aphx

Pretty fun 2D MOBA. I only have a couple qualms. The gameplay feels slow. Once into the game, I got used to it, but compared to 2D platformers or a 2D multiplayer shooter like Soldat, the base rate of fire and walk speed of the heroes in this game feels sluggish. Different genres, sure, but if you play a lot of platformers you might be less than impressed with the game physics here. There are a fair number of different maps, and the different layouts offer your team the opportunity to use different strategies, but all the maps kind of have the same feel to them. The different "worlds" don't feel very different from each other. However, I do enjoy the character choices. When you start, you'll only have three unlocked, but it's not hard to unlock more, and the different heroes do play differently from each other.

A good puzzler should keep you playing for hours as you strive to get better. Games like Tetris and Lumines haunt me even after I play as I visualize falling blocks and how I'd rotate them on the backs of my eyelids. AVSEQ didn't capture me in that way. In this game, falling, colorful blocks have to be chained together and removed from the field before they reach the bottom of the screen. Selection of blocks is done with the mouse, which will ultimately be the limiting factor on your skill within the game; to me, this felt sloppy compared to the tight, reflex-driven controls of a button-mashing puzzler, and was the reason I didn't feel compelled to pick the game back up after my initial playthrough.

TL;DR: Fun, but hampered by poor controls, unpolished feel, and driver conflicts. I had a fair amount of fun with Wanderlust, but I would not recommend its purchase to others, at least not considering the game's current state. I last played as of Dec. 2012. The game is sold on Steam as a finished product but it still feels like it is in beta. As another reviewer mentioned, the controls take a bit of time to get used to. However, they can be customized in game. The game was on sale on Steam as part of the Big Picture sale: It was advertised as being fully controller compatible. This is partially true. Three of the character classes use the keyboard only and can be handled with a gamepad after you customize the controls. The fourth class requires a mouse to play; I could not find a way to map the mouse control to an analog stick. Regarding gameplay, this game feels a little grindy. Item drops are infrequent and stat points (for leveling up a character) are awarded in an unusual fashion. Passing each new level will award you with some stat points, but to get the most points possible you'll need to repeat the level until you get better and more efficient at it. If you die during a level, there is always an option to continue right where you left off, even if you were in the middle of a chapter. But this action penalizes your final score and sometimes choosing to continue will simply rush you through to the next area rather than letting you try the same challenge over again. Monsters don't respawn until you play a chapter over from the beginning, and the AI will usually just rush you as soon as you appear on screen. It is exciting and the game often throws new and varied enemies at you, but I wish there were more of a strategic element in approaching these fights. The story is very linear and areas are broken up into very, very short segments, each usually containing one clump of enemies to fight. During multiplayer, there is no way (that I found) to share or trade items with other players. More importantly, however, the game has some hardware compatibility issues. The game does not play nicely with some HID drivers, among which wireless keyboards, mice, and gamepads seem to be particular culprits. If you're unlucky, you may install the game only to find that it uses a very large amount of system resources as it tries to collect information from your input devices, ultimately causing the game to lag badly during play. I searched online for a workaround, but for now it seems like the only solution is to uninstall the offending drivers. Because of this, I couldn't play Wanderlust on my main PC. I was eventually able to enjoy the game by playing on another system on which the game ran very smoothly. In fact, I enjoyed playing a whole evening away once everything was running as it should. Regarding multiplayer support, if you are familiar with port forwarding and have an uncomplicated router setup, playing with friends won't be difficult. But multiplayer doesn't "just work" straight out of the box. The host of the game, at least, will have to fiddle around to make sure his or her ports are forwarded properly in order to play. In summary, Wanderlust is still a bit rough around the edges. I don't feel like it should be advertised on Steam as a finished product with a price tag to match. But if the developers continue working on it, I'll be interested to see how it progresses over time.

TL;DR: For $10, this is a satisfying buy. Online multiplayer: There's 2, 3, or 4 machines free-for-all, or 2 players on one machines vs. 2 players on another. Easy to get into games; haven't encountered any networking troubles connecting to friends across continents. Control scheme is tough at first. No significant deck editing, but the prebuilts aren't bad. I was a big fan of the 1997 Duels of the Planeswalkers, so when this showed up on the PSN I was very excited. Unfortunately, this is not the same game as the 1997 PC software. It does not in any way resemble the older game beyond its affiliation with MTG cards. That said, the new Duels game is a fairly polished, entertaining way to dip back into the nostalgia of MTG cards without needing to buy, manage, and find like-minded opponents with real decks. The new sanitized design is a lot different from the old game's. As dorky as they were, I enjoyed the adventure maps of the 1997 classic. You walked around the world with your deck of cards and fought battles by running into sprites. In the new Duels, the Campaign mode is simply a ladder of opponents you climb, one at a time, a la Mortal Kombat. Controlling MTG games with a controller includes a bit of a learning curve. The timing system especially keeps you on your toes. You only have a few seconds after each effect to cast counterspells or Giant Growth your attacker after blockers are declared. The first handful of games are extremely frustrating because you weren't able to employ your intended strategy just because of unfamiliarity with the controls and interface. After you catch on, though, the game is playable. Other reviewers have already mentioned the deck editing in this game: You play with prebuilt decks, and only a very small amount of customization is available. Some ten or so decks appear to be available in the base purchase, with 3 more decks per expansion pack on the PSN. If you want to play "real" MTG, this will disappoint you. However, if you just want to play casually, the prebuilt stuff is a relief, because it means the game is just pick-up-and-go. Decks feel fairly balanced; it's as easy to lose as win against the campaign AI, and you'll probably restart some matches when you aren't drawing what you want. I only wish there was a "random" deck choice option in multiplayer to make matches feel a little more like drafting. Finally, in regards to multiplayer, I was relieved to find that matchmaking is painless. I never had trouble inviting friends to games, even ones behind routers, which is a big difference from trouble I've had on some other PSN titles. 3- and 4-player matches are possible, too, with 3 or 4 machines, and there is a "Two-Headed Giant" match in which 2 players on each of two machines compete online.