Welcome to Review Round Up, a smart new feature for our review section. It’s for all those little downloadable games which we can’t write a full blown article on exclusively, so we’ve clumped a few together giving little snippets on each game. Included in this Review Round Up are a host of small PS Vita games.
Let’s start with Burn The Rope. Although the title suggests the game may be linked to the mobile classic Cut The Rope, it’s not at all. However, it is already an iOS/Android app and sadly it does feel like it on the Vita, and it’s pricier. So not the best of starts.
The main aim of the game is to burn as much rope as possible – but you could guess that right? It’s not as easy as it sounds though. The flame, which you’re only allowed to ignite once, can burn out. To combat this the flame must always burn upwards into the rope for it to keep glowing. You have to rotate the game area using touch screen controls to position the flame and rope accordingly.
Also as you complete more levels new obstacles will be added. For example, you may have to burn different coloured ropes. To do this you have to of previously burnt an ant on the rope of corresponding colour. Later you will find score beetles, water bugs, spiders and bomb bugs are also thrown on the rope which gives each level a serious puzzle element to it.
Each level, for which there are plenty to get through, are scored by medals (gold, silver and bronze) depending on what percentage of rope you have burnt away. So there is an incentive to reply levels to get all gold medals.
What I found a little weird about the menu to the game was the strange music. It sounds a little seductive which I wasn’t really expecting. It also feels as though instead of touch controls maybe motion controls would of been better suited to the game. On a positive note visually it’s very colourful.
Burn The Rope is a quirky little game, maybe slightly overpriced on the Vita, but it’s worth a go for all Vita owners (maybe if it’s in a sale soon). But be warned of the strange menu music!
6/10
The bugs in the picture blow up when burnt.
So that’s it for our first game of this round up. Up next is the rather explosive Stardrone Extreme. The game heavily uses touch screen controls, but they are well implemented.
The gameplay is a little hard to describe if I’m honest. You have to guide a space pod around the level area (all set in space of course) by touching these orbs which have a gravitational pull. So you have no control over the pod itself, only which orb it gets pulled to, and subsequently spins around.
Scattered over the level are stars which you have to pass through to fully light up. There are literally hundreds to get on each level. However, you have to avoid obstacles like spikes, rockets and motile and non-motile enemies. Or you could even fail by loosing failing to navigate the pod correctly and leaving it to venture out into space!
It’s a clever game, and one that is surprisingly difficult. Navigating the pod is challenging on its own; when there are spikes floating about and you can only swerve through them by judging how much you need to pull the pod towards you is most of the most challenging parts to the game. You still need to avoid the enemies as well which even chase you.
If you light up a lot of stars at once or in quick succession you build up a combo and eventually it leads to unlocking different pods for a certain amount of time. For example, you can become a spiked pod which destroys enemies when you hit them. It’s a nice touch to the game, and sometimes you really do need these power ups from the combo to get past certain areas.
What I’ve found Stardrone suffers from is repetitiveness. All the levels feel the same – it gets boring fast. Also the challenge from some levels is frustrating and out of place with that of others. There’s an option to skip levels too so there’s no real point trying to complete some of the harder levels.
It’s a shame as the game is really exciting at times, and its wonderfully vibrant and quite explosive when you are destroying multiple enemies at a time. But as I’ve said I found myself getting bored fast. Level design in too similar.
6/10
There’s always a lot going on – spikes and harmful blobs to avoid.
Now onto the last game of this round up – Foosball 2012. I really like playing table football, and have my own table at home which I enjoy playing now and then. But the virtual game understandably doesn’t give you the same excitement.
Foosball 2012 offers single player exhibition and world tour matches as well as online matches. Let’s kick off with the world tour mode. It consists of 20 matches against the AI and with each match the difficulty gradually increases. Certain matches revolve around the 10 balls or 10 goals rule, so basically you really need to score 10 goals against each opponent to win.
The game is really fast paced just like the real thing so it’s quite exciting to play. There’s no real skill needed to play either, its just tap the right analogue stick furiously and hope for the best. It can be a messy but fun affair. Shooting is aimless, the analogue stick never get’s the aim correctly which becomes frustrating. Expect to see a lot of shots at goal go horrendously wide.
Even though there are set difficulties it doesn’t seem to be relevant. I’ve conceded more against easy opponents than advanced. Also on hard the opposing team scored 7 own goals. So I think it’s all just a bit random.
To freshen up each level there are different tables to play on, different balls to use and different tokens/players. There’s a few customizable options when playing an exhibition game. You can also purchase trick shots, using stars gained in world tour for winning matches, these trick shots give you an edge when shooting.
As for the online matches, well all I can say is good luck finding a game, I’ve yet to find one myself and therefore can’t comment on this section of the game.
All in all Foosball 2012 is good fun. It’s exciting, not as much as the real thing, but the fast paced table football action is perfect for a quick 10 minutes every now and then.
7/10
Not the usual table you’d find yourself playing foosball on.
That concludes this Review Round Up. The three games is question don’t stand out of the Vita but are worth a punt if they pop up in a sale or even on Plus (maybe in the near future).
