Kirby: Triple Deluxe

This will be the first article about a Nintendo 3DS game: Kirby: Triple Deluxe.

This will be released in May, even thought released in January in Japan and we can see in the trailer that the graphic is perfectly adapted for the Nintendo 3DS and is quite similar to Kirby's Return to Dream Land. It was developed by Hal Laboratory and published by Nintendo.

Like every game with the same name, it's all about this little pink, round hero who has the amazing power to literally inhale anything and use it against his enemies; be it absorbing the power of the enemy inhaled,

or spitting him against other foes.

The gameplay is very simple if you played any game of Kirby, and even if you didn't, it takes you a few minutes of playing to be good at it. There is displayer of 2.5D perspective which means that even if the game is in 2D, you can move further, deeper in the display, by jumping from foreground and background, with the help of the Warp Star.

Kirby most useful power is to copy the power of an inhaled enemy; so if you absorb a foe who uses ice, you'll become Ice Kirby.

And with this transformation, Kirby will be able to freeze foes and skate on the ice instead of running.
Or, if you absorb an enemy with an umbrella...

...Kirby will get an umbrella that he can uses to hit the enemies or protect himself.

This game has at least 20 transformations; the most knowns are: Sword Kirby, Fire Kirby, Fighter Kirby, Indian Kirby... But there others that are new: mainly Beetle Kirby and Bell Kirby!
Another innovation is what can be called Rainbow Kirby. With this new power, Kirby becomes powerful enough to inhale a whole tree!

An innovative thing about this Kirby: Triple Deluxe is the use of the motion captor to complete various tasks.

When the game is completed once, you can play with King Dedede, who's usually the bad guy. However, when you play with him, Bosses are more powerful.

Through the game, the player can collect keychains which look like various characters from previous Kirby's games, much like trophies.
There are also two new subgames: Kirby Fighters, where you can customize your Kirby and fight other Kirbies in a Super Smash Bros fighting style game; and Dedede's Drum Dash, in which you play as King Dedede and jump on drums to collect falling coin to the rhythm of Kirby songs.

All in all, even if the game's life is short, it's still very enticing: colored, pretty and very funny to play; this game is good for everyone.
Sadly, because still not released, official notes aren't available; however, jeuxvideo.com was able to note it with an incredible 18/20. Myself, after seeing various video of it, give it too a 18/20.

Kinect Adventures

In this article, I'll write on a game which is more for family use than anything: Kinect Adventures.

The game's name said it all: with the use of the Kinect, the motion sensing camera, the player must use his whole body to play, by jumping, crouching, bending or even simple hands/arms/legs motions. It was released in 2010, pratically at the same time of the Kinect system, by Good Science Studio. This game is one of the most sold on Xbox 360.

Both game and graphics are simple but fun and suit each others: the game use your avatar, the character who represents you in the console and make it go thought various adventures. There isn't a real story, but you can obtain some objects for your avatar when you complete a level or obtain a high score. You can play up to two players but it's funnier when other players take a turn as well.
There are five environments in this game, each one of them with different rules and way to play. You must either complete the level or obtain as much points as you can before time runs out.

The first of those, Rally Ball, is in a protected hallway where you must stop and launch the balls using hands, body and feet to hit the targets and the boxes at the other end.

Of course, like in every good game, you can get bonus, in this case, like in pinball, you can have extra balls to gain points easier ans faster. The hardest part is to aim and fortunately, the body is transparent, which help in the task.

The second level, Space Pop, is in a space lab, where you have to catch soap bubbles by moving up and down, left and right and even back and forward!

It can be a little hard to move with precision since you mostly use your arms to imitate a swimming motion to go up and put them on you sides to go down.

In the third environment, 20,000 Leaks, the player is under water, in a special cube which is constantly attacked by sharks who are trying to eat you. Here, you must use your avatar's body to stop the water from entering and repair walls, floor and roof.

Of course, like Rally Ball, the body is partly transparent to allow you to see were the sharks hit the glass and where cracks form. The quicker you are to seal the holes, the more points you gain.

The forth level is on a platform, itself put on rails and is called Reflex Ridge. In this one, your avatar is placed on a roller coaster and launched in a journey through woods.

This level is likely the one that requires the more activity from the player. It requires, indeed, to jump over hurdles, crouch to avoid low beams and jump to side to evade the obstacles. This way, you must avoid take damages, and lose points, and acquire the coins to raise your score.

Lastly, River Rush, the fifth environment, takes place on a river, with the player on a raft. To control it, you have to step on the left or the right to turn and by jumping, the raft jumps too.

By taking ramps, you can access to secrets places where the coins are more numerous.

