Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Whether you're travelling across land or sea, or through the air, there's a robust and convincing physics model that generates a sense of weight all too rare among racers of this kind. Handling is still that same blend of Mario Kart and OutRun, but with a little more heft to it – perhaps down to the involvement of lead designer Gareth Wilson, who worked on Blur and Project Gotham Racing during his time at Bizarre Creations. The water may not cause you as many problems as in something like Wave Race – in fact, occasionally you'll be able to trick off waves for a boost - but you'll still need to watch out for whirlpools that can slow you down or drag you under.

Indeed, it isn't just the vehicles to which the Transformed of the title refers, as roads you raced on in the first lap may have crumbled into the water by the second, while elsewhere terrain steepens to form ramps that send you skyward. These scripted events aren't a match for the explosive destruction of something like Split/Second, but they help keep you on your toes, and the effect further invigorates the already smartly-designed tracks.

The two stages we played through were packed with shortcuts and alternative routes. A Panzer Dragoon-themed course naturally has you spending a fair bit of time in the air, while the Monkey Ball track allows you the choice of winding, narrow, barrier-free strips of track up above, or the wider stretches below that are slower but easier to negotiate. One particularly neat touch is a shortcut which sends you leaping onto a numbered target lifted from the Monkey Target mini-game. Sumo has been careful to ensure that the tracks fit the IP, though in the case of Monkey Ball, the studio had to get special permission from SEGA Japan to include water, before then entering into discussions about how water should behave in the Monkey Ball universe. It's heartening to witness that kind of meticulous focus on fine detail, and Sumo's near-fanboyish enthusiasm for the characters and worlds featured here show that these SEGA favourites are in safe hands.

If the track design is easy to admire, the graphical overhaul is even more attention-grabbing. Sumo is using a bespoke engine for Transformed, and the improvements over its predecessor are startling. It still has those same glorious SEGA blue skies, but there's much more detail in both environments and vehicles, while the whole thing runs at an exhilarating pace. Even in its unfinished state, this demonstrates surprisingly strong production values for a kart racer, and the graphics can only improve between now and its autumn release.

As for the soundtrack, popular composer Richard Jacques has contributed a number of tracks that remix classic SEGA tunes from yesteryear, while some players will be delighted to learn that the polarising commentator from the first game has been removed. Instead, an announcer only occasionally interjects to relay the most important race information, while crowds clap, cheer and chant the name of their favourite racer.

Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition

Now that the bulk of import-tuners have come and more or less gone, Rockstar, with its third iteration in the Midnight Club series, has tackled what is arguably the most stylistic and well-rounded arcade racer of the bunch. Developed in San Diego where the tuner scene is highly visible even to the ignorant, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is rooted deep in the mod subculture and never gives up faith or sells out to commercialism. The intertwined message of stellar gameplay and entrenched culture gives the game a feeling of authenticity sorely lacking in similar racers.

Rockstar aims the third game in its series away from the relative cheesiness of Midnight Club 2 with its goofy characters, unlicensed cars, and limited customization. The studio has added a mid-sized customization system to the mix, brings in more than 50 fully licensed trucks, SUVs, tuners, exotics, muscle cars, and motorcycles (all of which take heavy damage, mind you), and brings to the game a sizeable and compelling online component. Best of all, there are real reasons to explore the vast trio of cities and effective (if not arcadey) super powers that add a whole new layer of strategy to the racing itself. And while MC3 isn't the fastest, or prettiest racer around (it's just a hair short on both ends), it's incredibly stylistic, long-lasting, and deep.

MC3 is at once the same beast that MC2 was, yet far deeper, broader, and richer in presentation and culture. An arcade game by nature, it builds its core gameplay around intensity. Compared to MC2, the city streets are wider with more traffic, the maps are entirely different, there is more action occurring onscreen, and the nature of the races has altered ever so slightly thanks to the variety of licensed cars and addition of power-ups. Strangely, the rail-branching element that was so distinctive in the previous iteration still exists, but is no longer the primary aspect. Now, along with the un-ordered races (the dominant kind in MC2), the inclusion of point-to-point and time-based contests adds depth and variety a previously straightforward race. Running at a usually-solid 30 FPS, the game appears to blaze along faster when saddled on motorcycles, engaged in slipstream mode, or simply by changing to the first-person perspective and there are five perspectives in all.

