HIGH Risky Boots’ adventure.

LOW Fighting the same bosses in every mode.

WTF Rottytops’ “teleport” move is unique.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition contains the original 2016 platforming adventure, Half-Genie Hero, and all its DLC – it’s a total of eight modes featuring Shantae and her friends, a new dancing transformation, and even a couple of alternate costumes.

The best of the collection resides in Shantae’s main campaign (including Hero and Hard Core Modes) and Pirate Queen’s Quest – the adventure of Shantae’s archenemy, Risky Boots. Both take place in the same six levels scattered across the magical Sequin Land. Locales include a coastal city under attack, a mermaid oasis in the jungle, and airships high above the clouds. These levels boast great layouts, multiple pathways, and plenty of secret locations to find. Each set of levels are also anchored by massive boss fights with the right amount of challenge – they aren’t a walk in a park, but they’re not tough as nails, either.

Shantae and Risky have slightly different (yet distinct) moves to tackle each stage. Shantae has her signature hair whip and magic spells. She also transforms into other creatures, like an elephant or mermaid, to reach new areas and locate secrets. Risky’s attacks are primarily weapon based – she relies on her sword and pirate’s pistol to fight enemies. To reach distant platforms, Risky can use her hat to float after jumping. Shantae’s moves are great, but the transformation process slows down the flow of gameplay just a bit. Risky’s moveset keeps the game flowing with few pauses.

Pirate Queen’s Quest also has a slight advantage over Shantae’s. Both modes require some backtracking to find items needed to progress, but Risky’s seem less laborious — retracing steps isn’t as frequent, and rarely does Risky return to the same level more than once. In Shantae’s, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was revisiting levels three and four times just to needlessly pad out the playtime.

The other modes have sparks of greatness, but it’s obvious that these were originally just DLC. The two standouts in the bunch are Friends To The End! And Officer Mode.

In Friends To The End! players take on the role of Shantae’s three friends, Rottytops, Sky, and Bolo. Each has a unique ability — Bolo has a chain hook, Sky can make platforms, and Rottytops the zombie can “teleport” around obstacles by chucking her head past barriers. Her body then goes through the ground and reunites with her head! The three unique abilities are a great change of pace, but unfortunately, like Shantae’s animal transformations, switching between each character slows exploration down.

In Officer Mode, players assume the role of Officer Shantae. She has only one attack — a blaster gun — but also a fantastic new ability. By activating the siren on Officer Shantae’s helmet, players can control metal boxes spread throughout the levels. These boxes go into the background or pop out into the playing field with each press of the siren. Players will need to time their jumps and siren wails to move throughout the levels. A misplaced siren means a missing platform, or could even send Shantae flying into the screen! This mode provides enough variation to make its six levels feel fresh, but each time the siren is activated, there’s a short pause which makes gameplay pause just enough to become frustrating.

Apart from what I’ve already outlined, the package also includes Ninja Mode and Beach Mode, both offering Shantae in another costume and slight variations in gameplay, but neither really stood out because players explore the same six locations and fight the exact same bosses. After doing so for the third and fourth time, I was ready for something else.

While the bonus modes didn’t hold my attention for long, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition still comes highly recommended based on the strength of the two primary campaigns alone. Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by and published by WayForward. It is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. The main game and Pirate Queen’s Quest were completed. There are no multiplayer modes. 

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Teen and contains Cartoon Violence and Suggestive Themes. When enemies are defeated they often burst into a cloud of dust or fly off screen, though some do crumble into a cartoon skeleton. Shantae and other female characters wear skimpy clothing. While playing Risky’s story, scenes between levels depict the Pirate Queen in a bubble bath, but there is never any nudity.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Each game’s story is delivered via subtitles, but they are not fully captioned. Each subtitle is clearly shown with the speaking character next to the text box. Some lines are spoken by the character and I noticed one or two lines that were not word-for-word. These differences do not appear to change the meaning of the story.  Text size cannot be changed. There do not appear to be any sound cues without a visual accompaniment. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no in-game controller diagram. Each game mode has slightly different attacks, but most controls are similar throughout the different campaigns. Characters move with either the left stick or left-pad. Y is used to attack, B for jump, and X makes Shantae dance to transform into other creatures. Magic can be used with either the A or R button and ZL or ZR can be used to switch between magical items.

HIGH The Castlevania-tribute Clock Tower level.

LOW Seriously, how is the shotgun this well-hidden?

WTF Hey, why can’t we get Aliens Infestation on Steam?

It’s not really a ‘demaster’. There was never a current-gen Mummy game to be stripped down into a 16-bit format, as Devolver Digital has so effectively done with the Serious Sam franchise. No, despite the title, this is something older and far more interesting.

The Mummy Demastered harkens back to the SNES and Genesis days, when a publisher – often Acclaim – would obtain the license to a film and then farm it out to a dev who would attempt to plug the movie’s plot into an existing videogame genre without being overly concerned about how closely it hewed to the source material. While this approach rarely led to anything but serviceable games (and a lot of terrible ones) we occasionally got a true classic, such as Alien 3 for the Genesis. I bring this particular title up because it’s extremely relevant to this review — that game was one of the inspirations for Aliens: Infestation, which is, in turn, the inspiration for Demastered.

