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We got hold of Draglade for the Nintendo DS recently but with so many other top games coming out this spring it was unfairly put on the back burner. However with this month’s pre E3 game drought we had a bit of time to see what it had to offer, so here just for you is our review of Draglade.

Developed by Dimps, the team behind Sonic Rush and co developers of Street Fighter IV, Draglade for DS (or Kasutamu Bito Batoru Doragureido as it’s known as in Japan) is a side scrolling fighting game that uses music beats along with button bash timing to form attacks. There are 4 main characters to choose from in the game, each with their own separate but similar storyline which overlap here and there but generally remain individual enough. Each characters quest revolves round them needing or wanting to become a Major Grapper. Grapping is a new form of combat that uses bracelet type jewellery called G-Cons which magically turn into weapons called Glades when mixed with one of the four matter elements (fire, earth, lightning and water); these weapons are extra special because upon impact with the opponent they produce a musical note, hereby bringing music beats into the violent scenario (it’s just no fun beating anyone up without putting it to a funky rhythm anymore). Let me use just one of the characters, Hibito (the Fire Hero) as an example for this review.

Hibito is a ginger haired young lad who has always wanted to be a Grapper; he lives with his grandpa and sister helping out in the family repair business. Grandpa doesn’t want Hibito to become a grapper and whenever the topic is brought up he quickly puts a stop to it. After one row too many, Hibito and grandpa fall out and naturally the young scallywag is going to defy the old codger and head off to become a major grapper anyway. Just to add to the tension some nasty dudes arrive and kidnap Hibito’s sister, what better way to go and prove your grapping skills to the world than by rescuing your sibling eh?

Draglade has fairly straightforward gameplay, your character of choice heads from town to town chatting to locals (who offer no real advice – and follow you everywhere), defeating baddies, completing challenges and special tests (at G-Centres) to improve your grapper standing. As you travel between towns you come across dangerous enemies called variants, these are wild animals driven to insanity by absorbing too many matter elements. In the same way an overdose of matter can affect animals - humans can get dosed up turn nasty too, combine this with the evil dark glade and you have trouble just waiting to fall into the wrong hands. Defeating these nasties requires not only use of your glade but also a device called the dragon sequencer, this interactive boom box contraption (which looks just like a Nintendo DS) shows you the short musical rhythm you need to follow to perform maximum damage to your foe, this is called the Beat Combo which is activated with L, you then get tapping the X button for small fast hits and Y for more powerful but slow whacks. You can block with R, jump around with B and use special weapons called Bullets with A. These bullets are really just special moves from any other beat em up but they can be pretty handy in battle, and with over 100 to find or buy at Bullet Shops, provide decent battle variation and strategy.

Graphically Draglade is nothing special, I don’t know if the developers deliberately tried make the game look like it was on the Super Nintendo in 1991 but they succeeded. This isn’t necessarily bad; graphics don’t make a good game all on their own of course, but buying a modern day game at modern day prices makes me expect something to push the Nintendo DS a little harder. However the manga-ish art style whilst not being my favourite, does suit this genre of game somewhat.

The game sounds fine through my ears but is nothing to write to Auntie Gladys about; don’t expect to be humming any tunes from Draglade an hour after playing, not unless you regularly recall ditty beepy tunes all day that is. However it is possible for you to create your own beat combos using the dragon sequencer and touch screen, it’s a bit limited and unnecessary because it’s possible to finish the game using the default beat combo (I should know, I did it), but it’s possible to have fun building your own beat combos (Blur’s Song 2 anyone?) up and testing them out against baddies. Oh, I wonder if anyone knows why the theme song wasn’t translated to English instead keeping the Japanese vocals and providing no subtitles.
With four different characters and storylines this game will take you a good while to complete; there isn’t much incentive to complete the game four different times (with each character) if I’m honest but fans of side scrolling fighting games may disagree, you’ll have to be pretty dedicated – put it that way. If you’re feeling lonely you could play some multiplayer action either offline via wireless single/multicard action or online via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection – I couldn’t find a friend willing to play offline and the game felt pretty boring online, well maybe that’s just because I was being beaten senseless all the time.
Whilst having some interesting new ideas for a side scroller, the generally repetitiveness and predictable dialogue make Draglade a bit of a trial to play (especially four times) so we have to give it an average 6 out of 10.