F-Zero Gx

F-Zero GX is an unconventional racer. It's not Burnout 2 and it's definitely not Gran Turismo. It's an arcade-styled game about speed, about track memorization and perhaps more than anything else, about quick reflexes and ability. Videogame purists will love it -- be mesmerized by it, in fact. But -- let's get this out of the way now and not dwell on it -- inexperienced players who, say, haven't grown up playing games of this type and are unfamiliar with their workings, might never fully adapt and conquer some of the challenges in place. We honestly believe that some people just won't get it regardless of how much they practice. Players will either have the skills or they won't. And indeed, even pros will find some of the hurdles the title has to offer almost insurmountable, though with practice hardly impossible.

The nine-chapter Story Mode successfully accomplishes several feats: 1) It turns the once static characters of the F-Zero series -- yes, even Captain Falcon -- into likeable mascots; 2) it makes sense of the races it encapsulates and gives them purpose (players will want to keep racing just to see what happens next in the progression of the unraveling tale); and 3), it pours on the challenges and at the same time teaches gamers how to master the finer elements of in-game control, which in turn helps on the long, hard road to success. From the beautiful presentation of the FMV sequences that link tracks to the creativity of the challenges themselves (racing through small gaps in closing walls, over courses with lava splotches, against ghosts, etc.), the Story Mode is remarkably well done, infinitely addictive, thoroughly entertaining and ultimately extremely satisfying. High praise, we know, but it's deserved. What's more, because chapters must be purchased before they become opened, and because some are too expensive, players are forced to journey into the Grand Prix mode and win races to earn extra cash. This is a testament to the solid design that is the backbone of F-Zero GX. Amusement Vision has perfectly intertwined the two modes so that completing one is beneficial to the other and as a result players will once again feel compelled to go through it.

Sonic Advance 3

As Sega and Sonic Team continue to work their hedgehog heroes into the world of 3D platforming on the consoles with games like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes, the Game Boy Advance keeps getting quality side-scrolling designs that better suit the character's origins. Sonic Advance 3 keeps the series rolling with the traditional run fast, collect rings gameplay with subtle design that tweak and improve the fun of the speedy platformer. The addition of a second character may seem familiar, but the two-character element is far more realized in Sonic Advance 3 than it was back in the 16-bit game.

It's hard to imagine getting "more" in a Sonic Advance, especially with what Sega and the GBA development team put into the sequel released last year. But Sonic Advance 3 is definitely a full-fledged sequel that expands upon all of the established platforming elements from the past Sonic Advance games. Even the storyline's fleshed out a little bit (but just a little, with cutscenes that explain that Sonic and Co. are once again up against Dr. Eggman and his plans to take over the world.
Level designs, utilizing the same stylized graphics from the previous Sonic Advance titles, are laid out in clever fashion to balance both traditional platform hopping and exploration, as well as pedal-to-the-metal speed. Players will zoom through loops, pipes, gutters, and corkscrews, grind down rails and flip off poles, all in the name of speed. The layout of the levels are now established in an "overworld" of sorts that ties them all together, and makes the entire game design feel less rigid than it did in the past games.
Like Sonic Advance 2, the sequel has five playable characters, and their vastly different abilities significantly change up the way each level is played. Sonic is balanced as a fast and furious runner, which makes him prime to beat the game quickly with the minimum requirements. But since this design puts a lot more focus on exploration and discovery by hiding little "chao" creatures in strategic locations all over the map, it's impossible to see everything without playing through each level multiple times. Sonic and Tails are available from the start, and between the two of them players can definitely complete the game 100% since the two are distinctly different in capabilities. But the fun is to open up the game with the three "hidden" characters Knuckles, Amy, and Cream.
The hook this time is that characters pair up with another from the familiar crew. At the start, players can only choose Sonic or Tails in the lead, with either the hedgehog or two-tailed fox playing second banana during the action. The secondary character, controlled by the computer AI in single-player mode or by another player in cooperative link play, is used to supplement the main character's progression; he'll collect missed rings, or take out enemies that the other player couldn't quite nail. But the second character also enhances the gameplay by giving the player additional moves and abilities in what's known as a Tag Action. For example, Sonic can use Tails to boost upwards for a quick highjump, or fly upwards to reach the platforms. Tails with Sonic will send the fox on a blast of speed across the platform. Having five different characters means twenty different ways to play the game, since each pairing offers significantly different actions and abilities to complete the different challenges.