The Mummy is a Metroidvania title in which the player controls agents from Prodigium, an agency responsible for keeping monster activity to a minimum. When an ancient evil escapes her Iraqi prison and attacks London, it’s up to these gun-toting specialists to explore a warren of tunnels underneath the city, blasting away at the hordes of monsters she’s brought along for the ride.

The game is almost shockingly faithful to the formula of the genre. Players start with a hundred hit points and an SMG with unlimited ammo. They have to explore mostly subterranean levels, seek out storage rooms holding equipment from previous agents, and eventually unlock the tools necessary to open up new areas where they’ll find whole new sets of monsters and bosses to deal with. As they grind their way up through the supernatural food chain, they’ll eventually face off with the Mummy herself.

This is a perfect example of ’90s style pixel-art done extremely right. All of the creatures are lushly detailed, and drawn in bright colors to ensure that they’re distinct from the intricate backgrounds. Enemies range from tiny hopping spiders to screen-height boss monsters, and there are more than enough types to ensure that a constant flow of new threats appear for the entire length of the campaign.

Prodigium has also arranged for a huge arsenal to be left scattered around the area. Assault rifles, rocket launchers, a lock-on plasma beam – there’s a gun for every situation, and enemies are good about dropping ammo when killed. Once I’d picked up enough ammo pouch upgrades, I was able to stop using my default rifle entirely. It shows the the developers put quite a bit of thought into weapon balance and enemy drop rates.

The one drawback is that players can only hold two weapons at a time, and certain weapons are only useful in such rare situations that it doesn’t make sense to hang on to them. I spent too much of the game relying on my two staples (the flamethrower and stake launcher) and I can’t imagine that letting players select weapons from a pause menu would have given them too much power, especially since the bosses have such startling amounts of health that I never beat one without exhausting all of my special weapon ammo and finishing it with my base weapon.

Demaster‘s other big problem is the map — specifically, that doors are NOT marked on it. It’s just a grid of rooms and hallways pushed up against each other, with no clear indication of where various rooms’ openings are.

The Metroidvania experience is built on seeing a blocked-off area and wanting to know what’s inside, and coming back when the correct upgrade has been obtained. The Mummy contains three types of doors, each destroyable by a different type of weapon — grenade doors, C4 doors, and shoulder charge doors. Unfortunately, none of them are noted on the map, and it’s far too easy to forget where certain blocked rooms are located when there’s been two hours of hectic gunplay since the last time it was seen. This is a massive oversight, and it makes backtracking for secrets far more difficult than it should be — a significant problem when doing so is the entire point of the game.

Also troubling is the way Demastered handles player death. In a clever move, when the player dies, their corpse is reanimated by the Mummy, and a replacement officer is sent to finish the job. Their first mission? Kill the zombie commando and acquire all of their equipment. It’s a great idea, and it plays out beautifully, especially since the zombie will be armed with whatever weapons the player was using when they died. The problem is that once the player kills the zombie and grabs the equipment, they’re given empty weapons and health tanks.

Ammo isn’t such a problem since there are supply rooms scattered around the map, but there’s no way to quickly restore health. Unlike many others in this genre, Demastered‘s save rooms don’t heal the player. Since players are most likely to die fighting bosses, this forces players to not just kill a heavily-armed zombie, but then spend 5-10 minutes farming health from rats and trash cans until they’re ready to fight the boss again. It’s unnecessarily demoralizing.

Even with those frustrating oversights, The Mummy Demastered is a fantastic example of its genre. There’s great creature and boss design, perfectly designed platforming sequences, and a wide enough variety in environments that it can offer unique visuals all the way to the end. As a tight, confident action title, The Mummy Demastered succeeds not just as a love letter to movie-inspired cash-ins from the ’90s, but also as a legitimately great action game in its own right. And, if that wasn’t enough to recommend it, it’s also a rare tie-in that ended up far better than the movie it was adapted from. Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Wayforward. It is currently available on XBO, PS4 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10 and contains Fantasy Violence. Well, the violence isn’t fantastic – it’s all assault rifles and grenade launchers and flamethrowers – but it’s being used against zombies and mummies and giant wolves, so I guess that’s what they mean. Seriously, though, it’s no more traumatic than the old 2D Castlevanias were.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: You’ll be completely fine. Any story is presented through text, and the only audio cue is a ‘low health’ ringing that is accompanied by a red-flashing health indicator. It is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

HIGH The most bangin’ hub world theme in the history of hub world themes

LOW So. Much. Backtracking.

WTF “Gracing the fabric of leisure-time and blowing away humankind in a sea of heavy weave 100% cotton comfort”

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero feels remarkably alive. Being pretty is relatively common in this day and age, but it’s impressive when a game is brimming with energy like this. Every single thing on screen is animated and lively in some way, plus the music is about as catchy as catchy can be. However, the production quality is ultimately for naught considering that Half-Genie Hero, the fourth entry in the Shantae series of 2D platformers, comes up far short in other areas. While it isn’t a total wash, there just isn’t a lot of depth beneath the shine.

Shantae, the belly-dancing, hair-whipping half-genie hero, is the official guardian of Scuttle Town, which she must defend against pirates, monsters, shady businessmen, and evil wizards. Shantae is a great protagonist, personifying the energy that flows through the entire game, and she’s surrounded by a colorful cast of characters that all share the same exuberance in one way or another. Unfortunately, Half-Genie Hero makes some very strong assumptions about one’s familiarity with the Shantae family, and for a first-timer like me it was a bit bewildering. I had no idea who any of these people were, why they were important, or what their relationship was to Shantae.

