Sonic Generations

Firstly i would like to say i was extremely sceptical about Sonic Generations, so much so that i couldn't bring myself to buy it and instead had to rent it. This is mainly because of the way Sonic games have been declining in recent years, although Sonic was the very first game i played at home and one of the main reason i love games as much as i do, like most fans I've just lost my confidence in one of gamings biggest icons. Also this review is based purely on the console version of the game and not the handheld DS version which features different levels and bosses.

Sonic Generations doesn't have the best storyline of any game, but Sonic games have never been big on story. The main plot line is that Dr. Eggman has come into contact with a being know as the "Time Eater" after being defeated by Sonic in Sonic Colours. He then uses the Time Eater to go back in time and erase all the points in time where Sonic has defeated him, in doing so the present Sonic is sucked into white space while enjoying his 20th birthday party. Here he meets his younger self and together work towards saving their friends and time. This was fine by me, i didn't expect much of a story when trying to join the two ends of the franchise together and by Sonic standards it was a decent attempt. What confused me was when you find out Eggman has joined forces with Dr. Robotnik but there is no mention of why this name change occurred. For those who don't know, Dr. Eggman was the original Japanese name but when translated to English the name changed to Robotnik and since Sonic Adventure he has been known as Eggman in English. As far as I'm aware, this name change occurred because of Sonic calling him Eggman as a reference to his shape but i would have liked a scene where the past and present Eggman discussed this just to put my mind at ease.

Look familiar?

When it comes to gameplay there are two very distinct styles, which is expected. As far as classic Sonic goes, i couldn't have asked for better. It plays and feels exactly as it used to but with an increase in speed making timings very important. I loved playing as classic Sonic and for the most part i would play every level possible as him, it was extremely fun to play as him and required just enough skill to make levels challenging but still being fun to run through. Present Sonic requires a bit more skill to get through levels and while fun to begin with the increasing amount of different abilities to learn detracted from the pleasure of just running through a level while dodging enemies and collecting rings and by the end i was running through these levels just to get them out the way. The main problem with present Sonic's levels is the same problem that most Sonic games have had had recently, the camera. While a 3D world for sonic to run around seems like a fun idea on paper it just never works when the camera is constantly zooming around trying to make the game seem fun. The only time I've seen a 3D world work for Sonic is in Adventure 1 and 2 and since the Sonic remake in 2006 they've had no success. Because of these camera problems it would sometimes mean replaying levels as present Sonic because of ledges that couldn't be seen or enemies being ran into because the camera was revolving round Sonic in a way that obscured the enemy completely. When enemies were visible, however, it was obvious that a lot of care had went into them. Playing through some of the earlier levels you will see many enemies that you will remember and they behave exactly as they used to and even when playing as present Sonic they still behave roughly how you would expect in a 3D world. Bosses on the other hand seemed a bit slapped together, almost as if they finished the game then thought "It's a bit short, let's throw some bosses in.". Although i do like the idea that you can choose to fight the bosses as either classic or present Sonic, it still didn't save them from being very mediocre and dull boss fights.

The modern takes on classic levels are beautiful.

By far the best part of Sonic Generations is the levels. Throughout the first half of the game there was a massive smile on my face as i ran through all the classic levels from every Sonic game. If there was one thing to improve her it would be to have more of them. One level from every game worked really well but i would have liked  to have seen maybe two or three levels from each game, especially from the original Sega console games. I still loved the levels they did have in the game though, seeing beautifully re-made HD versions of iconic levels that are still fresh in mind was brilliant and was a massive part of my enjoyment of the game. The only problem i had with the levels were the final few, but that is probably because i haven't played the last few Sonic games so levels from Sonic (2006), Unleashed and Colors didn't have as much appeal to me. Some of the most memorable parts of Sonic Generations for me was running through some of the classic levels and watching as the events of that level in the classic game played out. For example, while playing in Sky Sanctuary (Sonic and Knuckles) you get to see the Death Egg taking off before finishing the level in a very similar way as was done in the original level while using various environmental items to help you finish like the transporter orbs, bouncing clouds and the moving poles that all featured in the original game.

As much as i think that the levels are the best part of Sonic Generations, i must say that i could happily listen to the music for quite a while without getting bored. As is to be expected, for each level the corresponding music has been remade as well and to a very high standard. For every classic style level (i.e. Sonic 1 up to Sonic and Knuckles) you will get a modern take on the 8-bit music and while playing these levels as present Sonic you will get a modernised version of the music using guitars etc. For later levels that feature already fairly modern music you will get a re-mixed version of that levels music while playing as classic Sonic and as present Sonic you will get to hear a faster paced version of the music that featured on that level.