Sonic Advance 2

The original Sonic Advance marked a huge point in videogame history: it was the first time Sega's key mascot made the move to a Nintendo system, as for years the blue hedgehog was one of Mario's key gaming competitors. The first Sonic game on a Nintendo system was also an excellent design, proving that there were no hard feelings involved in the move.
And because the original Sonic Advance was a huge success for Sega on the handheld, a sequel was inevitable. Just about one year later the team responsible for the game worked up a new adventure for the hedgehog and his pals, and this sequel, while looking very similar to the game released last year, offers a faster, deeper, and, of course, a more fun gaming experience than the original Sonic Advance.

First glances at Sonic Advance 2 and the previous release last year will lead folks to believe that the sequel is simply the original game with new levels. But once players head off into the first round, the differences are almost night and day. Sure, the games utilize similar engines for their side-scrolling gameplay, and character art assets have obviously been borrowed out of the original GBA game, but it's unfair to assume this game is just a rehash. The action is much faster and the graphics are more vibrant with tons more character animation to give the sequel a lot more personality.
The level designs in Sonic Advance 2 are far and away the biggest change to the Game Boy Advance series. Not only are these rounds absolutely massive, they're also balanced a lot better; players who found themselves frustrated by a strategically placed spike strip that "conveniently" pops up underfoot during a super speed sprint will definitely notice that these annoyances have been almost completely removed from play. The spike strips are still in the game (it's a Sonic staple, after all), but they're mostly positioned in locations that are clearly visible during some of the areas where players would be jumping and running at a more leisurely pace. Players still have to be quick with their jumping during a fast-paced run, since the crafty level designers put branching platforms all over the place...and the only way to get to certain areas in a level is to time the jumps perfectly to reach those particular platforms.
Just like the past games in the Sonic series, the idea is to run through the levels, collecting rings and defeating/avoiding enemies; taking a hit from a hazard will send all collected rings spilling all over the place, and without a ring in-hand, another hit will cause a painful death. All of the levels in this game feature their own network of platforms, tubes, rails, and other nifty platform elements that send our hero flying at top speed. In all honesty, Sonic Advance 2 isn't a terribly difficult game to beat the first time through. There aren't that many death gaps to fall into, or challenging jumps to perform. The first time through with Sonic will take only a couple of hours. But that's the absolute, bare minimum accomplishment in Sonic Advance 2.

Sonic Colors

Sonic Colors takes place in a bizarre interstellar amusement park created by Dr. Robotnik-I mean, Eggman, by enslaving alien creatures called Wisps. He then chained their planet (and several others) to a space station. It's all appropriate for a Saturday morning cartoon, but to SEGA's credit, the story in Sonic Colors works decently well; it's cute, somewhat clever, and thanks to a mostly new voice cast, it isn't a constant assault on the ears. I haven't been this not-irritated by a Sonic game's story since he found a voice, and that's saying something.
The plot is ultimately just a conceit for developers DIMPS and Sonic Team to believably throw together a wide assortment of themed levels at you. All of the Sonic staples are here, from the casino to the grassy meadow home world of the Wisps. My personal favorites, though, are Sweet Mountain, which sees Sonic racing through pits of popcorn alongside mountains of cake, and the Starlight Carnival, where Sonic zips through space on an energy road. It looks like a crazy combination of Tron, Captain Eo and Super Mario Galaxy. This fantasy is sold by some of the best graphics on the Wii this year, full of excellent lighting and some really great animation.

Sonic Colors' real revelation is its gameplay, though. It starts off well by establishing smart physics and precise controls. But the big addition here are the Wisps; each color of Wisp grants Sonic a different temporary power. Yellow Wisps give Sonic the ability to drill through soft ground, for example. Cyan Wisps let Sonic turn into a laser that bounces off surfaces and more. There are eight colors in all, and almost all of them add interesting quirks to Sonic's basic abilities.

