Since you probably never thought you would see me bother to review a Spyro game, let me cut to the point — Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night on the Gameboy Advance ROCKS.  I can honestly say that this game can easily be put in the same league as Metroid Fusion, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and Astro Boy: Omega Factor as the best action games on the Gameboy Advance and put up a phenomenal fight. 

The fact is, the GBA version of Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night takes many of the best elements from all three of these games and effectively combines them into a late GBA release that will knock your socks off.  (Keep in mind that the GBA version is nothing like the DS or console versions)

Hopefully at this point, you won’t disregard this review just because this is another installment in the Spyro the Dragon series, a franchise that is typically reserved for simple platformers geared towards the younger crowd.  It’s a good thing that you’re still here because this portable Spyro installment is definitely made for old-school gamers.

Gameplay: 9.5

The Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night doesn’t do anything particularly innovative with the gameplay, but instead borrows many concepts from other successful games.   Personally, I see nothing wrong with that, as long as the incorporated concepts work well together.  In fact, I have quite a soft spot for what I refer to as “hybrid” games.

 The Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night is definitely not one of those platformers that just take a bop on the head to kill off an enemy.   Eternal Night borrows the idea of having a large number of attack types despite having a limited number of buttons on the GBA.  Without getting into the specific moves, your standard melee move and jump are the standard face buttons and your triggers are used to switch between and use your different elemental attacks that you accumulate through the game (like fire, earth, and others).  Other attacks are learned throughout the game and executed with different combinations of the face buttons and directional pad.  Learning them one at a time throughout the game prevents you from being overwhelmed with the options and lets you get accustomed to your newest move before learning another.

 Like Devil May Cry, you will be using a lot of combo attacks and be juggling the enemies in the air to achieve some of the most effective combos.  Overall, the combo system is both easy to pick up and quite flexible. The casual player can easily perform initially-impressive combos, but they can slowly get a better feel for the system as they progress and master the different attack types to pull off some killer multi-hit attacks.

Some measures were taken to ensure you don’t get too carried away with the combos.  Supposedly, you can’t do infinite combos, and so far I can only get a 6-hit combo.  However, supposedly, the more attacks you learn and the better you get to know how the attacks work, you get higher combos.  (The demo video shows off a 50-hit combo)

Of course, because of the combo-based beatemup style of the game, many comparisons could be made to Treasure’s Astro Boy: Omega Factor.  While the games do have some things in common, I think Eternal Night is still worth owning if you have played and enjoyed Omega Factor, and vice versa.  They each have their strengths and complement each other nicely in the GBA library.    Both have a varied amount of attacks and a lot style, but Eternal Night doesn’t have a single special attack to bail you out like Omega Factor does with the Machine Gun. 

The way you navigate and interact with the enemies is very reminiscent of both Castlevania and Metroid.  You can wander around the levels freely, but the levels aren’t quite as expansive to the point of needing a map to find your way around.  (This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you look for in a game)   

Much like Metroid Fusion, you will spend a good part of the game finding artifacts throughout the game that will give you new attacks, build up your health meter capacity, and other power-ups.  In addition, there are different colored jewels that you can collect to increase your capabilities.  (Red restores health, Green increases your elemental power, and blue are redeemable for upgrading your characteristics)  These add a bit of an RPG feel and depth to the game.

Another similarity with the Metroidvania concept is that you don’t necessarily have to defeat every enemy to progress.  If you want, you can try to evade them and keep chugging along.  However, unlike most other games, even the simplest enemies manage to track you down in order to continue the fight.  

At one point, I was finding myself low on energy, so I was trying to run off and find some place to restore my health, but unfortunately the enemies I was dodging were staying on my tail and working with the other enemies down the road to team up on me and finish me off. 

With Eternal Night, you can no longer run off to another room to reach safety.  Even if you climb up some stairs or down some ledges, your enemies will find a way to get to you if it is physically possible for their character type.  Every enemy actually seems like it has some decent AI built in to make your battles interesting. 

Later on, you will encounter some more skilled opponents that use projectiles, teleport, dodge, counter-attack, or perform combos of their own.  It is almost as if there is a full fighting game engine built into this humble Spyro game.

Even though many of them were recycled throughout the game, there were actually quite a few different types of enemies ranging from very small critters to menacing rock-men to large crab-like creatures.  Each of them not only had unique ways of attacking, but they also had their own way of moving around the levels and reacting to your attacks.

