Diablo II Real Money Auction House

Remember when you were a kid and wished you could have a job where you played video games and did nothing else?  Well, that probably didn't happen unless you're working in that industry, but now you can get a piece of the action with Diablo III's auction house. 

The real money traded with this feature of the game will be a gamer's to keep.  So theoretically you can play this for 24 hours a day and make some kind of profit, which just boggles my mind.  Now unfortunately you don't really rake in the dough because it takes work to get the items that people want, and only rarer items will bring much in the way of profits, but the idea is phenomenal. 

What's the downside?  Well, none really, except that you can only trade on the auction house in your "home" region.  No trading globally in either of the other two regions that you can play in.  There's also no migrating items between regions, but that's not really a big deal.  Blizzard does charge some fees for putting your items up:

$1 off the to if an item sells
15% transaction fee on stackable items
15% if you move funds to a third-party service like Paypal (there's no charge if you put the funds into your Battle.net account but you can only get Blizzard services and items that way)

But who really cares?  You're making money playing a video game, and honestly, that's the bottom line for me.  Making money playing a video game.

Dungeon Hunter Alliance

I love the Vita boxes; they're so tiny.

First off, I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend.  Secondly, I've said it before, but I'll say it again, buying an iPod Touch or an iPad and getting a game from the App Store does not make you a gamer.  If, however, one of those games is released onto a console with extra content added in, making it a real game in the eyes of the console world, then it's okay.  Sounds like it's just a sneaky way for me to be a hypocrite, but it's definitely not that.  It's a loophole...trust me.

Dungeon Hunter Alliance was developed for iDevices but was eventually ported to the PSN.  After that it was polished a bit more, with added Vita features, and slapped onto the PS Vita in cartridge form.  The idea of the game is that you're a king that was betrayed and now you're back to life trying to avenge your death and your kingdom.  It's a simple idea, and the story is pretty bland, but we're here more to talk about how the game plays rather than how awful and cliche the story is.



There's a lot of great loot in this game, and the Vita tracks the last "epic" loot you found, which is fun to see.



As soon as you get past the first section of dialogue, you're put right into the action.  Dungeon Hunter is a simple hack-n-slash RPG a la Diablo.  The formula is basic:  Kill enemies to get loot, use loot to kill enemies, and embark on quests to get more loot until the end of time.  There are three classes to choose from, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, and each has a pretty large skill tree to level through.  There are auras, activated, and passive abilities that help you demolish your enemies.

4-person multi player is interesting to say the least.

There can be some slowdown when there are too many creatures on the screen and for whatever reason the standard melee attacks tend to miss if you aren't standing right in front of your target.  There are multiple equipment sets and multiple skill sets that you can create with an auto-equip function to keep you equipped with the best as you plow through the dungeons.

The Vita updates here are minimal: the touch screen controls your fairy power, the camera, and the menus.  Other than those few additions the only real new content included on this version is the multi player.  I haven't had a chance to experience it for myself as of yet, but from what I understand it flows pretty smoothly.  The main issue is that all four players are stuck on the same screen, which really hampers movement from one area to the next.

For what it's worth, this game is fun.  There are a few issues that occurred in it's transposing from the iDevice to the PS3 and finally to the Vita, but I can overlook those since I love the genre and can enjoy many aspects of it.  The main question is this, "Is it worth the $20 extra on the PS Vita from the $12.99 version on the PS3?"  I don't think that's something I can necessarily answer, having not played the PS3 version, but I think that portability alone is something that you need to pay for, and a portable Diablo-esque game is something that can't be passed up.

And this is different than Diablo II how?

Amid much speculation that Diablo III wouldn't be different than Diablo II, we find out that it actually isn't different at all; except that the weapons don't make sense, an online connection is required at all times, and there are new classes (but even those mirror the classes from Diablo II). 

Read the comments after the article, too.  People seem to have pretty mixed opinions, but the overall feeling is disappointment.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention

I have no idea where to start with this game; it's a great game but it feels weird.  It breaks the fourth wall and yet still manages to maintain the dignity of a good Strategy RPG; note that the version that I'm going to talk about is on the PS Vita.  There we go, that's my starting point, the genre.  As you probably have read, SRGPs are one of my favorite genres of all time.  In fact, Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite game of all time, which I've said enough times to kill an elephant.  In any case, Disgaea 3 is an installment in the Disgaea series, which takes place in the Netherworld. 

Just one sample of humorous dialogue.