With these new talents comes some fantastic level design that will test even the most dedicated fan of platformers. This may be the most controversial piece of the puzzle for die-hard Sonic fans. Sonic isn't just about homing attacks and holding forward anymore. Sonic Colors in many ways resembles a side scrolling Super Mario title in its design and execution -- from collectible red rings in each level to multiple paths that can only be explored once you secured new Wisps later in the adventure.

Sonic Gems Collection

So when SEGA released its first Sonic compilation, Sonic Mega Collection, fans of the blue-hued speed demon snatched it up. Lucky for them, Mega Collection offered enough Sonic goodness to conjure a mean case of nostalgia. Regardless, fans wanted more. Sure, they got a chance to revisit the first three Sonic the Hedgehog games, as well as Sonic & Knuckles, but where was Sonic CD? Where were all those other Sonic titles?

Apparently, they were all hiding in Sonic Gems Collection, the second compilation to come from SEGA starring its most cherished and well-known character. Fans will greatly appreciate that Sonic CD made the cut this time, as well as a few other noticeable additions, including Sonic R and Sonic the Fighters. In addition to these three games, which together form Mega Collection's main attraction, there are six Sonic Game Gear titles and two unlockable games as well.

Not a bad list of games by any stretch. But how do they stack up to today's paltformers, fighters and racing games? Apart from diehard Sonic nuts, will anyone else want to buy Sonic Gems Collection? The answer is maybe. Thing is, if you didn't like Sonic to begin with, you really won't like it today. Modern games put these SEGA classics to shame in terms of visual and aural presentation. And as far as gameplay goes, you're either a Sonic fan or you're not. Simple as that.

Then again, Mega Collection features two games, Sonic R and Sonic the Fighters that certain US gamers may have missed. Sonic the Fighters, for one, never saw a home release and never swept through US arcades. Sonic R, while somewhat clunky in terms of execution, shipped for the Sega Saturn but never really found an audience. Combined, these titles provide a non-nostalgic reason to check out Gems Collection. The two "secret" unlockable games, Vectorman 1 and 2 both offered some of the best platform action of the 16-bit era.

Sonic Advance

Sonic Advance is a completely original product that expands upon an existing design. This Game Boy Advance product takes themes and ideas established in the original Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Sega Genesis, all the while adding new elements brought up in his newer adventures on the Dreamcast. Sonic Advance is a strict side-scrolling platformer that moves through more than twelve different levels in six separate environments. The first couple of levels are pretty much laid-out so that Sonic can stretch his furry legs to see what he's made of, since there are tons of straight-aways, corkscrews, jumps, springs to push our hero into his hyper speed...it's what he's known for, and his blazing velocity is accurately represented on the Game Boy Advance screen with no blur whatsoever. Thank god for high refresh LCD screens. The task is a simple matter of getting to the end of the round unscathed. Take a hit, and any rings that Sonic's collected along the way explodes out of his grip...as long as he holds onto one ring, he'll survive any hit from an enemy.
Many, if not all, of the levels are set in same locations used in the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series. The levels themselves are completely original, but the areas themselves dictate all of the obstacles and challenges. Casino Paradise Zone, for example, is full of the familiar pinball machine mechanisms, sending our character bouncing around the world like, well, a pinball. In the Ice Mountain Zone, you'll need to find pockets of air to survive the underwater areas. There are new ideas as well, like the grind function -- find a downward sloping rail along the way and Sonic will be able to slide down it without any loss of speed. The Secret Base Zone puts the GBA's transparency capabilities to use early on in a clever spotlighting effect...luckily it doesn't last long since it's really hard to see beyond this effect on the GBA's screen.

Sonic Free Riders

Players control the board by standing with their feet parallel to the screen, like they're on a snowboard. Bending at the waist makes the board turn. This is honestly what takes the most amount of time to perfect because my body naturally wanted me to turn like I was riding a snowboard. Players can activate boost by kicking their leg out like they're on a skateboard. Crouching and jumping straight into the air makes the rider do tricks off the jumps. Each weapon has a specific motion control as well. The bomb is thrown like a football, the bowling ball is bowled, etc. Rings are scattered on the course, and as players collect them their board will level up, increasing in speed as the race progresses. Getting hit with weapons causes players to lose some rings, which can level down the board.

