AceoHearts

Ludosity and Nicalis have just released ittle Dew 2, a fun, engaging and totally addictive adventure game. Ittle and her side kick Tippsie have washed ashore on a strange island on their flimsy raft. As with all great adventure stories, the raft breaks and our hero must use their wits and strength to battle evil and find enough supplies to build a new raft and float off into the sunset. Ittle Dew 2 harkens back to the original days of The Legend of Zelda. You will have to fight your way through more than half a dozen dungeons to grab new weapons and pieces for your escape boat. Besides searching dungeons full of monsters and puzzles you will also seek out dozens of hidden caves that will contain health power ups and more useful items for your quest. Don't let the cute cartoon look, or wacky story line fool you. This game is not going to be a cake walk. Every dungeon has a short cut - if you have the right equipment to access them. You will also have to do some serious thinking when it comes to solving the puzzles in the game. They will tax your brain and only get more devious as you progress. The optional dungeons will make sure that you are at your best. All you have to do to gain access to the optional dungeons is search out special pieces of scrap. Once you have gathered enough of them you can open new paths. The graphics in the game lean a bit on the cartoony side, but they are excellent. When you first look at the game, it will seem like it is for younger ages, but laying beneath the cutesy exterior is a substantal game that will test all adventurers. The game features a real questing soundtrack filled with jaunty tunes to accompany you in your journey. I can't be certain, but a few of the tracks sound like they have an electric accordian on them, and this is not a bad thing. ittle Dew 2 is an involved adventure game that will make Zelda fans forget for a while that the new game is months away. The variety of enemies, the distint areas for you to explore, and the fact that you can tackle dungeons in any order will keep you busy for hours. The game is available now on XBox One, PS4 and Steam for $19.99

If you enjoy space shooters that don't put you in the middle of bullet hell, 10 Tons has released a game that you should check out. Xenoraid is a vertical scrolling schump that puts you in control of a team of space craft trying to save the world from alien destruction. The game is fairly straight forward. You start out by outfitting your 4 ships with upgraded weapons and shields, then take off to repel invading forces. Each type of ship has a different load out. From scattershot guns, lasers, EMPs and regular machine guns - you have a full arsenal at your disposal. Jump into your first ship and start destroying the enemy. If you take too much damage, or need another weapon you can easily switch to another ship. If you die, you will automatically jump to the next craft in line. There are 3 areas with 5 missions a piece that you must clear. Once you complete a mission, you can use the gold that you collected to repair your fleet or add more upgrades. You will also earn experience for your pilots based on the number of kills they each get. This gives you a reason to rotate through your pilots and learn to use each of them. The graphics in the game are spectacular. The backgrounds are beautifully rendered. The miriad of ships that you face are each very distinct in design. The asteroid fields that you encounter are as amazing too look at as they are deadly. The game also features very good sound and music. Your fights will be accompanied by the sounds of guns blasting and great back ground tracks. This game is a lot of fun to play and will test your abilities to fly and shoot. Not only is there a story mode, but each planet features a survival mode in which you blast away enemies until you run out of ships. Each planet offers up special challenges for you to battle through. Xenoraid is out now for consoles and PC.

If you have an issue with bugs, then Triangle Studios and Awfully Nice Studios has a new game for you. The Bug Butcher puts you in the shoes of a space exterminator that must clear a space station of a nasty infestation. It seems all 5 floors - 30 levels in total, have been invaded by a host of insects and it is your job to clear them out and restore order. You get to start out by picking between Panic or Arcade mode. Panic mode is a Timed mode that will allow you to work your way through the levels untill you either run out of time or die. If you pick Arcade Mode, you will have a bit more health and will work your way through the 30 levels of the space station. The main difference is that if you fail a level you don't have to start from the beginning, you can just retry it. You also earn stars based on your score. Game play in either mode is pretty straight forward. Just fire your gun straight up in the air to eradicate the bouncing bugs. You will pick up a wide variety of short use weapons and power ups along your journey to help you. In both modes you gather coins and can use them to upgrade your weapons and buys perks. In Arcade mode these upgrades are permanent - and cost a lot more - but in panic mode they only last until you die. The other difference is that you can grab a friend and play co-op Panic mode, while Arcade is solo only. The graphics in the game are spot on. There are over a dozen different types of insects that you get to shoot at. They are varied enough to keep you on your toes, and delight your senses. The music and the sound compliment the game play. No matter if you are playing for 10 minutes or 2 hours, you won't get bored with the soundtrack.