In the Netherworld there's an evil school that your main characters are, normally, students of.  Most missions take place in and around the school setting, and your home base and other stats, like Honor Student Quotient, are all based off of a school theme.  It seems kind of silly, but that's only because it is.  The game takes great advantage of the situation and constantly makes reference to itself as a video game, characters playing video games, characters reading comic books, the hero and demon ideals, and a ton of other things that make you chuckle and shake your head.  As you can see from the various screen shots that I have up here, it takes a lot of the qualities from anime and manga that we all so love, which really makes you want to keep up with the story in between all of the great battles.

I like how sharp everything looks on the Vita.

The humor and self-realization of the game are the main things that give it such an enjoyable role-playing experience, but the meat of Disgaea 3 really brings you a great tactical world.  The various stats, HP, SP, Str, etc, all go up to insanely high values, at least 100x as high as your common RPG.  The game itself says that you should spend a million hours playing it...and the anime style, funny dialogue, and strategy elements combined really make it seem like you could spend that much time, and then some sitting in front of your PS3 or holding your PS Vita.

A four-person combo attack.

As for the game play, it's pretty much your typical SRPG.  You move along on a grid and use tactics to eliminate your enemies.  The main innovation that Disgaea provides is the combo attack.  Depending on where your team member is seated in home room, which is your base, they can perform an attack with someone that's sitting next to them.  The combos are significantly more damaging than normal attacks and are even more destructive when you use special skills to combo.  I also like the Magichange feature where your monster allies can transform into a weapon to be used by a teammate that's next to them in home room.  For instance, the prinny monster class, which is essentially a penguin, changes into a laser.  How much more awesome can you get?  I can't think of anything I want more than a penguin friend that turns into a laser cannon.

I've been waiting to write this brief review for some time now, and I finally got the guts to do it today.  The reason I was putting it off is because I could spend 100 paragraphs explaining the game and giving it the props it deserves, but no one wants to read that.  I just wanted to introduce you to the world of Disgaea 3, not write a book.  For anyone that is an SRPG gamer, RPG player, or an anime/manga lover; I highly recommend this game.  Personally I'd take the PS Vita version for the mobility, which I think SRPGs were designed for, but the PS3 version has some great advantages too.

Mass Effect 2

Over the weekend I beat Mass Effect 2 and was surprisingly disappointed.  I'd heard a lot about the series, especially with the third installment just recently releasing, and figured I'd test my mettle against it.  I mean, it's made by BioWare and it's hard to pass up any of their games.  I expected something like Dragon Age, really, and that's what I got.  The problem is that it felt like it was dumbed down more than it should have been.

Looks like it's pretty epic, right?

My main problem with the game is its length; it's just too damn short.  I beat this game in under 20 hours, and that's just barely the minimum for today's RPG standards.  Yeah, this isn't strictly an RPG, but hey, the genre is RPG-Shooter so I'd expect at least 20 full gaming hours.  This includes the main storyline AND all of the side quests that I could get my hands on, not including the paid DLC.  Part of the problem may be that I had the game on Normal, but I died a few times, and if I'm being forced to turn up the difficulty to get myself to die more often so that I can play the game longer, there's something horrifyingly wrong.  One good thing about the short game is that you can beat it once and then load your character back up at the start for round 2.  In my opinion, though, that's not a replacement for a longer, more robust line of main and side quests.

This gets really old, really quickly.

Exploration is such a waste of time in this game.  In most RPGs, when you explore you discover new fights, new items, and a myriad of new quests to begin.  In this game, however, you go from planet to planet and your exploration only gets you the occasional surface mission and some resources.  Resources are great, and are required to get the best upgrades, but the process to get them is so damn slow and boring that it's not worth it.  You have to use a scanner to look over the surface of the planet and then launch a probe when you find a significant source of materials.  There are so many planets to explore that this gets tiresome; it was fun the first few times, but I found myself wishing for something more exciting very quickly.  There's also a few times that you zoom around on the planet in a vehicle and gather data, which is fun, but there are less than ten missions involving that.

The character customization is decent and reminds me of Dragon Age.  Since the two games came out at roughly the same time, that's not surprising at all.  There's also a good array of characters and classes, giving quite a bit of replay value.  I'm disappointed that you can't swap classes when you start your second run-through with a character that you've beaten the game with.  You can retrain your powers using your resources, but there's no option to retrain class that I've seen so far.  The game play is akin to Gears of War or Operation Raccoon City, and the cover system is pretty smooth.  One thing that bugs me about it though is when you need to move over cover: you need to get into cover and then climb up.  Why not just have a climb button or a vault option?  I don't want to get into cover when there are no enemies around, I just want to get up to the next platform!