Gameplay is standard 2D platformer fare, with Shantae running and hopping through enemies and obstacles. She also gains access to several different animal forms, each with unique abilities. While the transformation mechanic is something I’ve loved since The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, only a few of the available forms are useful beyond very specific instances. The rest function simply as glorified keys. This ties into Half-Genie Hero’s biggest problem: lots of pretty toys, but little for the player to do with them since each level or mechanic changes very little beyond its introduction.

Half-Genie Hero’s most annoying problem however, is the copious amount of backtracking required. While everything in this game is beautiful, the amount of levels to explore is actually pretty small. In order to progress, Shantae has to visit each level at least two or three times to look for items or power-ups, and these repeat visits get old pretty quickly. While the game has a great sense of humor about common videogame tropes like backtracking, it doesn’t change the fact that making players do what they’re making fun of still dampens the experience.

As stated before, Half-Genie Hero is absolutely stunning from an artistic standpoint. “Playing a cartoon” has been an overused phrase in the recent past, but it definitely applies here. The character models look like they jumped right off an animation cel, and the environments are gorgeous. Unfortunately, on-screen objects are so fluid that it can be hard to see individual objects at times, such as when there are objects or enemies jumping back and forth between the background. Effects like explosions or fire can be almost screen-filling as well, further blocking the player’s vision.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is pleasant but shallow. The initial “wow” factor of the wonderful aesthetics wears off once the backtracking starts, and the game never recovers. It looks wonderful, but no amount of prettiness can cover up gameplay that can’t come close to the quality of the visuals. Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by WayForward. It is currently available on Xbox One, Playstation 4, Wii U, Playstation Vita and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is rated Teen for Suggestive Themes and Cartoon Violence. While Shantae and most of her compatriots are scantily clad and very well-endowed, there isn’t really anything I would consider objectionable here for a younger child. There isn’t any overtly sexual content and the story is pretty lighthearted.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: All relevant lines are subtitled and audio is not a gameplay factor.

Remappable Controls: Controls are fully remappable for the keyboard and the controller.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

HIGH It's old-school Resident Evil, plus a big dose of cute.

LOW Too much combat.

WTF Biscuits appear when ghosts die?

When I first learned that Amazon was creating original game content, I was more than a little surprised. However, the first I reviewed (Tales From Deep Space) ended up being enjoyably solid, if a bit formulaic. Even so it was quite respectable, especially for being aimed at the Kindle—it's not exactly the go-to platform for dedicated gamers.

That success piqued my interest, and the latest release from Amazon is now here. Called Til Morning's Light, it's another well-made entry that more than holds its own when compared to most mobile or tablet offerings.

Coming from WayForward, Til Morning's Light begins with Erica, as she and two friends are investigating a spooky old house. Her companions play a nasty trick on her, and lock her inside for the night. Unfortunately, the house ends up being genuinely haunted and Erica needs to find a way out in a hurry…

The first thing anyone will notice is the look of the game. It's quite clean and attractive, the colors are bright, and the design is on the simple side, but correctly so. It reminds me quite a bit of a Saturday morning cartoon in some respects, and there's a fairly good Scooby-Doo vibe happening.

In terms of game design, it's fairly accurate shorthand to describe the experience as a cuter, more streamlined version of old-school Resident Evil, from when it was less about action setpieces and more about finding oddly-shaped keys.

Erica is trapped within the mansion, and there are a large number of rooms for her to search. Of course, along the way she'll have to unlock numerous doors and solve various puzzles, everything from cooking up a special stew to more simple fare, like moving blocks onto pressure plates.

While this content is nothing that hasn't been seen a thousand times before, it's done with care and everything is straightforward and easy to understand. I was quite impressed with how obvious all of the interfaces are, and how user-friendly they are. With just a few taps everything seems to explain itself, and it's pretty difficult to become stuck. A good thing!

Given the platform and what lengths it goes to in making itself crystal clear, it seems that Til Morning's Light is aimed at younger players or those who might not be experienced with games. With this in mind, it's nicely done.

In terms of control, Til Morning's Light works quite well, and people (like myself) who hate the idea of giving up a controller will be able to approach it without any problems. Moving Erica around the environments is done effectively with a few taps, and combat against various nasties in the house is performed with a series of minigames which require taps or swipes with good timing.

While the controls are great overall, I did notice that the Kindle's screen wasn't quite sensitive enough when trying to input combat commands closely together. The problem went away when I made special effort to be especially overt about my inputs, but there were still a few times when I felt like it was the machine's fault when I took some damage, and not mine.

Another problem I had with the combat was there's a bit too much of it. While it's good in short bursts as a break from the puzzle solving, it wore out its welcome fairly soon, and I often found myself wishing there was a way to skip encounters. There's no experience to be gained and the motions for defeating enemies become rote almost immediately, so fights became minor annoyances delaying me from solving the next puzzle rather than something that added to the game's richness overall.

Although I can't say that I was expecting a kid-friendly Resident Evil-alike on the Kindle, Til Morning's Light does a great job at what it aims to do, and considering the audience it seems intended for, I declare it an above-average product that will be a great ride for the right player. Rating: 8 out of 10. The always-on power of 4G LTE connectivity will make the user experience even more compelling for this popular 4G LTE tablet .