Every once in a while a game comes along that is so off the wall you just have to play it. Manual Samuel released by Curve Digital is one of those games. You are Samuel Welthenburg Jr - a wealthy, stuck up man who is having a really bad day. Your girlfriend has broken up with you because of your attitude, and when you try to get her ro reconsider you get hit by a truck. Since you have not been the nicest of people, you get a one way ticket straight to Hell. You are greeted by Death himself who decides to make you a deal. If you can survive for 24 hours while doing everything in your life manually. This means that you will have to walk, breath, talk, stand up straight, and even blink by pressing buttons on your controller. You start out in the morning and must make your way through your day. Everything from basic hygiene, getting dressed, driving to work and of course doing your job is on the agenda. The mechanics are easy to learn, and don't require you to totally master them in order to beat most of the 8 stages. Unfortunately the final stage amps up the difficulty to a level that takes the fun out of the game. The quirky mechanics make the final battle a spotlight in tedium. The main issue is that there is a slight pause between each movement so you must have exact timing. As you play through the story, after each chapter you complete, you will unlock a time attack mode. In this mode you will get medals based on how well you do. You can also play through story mode with a friend in co-op mode as well. The game has very cartoony graphics, because that is probably the best way to showcase a re-animated corpse in a fun way. But the graphics are not what is elevated in this title. The narrator of the game steals to show. There are a ton of one liners and snarky comments to keep you well entertained. This is really the high point of the game.

I first started playing games on the Atari 2600, and one of my favorites was River Raid. Blue Rider by Ravegan reminds me a lot of this classic game. But instead of flying up a river to defeat your foes, you are making your way through twisting canyons and fighting off mechanical meanies. Hop into your ship and become the Blue Rider as you work your way through 9 intense levels. Each stage gets progressively harder as you work your way to the big, bad level boss. Each boss that you face has a very distinct style, and you will have to figure out how to counter if it you plan on surviving. Game play is very simple and so is your arsenal. You are armed with only machines and a limited supply of missles to get the job done. As you progress through the stages you can find power ups that will strengthen both your primary and secondary weapons. Each power up will randomly increase one of your weapons to give you more of a fighting chance. You may get 3 way guns or more deadly missles. The goal of the game it so make it through all 9 stages, but if you happen to fail, you can restart on any level that you have played - but you will start from the beginning of the level with your basic weapons. The graphics in Blue Rider are way above that of those early Activision games. It features a bright color palette, detailed scenery, and a nice variety in its levels. You also fight a nice variety of enemies in your trip through the vallies. The soundtack is ok, but you will mostly be listening to the sound pf your weapons as you strafe your enemies.

Recently Rusto released an all out assault on the senses in their latest game Spareware. In this game you assemble your robot and fight through the city of Helsinki and try to free the AI protector HelOS. You will have to battle through tons of humans and other bots to try and make it to your goal. But never fear - you can have up to 3 friends join you, as long as they are in the same room. At the start of the game you get to build your slaughter bot from the ground up. Pick the type of treads they have, the weapon on each arm, and even the head. This makes each round a bit different, and allows you to customize your character to your play style. You even get to upgrade your robots skills. As you progress through the game, you will earn new weapons and upgrades to help you along. You can even swap them out mid level if you are damaged and find one along the way. But the city of Helsinki is not what you might imagine. Besides the fact that you can change your bot around, the city changes with each play through. This means that every assault to the Core to rescue HelOS will be different, which definetely boosts the replay value. Not to mention multiple difficulty settings so you can either dip your toe into the fray or dive head first with no reguard for safety. The graphics in Spareware are bright and flashy. For a distopian future, there is a pretty bright color pallete being used, and that is ok. It is nice to see a depressed future that isn't drab looking. The title is more than a pretty face, it also has a shredding sound track. The music keeps up with you as you as slinging bullets at the enemy and exploding cars. The main draw back to this game is that all the multiplayer is local. It features up to 4 players in co-op and 8 players in versus, but everyone has to be sitting in the same room. While it is great to have a bunch of friends over playing together, it is not always possible. This means that a section of this game may be unusable for some players if they don't have local gaming friends. There are 36 achievements in the game that will test your skill and your ability to keep calm while your gamer score gets wonky for a while. The cheevos in this game are all base 8 - 8, 16, 24, 32, 64 and 128. It all equals 1,000 points in the end, and there are multiple ways to get your score back to ending in either a 0 or 5 but you will have to play the game and work them out. If you have gamerscore OCD, you might have a few eye twitch moments til things settle back down.