One of the most impressive things about Eternal Night’s gameplay mechanics is what actually seems to be a basic physics engine.  Of course, it pales to what you would find in a modern 3D game, but for a Gameboy Advance game, you can’t help but be taken back by how realistically enemies take hits, fall down stairs, or lunge at you.  I’m sure it’s all pre-rendered animations, much like Vectorman on the Genesis, but it is executed so well, you can’t help but be amazed. 

Graphics/Presentation: 9

Since this is a late release from the talented crew over at Amaze Entertainment, it should come as no surprise that Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night makes good use of the GBA’s 2D capabilities.  While it isn’t as much of an effects showboat as a Treasure game like Gunstar Super Heroes, it still is an impressive game for the all-but-dead Gameboy Advance hardware.

All the character sprites are large, detailed, and smoothly animated.  There are many different enemy designs and there can be a large number of these enemies flying around on the screen at once.  I was amazed how well the GBA handled the stress of all the sprite work.

The backgrounds range from bright and vivid to dark and haunting when they need to be.  The scenery, in some places, is very detailed and makes excellent use of parallax scrolling and color-cycling to give the backgrounds a much more dynamic and realistic look.   While not every level will take your breath away, there are a handful of levels that are possibly the best backgrounds that GBA has ever displayed.

The art style is also to be commended as some of the levels remind me of a lower-resolution version of something you would see in Astal or Princess Crown on the Saturn.  (There are some of the underground areas that also remind me a bit of the caves in Aladdin on the Genesis.)

The presentation and the cutscenes are fairly nice, but nothing to get worked up about.  From an overall visual standpoint, I was quite impressed and thought it was just under the very best graphical work I’ve seen on the GBA (Gunstar Super Heroes, Metroid Fusion, and some animations in Golden Sun)

Sound/Music: 8.5

The music in Eternal Night didn’t really stick with me too much, but it was far better than most GBA games.  It had a bit of a Castlevania vibe to it, but the soundtrack didn’t have much of its own personality, which kept it from being especially remarkable.  Overall, I did think the musical score did complement the action well and set the mood for cutscenes and such.  Sound effects throughout the main game were standard platformer fare, with some deep thuds and crashes of battle being the highlights.

Story: 7 (?)

I’m under the impression that Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night has an above average story for an action platformer.  The only problem for me is that this game is actually the second in the new Legend of Spyro trilogy.  

There are a number of small cutscenes that seem to piece together an interesting story, but considering I don’t know the characters and don’t know any of the back-story, I’m not completely sure what is going on.  However, if you a younger than me and grew up with the Spyro series, I would venture to say that you will enjoy Eternal Night’s narrative.

However, Metroid Fusion was actually my first Metroid experience (other than picking up the original a couple times) and that story drew me in even though I did not have any previous experience.  I felt that Eternal Night could have catered just a little but more to new players in this regard.  (Luckly, I’m not playing this for the story).

Extras: 9

Considering how compelling and polished the attack system is in Eternal Night, I was very glad to see a couple extra features in the game.  First of all, there is a practice room that will you beat the crap of some dummy enemies so you can experiment with your attacks and see how to piece together the most effective combos.  It also helps you keep track of what your top hit count is.

 There is also another boss attack room where you can take another stab at taking down bosses that you have unlocked.   This is another great opportunity to practice, relive your favorite battles, or show off the game to a friend.

Overall: 9

The only thing that is keeping me from giving it a higher score than a 9 is that the story story and overall polish didn’t draw me in nearly as well as Metroid Fusion (or other Metroid titles) did.   While I don’t like action games that are dependant on puzzles, it would have been nice to have some elements that worked your brain a bit more, again, similar to Metroid. 

However, The Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night has the most compressive and accessible combat engine I have ever seen in a portable title (including dedicated fighting games) and it’s a shame it couldn’t be expanded to its full potential in a 2D console version.

In addition, the game as a whole does an excellent job making the most of the GBA’s 2D capabilities and working well with the handheld’s limited control options.

The bottom line is that if you enjoy Astro Boy: Omega Factor, any of the Metroid or Castlevania game, or are interested in a 2D Devil May Cry-styled game, you need to check this game out.  Even if you have moved onto the DS, Eternal Night is worth the investment.