Kinetic Adventures is a good game but it's even better if played by two or more people; it's funny seeing the other players jump and make what look like silly moves to complete the tasks or avoid obstacles!

At the end of each level, the game takes some of your most funny poses and put them in a photo with a little title. Those poses can to be takes in any moment, so be aware that they can be a little embarrassing.

Even though jeuxvideo.com gives this game a 13/20 and gamespot.com a 7/10, I think a 16.5/20 is fair, especially if this game is played together as it should be. Even if you don't, it's a good way to move and do some physical activity.

That's all and thanks for reading.

Dante's Inferno

This article subject is a game which "parodied" the well known poem The Divine Comedy, wrote by Dante Alighieri: Dante's Inferno!

The game is produced by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts, and was released in 2010 on Xbox360, PlayStation 3 and on PSP.

The story's events are set at the time of the Third Crusade and are inspired by The Divine Comedy first part: Inferno; the main difference is that, instead of having a writer Dante, we have a Templar Knight Dante. The game shares many similarities with the poem: the journey in Hell, the encounters  with many souls of the past, the pursuing of Beatrice, the help of Virgil through the journey and the encounter with Lucifer...

However, even if he's a Templar Knight, who fought in God's name, Dante is far from being sinless; in fact, the whole story begins because of him: before leaving for the Crusade, Dante promised to his wife, Beatrice, to remain faithful to her. Obviously, he didn't and when he comes back, he finds both his father and his beloved murdered. Before his eyes, Lucifer appears and takes Dante's wife with him in Hell and the knight has no choice but to go and save her.

The first big fight is with the Death itself and after some struggling, we manage to kill it and take its Scythe, the main weapon, with which we can unleash powerful combos, and thanks to Beatrice, we find another one: the Holly Cross, which is used for ranged attacks.

Though the voyage, Dante will encounter many souls, some worth of salvation (with the use of the Cross) and others good enough to be damned for eternity (using Death's Scythe). Some of those souls are known to the protagonist, like his father (left) or one of his knight companions; others are historical or mythological figures: Cleopatra (right), King Minos... The souls are actually took from the original Divine Comedy.

In the ending cinematic, we can see Dante in the Purgatory, after he defeated Lucifer, meaning he managed to absolve his sins, with the help of the souls he absolved on his way down the nine Circles of Hell.
But in the same video, we can see that Lucifer may not totally defeated: the cross which was sewed on Dante's body becomes a black snake after he ripped it off.

Dante's Inferno is quite similar to God of War in game play: fast paced fights, magic attacks, devastating combos with a mix of Scythe's and the Cross' use, and the use of souls as money. The visual is in third person and the camera is fixed, which can be troublesome sometime. And there is the presence of Quick Time Event, when we fight the boss or particularly big opponents. Some paths need Dante to move in a specific way or to move/remove objects.
As said up, souls are the currency in Hell to buy upgrades or new abilities and we use potions to refill our health and mana. The skills are dived in two trees: Holly and Unholy; we gain experience in each when we either absolve or punish an enemy. As we go, more skills and new powers are unlocked.

This game make us go through a real voyage in Hell and can give us things to think about: "is Hell really like this?" and "Do I want to finish in that place?"
The graphics aren't bad but could have been better and the camera is a point against the game as we could use a better view sometime. The handling is really simple since all we have to do mainly is to keep hitting until nothing is left.

Two special edition of Dante's Inferno can be downloaded, either for PS3 or Xbox360.
With Dante's Inferno: Trial of St. Lucie, we can create our own challenges and complete them alone or in cooperation with other players.
In Dante's Inferno: Dark Forest, we have a new suit available, new weapons and an exclusive chapter added.

jeuxvideo.com note this game 15/20; gamespot.com give it a 6.5/10. As for me, I give a 17/20.

God of War

In this article, I'll talk about a game, published by Sony Computer Entertainment, that was quite famous a few years back but even now: God of War!

The game is inspired on the Greek mythology and we can find the most important gods (like Zeus, Ares, Poseidon, Helios), goddess (Athena, Venus, Era) and several mythological creatures (pegasus, Titans, harpies, centaur) through the game. The gameplay is in third person with a fixed camera and we incarnate Kratos, a man who has serious issues with the gods of Olympus.

The main weapons are a double blades linked by a chain

that Kratos can use in many way: from destroying his foes with a powerful combo to climbing a vertical wall.
Through the game, we encounter various opponents and we can acquire other weapons, some more powerful but slower, others faster but weaker. We also gain special abilities from some powerful opponent, like the gorgon that Kratos beheads and uses the head to petrify the enemies.
There are also device or artifact that are required to acquire to progress.
A shame is that, because of the plot, in the next game, we usually lose the powers and weapons we obtained: in GoW 2, we will not have the same weapons and abilities we had in GoW 1.

