At long last Everyday Shooter has been put on the European PSN. I have been waiting for this for months (it was out late last year in the US) and it would seem that Sony have finally got there act together (i.e. included the other languages for our non-English speaking European neighbours).
I’ve only had a short go on it last night, but what I played was fantastic. One of the things that the Xbox has done right is Xbox live arcade. Since a friend bought himself an Xbox, it has to be said that the live arcade games have probably impressed me most about the console, much more so than the full priced games. I was most impressed by Geometry Wars (but also by Pac Man arcade and Rez HD), and as such wanted my own 2 stick shooter to sink my teeth into. I’ve resisted buying the other lesser offerings on the PSN (although I’m aware that a lot of people rank Super Stardust HD highly) and waited for Everyday Shooter.
It has to be said that it feels like a much more chilled experience than Geometry Wars, and the way that the music links to the gameplay reminds me in some respects to Rez. I’ve only made it through 3 stages of the game so far, but I like the way that the games leaves it mainly to you to understand how each stage works. For example, the initial stage may seem like just a case of shooting everything in sight, but instead you need to understand how the different enemies react when shot, and use this to both defend yourself and also destroy the “smart bomb” type enemies at the right time to clear the screen and get maximum points. What is great is that the rules of the game change quite a lot with each new stage, and you are forced to adapt the way you play to match this.
Overall, I’m very impressed so far, and look forward to giving it more time as soon as I can.
Super Mario Galaxy
I never got every star in Mario 64 (it was too damn hard), I also never got every single shine sprite in Super Mario Sunshine (the blue coins were dumb) – but I vowed to do my best to get every single star in Super Mario Galaxy, and the other day, I did just that – I managed to get the final star. It has to be said that there were 3 stars in particular that took sometime to get, but I got there in the end.
What’s great is that Elliot is now an official Mario nut. He loves sitting by me while I play it and even helps out by collecting star bits with the second Wiimote. As such, playing Super Mario Galaxy has been a great father/son time together, which we have both enjoyed.
Also, without spoiling things, getting all 120 stars isn’t necessarily the end of everything! As such, I’ll likely be playing the game for some time more with Elliot.
Veronica Mars
This is a TV series which wasn’t shown over here (to my knowledge, at least not on terrestrial channels), but one which I really wanted to see. Also unfortunately it hasn’t been release on DVD over here, so I’ve had to import US DVD’s to have the opportunity to watch it.
To boil it down to its basics, it’s about the daughter of a PI who is still in high school in a rich suburb of America. The daughter (Veronica Mars) works for her father and also does detective work of her own on the side. Kind of like Buffy meets Philip Marlow, with a dash of 90210.
It is a series that got a lot of acclaim in the US, but never really got the audience that it deserved, and as such was cancelled after 3 years. From my perspective, so far I have enjoyed it immensely. It is cleverly written, with a great ongoing mystery which in unravelled bit by bit as the series goes okay. On top of that are great characters brought to life by great actors. What is there not to like!
Bravo Veronica – the series may be dead, but I’m enjoying catching up.
1 comment:
Cool, I'd like to have a go of Everyday Shooter sometime.
I actually prefer Mutant Storm Empire to Geometry Wars now, because it's got a bit more variety. Both are quite punishingly difficult though!
Post a Comment