Pioneering games like Double Dragon and Final Fight really got the side-scrolling brawler genre off to a solid start, but Konami had a number of excellent beatemups in the early 1990’s that became some of the most popular quarter-collectors of the era. While their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade games were some of the most popular of Konami’s brawlers, the X-Men arcade game is an overlooked gem that is my personal favorite. X-Men’s gameplay, at its core, isn’t much different than any other beatemup, but, with support for up to six players, this puppy really had to be experienced in a busy arcade to really be appreciated.

The Machine: 10

There were two different variations of the X-Men arcade cabinet: a standard four-player machine or a six-player, widescreen machine. Since the six-player cabinet is what really made the game stand apart from the competitors (and is what I played on growing up), that’s what I will focus on for this review.

I first fell in love with the X-Men arcade machine at a large arcade at Cedar Point (a large roller coaster park in Ohio). Back in the mid 1990’s this machine was a hot item and it wasn’t unusual to see all six joysticks filled with rabid players. The ultra-wide cabinet allowed just enough elbow room for each player, but it could be a challenge if you wanted to squeeze into a busy game as one of the remaining characters.

X-Men is the only arcade game I know of that actually used two full CRT monitors to provide a nice wide-screen effect. As if the colorful graphic novel graphics and great sound effects weren’t enough, the widescreen allowed six heroes to battle wave after wave of baddies without the screen being too crowded.

Graphics/Presentation: 8

As can be expected from a Konami arcade machine, the overall presentation is top-notch and is very good at attracting the passerby (see video clips for a sample). The opening intro had excellent illustrations and animations, with large, detailed sprites of all the evil villains and X-Men. It’s also worth mentioning that the attract mode’s intro had some nice audio and I was always peeved when a certain arcade had the sound turned off. (I’ll get more into detail in the audio section)

Considering its 1992 vintage, the gameplay graphics in this two-dimensional scroller are pretty decent, but won’t blow anybody away. Overall, the X-Men look true to their early 90’s comic book character designs and animate very fluidly too with two different kinds of walking animation present (forward and backwards).

Konami also rounded out a thorough set of animations with the mutant powers, attacking downed enemies (like Nightcralwer’s pouncing action), and many other moves. Colossus’s energy blast mutant power, in particular, had a sweet animation that would convince me to play as him, just so I could see it over and over. (They were simpler times back then). There were also some simple graphical effects used for some of the boss attacks such as Pyro’s flames and the multitude of explosions throughout the game.

X-Men’s backgrounds are beautifully illustrated in order to give the feeling that you are playing inside the Marvel comic world. In a way, it provided an extra rush of nostalgia that drained your pockets full of quarters much more frequently.

There are also some cut scenes in between levels that are somewhat similar to the intro scene, but they aren’t really animated quite as well or are still illustrations, but the artwork was still excellent.

From a performance standpoint, there was no slow down or flicker even when there were six players, and a whole horde of Sentinels throwing giant boulders at you.

Music/Sound Effects: 8

I know at least one person that will disagree with me on this, but I really enjoyed the audio on X-Men Arcade. Like I mentioned in my description of the attract mode’s intro, I was really disappointed if a particular X-Men machine had the sound turned down low of muted completely. I really felt that the music and sound effects were crucial to really enjoying the game and getting into the action.

From the moment the game finishes booting, the attract mode’s cinema opens with an increasingly dramatic sound to accompany a distant starship swooping in before an authoritative voice-over of the title, “X-MEN”. (I don’t know why, but it still give me shivers to this day). This is then followed by some Marvel-esque music to supplement the opening character animations.

As captivating as the introduction’s audio was, the sound effects and music within the actual game just as good. The music throughout the various stages demonstrated a good amount of variety and many had a high tempo in order to get you in mood for beatin’ the tar out of some Sentinels. The actual music wasn’t particularly great, but each track has some vocal or sound effect samples utilized for the main beats that seemed to give it a unique feel. The best example would be the animal sound effects that are tied to the beats in the third level’s jungle theme. X-Men arcade is one of the very few arcade soundtracks that made a solid impression on me, while most coin-op games have very forgettable tunes. (I wouldn’t listen to the music on my iPod, but it definitely fits the game)

In addition to the music, Konami also did a respectable job on the sound effects throughout the game. Naturally, there are many explosions throughout the adventure, but there are also a number of thumping attacks, laser beams, missiles, crashing rocks, and a number of other sounds that you would imagine in an X-Men comic.

