Demo Rundown August '09

Mini Ninjas


Mini Ninjas is a flowery, fun for everyone type game which follows the story of young Ninja Hiro as he tries to save his ninja clan friends from some generic evil. I didn't really pay attention to all that.

the aesthetic of the game is such that they make the dirty, violent job of being a ninja cute by over inflating everyone's heads and making them about 2 feet tall. The colors are vibrant and lush. Also, instead of copious amounts of blood which spills from dying enemies, they instead morph into cute little animals.


the game features simple hack'n'slash combat mixed with pick up items and magic ninja spells . There's one power in which hiro can possess animals, which stands out because I thought it was cool. everything else is your standard ninja equipment : Shurikens, smoke bombs, etc. it also seems that as hiro saves his friends, the player gains the ability to play as them on the fly and use their abilities. the two included in the demo are Futo, a Hulking Hammer wielding brute and Suzume, generic Kunoichi.


Overall I couldn't really get into it. It's cute, it has ninjas, but I just didn't very much enjoy it. I didn't see any incredible amount of depth within the porduct




Batman Arkham Asylum



When i first heard about Arkham Asylum, I thought "oh, another batman game. that can be cool". Little did I know that it would be the best Batman game I've played to date. the game has a great, dark aesthetic which fits the world of Gotham City extremely well.


The demo starts with Batman Hauling the joker into Arhkam and the chaos starts from there. The demo throws you immediately into hand to hand combat with generic inmates 1,2 and 3 to get you acquainted with the beating the utter shit out of people. the feel of combat is great. When you hit someone, the impact is massive, great attention to detail.

Afterwards you are introduced to other aspects of the game such as detective mode and stealth gameplay. Detective Mode (reminiscent of detective tools in Condemned) allow batman to assess the environment and the things you can do in said environment. Stealth is the essence of Batman's power and integrates well with the combat. All of these aspects blend well and improve the experience as you work your way through various enemies and situations.


The demo is painfully short, about 25 minutes average. It keeps you begging for more. One thing I find cool is that 2 voice actors from Batman the Animated Series Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return to their roles as Batman and The Joker respectively. Overall it looks like a fantastic experience and i can't wait to get ahold of it.







Lost Planet 2



Truth be told, I didn't like the first Lost Planet. It was rigid, stiff and incredibly difficult with little to no reward. The co-op demo for the sequel isn't much different. The scenario is that you can team up with 3 friends and wreak havoc on a giant monster (from the inside and out). the map contains a slew of weapons, VS robots and those spawn nodes from the first. Basic gameplay remains the same and they give you everything you need to try and take the monster down.


It didn't change my perspective on the series personally, but i did find a lot more fun in playing with a friend, which can be a selling point for any group of gamers.

Personally, I'll pass.



I would talk about section 8 as well, but I absolutely disliked that game. It was like an incoherent, lame version of Tribes, Halo, F.E.A.R. 2, MoH Airborne and Call of Duty. In a phrase, it's blown.