Look how he's grown over the years, awwwwwwwww.

Overall i was fairly impressed by Sonic Generations. It took what was best about Sonic and made it better for the classic levels and it took what best about each of the modern Sonic games and combined them for the modern levels. There's also lots to unlock giving many hours of replayability and some tricky achievements/trophies that will keep you going back for a some more. Although Sonic Generations doesn't achieve everything it set out to do, i still enjoyed playing it and i really hope that they take the improvements they've made to the modern side of Sonic and use them for their next game. What's more, this game will introduce the younger audience who have only played the modern Sonic games to the classic Sonic style which can only be a good thing.

It's a shame that Sonic games have been declining recently because i really would love to see Sonic do well again. It's worked time and time again for Mario, why not Sonic?

Sonic Generations gets:

5 Chaos Emeralds (out of 7)

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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

It may have taken a while but here it is!

At first I was extremely skeptical about Nintendo's various claims to finally bring 1:1 motion controls to the Wii, having played games that were made intentionally to show off the Wii Motion Plus' capabilities I found that there was only a slight difference and such a slight difference didn't really give me great confidence when Nintendo announced the new Zelda game would feature the Motion Plus capability as a major component to the gameplay. I was wrong to doubt them.

I highly recommend the limited edition Wii-mote

Aside from the story and adventure in Zelda games, I have always found the sword fights to be exhilarating. Twilight Princess showed us that it was possible to use the Wii's motion control  to control your sword movements but it was far from perfect and like most Wii games it was mostly a case of waving the controller about for a bit. Skyward Sword takes the idea created for Twilight Princess and improves on it massively, promises of 1:1 motion control were true. The controls in Skyward Sword are without a doubt the best in any Wii game to date, and more than likely will remain the best until the Wii-U release. This is the first game in which I truly feel as if I am in full control of the characters actions and just by doing that makes the game so much easier to get into and makes each fight just as exciting as the last and not a repetitive task given under different circumstances, a trap that most games fall into these days.

But these excellent motion controls would mean nothing if the enemies were dispatched with a simple swish of a sword. The majority of the enemies that appear in Skyward Sword require you to be precise in your strikes, simple enemies like Deku Baba's that have appeared in countless variations of Zelda games and are usually killed with a swift slash across the stem now need to be attacked from a certain direction. This does not seem like a massive task, and it's not, but when confronted with 2 or 3 you need to time strikes and attack in the right direction or you could be stunned and another will attack you. Another recurrent enemy to undergo a revamp is the lizalfos. During Ocarina of Time I would dread coming up against one of these as they were a proper challenge compared to the usual enemies and the same applies now as it did then. The lizalfos now block certain areas of their bodies requiring you to attack the unblocked portions, take too long or attack the wrong area and you'll be punished. There are, of course, a lot more enemies to discover and fight but the main point is the usual tactics used for Zelda games (for me anyway) will not work in Skyward Sword. Each enemy you encounter requires a different way to attack them and the majority of them will have you stepping back and waiting for your chance to strike at a specific area as opposed to running in waving the Wii-mote around which could be done for most enemies in Twilight Princess.

Deku Baba's now require you to slice them depending on the way they open their mouth.

As for the graphics, there was a rather large argument over whether or not they were too "cartoony" during the pre-release build up. Personally I like the cartoonish style in which Skyward Sword is presented. Just as I thought Wind Waker's extremely cartoonish presentation and Twilight Princess' darker, more realistic presentation was perfect for their Zelda tales, I believe that Skyward Sword's graphics are perfect for this epic story. Of course Skyward Swords graphics are much like Twilight Princess' in the sense that it is meant to look slightly more realistic but the colour palette is much brighter and the world doesn't feel as 'sharp'. I feel this brings the world to life in a much better way than the darker tones in Twilight Princess however I do feel like there are some parts of the game that could have done with being a bit darker and not quite as brightly coloured.