It's just your average night. You are busy delivering pizzas like normal and hoping that you will get a decent tip. It is coming to the end of your shift and you are delivering a pizza that was ordered online. As you knock, the door opens and you step inside calling after the owner to try and make your delivery. It is then that the door slowly closes and locks behind you and you come to the realization that this may be the last pizza that you ever deliver. As you explore the house you quickly notice that things are not as they seem. You find crazed, almost paranoid writings of a young child. You also find tape recorded messages from her parents. But you don't have long to get your bearings or figure out what is going on, because once the clock strikes midnight - Emily Wants to Play. Shawn Hitchcock has created a very creepy game that will prey on some of your most basic fears. SHK Apps has done their part by publishing the game and making sure it got to the masses. In this game you are not just trying to survive the night in a house with a young girl. You must also try deal with 3 of her favorite toys Kiki, Chester, and Mr Tatters. Each of these dolls is creepy in the day, but being locked in a house makes things even worse. Each hour you must deal with one more of Emilys creepy dolls, until you are trying to battle all of them at the same time as well as the disturbed little girl. Figuring out the way you have to handle each doll is a bit of trial and error. You will perish many times as you work out how to survive the night. The graphics in the game are a bit grainy, but that just adds to the tension of the game. They really went to town when it came to the sounds in the game. The creaking doors, the eerie laughter, and the skittering of footsteps will have you on the edge of your seat before you jump out of it. Emily Wants to Play is available now on XB1, PS4 and Steam for $4.99.

A few months ago Brainy Studio LLC released an interesting little platformer under the name of Turn On. In this not so action game it is up to you to restore power to a city - you did cause the black out after all, so it is the least you can do. You are a small piece of alien debris that has crashed into the local power plant. and through the power of lots of electricity, you have become electrified and self aware. Dr Brain has found you and has decided to help you on your quest. Since you either need power lines or bursts of electricity to travel, you wil have to hop on the top of his van to move from stage to stage. The object of the game is simple - restore power to all of the blacked out neighborhoods of the city. You do this by travelling along the power lines and re-energizing lights, generators, and breaker panels. Along the way you will grab lightening bolts which will also figure into your score for the level. Most levels are very self paced, and have nothing that can harm you, so you can take your time and grab everything. The end of each area features a rhythm level where you are propelled forward at a steady pace and must jump between lines. In either type of level, death is not a real issue. If you miss a jump and fall to the ground you will just restart at the last generator. This makes the game a very low stress platformer. You will get a score of 1 to 3 lamps based on the number of lightening bolts collected, lights lit, and other devices you have restored power too. Most levels you can 3 lamp fairly easily. But finding all the secrets will take a little more work. The are 86 XBL achievements in this game. Most are fairly simple and just require you to finish one of the more than 2 dozen levels, or record a 3 lamp score on it. But there are many that will require you to light up certain buildings, or find hidden lamps. These will require a little patience and some searching. Lighting up the Ferris Wheel will take some skill, and collecting several thousand lightening bolts will take some time. The music you get to listen to in Turn On is a treat. Most of it is fairly mellow to match the pace of the game, but it does change depending on the area you are in. The rhythm levels also vary the tempo well and keep you moving. The graphics are a little bit cartoony, but with self aware electrified alien debris they work extremely well. The comic style art panel screens between areas are cool and help tell the story, and explain your your objective. Turn On is out now on XB1, Steam and Windows.