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Related: The World Ends With You review, Zubo DS

Tags: Draglade, Draglade, Nintendo DS

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Strangely this is Sega’s second Olympics release over the past 8 months - their first one being Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. This is the official game of this year’s Olympics and in fine tradition will have you waggling the analogue stick or mashing buttons until you develop RSI and, if you’re from the US anyway, try to sue. Brits will just complain quietly to the person next to them.

The game covers all 38 disciplines including the standard track and field events but also table tennis, judo, archery, cycling, weight lifting and swimming.

If you’re old enough to remember, this game takes ideas from both Konami’s Track and Field and US Gold’s Winter and California Games. Games are a mix of hitting buttons quickly and timing stick rotations , as well as matching button sequences as quickly as possible.

The game’s at its best when things are simple - waggle or mash to run and press buttons at the right time to jump and set your angle for jumps etc. Stupidly there’s an annoying charge system for running off the blocks which often leaves you doing a false start or leaving behind the pack and trying to catch up - absolutely useless if you’re doing the 100 metres.

It’s also annoying having to skip through all the animations before getting into a race or event. Games like these need to be instant especially if you’re playing with 7 others and taking it in turns. You can also play with 3 others online - and of course there’s online leaderboards for you to smash if you’re that obsessed with getting to the top of the tables.

This game’s like a Western - there’s a mix of good, bad and downright ugly and it’s all a little too disjointed. About ten of the events are enjoyable and for me that’s not enough to warrant buying this game at full price. Still, if you want to get into the spirit of the games and you want to rent it when they start on the 8th of August, then be my guest.

Beijing 2008 gets an average 5 out of 10.

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Preowned: Beijing 2008 - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Beijing 2008 - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games review, Deca Sports Wii, Youtube Beijing 2008 review

Tags: Beijing 2008, Beijing, 2008, Sports, sport, video game, X360, PS3, Wii, PC, Beijing 2008 The videogame, Youtube Beijing 2008 review

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Finally the Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox 360 version - to be honest, this for me is the preferred format for a multiplayer game seeing as Xbox Live isn’t free and so has to have some degree of stability and speed.

Developed by Epic, the same people behind Gears of War, this sees you fighting a race called the Necris as you battle to save the Earth. Quite how you do this by capturing flags, getting as many frags over re-spawning teams and destroying glowing red or blue nodes is beyond me but suspend your disbelief and get into the game and you’ll thoroughly enjoy it.

The single-player campaign completely gets rid of the tournaments of previous games and uses the story as an excuse to play some arena-based battles. There’s Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Warfare, Vehicle Capture the Flag and more and it all rips along at a frightening pace with no drop in framrate.

The game differs from the PC and PS3 versions in that it has extra content - 5 new maps, new characters and split-screen co-op and versus mode. They did it in Gears of War on the 360 so why not in this game? You’ll also not ice all the characters look like they’ve come straight out of Gears. They all look like NFL players and talk in that gruff way you’ve come to expect.

There’s also a fantastic extended trailer for Gears of War 2 on there which shows off some cool multiplayer features like the new Meatflag mode and moving cover system - I can’t wait to play it!

UT3 multiplayer is also fast and furious and I’m really enjoying it thanks to the fact that I’ve always been pretty nifty at the series.

If you haven’t yet got it on another system then I highly recommend this for the Xbox 360. A fair few shooters have already come out on the 360 since its debut on the PS3 but it’s more than worthy of joining them. Unreal Tournament 3 gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Preowned: Unreal Tournament III - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox 360 version - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: Unreal Tournament 3 PS3 version review , UT3 news, Youtube Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox 360 version review

Tags: Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox 360 version, Unreal Tournament 3, Unreal Tournament, Xbox 360, Unreal Tournament 3 Xbox360

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I haven’t seen the new The Incredible Hulk movie, partly due to the fact that I found the Ang Lee one really boring and partly because I’m not sure why we need another movie. Well, another film means another official videogame - but what is there to do with the big green bogeyman that hasn’t already been done?