Of course one of the main points of any Zelda game is the story. Given that Skyward Sword is meant to be the starting point for all previous and future Zelda stories, the writers had to pull out the stops. And that they have done. Skyward Sword is the quintessential Zelda story but with added emotional attachment, in previous games you only briefly meet Zelda before setting out to save her and Hyrule from evil but in Skyward Sword you are introduced to Zelda right from the start and she holds your hand through the initial training period of the game. This greatly increased your attachment and makes you want to save Zelda after she is inevitably taken from you not because it's what is expected but because you feel you have to save her which is a great quality to have in any game. Apart from the Link - Zelda story you also learn a great amount about the history of the games. One of the great parts of Skyward Sword is learning about the creation of the Master Sword and how Link was a part of its creation but the way in which this Zelda game in particular manages to link all of the games together is amazing. I knew that Skyward Sword was the first game from the story's view but I was still a believer that every Zelda story was just a re-telling of the same original story (told throughout Skyward Sword) with different parts added or lost through the re-tellings much like a myth or legend but by the end of Skyward Sword there is no doubt that all the Zelda stories run in a timeline starting with Skyward Sword and ending with Wind Waker (not including hand held Zelda games).

Adventure is another massive part of any Zelda game and Skyward Sword delivers once again in this department. Although this is probably one of the smaller Zelda games in terms of land covered, the use of backtracking through previously explored areas with newly acquired items allows you to explore the same areas again and again without getting bored. There is always more to discover and having finished the game totalling 29 hours I know there is still more out there. There's plenty of treasures to search for in order to improve your items and as always there are heart pieces to hunt for if you want to give yourself the upper hand in a boss fight. If you just want to finish the game you will still have to retrace yourself a total of 3 times in each of the 3 areas below the "hub" world which, for some people, may seem like a cheaters way to elongate a game and get more hours out of it but each visit offers something new with a new section of the area being opened up each time or something drastic happening to change the landscape. In this way, while you are still re-visiting old areas they still feel new and fresh with each visit.

Ghirahim seems a bit camp at times but he will push your sword skills to the limit.

Now to complete the Tri-Force that is a Zelda game, boss battles. Skyward sword offers some of the best boss battles I have had the joy to experience in any game, each boss requires you to use your newly acquired item (as is the case in all Zelda games) and then to use your sword wielding skills to defeat them. This gets increasingly harder as the further in you get the more the bosses will read your sword position and block accordingly meaning you have to act fast and accurately. The worst for this is the recurring main boss Ghirahim whose sword skills will put yours to the test and any wrong move against him will result in the loss of a heart, which will decrease rapidly if you don't know how to handle your sword. The best however, as always, is saved for last. Demise, the ever-present imprisoned evil, is your final challenge and will truly test your sword skills with every wrong move costing you 2 precious hearts. This final epic sword fight is by far the best fight I have experienced in any Zelda game, the closing chapter of the story builds and builds until you finally reach the point where you have to fight Demise and unlike previous final boss fights where you use various items to defeat the boss or have Zelda fire a light arrow to stun them, this fight is one on one with just your sword. It's the perfect end to a Zelda game.

You'll need to be on top form to take out Demise

As is to be expected, Skyward Sword is a brilliant game. Some are even saying it's the best Zelda game to date. My view is that it is a massive move forward for the franchise in the way that it is controlled, the story makes just as much an impact and I would have to say is probably the best story in the franchise, the boss fights are epic and the combat in general is outstanding. However. I miss learning and playing the songs and the music in Skyward Sword is incredible so to be in control of that music would have felt amazing. I also think some of the items were just there as a filler, like the whip which is only used a few times in the game. The upgradable equipment could have been done better as well but as this is a first for the franchise I can forgive them. Overall I would say Skyward Sword is definitely among the top Zelda games and could easily have dethroned Ocarina in many peoples minds, if you love Zelda games or even just adventure games then get Skyward Sword.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword gets:

A complete Tri-Force! (3 out of 3)

 It's time to bring out the Wii for it's victory lap before the next generation take over, it's just a shame that such a great game couldn't have come earlier and shown all the "hardcore" gamers what the Wii is capable of.

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Resistance: Fall of Man

A short one at the moment that originally was going to go in my main blog, Daily (Maybe), but I'm working on Skyward Sword for you and it'll be ready soon.