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Kindle Fire. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ERSB, but it contains no questionable language, no sexual content and no violence worse than seeing a goofy monster get whacked and disappear in a puff of smoke. As far as I'm concerned, it's totally harmless.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: All dialogue is accompanied by text, although it does move a bit fast at times. I didn't notice any audio cues that were necessary for successful gameplay.

HIGH Diving into the Money Bin!

LOW Managing to glitch the game so that I would have to exit and restart a stage manually, over and over again.

WTF How does Ms. Beakley keep getting into these hidden places before Scrooge and the gang?

I'm nine years old.

In front of me, my TV and the NES that my mother bought for my birthday. Beside me, a copy of Jeff Rovin's How to Win at Nintendo Games. I forget which volume. The cover was yellow. Maybe orange.

On my other side, a shiny new copy of DuckTales.

I'm holding the instruction manual in my hands and studiously reading, because sometimes there are hints in there, and you should always read the instruction manual before operating heavy machinery and video games.

After ten minutes of silent contemplation and preparation, I set the manual aside, lean forward, and start playing.

Let's jump ahead a bit. Now, I'm thirty-two. In front of me, my television and a small horde of consoles that I've paid for myself. Beside me is my laptop, tuned to Twitch.tv and a random video game stream. I forget which. After getting a drink, I lean forward to grab my controller, and turn on my Xbox 360. It's time to start playing beat DuckTales: Remastered.

It might be over twenty years since the original, but my smile is still the same.

Remastered is more than a straight map-for-map remake of the original NES game. In addition to the shiny graphics overhaul, it expands the core content by adding and elaborating on the story of just why Scrooge McDuck is off gathering treasure in the first place.

After fending off an attack on his Money Bin by the Beagle Boys, ol' Unca Scrooge finds a treasure map stashed in one of his paintings, and being the money-grubbing mallard that he is, he promptly sets off to find the five ancient treasures described therein.

His journey, which can be played in any order from the stage select screen, takes him to exotic locales such as deep within an African diamond mine and even the moon. It's not the most plausible story, but considering that the original made absolutely no attempt to explain how Duckburg's richest resident was breathing on the lunar surface, the expanded plot is cute and serves its purpose well. The game is now fully voice-acted, and coupled with the fluid animation, really helps to evoke nostalgic memories of the 1987 TV show it's based on.

As for the gameplay mechanics, the remake is functionally similar to the original: Scrooge can run, jump, pogo with his cane, and climb chains to navigate the sprawling levels in his hunt for filthy lucre.

Obstacles are frequent, and themed to the location: slippery ledges in the Himalayas make it easy to slide right into a pitfall, while giant boulders have to be evaded when running around ancient Incan ruins.

Enemies are essentially the same as their original incarnations, only now they sport shiny new sprites that make them look like they stepped right off the cartoon. They also still respawn the moment the screen scrolls too far in one direction. The bosses have been overhauled, given new powers and speed upgrades that can cause even an old veteran to fail a time or two while fighting muscle memory to learn new attack patterns.

Speaking of difficulty, Remastered retains much of what made the original a difficult title: an old-school implementation of the life system. Scrooge starts each stage with two lives and three hit points; lose them all and it's back to Duckburg to start the stage over or choose another level. The constant threat of impending death can be mitigated by finding hidden 1-Ups and treasure chests with heart containers, but it never truly fades, particularly in the final level, where instant death is frequent and often. This aggravating setup renders any number of hit points Scrooge may have practically worthless.

Thankfully, there are a few modern anti-frustration features that Remastered takes advantage of: gone is the time limit of the original title, and a save file ensures that those with time constraints aren't required to play through the entire game in a single sitting.

Also, some backtracking elements that made it impossible to progress unless certain key items were found in other stages have been adjusted. For instance, the keys to the African Mine are now actually in the mine, as opposed to their original location in Translyvania, and can't be missed by the player.

There's also new option to select an Easy Mode to reduce damage from hits but gain access to unlimited lives—it's perfect for learning the stages before retrying the game on a harder, more unforgiving difficulty, while still retaining the threat of the original.

While the cheap instant deaths may drive some gamers to fury (myself included) the game is still a gleefully nostalgic throwback to a time when such gameplay elements were expected of titles from that era. Wayforward Technologies has done an excellent job of taking an old classic and giving it a fresh update for a new generation. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Xbox 360. Approximately eight hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed once. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains mild cartoon violence. It's a game based off a Disney television show and is perfectly suitable for children.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: The game is perfectly accessible: all dialogue is subtitled, with the sole exception of comments made by Scrooge during the gameplay itself; however this does not affect gameplay or the story.

HIGH Finding my first flamethrower. Burn, motha*#@&$!

LOW The first two hours of play before GameFAQs.

WTF Why is so much vital info unexplained?

This isn't the Silent Hill: Book of Memories review I had intended to publish.

I had originally drafted a completely different piece after ten hours of play, but held it back because I wanted to finish the game first. After rolling credits, I thought about my experience some more, scrapped what I had, and rewrote it again. And again.

This review you're reading now? It's my fourth rewrite, and I'm not still happy—I just have to move on to something else. If not for the reality of deadlines, who knows how long I'd be waffling over it?

…In case you haven't picked up on it yet, I'm feeling a wee bit conflicted about Book of Memories. After all was said and done, it was, shockingly, one of my favorite Vita releases to date. I'm an admirer of top-down dungeon crawlers, roguelikes, and titles that twist expectations. This one checks all of those boxes, and does so handily.