The actual X-Men characters have slightly more voice samples than you would expect from a typical brawler. Among my favorites are the shouts of “Nooo!” when your character dies and Colossus’s roaring shout that accompanies his Mutant Power. The bosses also have some voice samples, although most of them are quite repetitious (“Nothing moves The Blob!”)

Gameplay: Single-Player = 8, Multiplayer = 10

Of course, the core gameplay is a standard side-scrolling beatemup like its Ninja Turtles siblings. And as with Konami’s other brawlers, the game starts out rather simple, but stronger and more plentiful enemies get introduced as the game progresses.

The biggest advantage X-Men Arcade has is the bit of strategy added with the Mutant Powers and its potential for 6-player cooperative multiplayer.

In both the four and six-player versions of the game, you have six characters to choose from including Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Dazzler. More recent X-Men fans may notice the absence of super popular characters like Gambit, but this is based on an older team roster. (Although, the choice of Dazzler is a puzzler)

While the basic attacks of the X-Men don’t vary much (Nightcrawler, probably being the most unique), the special Mutant attacks give each character their own unique advantages. The Mutant

Power attacks are triggered with a dedicated button on your controls and acts similar to a “bomb” on a 2D arcade shooter, wiping most of the enemies off the screen at once.

Of course, the powers aren’t quite that simple. First of all, not every character’s power has the same effect. For example, Wolverine and Cyclops’s attacks primarily take out enemies directly in front of them. Colossus’s energy burst blows away those that immediately surround him, while Nightcrawler quickly zig-zags across the screen taking out those in his path. Because of these attack patterns, some characters are more useful in certain situations than others (a direct attack would be better for bosses than Nightcrawler’s unpredictable attack).

Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a challenge if you could use these mutant powers as much as you wanted without consequences (even if it isn’t true to the comics). The catch is that each time you use your power, you lose three bars off of your eight-bar life gauge. The only exception is if you have an extra mutant power orb that you receive for finishing a level with more than three bars left.

As I mentioned before, the game is much more enjoyable when you have more players to fight alongside you. This isn’t only because there is more action going on, but because it requires you to cooperate and time your mutant powers appropriately if you want to make it very far without having to spend more quarters. It can be quite a waste of valuable health if more than one person uses their Mutant Power at once, and as mentioned above different characters’ powers may be more helpful than others in any given situation. Because of this Mutant Power dynamic, you’ll often find yourselves shouting out to one another to use certain powers or take out a certain group of enemies.

While most of my 6-player experiences were back in the early 90’s, I recently had the chance to go back to that same arcade in Cedar Point and try to find one of the old X-Men machines that I used to play on as a young teenager. Sure enough, there was still one of the two or three 6-player X-Men machines they used to have and there was surprisingly two other guys already playing it. Feeling like I was 13 again, I walked briskly over to it and tossed in a token. With only three people, we were still having a healthy dose of geek bonding, but soon three other guys joined in on the action halfway through. While not everyone played like a seasoned veteran, we were able to work together through a few levels with only a couple of us even having to put in another token. If only other arcades like that were still around.

Needless to say, cooperation inherent to these beatemups is a big part of the fun. You’ll find yourself playing with complete strangers and you’ll quickly appreciate the cooperative destruction that only a six-player widescreen X-Men machine can provide.

Overall: 9

X-Men Arcade as a whole provides a satisfying experience for fans of the genre, whether they are comic book fans or not. While it is not without its flaws, it is another well-rounded package from Konami and is definitely more enjoyable with multiple players than playing by yourself.

On a side note, some X-Men purists will complain that some of the Mutant Powers and other little features don’t accurately match up to the comic books. For instance, instead of healing, Wolverine has these laser-like projectile blades or even the boss battle with Juggernaut has him caring a bazooka. But with a early 1990’s arcade game, some compromises have to be made.

I still regard the six-player, widescreen arcade cabinet as one of the most impressive arcade machines of that generation.

Ports & Emulation

Unfortunately, I’m not aware of a way to emulate the 6-player version of X-Men to accurately re-create the 6-player, widescreen experience (the 2 or 4-player, single screen version isn’t a problem). As far as I know, the only real way to pull this off is to track down the real machine.

So far, we still haven’t seen a home version of X-Men Arcade. There have been plenty of X-Men games along the way, but nothing even close to the arcade game.

In this modern age, X-Men Arcade would be best suited for an online service like XBox Live Arcade, which supports both widescreen and online multiplayer. While it wouldn’t be quite as fulfilling as having six guys playing on the real thing, it would be much more practical and affordable.