One of the Playstation's biggest franchises

After the release of Resistance 3 and the slew of amazing reviews it received I decided to get a copy of the original and see what the fuss is about. First off I have to say that I really really really tried to like this game but it had so many flaws in it that distracted me from enjoying it. The story felt like it was thrown together at the last minute, the controls are decent and fairly intuitive but nowhere near the standards of a next-gen game, even one released at the start of this console generation. The first alien weapon you can equip just feels like a cheat, basically press a button then hide and hold fire so you don't even have to be in any sort of danger, its a nice idea and probably could work quite well on harder difficulty levels where its important to stay in cover and you receive less ammo but on normal, as I was playing at the time, it just made the game far too easy. The graphics were just like the controls, just not up to scratch. Having played the first Ratchet and Clank game to appear on the PS3 (Tools of Destruction) which is developed by the same company (Insomniac Games) I expected the graphics to be fairly decent and they were good, but not next-gen good. These, among other things, have put me off the Resistance series and although I will be trying the most recent release I doubt I will return to the first or second instalments.

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Battleheart

This week its a change from the mainstream to the slightly more obscure. Battleheart is an RPG game for mobiles costing a mere £1.99. For the purposes of this review i am using iOS 5 on an iPhone 4 so i don't know how well it runs on lower operating systems or devices, however i do know it requires iOS 3.1 or above and is also available on Android.

Mages, Paladins, Archers and......Pirates?

Battleheart is what i would call a "classic" RPG, there is no world as such but you do have a selection of characters that you can choose from, each with their own abilities and perks. It is not an Adventure RPG like The Elder Scrolls series, it is not a Japanese RPG like Final Fantasy, it is probably not like any other RPG that most of you have played. Battleheart is a basic RPG but this is definitely in its favour. I have played a multitude of RPGs on my iPhone but none have sucked up as many hours as Battleheart has, i am currently sitting on over 5 hours of play which makes it one of the most played games on my phone.

Nice short, but challenging levels make for a great experience.

One of the reasons Battleheart manages to get picked up again and again is because of its level system, not the character levels but the game levels. Battleheart's levels are designed in such a way that you can pick the game up for 10 minutes and then put it away again until you have another spare 10 minutes, split up into small battles. There are always just enough enemies to make it challenging but not too much as to cause you to have to stop playing half way through a battle. This makes it extremely easy to level up your characters whilst only playing for short bursts of time, which is a must for a mobile RPG player who doesn't have the same amount of time to sit down and play a full console or PC RPG. The enemies are also varied enough to keep you from getting bored, increasing in difficulty slowly enough to keep the challenge of a fight there.

The Paladin's abilities are a lifesaver sometimes.

As character leveling goes Battleheart has one of the best designs going, this includes some major RPGs. Characters level up based on how much they do throughout a battle so it's easy to level up specific characters by having them do all the work or to level up your entire party by spreading the work equally. In most party-based RPGs i tend to find that one or two characters rise above the rest but with Battleheart this doesn't seem to happen which is obviously a major plus point in my books. Apart from the basic leveling up of attributes (in Battleheart's case strength/magic and defence) there is a skill tree section for each character type where each 5 levels gained allows you to pick one of two abilities some of which are passive abilities while others can be used during battle. These abilities can range from simple power attacks to ones that can be combined with others to make a character more powerful, such as my pirate barbarian who has an ability to increase attack speed, a rage ability that increases power but also increases damage taken and a passive ability that negates the negative effects of his rage ability, so when used together my barbarian because both strong and fast. But you don't have to pick which abilities to use there and then when a character levels up, you can change abilities quickly from the Academy section of the menu meaning if you're finding a battle particularly difficult you can not only change your party line up but you can also change that party's abilities to suit the battle situation.

The Leveling system is simple enough to understand but offers a wide range of different set-ups.

Speaking of your party, you can easily pick up new characters to use in your party from the Tavern, where characters can be picked up from a price. Obviously the higher level characters cost more to purchase but once they are in your party you are free to use them as you wish. To further increase your parties strength you also pick up various items from completing battles or by purchasing them from the shop with money earned in battles. This is where my one problem with Battleheart comes in. Unfortunately there is a very limited amount of items available, with only 8 being available for purchase at any one time from the shop. These items also change after each battle so if you decide to save up for that one item that will help you there's a fair chance it won't be in the shop next time you visit. Battleheart does get around this to an extent by allowing you to upgrade offensive and defensive items but for a greatly increased price when compared to buying it directly from the shop. For example, upgrading a cutlass to a greatsword would cost you 300 gold but buying the greatsword directly would only cost 200 plus the money you recieve from selling the cutlass.

The shop only offers 8 items at most at a time and most of the time you won't want any of them.