I like all of the different species in the game; they add spice!

One final thing to gripe about are the planets that have towns.  There are just a few of them, and each one is really small.  It is relieving to not have to fly your ship around and scan for things to do, though.  The shops allow you to buy upgrades, and the townspeople usually give you some side quests to perform.  The inhabited areas are also where you will find all of the missions taking place.

This game has its flaws, sure, but I still had fun playing it.  It has a good story and addictive game play; it just falls short of being a great game.  The exploration mini-game can be unbearable, some of the controls are awkward, and the areas you can explore on foot are just too small.  It's possible that the DLC would increase the game time and world considerably, but I don't know that I want to shell out the Microsoft Points for them.  All of that being said, I think I'll still check out Mass Effect 3 to see if they fixed any of the flaws that I found.

Dragon Age

I was wrapped up in Dragon Age back when the first game came out.  I was later dazzled by the expansion and the release of the second game.  If you don't know, Dragon Age is an EA/BioWare release that came out around the same time as Mass Effect, and both games are similar in their game play.

The idea is that you're recruited by a member of the organization known as the Grey Wardens, the protectors of the land against the Darkspawn.  Once you're initiated you enter right into the ongoing war.  Between fending off the Darkspawn and saving your land from a devastating civil war, your character is kept busy with his duties as a Warden.

There are three base classes to choose from, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage.  All three have a great number of skills and abilities to choose from, and the array of characters that you get allows you to put together a dream team party and swap out when you need to.  I don't want to get too in-depth with the rest of the game, I'm more concerned with talking about the game play. 

The way the game plays is akin to the old PC game Baldur's Gate, or even Myth.  You take control of all four characters in your party at the same time and give them all unique orders to defeat your enemies.  It's a combination of real-time strategy and role-playing game play that really lets you think about your fights before you act.  It's a really addictive way to play an RPG.

Why am I bringing this up when none of these games are new or really that exciting right now?  Baldur's Gate is being released for the iPad.  I'm trying to patiently await the game, but I think that I'm going to need a refresher from the PC version before I get to that point.  Summer 2012 may seem like just a short leap from today, but if you're a fan of Baldur's Gate, I know you're itching just as much as me to get to this new helping of strategy, tactical-RPG fun.

Diablo III

Yeah, that's the stuff.

I'm not really a PC gamer anymore, I've moved pretty much entirely over to consoles, but when I was a more avid PC gamer one of my favorites was Diablo II.  Since that time I've been anticipating how well Diablo III would do when it finally comes out.  Obviously it's done really well, considering that it's the sequel to a game that people have been actively playing for over ten years; that's right Diablo II, released in 2001, has had active players for the last 11 years.  That's just insane, I can't think of any other game that's really had that much participation after such a long time.

So obviously, when I heard back in 2010 that Diablo III could be coming to consoles, I was ecstatic.  I'm a little disappointed that it hasn't yet panned out though.  I'm still hopeful that Blizzard will wisen up and put the game onto consoles, similar to the latest Dungeon Siege and Witcher games.  Both games ported really well, especially Witcher II with it's similarities to Skyrim, and many console gamers that I know would love to see Diablo II follow suit.  My best guess as to why this isn't confirmed yet is that Blizzard tried to make this same jump a few times with various games and even more various results:  Diablo on PS1 and Starcraft 64. 

If you don't already know what I think about Starcraft 64, take a look at what I said about it previously.  As for Diablo, the game was ported from the PC in 1998, two years after its release.  Die hard fans of the PC game were disappointed with the lackluster graphics, the awful experience with sluggish and high-capacity saves, and the lack of an online multi player experience; though the PS1 version boasted a two-player mode on a single console.  The controls, however, did translate over to the controller very well, and many were surprised at how much easier the game was to play on the PS1 version.  The main components of the game; the dungeon-delving, action RPG, and arcade style game play; were all there so it was still a good game for those that haven't experienced the PC version, but overall the PS1 game was unable to cut the cake when compared to it's forefather.

 I could see all of the same issues with porting Diablo III to consoles today that there were in 1998 with the original, but are those really good reasons to keep it from us Xbox and PS3 gamers?  The saves have gotten better, the controls will still be grand, and you can have your multi player experience and eat it too.   Expand your Diablo III audience, Blizzard, I guarantee that it's worth it.