Sonic Free Riders also features bikes, which players control by standing facing the screen and holding their arms out like they're gripping handlebars. Kicking out still activates boost and all the items control the same. I found the bikes to be tiring on my arms, but on the plus side I was totally able to play the game while sitting on a stool.

The motion controls all worked just fine as long as I was doing exactly what I needed to. Simple things like not throwing with the same arm that the on screen character was using would cause it not to work. It was a bit frustrating at first, like having a game tell me I didn't press the X button in quite the right way. But once I got into the groove and retrained myself to play the game the way it was telling me to, it all became a lot more fluid and easy. I've played the previous Sonic Riders games, and this is definitely the most fun I've had with the series. It brought back fond memories of playing Top Skater in the arcades.
Free Riders' story mode is broken up in a variety of missions. Each team has their own set of missions, though they're all very similar to each other. They're sort of extended tutorials. Players learn the various skills the rider has before building up to full races. It's broken up in a way that works for this game. Instead of just doing race after race I got to do more specific challenges between them, like collecting rings, or using the special moves.

Shinobi

The stealth dash descends from classic ninja-movie cliches (when I asked director Noriyoshi Ohba where he got the idea, he replied with a look that expressed considerable amazement at Western ignorance). Tap the X button along with a direction and zap, Hotsuma suddenly jumps from point A to point B, leaving a spectral double where he originally stood. This is a vital evasion tactic in combat -- the deft of thumb can instantly put themselves in a position to strike from behind, which does far more damage to enemies and breaks through almost any defenses.
This works better than the similar evasion maneuvers in something like Z.O.E, because it still requires skill to apply correctly. Using the game's lock-on feature to take out enemies one at a time works for a little while, but when there are five or six or more bad guys closing in, you'll be chopped to hash unless you can freely move around them and take out multiple enemies at once. Other wrinkles add further depth to combat -- paralyzing shuriken become a vital assist, and the cursed sword Akujiki is a nifty idea. After a certain point, Hotsuma's sword develops the power to suck the life (or yang energy, or something like that) from fallen opponents. Keep its energy full and it deals more damage in battle, and as a further encouragement, it actually saps Hosuma's life if he doesn't keep killing at a rapid pace. Shinobi's boss encounters are easily its strongest suit, since that's where the game loosens up a bit and offers more varied patterns. Early bosses aren't balanced very well -- they're very difficult to take out with basic attacks, and yet sacrifice as much as three-quarters of their energy to a single ninja magic attack -- but later designs are gorgeous to look at and a hell of a good time to fight. When you're going at it with the giant magic zombie ninja death spider, you know you're having fun. Boss battles are also the only area of the game which will let you continue from the same point after dying, a curious manifestation of compassion on the part of the designers.
Outside of combat, this is one mean bastard of a platformer. Shinobi is rife with bottomless pits, and avoiding them requires extremely careful manipulation of the double-jump and wall-jump maneuvers. Using the wall-run is the only situation where the camera becomes just a bit of a problem, because the default angles sometimes make it difficult to see where you'll land when jumping perpendicular to a wall. The right analog stick gives nearly complete control over the camera on both axes, though, so it just takes a little forethought to plan a jump. Pulling it off is another matter, unfortunately -- distances are long, and timing must be perfect.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

Combat incorporates all of the moves you know and love from the Dragon Ball Z franchise. The game cleverly chains ranged and proximity actions together through combos, which you'll execute through timed command prompts. In no time at all both players can quickly pull off dazzling attacks so long as they carefully manage a couple on-screen meters. Similarly, counter attacks feel equally easy to pull off, giving players reasonable opportunities to reverse momentum. To say Spike's fighting mechanics capture the spirit and speed of DBZ is a massive understatement. It helps that this type of combat is rare within the fighting genre. You won't see Street Fighter doing anything like this.