Cornfox + Bros have just released their action adventure game Oceanhorn - Monster of Uncharted Seas to consoles. This game places you in the shoes of a young adventurer that must sail the seas, discover new islands, and rid the world of the evil Oceanhorn. If the game sounds familar to you, it will look familiar as well. Oceanhorn bears more than a passing resemblance to Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker - and that is not a bad thing. If you have been missing the adventures of the boy in green, you now have a viable option on a different console. You play the part of a young boy, who must find out what has happened to his father and try to save the world. To do this you must assemble the 3 lost runes, grab some upgraded gear, arm yourself with legendary weapons, and learn powerful magic spells to help solve puzzles and vanquish your foes. You will have to journey to various islands in the Uncharted Sea to gather your supplies and then revisit them as you get new gear so you can access all the areas in the game. The game features an interesting story line that will keep you engaged, even if there are a few holes here and there. Unfortunately it lacks some basic direction. You can wander around for a bit trying to figure out how to advance the story, or where to go. There are also a few spots where you have to do some serious back tracking to complete an area. Dungeons come equiped with some pretty interesting puzzles and bosses. Most bosses have a similiar scheme when it comes to defeating them, which is a bit of a disappointment, but they are very well designed. The graphics in the game are stunning. You are treated to beautiful locations and a wide variety of monsters to battle. The graphic design also causes one of the biggest issues in the game. Because of the 3/4 top down view, and inability to really rotate the camera, you are often unable to see doors or paths that you need to follow. This will lead to some frustrating running in circles until you hit the right wall. The game features a sweeping and emotional soundtrack as you trek across the ocean and discover new lands. There is a fair amount of content in the game. Besides the main story line, there are also 3 optional quests that you can try to complete to 100% the game. These will require you to search for 2 different sets of collectables and do a fair amounting of fishing. It will take some time, effort and exploring to grab everything and fill in all the blanks of the story. Oceanhorn - Monster of Uncharted Seas is available on XB1, PS4 and Steam for $14.99. You can also grab it on iOS if you are looking for something to play on the go - for a lower cost of course.

Elders Games 2-D vertical space shooter Solar Shifter EX has finally made its way to the consoles thanks to Head Up Games. This wild and crazy bullet hell is going to test your skills, and your patience. You take control of your ship and try to drive off the last remains of an alien force that is threatening to destroy the sun. These aliens are bent on your destruction and will send wave after wave to try and end your quest to preserve life as you know it. Story aside, game play is simple, avoid incoming bullets and try to take out as many enemies as you can. When you destroy an enemy, they will drop energy that can be used to upgrade your weapons if you are able to make it through the stage. You can also use the right stick to jump to one of four different areas of the screen to instantly avoid incoming damage - this is a good thing because your screen goes from empty to saturated with bullets quicker than you can curse. The jump or shift mechanic is something that you will have to get used to using as tapping the stick in the wrong direction will certainly be instant death. This game doesn't just require good reflexes and aim, it demands them. You will get very frustrated fairly early into the 18 missions if you are not able to dodge incoming attacks. The missions do feature a fair amount of check points, but even taking that into account, you are going to have to memorize EXACTLY where you need to be if you are not the quickest on the stick. Even that is an iffy prospect when a few stray bullets will cause you to head right back to the last check point. There are very few spots where you can actually earn health, so you have to protect what little you do have. Unless you are playing as one of the alien ships - those things seem to be able to take a beating. The graphics in the game are beautiful. You will fly over 8 different environments through the course of the game, but you don't just fly bottom to top. The board will twist a bit in between sections which makes for a nice change over a lot of other shooters. There is also a wide variety of enemies to blast, and they will light up the screen with missiles, lasers and other deadly projectiles. The music is a pumping score that unfortunately gets a bit drowned out with all the cannon fire. Luckily you can adjust the sound in the options menu. The game boasts 12 achievements on the XB1 version and getting them all will be a testament to your skill as a player. While 8 of them can be earned by making it through the game the rest will require something special. You will have to complete 4 different levels without taking any damage, and that will be a true test of gaming prowess. Solar Shifter EX is available on XB1 and Steam. It has been announced as coming to the PS4. You can grab it and test your skills for $9.99.