Motorstorm RC

Free games can be hit and miss, especially on mobile devices.  Take for instance all of the crap apps and "games" that get released for the various iDevices.  It's all just terrible.  Every once in a blue moon, however, you'll find that one free game that's actually worth downloading.  I have found that game for this moon cycle, and it's Motorstorm RC on the PS Vita.

Yeah, powered by Scion.

This game was released on the PS3 and later came to the PS Vita in March for free.  I snatched it up off the PS Store on day one, as I had basically just gotten the system and was looking for more games to experience.  At first I scoffed at it and balked at the controls.  Later, after I got more used to them, I began to enjoy the game.

Reminds me of the Micro Machines games.

The concept isn't much different than your normal racer, other than you're racing an RC car instead of a real car.  The 16 tracks are scaled down to fit the size of the cars, and each one has it's own flavor, which keeps the game fresh as you play the four different game modes.  To keep the game as real as possible, the controls are set in such a way that it makes you feel like you are actually controlling the car; like you're using the remote that controls it rather than playing a game with a controller.

The graphics are a bit lackluster, but since it's free, I can't really complain.  The same could be said of the sound.  There is a decent array of cars to unlock and choose from, and even some online leaderboards to compete against.  Compared to other free games out there for the Vita, like Montezuma Blitz, this is actually what you would expect from a video game.  I would recommend this any day of the week; like today...I'm recommending it today.

See?  Just like Micro Machines on the NES.

BlOps II Gripes

As probably every gamer knows already, BlOps (CoD Black Ops) II is being released, with pre-orders going out now.  This article has some good info on what people would expect from the sequel and I agree with a lot of what it has to say; which is why I'm even linking it. 

My main gripe with BlOps 2?  The first game was little more than a flop, and a dumbed down version of the more popular Modern Warfare titles.  Why release a second one when you can just continue to release Modern Warfare sequels that are more focused upon?  Why split your energies into two games rather than put your full might into one series?  I feel like this will just be a continuation of a bad idea that's going to end up with the same drilled-down garbage as Black Ops 1; everyone running and gunning with the same damn weapon all day long.  That's exactly what we, as gamers, are looking for right?  Not a robust, fun game, but rather one where we run around like chickens with our heads cut off while hoping we shoot first...Garbage.

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

As you may or may not know, I am a huge fan of Dragonball Z.  I am less so now that I have aged a bit, but when I was younger, DBZ was a big part of my life.  I had shirts, action figures, trading cards, and of course all the DBZ video games that I could get my hands on.  I think that I've played most, if not all, of the DBZ games that have been released, even the ones that were SNES exclusives and released only in Japan with few imports.  Those were extremely difficult to understand, but still fun as hell.  I'm not going to talk about those today, though it would be fun to do a huge mess of quick reviews for all of them, and instead I'll be talking about DBZ: Ultimate Tenkaichi on the Xbox 360.

I personally love this title shot; that badass crackling energy is awesome.

Right off the bat when playing this game you realize that it's not your typical fighter.  I don't know exactly what it is about the controls, but they just feel alien to me.  There are two ranges that you can be at, and each range specifies what type of attack you can use: Melee or Blast.  No matter the range you are at, you can string together three normal hits, or a charged up strong hit, to start a chain.  If you succeed at a short Rock, Paper, Scissors; without the Rock; you can continue to attack your enemy until the chain has finished.  To move between the two ranges, you double-tap the dash button and you'll rocket towards or away from the enemy while performing another attack.  During this time you play another Paper vs. Scissors with the left stick to determine if your attack hits or if the opponent hits you.  Either way you end up in the range you wanted to move to.  To perform a super attack, you can be at either range while tilting the right stick either up or down; an ultimate attack is done by pushing in the right stick.  Along with all of that garbage, you can also move in three dimensions.  It's hard to explain how it feels, but like I said above, it just doesn't feel right.  I'd rather stick with a 2d fighter and "normal" controls all the way.

This is in Japanese I guess.

The main draw to this game for me is the Hero Mode.  You can create your own character, from unlockable clothing and skillsets, to fight in a parallel DBZ universe.  This mode is pretty fun, but it's repetative.  You always seem to battle the same combatants while you attempt to level up your abilities.  As for the Story Mode, it's so short that you'd never realize that the show had so many seasons.  There are a lot of characters to choose from for the battle modes and the World Tournamen, but both of those are basically just time filler.  Where the hell did all of the story content go?  I don't want to fight against random online opponents, I want to play the frickin' story!