Asside from that one small problem, I can find no fault with Battleheart. Even the controls are excellent and intuitive, considering it is a mobile game i was not expecting the controls to be brilliant but Battleheart allows you to move each character individually with ease and if you can manage it you can move 2 or more characters at time, depending on how many fingers you can get on the screen. The abilities are easily visible, not taking up too much screen so they never seem to be in the way and even the biggiest of enemies take up no more room than they need so your characters are always easily visible and ready to be moved if needed. When selecting which enemies to attack you do exactly what you think you should do, you just draw a line from whichever character you want to attack to the enemy you want to be attacking, its as simple as that.

Battleheart is exactly what is needed by a mobile platform RPG game. It's simple to use with lots of characters to use and abilities to try. It can easily be picked up at any point in the day and played for hours but just as essentially can be put down at a moments notice if required. Battleheart has given me hours of entertainment so far and i have no doubt it has lot more to give me still.

Battleheart gets:

5 Barbarian Pirates!!! (out of 5)

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Minecraft

I know it's been a while but here we go, ROUND TWO!!!!! *DING DING DING*


This time round I'm reviewing the ridiculously popular (given its still in beta) Minecraft. Last time i reviewed Batman: Arkham City which was an easy choice, an excellent game that i had been playing for days before writing the review. It wasn't such a clear choice for this review though, currently i have a stack of games in my room that are begging to be played and i struggled to single one out to play and review but thanks to today my mind was made up for me.

It's not much at the moment, but it's my home.

After seeing the landmark post from Markus "Notch" Persson on Twitter last night telling everyone that the 4 Millionth download of Minecraft had been completed, i felt the sudden urge to start playing it again. Like most adopters of the Lego-like game, at first i was confused about what to do and it seemed as if there was nothing to do, just roam around and arbitrarily collect minerals and create items to get more minerals. Of course at a basic level that is all you do but therein lies the greatness of this game. Minecraft does to video games what Lego done to plastic toys decades before, it gives you the basic materials to build something and then lets you do whatever you want with it.

Minecraft can be very dull if you are coming into it thinking it's going to be this amazing game that can rival the most popular game franchises and I'm sorry to say this is what i thought of it at first. I initially thought that it was nothing more than a boring blocky game that had nothing to it, luckily i soon saw the light. After a few hours frustratingly wandering around looking for my first coal vain i decided to just start digging into a nearby hill in the hope i would find something. It was then that i started imaging how i could open up the small space i had made into a large room, possibly with windows and doors (at this point i was unaware that you could actually make doors and glass for windows) and that is Minecrafts greatest strength, the players imagination. Thanks to the seemingly limitless scope of Minecraft you can use your imagination to build ANYTHING you want. My first run around in the world had me making a small room in the side of a mountain, my second had me building an evil lair in a skull shape and now that I'm getting back into it again I've decided to build a lake-side modern cabin with the hopes of building a fully working tower with elevators and penthouse suite.

Like Lego, but more WIN

But using you're imagination is only half the fun of Minecraft. Although i still think that the players imagination is the biggest factor in making the game work, there is also the sense of adventure and wonder you get as you travel around the randomly generated world. In order to craft whatever you want you first have to mine the right resources (see what i did there?) and this requires finding blocks of ore that you can mine that can then be smelted into usable materials such as iron. I know it doesn't sound like much but unless you are prepared you could easily be ambushed by one of the games monsters which, despite them being made of blocks, can be a harrowing experience.

Of course, these monsters don't come out until night time so as long as you have a safe place built by nightfall you should be safe. On long journeys, however, when you are in search of more coal or iron you can easily be caught out by the setting sun and then face a deadly run back to you're house/safe area. This has happened to me on occasion and somehow it has quickly become one of the most stressful experiences i have had in a game. Having to get back to my semi-built house as fast as i can, trying to remember how to get back (there are no maps for guidance unless you make one yourself) and having to be ever watchful for mobs (Minecraft's monsters) hiding behind the next tree is both exciting and terrifying.

To start with i was sceptical of Minecraft, as are most people still, but I'm glad i gave it a chance. Although it doesn't seem like a very complicated game and it certainly isn't going to be winning awards for best graphics anytime soon, Minecraft is as amazing as your imagination makes it, you can build your dream home, you can construct working models of your favourite cars/planes/spacecraft if you get to grips with the pistons, levers, buttons and switches. There are people that have made 1:1 scale replicas of famous vehicles or buildings, one person made a working 16-bit computer (they made a computer within a game within a computer!). My advice is to by this game before it comes out of beta later this month and you miss the chance for the beta discount.