Kitteh Face has released a new matching game for the XBox One called Anode. This new take on the puzzle genre will have you questioning the days you have spent matching colors and lines in classic games like Tetris. If you are expecting another Tetris or Candy Crush clone you will be greatly disappointed and probably hate this game immediately. What you will find is a game with more depth and challenge than most of the matching games that have come out in a long time. Random shapes will drop and need to be placed, and these shapes will contain different colors, but that is about as far as the similarities to other matching games go. The colors will connect to matching ones horizontally, vertically, and even diagonally as long as they are next to each other. But the only way to clear any blocks is to match them with a flashing detonator of the same color, or a neutral one. This will cause the matched colors to disappear and blocks to drop. Some blocks even contain connectors that will allow you to attach 2 different colors, as long as the connectors match up. This can lead to chains of 2 or 3 dozen on a regular basis. There are 5 different game modes to play - 4 single player and 1 local multiplayer game. Each one will allow you to change a few of the game rules - time, use of times, etc. The multiplayer is a simple head to head battle. As you create chains it will add to your opponents stack. Single player allows you to play Time Attack, Race, Endless or Mission Mode. In Time Mode you try to stay alive till the timer runs out. Race, you are trying to reach the goal score in the fastest time. Endless is pretty self explanatory. Mission Mode tests your nerve and skill. You will have to complete chains, destroy certain colors, use connectors and more to complete missions that the game sets forth for you and get your next mission. Keep solving the missions until you fill your work space. As I said, this is not your average puzzle game and unfortunately it is not very intuitive when you first start playing. One major issue is that even though there is a 6 page How to Play basic tutorial, it never actually tells you what the controls are. So instead of rotating pieces you end up dropping them or vice versa while you are trying to figure things out. You will eventually figure out what rotates things which direction, how to use items, and just drop your blocks quickly, but it would be nice to have not wasted the first 10 minutes sorting things out. The graphics in the game are electric. When you make connections the lines crackle and pop like lightening. The colors are different enough that you won't easily confuse them. The music is alive and fits the game well. The tempo speeds up with the falling bloacks as you get deeper into the levels. There are 33 achievements for you to try and connect with in the game. You will have to create long chains, using each of the items,creating high multipliers and play each of the game modes. This means grabbing a friend and spending some time in multi-player mode. Just a heads up - there is a 21 point achievement in single player that can only be rounded out by playing the 2 player mode. You can grab Anode for $3.99 in the Xbox store and will be treated to a smart, fresh take on the matching game genre.

Pang Adventures, the newest release by DotEmu, is a sequel to the classic arcade game Buster Bros that was released in 1989 by Capcom. In the original game you had to travel the world popping giant bubbles that were attacking the planet. The sequel builds on the story, game play, and overall experience. You play as one of the Pang brothers, using a variety of weapons to thwart the alien invasion. The game features 3 different modes - Tour, Score Attack, and Panic Mode, but only Tour mode is available when you start to play. The game starts out in Bora Bora where you must pop large bubbles that will then split. Once they do, they will split again when hit, and only then can you destroy the small bubbles for good. The objective of each level is to clear all the bubbles, reach the target score, and of course, not die. You will get a stamp for completing the level and 2 more for reaching the target score in both single and multiplayer. But the game would be far to easy if all you had to do was pop the invading bubbles. After the first level a clock is introduced, so you must now complete levels before time runs out. As you progress, your foes get harder as well. Electricity is added to the mix. If you hit one of these bubbles with your harpoon and are still near the rope you will be zapped and die. Exploding bubbles, bubbles filled with lava, and timed bubbles will all make you think on your feet as you try and dodge and destroy them. You will also have to contend with bird that will alter bounce paths, and drop eggs that will stun you if they hit you, or leave a goo on the ground that will slow your movement. Once you complete Bora Bora - there are 15 levels and a boss fight, you will head off to Death Valley for more action. There are at least half a dozen locations for you to battle in for tour mode, each ending with a progressively harder boss. In addition to your new sun baked locale, after besting the Bora Bora boss, you will unlock Panic Mode. In Panic Mode you are given 3 lives to try and progress through 99 levels of bubble bouncing insanity. You must protect totems as they crop up from being destroyed. You can gain extra lives in this mode by reaching certain score marks, and with the abundance of enemies you face, it is pretty easy to recover lives that you lose. That does not mean you will have an easy time playing Panic Mode. The number of bubbles increases and it will test your skills if you play it solo or with a friend. The final game mode is Score Attack. Once again you get 3 lives to complete your objective. To unlock this mode you must complete Tour Mode. In Score Attack you will replay the levels in Tour Mode, in order, starting in Bora Bora. You start out with 3 lives and try to make it through all 96 levels - including the bosses. As with Panic Mode, you can earn extra lives as you increase your score - usually every 1/4 million points or so. If you are playing with a friend and go down without an extra life, your partner can revive you. If you are down at the end of the round with no more lives, your partner will continue the quest solo. The other main difference between Score Attack and Tour Mode is that there is no clock. You can take your time to be more accurate with your shots, and clear the levels at your own pace. Just remember that you will get a bonus for faster completions. The graphics in Pang Adventures are bright, colorful, an truly invoke an arcade feel. Each of the more than half dozen weapons is well drawn and easily recognizable the second that it appears on screen. The music style is very peppy and goes well with each of the locations. It will also have you bouncing along with the alien invasion as you go further and further into Panic Mode. Pang Adventures features 10 achievements on the XB1, 9 on Steam, and 9 trophies for PS4. XB1 users have the additional achievement of eating 20,000 calories - which is garnered for certain items that drop for bonus points. Many of the trophies / achievements are fairly easy to earn - there is even a Freebie, but some will require work and good timing. There are also 2 that will require you to play with another person. The 1st is reviving a downed player, and the other is acquiring all the stamps in Tour Mode.

