Blood Bowl Review: The Football Video Game Based On A Board Game

Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and other fantasy characters aren’t new to video games. They have become a cliche and are often seen in online roleplaying games to make a quick buck for investors. However, in those types of games you often align yourselves with friends to defeat a great evil or just grab some loot. None of these games give you the option of playing a violent variation of football. This is where “Blood Bowl” comes in; a grid-based board game developed by Games Workshop which made its debut in the 80s and still has a strong following today. This isn’t the first time “Blood Bowl” has been made into a video game, but it is the first to make use of the internet and the latest version of the original rules. [Continue Reading]

Blood Bowl Trailers Break Some Bones

It’s inevitable that you’re going to hear a lot of comparisons of “Blood Bowl” to “Mutant League Football,” and think that’s because it’s safe to say it’s the 16-bit classic’s spiritual successor. Don’t believe me? Well, just check out the three gameplay trailers that SouthPeak games just released and get a look at some of the combatants … I mean competitors. Everything from humans to dwarves are getting in on the action of the Xbox 360 and PC title when it comes out next week. Hide the children. [Continue Reading]

Section 8 Review: Bringing The Big Guns

The term “Section 8” refers to a type of discharge from the US military, with the reason being that the person in question is mentally unfit to serve. In this game, you play as a member of “Section 8,” an infantry division with the reputation as being insane due to their suicidal missions, which generally result in very short careers. Equipped with a rechargeable shield, several weapons, configurable modules, and a jet pack, members of Section 8 are ready to overcome any challenge. The question is, are they ready to take on the highly competitive market known as the Multiplayer FPS? [Continue Reading]

Roogoo: Twisted Towers Review: Peg-In-Hole Gets Complicated

Southpeak Games may be a fairly new player in the video game market, but they aren’t holding back in terms of the uniqueness and quality of their releases. The company has received various levels of acclaim courtesy of their console releases across every genre, including “Two Worlds” and “X-Blades.” Southpeak has also made a name for themselves on the philanthropic side of gaming as well, having given over $12.9 million to the development of independent gaming, and the presentation of it to the mainstream markets. One of those independent companies, Spidermonk Enterainment, received the 2009 Best Puzzler award at this year’s E3, courtesy of 411mania.com, for their recently released Wii title, “Roogoo: Twisted Towers.” [Continue Reading]

X-Blades Review: A Slashing Good Time

The formula Gaijin used for the design of SouthPeak’s latest hack-n-slash game “X-Blades” is almost mathematical: take one pretty girl (preferably a treasure hunter), add swords and/or guns (both in this case), some kind of mystical power, and a whole lot of att-i-tude, subtract clothing and bam, you’ve got a game dudes will buy. Even though this formula is pretty tried and true at this point, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got a good game on your hands. The final sum of “X-Blades”’ equation is a game that might not appeal to everyone, but it’s still pretty fun for what it is.

Even though there is an “M for Mature” rating slapped on the front of the “X-Blades” box, the heroine’s barely covered bottom is going to alienate a few different groups that might have given the game a shot. First, the ladies; who may find the lead character Ayumi a little too sexy, and a little too perky for their tastes. Secondly, most self-respecting gentlemen may not be giving “X-Blades” a run, because they may find it to be a bit below them, in terms of intellectual stimulation, as well as overall entertainment value. Fortunately for “X-Blades” it’s a good thing that there aren’t a lot of gamers in either of those categories. Back in reality, there is one group of gamers that this game may turn off pretty quickly – the ones that don’t like anime. At its heart, “X-Blades”’s story is very inspired by anime, so, if you have any kind of aversion for Japanese cartoons this game might not be for you. However, anyone that’s looking to have a little bit of mindless fun slashing and shooting tons of baddies at once, just to finish them off with some kind of short cutscene prompted mystical spell, all while staring at a darling piece of eye-candy, then you might want to give “X-Blades” a chance. [Continue Reading]

Big Bang Mini Review: Boom Goes The Dynamite

Who would have thought that fireworks, of all things, would provide so much inspiration for video games? Aside from their obvious celebratory implementation in sports games, the firework has recently become a key gameplay element in more than one game, the latest of which is SouthPeak’s DS title, “Big Bang Mini.” This time around, the firework’s role has been expertly crafted for Nintendo’s touchy portable, providing the most fun I’ve had playing with fireworks since that time when I was a kid, and I almost had to go to the hospital.