 Minecraft gets:

4 and 3 Quarter 8-bit Gold Bars! (Out of 5)

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Batman: Arkham City

Lucky you! I've found time in my busy schedule to actually review a game or two, and thats what this blog is all about! This venture is mainly to keep me from clogging up my other blog with game reviews and gossip, if anyone is interested you can have a look at my other blog, Daily (Maybe), by simply following this link: http://purplesweatband.blogspot.com/. Go on, the rest of us can wait.



Back? Good, now i can begin the actual review!

 Arkham City's posters give a good impression of how dark the game is.

This week I am reviewing Batman: Arkham City but first off I should mention that i am very informal when it comes to reviews and i won't be talking like I'm an expert and more like if I'm recommending a game to a friend. On that note, GET THIS GAME! Arkham City is everything its predecessor, Arkham Asylum was but bigger and better. However, it does fall short in some respects but i'll get to that later.

So, "How is it better?" I hear you cry. Well, imagine your favourite thing in the world then imagine more of it was put in front of you. Imagine you're a kid and your favourite playground was made bigger with more toys and your parents said "Go play, it's all yours", thats pretty much the feeling you get from Arkham City. One of the main problems that kept me from going back to Arkham Asylum as much as i would have liked to is the feeling of it being very small and not having much to do, despite the large amount of Riddler Challenges you were presented with. AC does away with this feeling, giving you a much more open area to play in and, more importantly, glide about in. Add to that an even more extensive catalouge of collectibles and side missions and you've basically got a perfect game thats been made even better.

A great game out-done by its sequal.

Whats that? "How does the story compare to Arkham Asylum?". I'm glad you asked! (Promise thats the last time i do that) AA's story was extremely well thought out and would usually have me playing it for a far longer time than i was supposed to but thats the sign of an amazing story in my eyes. The only downpoint for me was the ending and the final boss fight against Joker which i'm glad to say has been improved for Batmans latest outing. Despite the fact I expected a lot more from the final fight in AC, I was left feeling very happy with the way it ended in general, don't worry i won't spoil it here. The story is, however, rather short which may bother some people but you have to remember that this game has a massive amount of extras things to do even after completing the main story. Not only are there various side missions to complete but there is also the return of the Riddler Trophies scattered around the city, some of which you won't be able to collect until well after you finish the game and have collected the majority of Batmans suit and gadget upgrades. There's over 400 Riddler Challenges in AC, including trophies, riddles and challenges,  just about double that of AA so you get the rough idea of how much more there is to do in the sequal.

A quick mention about the graphics. They are as to be expected in a game of this popularity and the only flaw i can pick out of the look of the game is that Batman takes much more of a beating in AC than he did while running about the asylum yet his suit doesn't get anywhere near as wrecked as it did in AA. Yeah, thats the only thing that bugged me. Apart from that, the characters look great, especially Joker, Gotham looks gritty and dark as would be expected and best of all the Bat-Signal lights up over your objectives. You can't ask for more than that.

Now the bad parts unfortunately. While I did enjoy the story, I felt that some characters were just brought in to please the hardcore Batman fans and not because they were appropriate to the story. Two-Face for example makes a brief cameo at the start and in Cat-Womans storyline but no more is seen of him. For such a massive Batman character to make such a small appearance seems wrong in my view. This happens to other characters as well, like Bane who is just there to hand out a side mission and who made a much bigger impression in the first outing and Robin, over whom there was a big fuss about being in the game during press releases, who makes a brief cameo about half-way through and then mentioned again once or twice. However, I didn't mind small cameos from the smaller characters, such as the Mad-Hatter, who makes a brief but effective appearance.

Despite these few minor drawbacks, this game is perfect. It has a subtle blend of stealth and action that can't be found in any other game and a rich story that would fit nicely in a series of Batman comics. It brings in a large number of the comics characters, even if it is only for a few moments, which will make fans of the comics extremely happy. It has the collection and side missions to keep everyone occupied well after the main story has been finished as well as those all important leaderboards to keep you coming back for more. All-in-all, this game is a must-buy for anyone, and I won't be saying that a lot.

Batman: Arkham City gets:

4 and a half Batarangs! (out of 5)