If that was all there was to say, then I would've given this title a happier number and called it a day. Unfortunately, it took a lot of time and effort to reach the level of enjoyment I experienced at the end. As a reviewer, I'm torn over how much of the game's early unpleasantness I should forgive.

The problem with Book of Memories is that many standard niceties are absent, and some core mechanics are left awkwardly unexplained. Basic stuff that anyone could rightly expect to find in a modern title is missing—weapon stats and subtitles for cut-scenes are nowhere to be found, info on avoiding hair-pullingly lethal traps is buried in the menus, and changing accessories couldn't be less intuitive.

Even worse, the single most crucial aspect of gameplay—the Karma system—is barely mentioned. Not only does it affect what ending is received, it's also tied to vital special abilities that keep the player alive. Karma is so important, in fact, that after learning its intricacies, it changed the entire way I approached the game.

Without understanding what the developers have crafted, the player won't experience much except frustration and annoyance. My strongest recommendation is to track down a FAQ and read as much as possible about it before starting, and don't be concerned about spoilers because it's a miserable experience otherwise. However, once the veil of mystery is lifted, Book of Memories is actually kind of… great.

Though it shares the same ‘rusty metal & bloody nurses' motif the series is known for, the developers flip the Silent template by kicking story to the curb and putting the action front-and-center. Longtime fans have voiced their disapproval (most of them without having tried the game, I'm guessing) but the IP was overdue for a shakeup. To me, this was a pleasantly surprising direction to go.

Fog-choked roads and introspective cut-scenes? Absent. Mile-long hallways full of locked doors and suggestive voices? Not here. Instead, Book of Memories asks the player to find value in moment-to-moment survival, cautiously tactical progress and heavy item management.

Health packs and weapon-repairing toolkits must be saved for dire emergencies, because it's unknown when stocks can be replenished. Fending off bloody, misshapen enemies causes weapons to break, forcing the player to become proficient with several different attacking styles, and the nuances are varied. Searching rooms for items and finding unexpected treasure or a fully-charged flamethrower is a great feeling, and constantly weighing risk-versus-possible-reward keeps the brain happily occupied.

Those searching for the traditional Silent Hill experience on a portable (story? What story?) should stay far, far away. However, players who enjoy dungeon crawling and aren't afraid of a little difficulty will find that Silent Hill: Book of Memories gets it pretty right—it's just a shame that an FAQ is required to enjoy it. Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via retail store and reviewed on the Vita. Approximately 22 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. No time was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains blood and gore, language, suggestive themes, and violence. Parents, this ain't one for the kiddies. It's bloody, the audio is very creepy, and there's all sorts of nastiness happening in the few story bits that exist. Keep the little ones away from this game.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: WayForward should be ashamed. Although story plays a minimal part in the game, there are no subtitles for any of the cut-scenes, nor for any of the story bits which are delivered via audio-only. Certain sound cues are also valuable in telling the player when monsters are present, and when rooms are clear. Hearing-impaired gamers are at a disadvantage here.

Make Mine a Double

HIGH The sense of style is pitch perfect throughout.

LOW No online co-op.

WTF There's no way in hell that Skullmageddon earned his helicopter pilot's license.

If there's one thing that never goes well for nefarious villains in video games, it's kidnapping the loved ones of protagonists—or really, kidnapping anyone, ever. Mario goes completely mental and starts jumping on the heads of mushroom-shaped minions, Link ventures out with stabbings in mind, and the level of retribution exacted during the course of Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja is almost too horrifying for a sane mind to dwell upon.

Arguably the most classic revenge tale of all is resurrected for Double Dragon Neon. Billy and Jimmy are chilling in their garage whilst their dubiously shared love interest Marian hangs around pointlessly outside and—bam! Up strolls generic Williams thug #2287287 to slug her in the gut and cart her offscreen over his shoulder, just in time to escape the heroic duo emerging from their garage with a lust for punching thugs in the face. Heads will roll for this outrageous transgression, mark my words.

Perhaps surprisingly, Double Dragon Neon is not what anyone could call a serious game in any way, shape or form. It manages to remain reasonably faithful to the original right up till the point where Abobo busts out of a wall (to yelps of glee worldwide), and then promptly takes a serious turn for the weird and awesome, none of which will be spoiled here.

Combat, thankfully, is solid. As well as the standard collection of punches and kicks, a dodge function has been added. If timed correctly, this dodge grants a short lived bonus to attack power. It encourages timing along with the usual act of simply hammering buttons to pummel foes, and is a welcome addition to the mix.

Along the way to reclaiming Marian, Billy and Jimmy will also acquire a bunch of decidedly brittle weapons such as baseball bats, knives, whips, grenades, shuriken… hell, a lot of funky little items that can assist in the breaking of bones and tearing of flesh, at least until they've caved in two or three skulls and immediately explode into dust.

More importantly, however, they can now also get their hands on mix tapes from treasure chests and fallen enemies that enhance their stats and confer special powers upon them—chucking fireballs at foes, upping the enemy drop rate, performing bodacious spin kicks, stealing health upon making contact with someone's solar plexus, or just plain summoning rampaging dragons to end the day on a sour note for the bad guys. The only drawback to the mix tapes is that there's just room for one passive stat enhancement and one special move to be active at a time. The limitation on passive tapes is understandable, but it'd definitely be preferable to have a couple of special attacks at hand to suit each situation rather than having to swap each out as is required.