At its heart, “Big Bang Mini” is a shooter, and, in a genre that’s known for its difficulty, “Big Bang” can hang with the big boys. Each level in the game has ten stages, a boss, and an overall theme based on the location of the level. The point of each stage is to collect enough stars by shooting your enemies down to fill up your meter, once the meter is full the stage is over, and you get to take a shot at a bonus level. While that may sound cut and dry, there is one added element to contend with; a small orb that you have to, at all times, keep out of harms way, or else you game comes to an immediate end. Additionally, moving the orb around is vital, as it is the only way to collect the falling stars you need in order to advance. Of course, your shots aren’t coming out of the orb – that would be too easy – they can originate from anywhere on the touch screen, just as long as you can keep the orb safe, which is a daunting task, especially in the later levels. [Continue Reading]

Dev Box: Ninjatown’s Producer Katy Smith

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box feature takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us, and gives them a chance to answer some of our burning questions.

Name: Katy M. Smith
Title: Producer
What you do: I facilitate communication between the different departments, create and monitor milestones for the game, and make sure there is a clear vision for the product. I also order pizza during crunches.
Most recent game worked on: Ninjatown

1. What game has most influenced you, and why?
It’s really hard for me to pick one game that had an influence on me. “Super Mario 3″ demonstrated that you can always improve game design. I remember thinking that no game could possibly be better than “Super Mario Bros.,” but “Mario 3″ was able to make very subtle changes to the game design that made huge improvements over the first game. I don’t think there was a single platformer created after “Mario 3″ that didn’t study that game. “Grim Fandango” showed me that good writing and humor can work in games. The game is such an odd concept of Mexican folklore combined with this really witty writing style; it was fantastic. That was one of the first games I remember people sitting around and watching me play because they wanted to know more about the story. “Silent Hill 2″ really affected me on a psychological level. I’m a psychology buff, so to see the main character’s “inner demons” come out as literal demons that the player had to fight was a really cool experience.

2. What are you playing right now?
I’ve spent most of my free time this past week playing the new “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion to “World of Warcraft.” I’ve also been playing “Rock Band 2″ for the 360, “Wii Fit,” and dabbling in board games like “Ticket to Ride,” etc.

3. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about game development?
It is important to view a game as a living creature. It will evolve and change as development goes on. You can do your best to try to plan everything out before a line of code is written or one image is drawn, but there is no way that you will be able to figure out all of the different variables to perfection ahead of time. Concepts that you once thought were water-tight start springing leaks because of one detail you forgot to take into account. If you don’t take iterative and evolving game development into account during the pre-production phase, all of those tiny details will come back to bite you.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
You’re only as smart as your last mistake. I think it’s important to not take yourself too seriously, and take time to sit back and breathe now and then.

5. What do you think is the biggest problem current games suffer from?
Because games cost so much time and money to make, I think there’s a big risk in greenlighting any project. This leads to a lot of the same type of game. Nobody wants to make a flop, so innovation goes out the door to make way for safe bets. I think the blame here lies on the publishers, developers, and gamers. The publishers need to take more risks. That next WWII FPS is only going to appeal to the same market the last WWII FPS did. The developers need to push to make the games they make better. Add a new feature or content and see how the gamers react, they might love it! The gamers don’t get off the hook, either. We need to say “hey! I will play something different!” If you look at games like “Portal” or “Mirror’s Edge,” I think those are good examples of the industry going in the right direction. I think we’ll eventually get there, but the path less travelled can be scary.

Let us know what you think, and check back every week for more developer’s thoughts.