Unfortunately Spike has yet to find flexibility within its mechanics. Whether you're playing as Goku or Kid Buu, by and large these characters function the same. Sure, your Chocolate Beam attack is going to look different than your Kamehameha, and it'll do different damage, but you pull off the same moves to get to that point.

The vast majority of fights operate within the same parameters, requiring you to charge your Ki and Spirit meters to certain levels for particular defensive and offensive maneuvers. Core strategy revolves around choosing outwitting your opponent on reversals, which boils down to a 50/50 chance. The first half dozen matches all feel fresh and bold until you realize you're the same thing you did 30 minutes ago with a completely different character. When that sinks in, Ultimate Tenkaichi loses a fair amount of its allure.

Sonic Riders Zero Gravity

Putting all story aspects aside, Zero Gravity is basically the same design as the original Sonic Riders experience. You'll sprint through courses, grab rings, power up your air board – why the fastest animal alive doesn't just run is beyond us…- and attempt to take first place in some of the craziest track design since Extreme G on the N64. Where the original fell short, however, Zero Gravity again fails, as the air board mechanic is a bit too slow for our liking (nowhere near the intensity of something like F-Zero GX), and the control is very clunky, using Wii tilt or PS2 analog stick to control a very slippery, floaty character at high speeds. For whatever reason, the steering isn't tight enough overall, so characters like Knuckles will often run into walls simply because they can't turn fast enough, and Wii tilt users will find that movement with the remote needs to be far more exaggerated than most games, yielding less turnout as well for their efforts. Even Sonic and the Secret Rings had tighter controls than Zero Gravity's end design.

In addition to the new story and tilt control on Wii, Zero Gravity also makes use of some new gameplay mechanics, specifically those dealing with the "Gravity" part of the game's title. Sonic's new gravity-changing bracelet allows him and his team the ability to stop time, launching into a bullet time effect that lets you reposition yourself for a quick turn, or latch onto a wall track for alternate routes. Replacing the classic turbo boost from the first game, players can now rocket at full speed into a huge turn, flip into Zero Gravity mode, reposition themselves, and then boost out of free space again in a new direction. The idea works, but without an overall boost ability the entire experience feels a bit slower now, as you won't be cashing in trick points for turbo, but instead use it to actually slow the game down as you make more precise movements.

Naruto Clash Of Ninja 2

For the Clash of Ninja franchise, Eighting decided to go all-out with the gameplay, offering the same speed and style of the battle anime in playable form. In the first Clash of Ninja, players could chose from just a handful of the series favorites, such as Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Zabuza, Rock Lee, and a few others primarily featured in the first season of the show. With Clash of Ninja 2, however, the character base is far deeper, allowing for over 20 fighters to be unlocked. We can't go into the specifics about the roster quite yet (as D3 wants to make you do the dirty work), but we have been featuring each of the fighters in our "Fighter Profile", which is finishing up next week with the final unlockable characters. We can tell you, however, that the amount of depth and complexity in the new characters is just awesome, featuring abstract weapons and very unorthodox fighting styles. If you're a fan of the anime, you most likely have an idea of who else you'll be fighting with. When/if you achieve 100% completion, you'll have a wide array of fighters at your disposal, featuring good guys, baddies, masters, students, and even alternate forms of pre-existing characters.

Even more important than the cast of characters in Clash of Ninja 2 is the amount of depth added to the actual battle system. With the first Clash of Ninja, battles were one-on-one only, and while there was still a fair amount of added modes, the mechanic eventually wore thin. With Clash of Ninja 2's ability to have up to four players battling at once, the depth of the fighter increases exponentially. The challenges in story mode now have Naruto going up against multiple enemies at once, and the two-on-two fights make four player multiplayer extremely entertaining. Combine that with an abundance of unlcokables (art gallery, voice tests, character profiles, the list goes on), and you've got a game that looks and plays like the original, but has a ton of added depth through the character roster and gameplay modes. 

Rayman Arena

The single player experience is pretty shallow. You work your way through a Beginner League, and a Pro League, going against computer controlled opponents. Winning these matches will eventually unlock four hidden characters, new maps, and also new player skins. Also, in the racing mode you can unlock variations of Time Attack mode, like Speed Stress, Extreme Slide, and Future. There is also another special race called Run, Run which has you outrunning a wave that kills at the slightest touch.