It Should Be Worth The Wait

You may have noticed over the last few months, that I’m being a bit more selective when I hype up a new or upcoming retro-styled release. And if you have been a racketboy.com reader long, you would also notice that Castle Crashers is one of the games I have talked about most (which is especially surprising, since I don’t own an XBox 360). Sure, part of that can be attributed to the fact that it has been over a year since The Behemoth (of Alien Hominid & Dad N Me fame) first revealed the game to us in Alpha form (which would inidicate it has probably been in developement for about two years now), but there is no denying that this game will be incredibly exciting for fans of old-school beatemups and hack-n-slashs.

More Than Just A Hack-N-Slash

As the 2008 release gets closer, The Behemoth has been gracious enough to show us more enticing parts of this XBox Live Arcade blockbuster-to-be. As if the Guardian Heroes-like, hack-and-slash-with-RPG-elements adventure mode and the game’s slick and humorous style wasn’t enough to get old-school fans excited, we know have a glimpse into the additional multiplayer modes that Castle Crashers will offer.

Guardian Heroes Meets Powerstone (With Additional Quirky Goodness)

The first competitive multiplayer mode The Behemoth showed off lets you duke it out against your friends while using your character’s specific powers. The look and control is much like the main adventure mode of the game, but the gameplay is more like an arena fighter like Power Stone 2 or Rakugaki Showtime.

Next up in the Castle Crashers multiplayer demo was a similar mode that involved shooting arrows at each other and hoarding power-ups. This mode didn’t look quite as engaging, but it is unique and a little variety is always appreciated. It’s rather strange, but this mode actually reminds me most of the Monkey Fight minigame from the Super Monkey Ball series. You have very simple and identical attacks, but the quickness in picking up upgrades and agility can make all the difference in the outcome.

And finally, the Chicken Chase mode looks very out of the ordinary — but in a good way. Chickens running around the arena act as huge power-ups (much like Power Stones) and let you beat the crap out of your opponent. This mode could maybe use a little more depth, but still looks fun.

To see all the action and hear The Behemoth commentary, check out this video (feed subscribers may have to click through to see)

The Behemoth “Gets It”

The Behemoth is definately showing the industry that it understands how to bring old-school gameplay back to the mainstream and how to give a well-rounded multiplayer experience with both cooperative and competitive party gaming. Never before have I felt the need to pick up an XBox 360.

Additional Links:

Older Video Clips
Additional Screenshots
Official Website

Thanks to XBLArcade.com for pointing this video out!

Ever since I first laid eyes on The Red Star back when it was an XBox demo, I knew this would be a modern treat for the old-school gamer. I also happen to be a real sucker for games that combine two or more classic gameplay mechanics. Much like River City Ransom and Guardian Heroes combined Beatemups with RPG elements and Twinklestar Sprites combined Puzzle gaming with shmups, The Red Star takes the best of two worlds and makes the most of it.

Here’s what the critics have to say…
“This is sheer simplistic chutzpah; brassy and single-minded. If we sheepishly look at the back of the box once more, we can see that we’re also quoted as saying The Red Star is “a cross between Streets of Rage and Ikaruga”. Well, thanks. That description certainly makes my job easier, but let me elaborate in a bit more detail.

It’s Streets of Rage in the way that this is a scrolling beat �em up arcade game (but one that’s just as dependent on guns). Think also Final, Fight or Golden Axe or Die Hard Arcade or countless others of a genre that once used to walk proudly at the top of our affections. The camera will automatically move between top-down and side-on angles depending on the circumstances as you move along a restricted, linear path. As you progress you’re tasked with defeating each sector’s enemies before the game removes the invisible barrier it placed and pushing you on to the next part to repeat. Each class of bad guy has his own particular weakness to melee combat or gunplay. Some have shields impervious to bullets, for instance, requiring you to hack and shoot as you must, what strategy there is obviously there simply to thin the crowds in the most efficient way possible. The controls are competent, and the weaponry suitably effective. Meanwhile, the visuals have a bold, chunky feel to them, giving the fighting some weight. And, while its combo system is pretty sparse, and the melee manoeuvres and gunplay never intertwine in the seamless way that Devil May Cry manages, it’s a lot of fun.