When your neighbors are having a party and playing loud music at 3 am you call the police and have them break up the festivities right? Not in Party Hard, the new game just released by Pinokl Games to the PS4 and XB1. You grab the nearest stabby thing, head next door, and systematically slaughter every last party goer for interrupting your beauty sleep. Then you move on to the site of the next bash for another blood bath, because - why not. The objective of the game is simple, kill every person at the party without getting caught or killed. While this is a very straight forward premise, the execution can be rather tricky. Your hero - as the game calls the sleep deprived maniac - is armed only with a small knife so most of your kills have to be up close and personal. Waiting for drunk party goers to stray from the crowd to a secluded area before you do them in, and quickly hide their bodies to avoid detection. If a body is spotted, or if you are seen killing someone, the police are called and then you must try to evade capture. There are a few escape routes, open windows, trap doors and the like, but if you use them too often the resident handy man will seal them off to limit your movements. Besides your trusty knife, many parties will have traps that you can use to pick off a few hopeless victims. Unstable bookcases, rampaging bulls, runaway vehicles, large trees just to name a few. These are helpful, but never guarantee a large body count, and can be random on some maps. You can also pick up random items to help you on some maps like stun bombs, explosives, a large sword, or even a spare set of clothes to help you fool the fuzz. Controls are very simple for the game. I played the XB1 version while testing it, so I will reference those. Left stick moves your maniac. The left trigger is used to listen to what people are saying - honestly I didn't find this very helpful. The right trigger allows you to sprint for a limited time which is very helpful when trying to evade the police or catch someone that is about to call the cops on you. Right bumper allows you to use any items that you pick up. The Y button sets any trap you may encounter. When you get close to them you will see a bullseye to let you know they can be triggered. B button is used for picking up bodies and putting them down. You can pick up people that are just passed out, but they get grumpy if they wake up before you kill them - go figure. It wouldn't be a party if you couldn't dance, press the A button and you will shake it with all your soon to be murder victims. And last but not least is the X button - kill kill kill. The graphics are pure pixelated perfection. Even though the main focus of the game is to slaughter dozens of innocent people in every level, the graphics keep it from being to over the top while also giving it a great old school feel. The music is also something else. When a game has Party in the title you expect a decent soundtrack, and this title delivers. There are great beats to be had at all the locations. The voice acting in the cut scenes is a little over played at times, but that can be over looked. There are 26 achievements for you to earn in the XB1 and Steam versions, and 21 trophies in the PS4 version of the game. Most are based on killing people in general, hiding bodies, and killing people in unique ways. Some will require you the speed through a level or rack up a massive murder multiplier (say that 10 times fast - no really do it and tape it and tag me on Twitter) You will earn many of the achievements / trophies just by playing though the 19 parties and unlocking your 5 heroes.