In each game, there are special chests that contain a collectible item that can increase magic or health; other chests contain orbs that refill the magic/mana (blue usually) and/or the health (red); others orbes (green) are used as money to upgrade weapons and abilities.

When fighting a boss or a special enemy, there are moment when the player is required to press or circle the joystick before time runs out to perform the move (usually the one which greatly injure the enemy) correctly; it can be either ripping an arm out, gushing an eye or even beheading and it's usually on a weakened foe. This Quick Time Event, if not performed correctly, not only is useless but even damaging, since Kratos is either pushed or punched away.

In 2005 the first GoW is released on PlayStation 2. Kratos is given a mission by Athena: recover Pandora's box, where all evils and ills are enclosed in order to defeat Ares, the war's god. This god is the reason why Kratos is considered the "Ghost of Sparta": he saved him and his army from annihilation but in return, Kratos had to become the god's slave and was then tricked in killing his own family.
After recovering the box, Kratos kills Ares and becomes the new god of war (hence the name of the game).




In God of War II, released in 2007 and, like the first, on PlayStation 2, Kratos in now the new war's god. While he's protecting his city, Sparta, using his divine powers, he's betrayed by Athena and Zeus and loses his powers. It's the Titan Gaia who saves him and orders him to find the Sisters of Fate (three women whose power is to see past, present and future). After defeating the Sisters, Kratos travel back in time and in the end manage to have Zeus at his mercy. However, Athena stop the final attack and save Zeus by sacrificing herself and before she dies, tell Kratos he's Zeus' son.
In the end, Kratos joins forces with the Titans, in order to bring down Zeus and and Olympus.







Released in 2010, with God of War III, we have the final chapter of the story. Kratos is betrayed once again, by Gaia this time, who tells him she don't need him anymore and throws him in the Underworld. Guided by the spirit of Athena, Kratos manage to find his way out and seek the Flame of Olympus, the source of Zeus' power. With the help of Pandora, who sacrifice herself to extinguish the flame, Kratos finally manages to kill his father; he, however, refuses to give Athena the power he has in himself and he chooses instead to release it and give it to mankind. Surprisingly, even after being pierced by a huge sword, he seems to have found the strength to leave, as we can see a bloody trail that leads to the cliff. Maybe Kratos has some more surprises for us in the future.






Other issues of God of War were release: one on mobile and two for PSP.

The game on mobile, God of War: Betrayal, is the only one to be in 2D and on another platform than PlayStation. Released on 2007, the story takes place between God of War: Ghost of Sparta and God of War II: Kratos is framed for murder and seek out the true assassin. However, he's consume by bloodlust and kills Ceryx, Hermes' son; this act brings on him the wrath of his fellow gods who hate him even more than before.











The first game for PSP is God of War: Chains of Olympus, which release is in 2008. The game's events are Kratos' 10 years of service to the gods. He halts a Persian invasion of the city of Attica, and learns that the world has been plunged into darkness by Morpheus, the god of sleep. Kratos investigates the abduction of the sun god Helios, and prevents the goddess Persephone to use the Titan Atlas, who held up the celestial sphere, to destroy the world.






God of War: Ghost of Sparta is the second game of GoW on PSP and was released in 2010. It is set between the events of God of War and God of War: Betrayal.
Kratos, now a god but still haunted by visions of his mortal past, embarks on a quest to discover his origins by finding Callisto, his mother. He learns that he has a brother, Deimos, who was taken and imprisoned by the God of death, Thanatos, and decides to find and save him. Although Kratos is successful, Thanatos engages the two brothers in combat and kills Deimos. Kratos manages to kill Thanatos and returns to Olympus, even more enraged than before at the gods.








Each games graphics are superb and we can only applaud the people who worked on it; the storyline is well thought out and we can feel the sadness, rage and remorse of Kratos in the cinematics. The game is easy to pick up since the playing is mostly about fighting.

Here are the notes jeuxvideo.com, gamespot.com and mine of the games:
GoW I: 18/20 - 9.3/10 - 9/10
GoW II: 18/20 - 9.2/10 - 9/10
GoW III: 19/20 - 9/10 - 9.5/10
GoW: Ascension : 13/20 - 8/10 - 7.10
GoW: Chains of Olympus: 15/20 - 8.5/10 - 8/10
GoW: Ghost of Sparta: 16/20 -  8/10 - 8.5/10

I thanks everyone who read me and I bid you "see you soon".