A giant boss...In a fighting game.  This isn't Shadow of the Colussus, people.

The developers included a few giant boss fights in the game, I think that's where the energy went for the Story Mode.  They seem to take up most of the time while you're playing; they take a few tries to beat and can last for up to half an hour if you don't memorize the patterns quickly enough.  Why in the hell would a fighting game include giant boss fights?  Shouldn't these be reserved for adventure games?  For each of these giant bosses, I could see more fights included that actually affected the story and weren't edging up on ridiculous.

Despite the massive amount of characters that you can play as and the huge variety of super attacks to choose from, this game falls pretty far from the DBZ tree.  The lack of a significant Story Mode really made me feel like this was far too rushed.  Hell, there's another DBZ game coming out in short order anyway, DB Raging Blast 2 is already on the way and Ultimate Tenkaichi isn't even a year old yet.  They pump these games out so fast that the quality ones are hard to find.  Overall, Ultimate Tenkaichi isn't necessarily terrible, but it's far from great.  In my opinion, stick with DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and avoid this game unless you really are a die hard fan and need to play all of the DBZ games.

Minecraft for XBLA: First Impressions

If you don't know what Minecraft is, I'll give you a little background to help bring you up to speed.  It's an open-ended, creativity game where you mine for resources to build and create pretty much whatever you want within the bounds of the resources you have.  The world is made up of blocks and all of the resources you place are placed into a grid in block form.  There's no ultimate goal, unless you want to complete the game by defeating an end-game boss, so the game continues forever.  The core idea is to mine, build, and survive.  The graphics are retro and block-like, but sharp, and raise a huge level of nostalgia for the golden days of video gaming.


Even though it's blocky, it's still really good looking.

 The main differences between the PC version and the 360 version are the inclusion of a tutorial and a much more seamless multi player experience.  The tutorial is integral for those who haven't played the game before, and it's a much better way to be introduced to the game than if you play it on PC.  There you have to rely on videos and tutorials created by users that came before you that can be pretty hit or miss.  As for the MP game, I haven't had a chance to sample it yet, but there's four player split screen and eight player online game modes.  From what I've heard, there's nothing better than a Minecraft session with some friends.

Just one example of a sweet construction.  And animals.

Moving on to my experience so far, I was thrown off a little by the lack of a main goal.  I started out okay with setting a goal to get a shelter up and then build a forge, but once I hit that point I kind of lost myself and started exploring.  After a ton of exploration I realized that I needed to upgrade my tools with some ore before I could go any further so I started looking for some Iron Ore.  Throughout this time I kept on detailing and upgrading my shelter until it was a two story, island fortress with a defensive wall on the outsides.  Before long I had a second structure up as well where I was starting my third major excavation...Why am I boring you with this detail?  To help explain how I managed to lose like five hours of my day yesterday and how I kept myself busy with goals that I set for myself.  So even without structure, Minecraft is not only able to keep you busy, but also keep you creatively managing your own goals.  It's a total black hole for your free time, but it's really addictive.

The only issue that I experienced during my game time yesterday was that during my first long period of playing, the server unexpectedly crashed and I lost all of my data.  I was pissed at first, but starting over didn't seem too bad since I could just create on a new world in a brand new starting position.  Don't get me wrong, I was still irritated, just not as much as I would have expected. 

Once I get further in the game I'll post another, more in-depth review, but for now this will have to suffice.  My suggestion is to download the demo if you're unsure that the game is for you, and then buy it.  It's only $20, 1600 Microsoft Points on the XBLA Marketplace and is well worth that price:

Asphalt: Injection

There have been a couple of racers released for the PSVita to date, but most of them have gotten some terrible reviews, for good reason.  Mod Nation Racers and Ridge Racer are both some pretty awful games, but I'm not here to talk about crap today, I want to talk about the exception of the group: Asphalt: Injection.  To be honest, I've only played the demo, so this is going to be a pretty short review that's based solely on what I've been able to experience.

Probably the most bland screen ever.

As you can see, the game doesn't look that great from a graphical perspective, and thus doesn't push the Vita to it's full potential.  It looks pretty much the same as if you were to buy it on the iOS.  It looks okay, but not what we would expect from a cutting-edge gaming system that's boasting the best handheld graphics on the market today.