WorkinMan Interactive has released a very interesting game in DeathState. It is a single stick shooter, bullet hell, rogue-like game, with RPG elements thrown into the mix for good measure. Professor Elinberg has opened a portal into the void and it is up to you to find out what has happened to him. Luckily, you have mastered the secrets of deep astral projection by entering into a fully death like state. While in DeathState, you can traverse the realms of existence that until now were only imagined, and try to discover the true fate of the Professor. But beware of the evil that lurks in the beyond. The controls of the game are simple, you use the left stick to move your character through the game. The game will automatically shoot at the closest enemy, leaving you only to worry about moving through the level and dodging incoming attacks. The right stick is used to dash - this will help you maneuver quickly from the hordes of enemies that you will encounter and their neon green balls of hurt. The X button will control your magic attack - each character has a different magic ability. And the Y, B, and A buttons will be used for items that you pick up on your adventure across the realms. You can use keyboard controls - substituting A,W,S,D for the left stick and the arrow keys for the right stick. This made the game even harder in my opinion, but everyone has their gaming style. Game play is fairly simply - teleport into the void, kill enemies, find the portal to the next layer, don't die, rinse and repeat. But it is that don't die step that always gets in the way. As you are fighting enemies in front of you and retreating from their attacks, you will often stumble into more enemies that were lurking behind you adding to the fray you are involved in. You also cannot slow play the levels, as there is a limited amount of time to get to the portal to the next layer. Reflexes, and situational awareness are key to survival and advancement. Lucky does hurt either, as there are items to be found that will help you on your quest. As you play through the game you will encounter 80 different items to unlock. That number does not include the multitude of Ancient Tomes, Weapons and Potions that you will find. Also after defeating a boss, they will drop an organ that you can ingest to empower your character on their journey. You will also unlock new characters, with new special attacks that will aid you in defeating the more difficult levels. The graphics for the game are like the game itself - a mix. The game is rendered in amazing 16 bit, giving it a truly retro feel. But it also uses shading from Unity to add really cool lighting effects into the game that cast an ominous tone to it. The mixture of the old and the new, elevate the game to a higher level. The sound effects and music also do well at lending a hand to the creepy tone and fast paced action of the game. There are 38 achievements for you to score in the game, and grabbing them all will not be easy. Many are based on you playing as each of the different characters. You will also have to beat the game 2 times in a row to grab one of the even more difficult ones. But don't worry, you score an achievement when you die 100 times, so you are always working towards a goal.

Code Avarice has developed a new game and released it on to XB1 with the help of Digerati. Previously available on Steam, Paranautical Activity blasts it's way onto the XB1 console, Wii U, and will hopefully soon be released on PS4. This first person shooter with rogue-like dungeons will instantly invoke thoughts of the original Doom and Quake. Paranautical Activity is a very fast paced tribute to the first person shooters. Not much is explained about the story before you start - or even while you play the game. When you 1st start up the game only Classic mode is unlocked, so you will start there and pick one of the four starting characters - David Bowie, DY-NO-MITE, Gorton, or The Tank. Each character has a different set of attributes, and weapons, so choose wisely. Once you have picked your hero you are placed in an elevator, the doors open on the 1st floor and you are off. Blast your way through room after room of enemies, looking for the next elevator. Demons, sharks, tenchi, ships, whales, skulls and maybe even a few ****. There are over 40 different enemies to encounter. Each room you enter must be cleared of bad guys before the doors will re-open. Scout the level looking for upgrades (there are 100 items in the game), the Gift Shop, and of course the monsterous boss who is guarding the elevator to the next floor. Work your way up to the 8th floor to find out what has been waiting for you. The controls are pretty stock for a FPS. Left stick controls movement and right stick controls your aim. The right trigger shoots your primary weapon while the left trigger is your jump. Right bumper or the B button will allow you to toss bombs - as long as you have them in your inventory. Left bumper or Y will allow you to switch between your primary and secondary weapons, as long as your character has a secondary. David Bowie starts with just a crossbow. Paranautical Activity has a killer dub step sound track that pulses with the action on screen. The music keeps pace with the frantic action as you are blasting and through demonic sea creatures. The graphics are very reminiscent of early 3-D first person shooters with a dash of blocky Minecraft tossed in. One of the first things I noticed was how dark the game was. Many of the rooms are not that well lit, which makes picking out the enemies difficult at times. There is no option to increase the brightness, so you are left in dimly lit rooms with fast moving monsters on many occasions. This is amplified on levels where the only light comes from floating jellyfish that can easily be taken out with a stray shot. There are 45 achievements to be earned in the XB1 version, and very few will come easily. To earn your 1,000 gamerscore you will have to beat the game with each of the characters, defeat Normal and Hardcore mode, use every item, kill all the bosses, speed run the game, and more. This is not going to be a quick and easy completion to say the least. You will have to have patience and skill to master this game.