Once again this game puts you in a free environment similar to the Ultimate Destruction game. This time you’re in the Big Apple as you play loosely through the plot of the movie and do lots of other missions along the way. Just find the icon on the map and press a button to activate the mission. Completing missions and other objectives gives you more points and new abilities with which to smash stuff up with. Standard punches and grabs will do for most enemies but you can also fill up your rage meter by smashing stuff up and go proper ballistic on your approaching enemies.

And smash things up you do - a lot. Everything in the game can be destroyed and it’s great fun leaping from building to building, picking up taxis and throwing them at people, or picking up people and throwing them at other people. If Nico Bellic from GTA 4 were big and green, he’d be in this game.

Unfortunately, it’s just not quite as much fun as Ultimate Destruction. You can’t rip taxis in half or surf down the street on buses, which is a great shame. You can however knock down buildings and there are ones dotted round the city which give you a special token for doing so - you’re like an incredibly angry tourist at times.

When it comes to presentation the game really doesn’t look like it’s playing on a next-gen console - I’ve been playing it on the 360. The Hulk has quite a bit of detail but even characters in cut scenes look a bit ropey and Tim Roth and Edward Norton providing the voices of the main characters sound like they really couldn’t be bothered.

In all it’s a pretty average action adventure game based on a movie. It’s not terrible and it’s always fun smashing stuff up - especially when it’s as fluid as this. An average game gets an average score so The Incredible Hulk video game gets 5 out of 10.

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Preowned: Incredible Hulk - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent The Incredible Hulk - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: Iron Man review, The Incredible Hulk release date, The Incredible Hulk review on Youtube

Tags: The Incredible Hulk, the incredible hulk video game

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I have fond memories of the original Alone in the Dark on the PC where the game began with a polygonal Edward Carnby being chased from the attic by a rectangular blue wolf thing jumping through the window.

Things have changed a lot since then and Atari are now able to deliver scares and action with Hollywood-style effects and they do this on the next-gen consoles to great effect. You begin the game in first-person mode waking up with a groggy head with some geezers discussing all manner of dark things. Next thing you know there are cracks in the walls eating people up and the building you’re in starts to collapse. The game switches into third-person as you try to walkthrough and escape - walls burning around you and things exploding everywhere. The sense of peril is amazing - however, you soon realise all this great atmosphere is spoilt by a control system that makes you as much use in an action situation as Professor Stephen Hawking.

You see, you have to switch between first and third person modes depending on what you want to do; first-person mode is for putting out fires, firing guns etc and third-person for climbing, smashing down doors and moving objects. First person is a little clunky but when you’re looking over Carnby’s shoulder you have to move and turn using just the left analogue stick as if you were playing the original Resident Evil games. This just does not work nowadays and whoever let the game go out of the door like this needs to be left Alone in the Dark for several years themselves.

The game even lets you skip parts you’re stuck on as if you’re skipping through the chapters of a DVD. A strange decision indeed and one you may find using just because you get so frustrated with the action and combat.

The fire and burning mechanics are fantastic but the inventory system is poor as it makes you look into your jacket to equip and combine items whilst everything happens in real-time around you. Frankly another annoyance.

The Alone in the Dark video game is really annoying mainly because it had so much potential to be great. Wonky controls let it down hugely so Alone in the Dark only gets an average 5 out of 10.

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New: Buy Alone in the Dark from Buy.com
Preowned: Alone in the Dark - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Alone in the Dark  - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related: Alone in the Dark preorder goodies, Alone in the Dark features, Youtube Alone in the Dark review

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18 months ago Okami appeared on the PS2. The arrival of Okami was a quiet one despite it being a game to rival any Zelda release and having great visuals and game design. As well as running around as a sun god that’s now taken the form of a wolf, you also got to paint parts of the scenery to solve puzzles and fight enemies and this did feel a bit clunky with an analogue stick. Thankfully you never run in to Kevin Costner in the game and now it’s found its rightful home on the Wii - it’s an almost perfect game now it’s on Nintendo’s machine.

Your task in Okami is to restore light to the world after it’s been covered in darkness. In a very similar way to Twilight Princess you do this by fighting monsters and helping villagers in forests and townships and by exploring dungeons and fighting big bosses. As you move through the game you get rewarded with more powers and items to help you further if you seek out extras hidden around the maps.