Naturally for a Double Dragon title, teaming up with a friend is a great way to experience the game. The brothers can share health and magic power by high-fiving one another, or revive their fallen companion by… winding up their mix tape (with a pen!) should the worst happen. On the other hand, it's insane that there's no online co-op available. It’s downright baffling that a game centered around the exploits of two excessively violent brothers prancing down the street smashing skulls together would omit this feature entirely.

The other main issue with Double Dragon Neon is that it's a very short and repetitive game. Arcade style two dimensional scrolling brawlers often are by their very nature, though Billy and Jimmy's latest adventure does at least liven things up with a bunch of utterly whacked out setpieces dished out at regular intervals. Even so, the main game will only take most players a few hours to see through to its conclusion and utterly fantastic end credits sequence, with replaying on higher difficulties and leveling up the character's stats seemingly being the main reasons to return—though the superb soundtrack, cool visuals and gratifying core gameplay make doing so a fun, if slightly limited experience.

Double Dragon Neon comes as a very pleasant surprise. The combat is solid, but the overall tone pushes it beyond its fairly standard gameplay to deliver a consistently amusing and enjoyable experience for anyone with even the tiniest hint of nostalgia towards the eighties. It may leave some particularly soulless players cold, but for anyone else… let's just say that it's really pretty radical. Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

—By Darren Forman

Disclosures: This game was obtained via paid download and reviewed on the Xbox 360. Approximately eight hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. Twice, even. Two hours of play were spent in local multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains suggestive themes, partial nudity and fantasy violence, which is completely awesome. The game takes a very lighthearted approach to smacking someone in the face with a baseball bat, but it might be a good idea to think long and hard before handing it over to particularly impressionable youngsters. Also, the artists over at WayForward despised being bottle-fed by the looks of things.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: The gameplay remains much the same, but the loss of the dialogue quips and frankly incredible soundtrack comes as a real blow to the game. There also seems to be no option to enable subtitles.

I've had a chance to play most of the candidates for my year-end Top 10, and after scanning the upcoming release lists, it doesn't seem like there's much likely to shake up my current ranking. There are a couple of things still on my radar, though.

Hitman: Absolution is one of the few that has a good chance of getting on the list if the levels are as free and open as they appear to be at first glance. I can't say that I've ever been much of a Far Cry fan, but I'll give Far Cry 3 a shot as well.

Apart from those, it's looking pretty done. However, I'm definitely up for any suggestions for sleeper picks or surprises worth investigation. If you've got something that's worth considering, drop me a line via Twitter, email, or with a comment on this article, and let me know!

I'm still between review games at the moment, so I started playing Silent Hill: Book of Memories on Vita. I liked the demo and I'm a big fan of dungeon crawlers and Roguelikes when they're done well, so despite all of the negative talk I heard, I decided to go for it. I'm about ten levels into the campaign so far, and I think it's actually pretty good—but that statement needs some qualification.

For some reason, Wayforward (the developers) decided to keep the player in the dark about basic aspects of how the game works. I'm not talking about a few little details here and there, I'm talking about some core, fundamental elements which are barely explained. By not taking the time to properly introduce the player to what's going on, I can easily see why so many people were turned off.

Once I got my hands on a copy, I spent the first two hours or so trying to figure out what was affecting what, what was causing what, and basically, trying to get a handle on how to play the game efficiently.

Even after that, there was still plenty of stuff that I didn't understand, so I went to GameFAQs and read as much information as I could. I got some answers there, but not all. Then, I talked to a few reviewers who had already been through the game, and that helped clarify a few more things. That research combined with my previous experience with other Roguelikes finally started making all of the pieces fit, and that's when I finally began to enjoying the play.

A welcoming, approachable title this is not, but if you've got a Vita and jumping into a quasi-Roguelike with rusty metal and bloody nurses sounds like an appealing thing, here are a few tips to get started:

• Save up money and buy Backpack upgrades ASAP. Every upgrade lets you hold one extra weapon and increases the amount of supplies that you can carry. Needless to say, this is absolutely crucial for your survival.
• Choose which enemies to kill carefully, and invest in the Karma Flip ability as soon as possible. Killing enemies willy-nilly means that the Karma meter will usually hover near the center, without building up towards either side. Without making progress towards the Blood or Light side, the player will never be able to use special abilities, and using them is key towards making progress.

  A strategy that's working well for me is attacking only Blood karma enemies until they're gone, then using Karma Flip and turning any remaining Light enemies into Bloods. (I know this probably sounds like gibberish, but it will make sense once you start the game.) If you're having trouble telling which enemies are which, use the left shoulder button to lock on and their orientation is revealed by the color of the reticle around them. By doing this, I keep my Karma meter consistently high on the Light side, which means I have a few healing spells available so that I don't have to use healthpacks except in extreme emergencies.