And Ikaruga? That would be the bullet hell sections. Literally every five minutes there’s a boss encounter – usually in the form of a gun emplacement or huge tank – and each is inclined to spit out an insane amounts of deadly glowing bolts as you bob and weave and shoot and shoot. It’s a ground-based shmup to all intents and purposes. But instead of the frustrating impossibility of your regular Smash TV assault, it’s the patterned chaos of your modern Japanese ship shooter, where considered reflexes can find a path of calm between projectiles no matter how many fill up the screen. Each encounter splits up the fighting perfectly, always a challenge but never long enough to be a chore. Separately, the fighting and the shooting are pretty plain, but together they capably complement any lulls in either. I guess we can grudgingly concede that “ingenious” part of the quote here.”
Eurogamer

“As much fun as the pure beat-’em-up action in The Red Star can be, the game’s real strength is how it constantly mixes up the action. At several points during every mission, alarms will go off and the camera will shift perspective. Your side-scrolling beat-’em-up will suddenly turn into a top-down shooter, complete with screen-filling war machines that spew complex bullet patterns for you to maneuver around. The recurrently shifting nature of the gameplay keeps you on your toes, and knowing that each level will contain what amount to several massive boss fights is great motivation to push forward. Though the back-and-forth pattern of fighting a gang of enemy soldiers and then blasting your way through some giant boss fight eventually becomes a little predictable, it ultimately staves off the monotony that often plagues both shooters and beat-’em-ups.

The levels in The Red Star aren’t particularly long, and the game is actually pretty generous with how it ramps up the difficulty, but the pacing is unyielding, and when the game gets hard, it is merciless. You’ve got but one life bar with which to complete each level, and while you’ll usually get a little first-aid kit after each of your big shooter encounters, it’s not uncommon to get most of the way through a level just to get smoked and have to do the whole thing over again. The game isn’t sadistic about it, but having to replay a full level several times can still prove a bit frustrating. Still, when you do finally get past that one boss fight that you’ve been banging your head against, it’s supremely satisfying.”
Gamespot

“With a good variety of enemy types, players are constantly required to switch up their tactics on-the-fly. Some opponents are invulnerable to gunfire, some must be kept at a distance, and some have particular patterns or weaknesses that require more than simple button mashing to overcome. By introducing new types and cycling through them in each level, the developers make sure to keep brains engaged by evaluating the combat situation moment-to-moment. The shield mentioned earlier adds a nice layer of depth (giving the player invulnerability for a fleet moment) and a gun heat gauge stops mindless blasting. Although the pieces may not be very complex, they fit and function beautifully.

Going further, the game enriches the experience by constantly surprising the player with boss encounters that completely shift gears into the high-octane “shmup” genre mentioned earlier. Similar to bullet-hell shooters like Mars Matrix or Ikaruga, The Red Star explodes in these sequences and demands the sort of twitch-gaming reflexes and Zen-like concentration that’s usually reserved for a mean arcade cabinet when you’re down to your last quarter. With strategic fighting and shooting in copious amounts, this game is an adrenaline junkie’s dream.”
GameCritics

“And like any worthy shmup or brawler, The Red Star offers co-operative play throughout the game, and working your way through with a buddy makes for a hell of a good time. One frustrating element to the combat in Red Star is wrapping up a combo just as a cadre of thugs have lined up to hand you your ass, which they do, just as soon as that attack animation wraps up. If you’ve got someone watching your back, it makes for a slightly more forgiving experience throughout the game.

The help is definitely handy, especially in the later levels when the difficulty ramps up and The Red Star’s biggest flaw rears its ugly head: no mid-stage checkpoints, and a level-by-level save system. While the game might feel a bit easy at first, you’ll definitely feel the absence later on.

Length is another issue. The Red Star can be knocked out in a matter of hours — which is what you might expect from a game from either of the genres that influence it — and when you finally lay the final boss to sticky pulp, you’re left wanting a little more. Fortunately, having three completely different characters with which to tackle the campaign adds a great deal of replay value. Co-op goes a long way in extending the life of The Red Star, too.”
Destructoid

