ETERNAL SONATA (T)
Rating: ****
Namco Bandai Xbox 360
While America continues to release role-playing games featuring young farmboys who leave their devastated villages to gather crystals, mana, enchanted girls, etc. in order to combat an evil that (get this) threatens the entire world, the Japanese have proven, yet again, that they know how to break the stale RPG mold. The adventure in Eternal Sonata is actually a vibrant dream … of a man on his deathbed … and that man is the famous pianist and composer Frederic Chopin. Try finding an American RPG with a concept as funky as that.
This game is wild and will never fail to surprise you. Obviously, given whose moribund fantasy this is, music plays a large part in the story. The bad guy’s name is Waltz, and Chopin’s companions all have weapons that resemble musical instruments. But the real-time combat is even far more complex than that. During battles, you can move your characters in and out of the shadows, which has an impact on their attack powers. The shade also has an impact on the creatures you are fighting, which creates a fair amount of strategy. And all of this takes place in a dreamscape backdrop resembling a Monet painting -- just to drive the point home that you’re playing a work of art.
MERCURY MELTDOWN REVOLUTION (E)
Rating: ****
Ignition Entertainment Wii
If you lost a few marbles playing this game on the PSP, struggling to guide your molten metal blob through a frustrating maze, don’t let that scare you from picking up the puzzle on Wii. This game was originally meant to come with a motion-sensing attachment for the PSP that functions much like your standard Wii controller. Tilt the Wii-mote, and the whole level tilts, giving you seamless control, and a rollicking good time.
SYPHON FILTER: DARK MIRROR (T)
Rating: ***
Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation 2
When this game was released on PSP in March of last year, I wrote that the production values and cut-scenes were “home console-worthy.” So here I am eating my words. As with all the previous handheld-to-console ports that Sony insists on releasing, something has gotten lost in translation. Like a thumbnail pic blown up into a big blurry image, the superb third-person shooting PSP original doesn’t hold up quite as well on the big-screen.
CODED ARMS: CONTAGION (T)
Rating: **
Konami PlayStation Portable
The PSP is so pressed for new software, it has this tendency to spawn sequels to games that should have died a quick death with the first outing. Hence, a Coded Arms follow-up. This second first-person shooter/Matrix rip-off takes place in a virtual reality world, filled with the blandest levels imaginable. Gunned-down enemies dissolve into bits of code, giving you the impression that you’re playing the harmless tutorial of a game rather than the actual game.
When Las Vegas Weekly contributor Matthew Scott Hunter realized his career as a lab technician was seriously interfering with his gaming, he pink-slipped himself into a successful career as a freelance writer. Bug the hell out of him at [email protected]