• If you run out of supplies, replay the first level and stock back up. The enemies there are pretty easy to beat, and you probably won't need to use any items to get through to the end.
• Take the time to do every bonus mission that the demon offers you at the beginning of each level. The weapons he rewards you with are usually quite powerful, and well worth the effort. Once your backpack is upgraded, use the pickup weapons found in each level as your primaries while keeping a Sword of Obedience or a Great Cleaver on hand in case of emergency. Having a heavy-hitter in your back pocket can get you out of trouble in a hurry.
• On difficult levels, don't try to make any real progress until you locate the save point. In most cases, it's possible to find it after a few test runs. Once you know where it is, then start putting the effort in towards meeting your objectives and take the time to save after each one—losing a ton of progress is really disheartening, and there's no real reason to do so. Haste makes waste.
• Increasing the INT stat to at least 10 gives you time to avoid all of the invisible traps that pop up in each level. Strongly, strongly, strongly recommended.
• Weapons have their own alignments. If you're trying to use Light powers and find that your Karma meter keeps dropping, go to the pause menu and check the details for your weapon. It's possible you may be using a Blood weapon that's sapping your Karma. The reverse is also true, if you are trying to use the Blood powers while wielding a Light weapon.

…So yeah, there's a lot of stuff to learn about Book of Memories and the game tells you basically none of it.

Some of this can be figured out with a little experimentation, the frustration factor ramps up quickly when you've got no idea what's happening, and I would imagine that plenty of people who would have otherwise enjoyed this game bailed before they came to grips with it—and I don't blame them. Giving players something to figure out is one thing, but failing to explain fundamental principles of a game in which they aren't immediately obvious is a pretty serious lapse in judgment, if you ask me.

I'm definitely glad I stuck with Silent Hill: Book of Memories and did the legwork, but WayForward's got no one to blame but themselves for all the negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth. And really, it's a shame… once a little light is shed on the proceedings, it's actually a solid title on a system that really needs ‘em.

HIGH RoboDragon!

LOW Unskippable cutscenes in a game meant to be oft-replayed.

WTF A giant tank? Thank god I trained for this!

For such a trailblazing title, Double Dragon never made much of a mark as a franchise. While the original helped to define the 2.5D beat-em-up and featured a huge number of bold new innovations for the genre (Two-player co-op! Environmental attacks! Moving floors! Kick thrown weapons out of the air!) the characters never caught on with the public, and the series petered out after just five titles, a Neo-Geo fighting game and a crossover with the Battletoads.

Perhaps brutally killing off Marian at the beginning of the second game wasn't a great choice. That never happened to Princess Peach.

There hasn't been a new Double Dragon game since 1995, and the franchise was so poorly-managed that when the original arcade version came to Xbox Live a few years back, a crippling technical limitation was left intact: attempting to play Double Dragon co-op led to terrible framerate issues.

The developers responsible for Double Dragon Neon had their work cut out for them. What should the first Double Dragon game in 17 years look like? Since every gameplay element that Double Dragon pioneered is now a standard feature in the genre, what set Double Dragon apart from the rest enough that it deserved a remake? In what seems like a brilliantly audacious choice, the developers focused on the one thing that Double Dragon had going for it—one of the all-time great musical themes.

Neon isn't a remake of Double Dragon, it's an answer to the question "Could a game possibly be as awesome as Double Dragon's opening music?" The answer, astoundingly, is yes.

In sharp contrast to its predecessors, Neon is a broadly comic take on the 2.5D brawler. The Lee brothers have gone from stoic badasses to dudebro caricatures. The lead villain—once a random man with a machinegun—is Skullmageddon, a rock and roll lich-king who only gets around to explaining his motivation in a closing musical number that's worth playing the entire game just to hear. Marian, the love interest whose kidnapping kicks off the plot, remains unchanged, in that she still has no character to speak of.

The game consists of ten levels which start off with a fairly straight recreation of the original, then quickly take a left turn into the utterly bizarre. I'm not going to spoil any of the game's strange twists—but suffice it to say that the level and enemy design is based around an "everything but the kitchen sink" concept which would seem sloppy and desperate in a less entertaining and technically accomplished title (koff…Comic Jumper…koff), but here it just feels like the developers had so many great ideas that they couldn't bear to leave one out of the game.

All of this design magnificence would be wasted if the gameplay wasn't there, so it's a good thing that Neon offers such tight and well-executed combat. The fighting system is surprisingly deep, with the basics—punching, kicking, jump attacks—being easy enough to use to carry the amateur players through most of the game. More advanced players will find a wealth of mechanics to explore and master. The depth comes from the game's key innovation—special moves and perks are awarded in the form of "mixtapes" that enemies drop when beaten up.

The tapes carry inside them either a stance (set of stat boosts or passive ability), or a special combat move. The player can have one stance and one move activated at any time, and much of the game's fun comes from experimenting with different combinations. Mix high defense with the ability to steal items and go loot farming! Turn on health absorb and hurricane kick to suck the life out of opponents! Max out the special attack bar then go nuts with the screen-clearing dragon attack! This huge variety of gameplay-altering moves and augments take what could have been a merely fun two-hour brawler and raise its replayability level an incredible amount.

There are two drawbacks to the mixtape system, however. The first is that it's not easy to switch between them. I recognize that the game wants players to pick a move and stick with it, but many of them are only useful in very specific situations, and it's kind of a hassle to pause the game and flip through a menu every time I want to knee-drop a stunned Abobo. The bigger issue, though, is how needlessly convoluted the system of leveling up mixtapes is.

Simply finding a new tape isn't enough—the player has to find ten tapes to level up each individual move. This wouldn't be so arduous if it weren't for the fact that the player can't just collect or buy all the tapes they want. No matter how many how many fireball tapes I came across, I won't be allowed to have more than ten unless I "upgrade" the tape at a Smithy. Unfortunately, the Smithy needs mithril to improve the tapes, and it can only be procured by beating bosses. Yes, levels can be easily replayed after being beaten, but after going through an entire level to kill a boss just so that I can go through another level to reach the Smithy, I'll have spent twenty minutes just to earn the right to go looking for more Dim Mak tapes. I'm not saying the game had to be dumbed-down to the point where enemies just drop a single currency that is used to unlock all the game's features, just that this whole process seems one or two steps more complicated than it needed to be.