You now fight by flicking your wrist which takes a bit of time to get the timing right, but the most satisfying thing is using your paint brush to great effect. At the touch of a button you can freeze the action into a sepia painting and paint stars in the sky to awaken gods, paint the sun to brighten the sky, add objects to the world to help villagers and even plant trees to block enemies chasing you. You can even draw through objects to cut them in half.

Visually the game looks even better thanks to its 480p widescreen output and there are times where the visual style is breathtaking - it’s like playing through a living oil painting. However I don’t know if it’s just my eyes or the style they’re going for but the game does seem to look a bit blurry at times as if the colours are bleeding into each other. Am I being too picky here? You have a look and make your own minds up.

On its surface you could mistake Okami for a gorgeous-looking 3d platformer but to do this would be a grave mistake to make. It’s easily up there with other role-playing greats and also nods to other Capcom greats such as Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry.

If you missed Okami on the PS2 then you should really hunt this one down on the Wii. Okami gets an almost perfect 9 out of 10.

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New: Buy Okami from Buy.com
Preowned: Okami - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Okami - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related links: Review of Okami on Youtube, Nintendo release schedule for 2008

Tags: Okami, Wii, PS2

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I love being pleasantly surprised by a game. So far I haven’t enjoyed Battlefield games on consoles as they just don’t cut it compared to Battlefield 2 on the PC. However, I think I’ve found something special with Battlefield Bad Company. Finally developers DICE have given us a game with a full single player campaign which doesn’t just feel like the multiplayer game with bots and this one’s very different to what you’ve played before!

First of all, for once the single player game’s not all worthy like some others I could mention. You tag along with three others who are all actually good chums despite having the name of Bad Company. They’ll cover your back and make jokes about you being the new boy without descending into parody - I particularly like Sweetwater who keeps going on about a big vehicle called the ‘Truckasaurus Rex’. Each mission sees a number of goals to complete but it’s up to you how you complete it - you can drive in, run in all guns blazing or sneak around the back, it’s the sort of sandbox play that won’t leave nasty grains between your teeth.

The scenery’s also very destructible. If someone’s hiding behind a wall you can drive through it in a tank and crush them or blow a hole in a building and watch them run for more cover - the same applies to you though so watch out for the sudden disappearance of hiding places.

The enemy AI is a bit too keen at times so it’s lucky you’ve got infinite health syringes to patch you up in a tight spot and interestingly if you do die, you re-spawn slightly back from the action and join in where you left off - which can lead to you taking risks you normally wouldn’t.

Multiplayer sees you playing Gold Rush mode as one team attacks gold stockpiles and another tries to defend them. It’s quite chaotic with all those explosives and destructible objects kicking around but it keeps you playing thanks to a promotion and unlockable weapons system. There’s 8 maps to play and soon a new mode available to download for free.

The good news is that the Battlefield Bad Company release date was a couple of weeks ago in the US and UK, plus you can check out the Battlefield demo in the PS3 and Xbox Live marketplace stores for free first. I like this game a lot - it looks great, plays well and has just the right balance of fun and thrills both in single and multiplayer mode.

My Battlefield: Bad Company review gets a truly excellent 8 out of 10.

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New: Buy Battlefield Bad Company from Buy.com
Preowned: Battlefield: Bad Company - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Battlefield Bad Company - free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Related links: Battlefield Bad Company sequel, Youtube Battlefield Bad Company review

Tags: Battlefield Bad Company, Xbox360, PS3, Battlefield

I wanted to let you know of a little known gem in the world of gaming that most of you young whippersnappers probably will never have heard of. Back in the mid-nineties there was the 16bit console battle between the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive, what a lot of people didn’t know was that whilst Sega and Nintendo were slugging away at each other for console supremacy, the 16bit home computer; the Commodore Amiga A500 was going strong with games that matched the quality of those found on the consoles, only these were stored on floppy disk rather than cartridges. Anyway, the good news is that Valhalla has been redeveloped by its original creators Vulcan Software for the PC.

Read the full review of Valhalla Classics