“Despite its age, The Red Star’s visuals are surprisingly in line what you’d expect from a later-generation PS2 game; it represents the comic book’s industrial Russian universe well. For those unaware, The Red Star is based on the Christian Gossett graphic novel of the same name (he’s known for having worked at LucasFilm — he came up with the double-edged lightsaber that Darth Maul used — and on the Bruce Willis PS1 game Apocalypse). It takes place in the United Republics of the Red Star (U.R.R.S.), a sort of neo-Russia where sorcery and industrial technology coexist. You take control of three characters — Makita, Maya, Kyuzo — and attempt to take out Troika, who has the country under his control.The three playable characters’ gameplay differs greatly, which offers a lot of replay value (a second player can even join in on the fun and control one of them). It’s not enough to solve the game’s problem of repetitiveness, though. Perhaps as a preemptive measure to satisfy those who criticize similar games for being too short, The Red Star feels artificially lengthened at times. Coupled with a lack of midlevel checkpoints, the game at times becomes a chore as you fight the same enemies over and over while you formulate strategies for defeating bosses at the end of the level. Perhaps a throwback to the games of yesterday, the lack of checkpoints unfortunately detracts from the overall fun.

As a $20 game, though — even considering the wide selection of budget and Greatest Hits titles available on the PS2 now — The Red Star is a great deal, considering it was at one point set to release for more than double that. For old-school action game fans, this one’s a must for your collection.”
1Up.com

Since one of the great advantages the XBox Live Arcade has over the Wii’s Virtual Console (so far) is that developers usually throw some enhancements into the game to give it some of the benefits of modern gaming. The TMNT Arcade game received some of these bells and whistles like high-definition output and online co-op, but misses some small things like being able to have online AND offline friends being able to play with you at the same time. It’s either all online or all offline. Anyway, for $5, I guess you can’t complain too much.

Anyway, here’s what the critics are saying…
“Overall TMNT is quite short, maybe one of the reasons for the low price tag; the other being the upcoming release of the CG movie by the same name. There is only one mode and it can be beaten fairly quickly, especially with the help of some friends over Xbox Live. The game is basically the exact same thing that was released over 15 years ago but with “stretched” out graphics and online multiplayer….

If the developers did any sort of upgrading it is not noticeable with the naked eye. One nice feature is being able to stretch out the screen so it fits nicely on any size widescreen television. This feature alone made me happy but it would have been nice to see some HD capabilities or character model / background graphical upgrades to this version.”
PlanetXBox

“As tended to be the case with arcade beat-’em-ups of this genre, the difficulty level is pretty over the top, as the maker of the game wanted to get you pumping quarters in as frequently as possible. That’s not so much a necessity here, and when playing offline, you get unlimited continues, so a good chunk of that difficulty is negated.

However, when playing online co-op, your crew is only afforded 20 continues, meaning it’s possible to lose the game altogether. That’s a smart decision, as it’s not hard to envision the co-op getting a bit boring after a while if you can just beat it over and over again with no challenge to speak of. The co-op play itself is set up pretty well. You can either jump into a quick game or create a public or private match yourself. The co-op seems to work just fine, though there was some lag in a number of matches. Only in a few instances did it hinder the game, however.”
GameSpot

“The game doesn’t even have the good grace to offer up a well thought out array of Achievements for your trouble. Most require near-superhuman feats such as navigating a stage without losing health or defeating a boss without being hit by their weapon, and a game designed solely to kill the player as frequently as possible just isn’t suited for such tasks. On the other hand, there are completely pointless Achievements, such as the one that gives you zero gamerpoints for falling into a manhole five times. Is it a joke? Or an admission that in a game so lacking in depth or variety there simply weren’t enough things to do to make up the required twelve Achievement Awards?”
EuroGamer

I didn’t have many doubts about the game after seeing early versions in action, but I was still anxious to see how the game progressed after further development.

Joystiq was at the GDC ‘07 Conference and was kind enough to post their impressions of the latest build of the upcoming Behemoth brawler….

“The amount of personality and panache exuded by Castle Crashers seems to lend it more depth than it actually has, as does the jump-in-anytime multiplayer gameplay. In fact, playing the game on your own would likely be an ill-advised activity entirely, which is just as well since there are usually more than enough enemies and bosses to keep a party of four well occupied. The game is paced exceptionally well, with enemy types changing just as an inkling of repetition becomes apparent. The lumbering and amusing bosses in particular require a more evasive approach in-between bouts of unrestrained sword slashing (likely the most useful strategy in the game).”
Read Complete Preview

Joystiq also shared a good video clip showing off some level design that we hadn’t seen in previous clips. You can see it and other older clips on the Castle Crashers video page.

I can happily say I’m still impressed and attempting to wait patiently to play it.