planet.

Toy Soldiers: Cold War gets the honor of calling out “…and I’ll form the head!” if only because, in contrast to Bastion being the first Summer of Arcade game out, it was the last one to be released. Crimson Alliance doesn’t count, because that hits in two weeks, and is free to everyone who bought all of the above. Hmm…I guess that would make it the Blazing Sword that defeats the Robeast at the end of every episode. Let’s hope that that game is as good as the others…

Life after Bastion

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Last night, I got everything there is to get in Bastion after two playthroughs and about 11 total hours of game time. On my second run through, I wanted to make sure that I got every damn thing done before entering the Tazal Terminals, which is the final level of the game. That meant clearing every stage, collecting every weapon upgrade in the Forge, winning every Proving Grounds challenge, and maximizing my character’s level (it stops at 10, but I didn’t actually get to do that until I reached the Terminals). With that done, the only thing I could try to do with my maxed-out character is attempt to play through the entire game after activating all of the Idols, with each one imposing a different challenge to make the game harder (enemies getting improved attack/defense, enemies recovering health, enemies reflecting physical attack damage, etc.) Or perhaps even more insane: all idols active and no stat-boosting tonics. A “no-weapon-upgrade run” is right out, since that would require me to start from the beginning and discard my New Game Plus data.

With that done, I still have From Dust and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet to play through out of the games that are featured in this year’s Xbox Live Summer of Arcade (Fruit Ninja Kinect comes out this coming Wednesday, and toy Soldiers: Cold War arrives the following week).

But that’s not all I have on my plate! The arrival of Catherine came just as I’d returned from my vacation. Right now I’m on the fourth stage, and poor, harried Vincent now finds himself trapped between two similarly-named women. I’m trying to keep him on the straight-and-narrow for my first time around, because I’d hate to see what happens when Katherine (with a “K”) gets the idea that ripping a guy’s heart out with a dinner fork is a good stress-relief technique.

Section 8: Prejudice came out on the PlayStation Network last week, as well. Even though it’s been on Xbox Live Arcade and PC for months now, I had some money left over in my PSN wallet, so I bought that version instead. I’ve dipped my hand in a few of the online modes, but I feel like I was cheated out of a certain victory because the game switched me to the losing side just as my team was within 100 points of victory. No worries, though…my kill-death ratio isn’t as pathetic as it has been in most other first-person shooters, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself right now. My stats? Not all that impressive, but I’m working on it.