The game play is similar to your normal Arcade racer.  You drive as fast as you can while alternating between drifting and boosting with the nitro you collect from pickups or "stunts" like getting air time on a jump.  The controls are pretty simple and only rarely will you not finish in the top three places of a race.  Touch mechanics are limited here and the only one to speak of is the back touch screen that allows you to manually shift.  It's kind of neat, but its not a game-changer in any way.

FP view in the garage is kind of a fun addition, useless, but fun.

There are a lot of unlockables, based upon how many stars you get during races, and a lot of top name car manufacturers.  We're not looking at the same amount as Forza or Gran Turismo, but there's still an impressive library considering that this is a handheld system.  One thing that's kind of annoying is that you are unable to determine what cars you own unless you are in the garage.  So in the shop, you can't determine which cars you already own versus those that you don't; they all show the price and if they are locked or unlocked.  Different paint schemes allow for some customization for you to make your cars yours.  Tons of tracks are also available, though many are recycled from past Asphalt games.  I haven't personally played the other games so they were all new to me and that downside didn't really come into play during the demo anyway.

All-in-all, this game is pretty good, but there are a few issues that would deter me from buying it.  Considering that the iOS version is $0.99 and the Vita version is $30+, it might not be a good buy unless you really, really want it on your PSVita or don't have an iDevice and are looking for a good racing game for your new handheld.  My advice in that situation is to buy this and stay far away from Mod Nation and Ridge Racer, those just flat out suck.

Sumioni: The Dark Arts, a haiku

Since it is very difficult to wirte an entire post on an iPad, I've decided to try my hand at a more creative form of review...creative and short. Believe me, that this is really hard to type all hunt and peck~like.

Sumioni arts,
game of ink and platforms brushed,
leave it to Rayman.

Army Corps of Hell

If you think the title is awful, wait until you play the game.



Don't be fooled by the fact that SE was involved.

 The idea behind this game is that you're controlling an army of minions, in this case they are goblin-looking things, and you need to fight your way through hellish landscapes to regain your position in the ranks.  The core game play has you moving your skeleton general around from platform to platform while you throw your minions at whatever assortment of monsters jumps up at you for the 50th time.

Once you chuck a few of your little guys onto an enemy they start using whatever weapon they're equipped with based upon the type of minion they are.  Soldiers use swords, Spearmen are obviously equipped with spears, and Magi use staves.  Each type of minion has a different special attack and are useful against different enemies.  Soldiers generally do the most damage with a special attack, Spearmen attack monsters that come close to them, and Magi have a good distance strike.  There's not much else to this thing; you move from stage to stage killing things with the same old strategy.  It gets boring very quickly.

It's tricky; looks like it could be good, but it's really not.

To spice it up a bit, you can alter the # of each minion type you have in your army at one time.  Some combos are better than others, but for the most part it doesn't really matter.  The customization options are very limited.  There are different weapons and items to create, you collect materials to make them from fallen monsters, but there's very little reason to not use the newest one that you've created.  Why allow for customization if it doesn't matter?

You can also equip different hats for your minions and different cloaks for your general.  Once again though, the newest one is going to be the best and you run into the same issue with the weapons and items.  IF the customizability was better, this could be a fun game.  I've already mentioned that the combat is really bland, but even more bland is the variety of enemies you encounter. 

You fight the same stupid creatures over and over again.  Once you've seen a set of monsters, the game switches it up by changing their colors and adding an ability.  Yeehaw.  Honestly, I could only play this game for up to ten stages, and after that I just gave up because I couldn't stand it.  I think the only thing that I was really impressed with in this entire pile of crap was the music; that was freaking awesome.  It's all heavy-death-metal-ish and not anything like the rest of the game.  I would buy the soundtrack for this game any day.

I expected a LOT more from Square-Enix's first title on the PSVita, especially since it's a strategy game.  I know that the Vita is still pretty new and that the system is still finding its own niche of games, but this garbage shouldn't have ever existed.  The worst part is that it's basically a horribly butchered Overlord port from the Xbox 360.  Overlord featured similar combat and customization options, but fleshed it out more.  You get a castle, a forge, different spells, etc.

Had SE taken even a small amount of the lessons that came from Overlord, I could have seen Army Corp of Hell being a decent game.  Since they decided to go a different direction, I feel like this is one of those few times where they really fucked up.  I expected more from you Square-Enix.