While the developers may not have fully thought out the game's big new idea, that flaw doesn't overshadow everything incredibly solid about Double Dragon Neon. Beautiful design work, humourous absurdity, legitimately great music, all working to support the great core gameplay. Neon is probably the best Double Dragon game yet, and it contains enough great elements it to warrant a sequel or two. Who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if this version of the franchise wound up outlasting the original. Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS3. Approximately six hours of play were devoted to single-player modes (completed 2 times) and one hour of play in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains suggestive themes, partial nudity, fantasy violence. The broad slapstick violence is impossible to take seriously, but they're not kidding around when they say "partial nudity". A few characters are so scandalously clad that it borders on M-rated territory. It's nothing that older teens can't have access to, but it is an issue worth noting.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: While the game features no important audio cues that don't have visual accompaniment, it is a largely music-themed game. While you won't have ay trouble actually playing the game, you will be missing out on key parts of the content.

Amidst the sea of near indistinguishable first- and third-person shooters, MMOs and MMO shooters at PAX East, I found it somewhat ironic that two particular titles that stood out to me where both remakes of classic games: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
and Double Dragon Neon.

XCOM wasn't playable on the convention floor, but the developers were giving 25-minute gameplay presentations to limited groups of gamers who were willing to line up for the preview.

The beauty of Enemy Unknown is that fans of the original X-COM can rest assured that this isn't a duck-and-covered shooter with old X-COM elements retrofitted in. This is unquestionably a turn-based strategy game with alien resource and research management at the heart of its gameplay.

During the demo presentation, the developers walked through a classic X-COM-style intercept mission that gave audiences a sense of the tactical combat flow and highlighted the 4 specific roles of squad characters, which include assault, support, heavy weapons and sniper.

The thing that I found most striking about the gameplay was that there was no grid on the play map of any sort. Players select squad members and can freely direct them to any point or cover position, which made the game feel more open and non-traditional/hybrid-ish.

Commands for squad members can include pinning down enemies with suppressing fire, taking clear sniper shots and lobbing grenades. Aliens will also attempt to ambush squad members running through open spaces and larger brute-type aliens would smash squad members who aren't given properly coverage.

The big visual difference is that once commands are executed, actions immediately play out in dramatic cinematic slow-motion close-ups where you can see the detail and personality of the 3D models interacting with one another in bloody engagement.

Environmental damage to the surroundings and destructible building walls will also play strong factor in the strategic battles. Characters will also not faint and be revived. Death is permanent in order to add to the tension to the gameplay.

Closing out the presentation, the developers also gave a sneak peek of the home base which they likened to a childhood "G.I. Joe aircraft carrier" toy that only the rich kid on the block could afford. In that base, there will be all kinds of options for squad mates to hone their skills and of course research and develop captured alien technology.

Everything from the style of the art to the game design choices made it abundantly clear to me that not only are the developers fans of the original X-COM games, but they have a strong sense of what made them so great and that has me super psyched for this release.

In literally the final hours of PAX East, I also managed to discover Double Dragon Neon tucked away in one of the farthest corners of the exhibition hall.

At first glance, I'll admit I wasn't bowled over. There hasn't been a Double Dragon sequel that really grabbed me since Super Double Dragon on the SNES. Seeing the cheesy "neon" moniker left me a little puzzled.

It wasn't until one of the staff members explained the concept that Double Dragon Neon is essentially a tribute to all things eighties like Big Trouble in Little China did I really get it.

Just recently on the GameCritics.com podcast, we talked about how many eighties action movies would make terrific IPs for games and how it was near criminal that there isn't a Big Trouble in Little China video game.

Well boys, our prayers have been answered in the form of Double Dragon Neon where Marian bears a striking resemblance to Kim Katrall, Billy and Jimmy Lee sport ass kickin' mullets, embarrassing fashion choices abound and when a co-op player goes down, the other player can revive him by symbolically rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil (turning the thumb stick).

The fighting gameplay also felt worthy of the Double Dragon co-op legacy. In addition to the standard punch and kick combos, there were also grappling attacks that could be initiated upon stunning a foe.

The classic knees-to-the-head and elbow-drops-to-back were absent, but throws and double noggin knockers (if you grabbed two stunned enemies close together) livened up the action. The staff person assured me more grappling techniques would be unlocked as the player progresses through the game.

The hands-on demo ends in a crazy cliffhanger. Entering a Chinese restaurant-looking building reveals itself to be pagoda-shaped rocket ship that launches into space. Once in space, Billy and Jimmy face off against a heavily armored Raiden-looking boss wielding a massive sword with Marian being held captive in the background.

So while the business of video games drive the development of countless first-person shooters and MMOs, I'm happy to see that game culture has progressed to the point where revivals and reimagining's of classic titles actually feels more than just desperate attempts to cash-in on nostalgia.

When done right and in a proper historical context like these two titles, it feels like there's actual cultural value and relevance in revisiting these titles as is so often the case in other mediums.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is set to release in fall of 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3 and Double Dragon Neon is due out on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in July 2012.