Playing through single player is not very exciting. There is never really a sense of competition, and everything just feels, for lack of a better word, blah. The game modes would make decent mini-games within a real Rayman game, but even then barely. There's nothing really to make you want to come back and play again. Maybe it's the fact that there seems to be no skill involved in any of the games. Or maybe it's the slow pace of the games, when in fact they should be frantic and intense. Or maybe it's the fault of the poor game design and need to cash in by making a party game with an otherwise excellent franchise like we've seen many times in past. Oh well...

Unfortunately, multiplayer mode suffers the same fate. Take everything that is wrong with the single player game and multiply it by 4. Now everyone gets to run around mindlessly racing/killing each other. Multiplayer may actually be worse due to the decreased screen size, and the fact that at least the computer opponents are supposed to know what's going on. The perfect way to end a party.

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 2

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue is the second part of the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger trilogy, started with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, and concluded with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan. The game has the same core elements as the original, but new features, like driving and Arena battles. The game also changes from a level based system like the first game to a more structured, mission based game similar to Jak II. The game features driving sectuions, and the main world is very large, and is acessed by driving around in a 4x4 Jeep. Indeed, driving elements make up a large part of the game, as some of the combat is fought in mechs. Some missions consist entirely of objective- based goals, like putting out a set number of fires with a helicopter. This game was recieved better than the first. It was produced by Krome Studios and published by EA Games. It was released on the 12 October 2004 in North America, and on the 5 Novemeber 2004 for PAL Regions.

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue is set in the Australian Outback, in a hub world called Burramudgee. Burramudgee is a significantly larger hub world than the original's Rainbow Cliffs, and features pedestrians who Ty can talk to, vehicles that are un-driveable, Bush rescue's base of operations, and a Driving garage where Sheila has parked the 4x4, and Ty can exit into the massive outside world. After Boss Cass breaks out of jail with the aid of Fluffy and her mech, he sets up his own community to grant himself 'Diplomatic Immunity', so Ty can't apprehend him without proof. Dennis sets up a rescue service called 'Bush rescue' to aid Ty in his attempt to bring Boss Cass to justice and help other civilians from Boss Cass's evil plans, which include making a race of Uber Lizards, taking control of Burramudgee, and absconding with the local population. Ty must race to save his family and friends once again.

LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2, commonly abbreviated LBP2, is a puzzle platformer video game centred around user-generated content, first announced on 8 May 2010 in the June 2010 issue of gaming magazine Game Informer. The game is developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the PlayStation 3 console. Unlike the first game which was marketed as a platformer, LBP2 is being marketed as a "Platform for Games". The game is backwards compatible with all of the 3 million user created levels from the first game.^[1] It is a direct sequel to the critically acclaimed 2008 title, LittleBigPlanet, and the third game in the series. Recently released in the UK and Iceland, there has already been a huge success for LittleBigPlanet 2. The disc also features Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves, a Modnation Racers demo, as well as a Playstation Network tutorial video.

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat has returned to a 2D plane, which I've always preferred for fighting games. Both one-on-one and tag team matches are available, so there's plenty of options when you're setting up a fight. When it comes to the basics, each character has a set of simple moves as well as a bunch of special attacks. I found combos and special attacks easy to execute, but stringing together attacks and keeping an opponent stunned/juggled will take some time to get.

The crux of Mortal Kombat's fighting engine is the super gauge, which fills as you give and receive damage. This is where a fair amount of Mortal Kombat's strategy comes into play. The gauge is divided into three segments, and those segments can be spent in different ways. Expending one segment will enhance any of your character's special moves. So instead of Nightwolf's single glowing green arrow, he fires three.
If you fill the gauge more and spend two segments, you can break out of an opponent's combo. This is a critical defensive option if you find yourself flailing through the air with a rapidly depleting health bar. Lastly, spending the whole shebang will unleash a devastating x-ray attack, which deals terrible, terrible damage to your victim. It can turn the tide of a fight, but missing it will put you in an awful spot with no super gauge to spend.