psvitaroundup

You've got to love Japanese developers. They don't need to worry about twitch FPS gameplay, HD graphics presented in Dynavision and ludicrous weaponry. Just give them a class of kids that mixes a bit of If, a bit of Toy Soldiers and some Dead Poet's Society, and you have a recipe for an epic slice of role playing. This school, Thor's Military Academy, takes the best of the best (of the best) and the richest of the rich to churn out future leaders. Now, imagine if the current leaders are about to be dragged into an almighty war by some mysterious masked third power and a mercenary force. Enter the kids for a po-faced Scooby Doo style adventure (without the dogs, although there is a cat, but plenty of monsters). In the same way Scooby Doo has some useful life lessons, given the pointless education today's kids get these days, perhaps the latest Legend of Heroes can also act as a useful political point. The upper classes are always trying to screw people over, or bomb the crap out of rivals, regardless of how smiley their press conferences are - Donald Trump, this one's for you ... So, while a typical school day might involve sorting out the usual boy/girl issues, keeping staff supplied with their favourite magazines, and studying for those important exams, there's a lot more at stake in Cold Steel than a gold star from teacher. Set in Erbonia, a first for the Trails series, you can travel by train, on foot, horse, or by handy automap to get around. With the Vita's limited memory there's a lot of reused textures, but in most cases the artists have done a fine job creative vibrant towns and epic vistas. The Class VII you, Rean Schwarzer, get lumped in is a special one, mixing the toffs and the urchins. They're soon throwing class war strops and hissy fits, before slowing bonding to form an arch team capable of going out and about, waving swords, staffs and firing off shotguns. Targets start out as little roadside bugs on your first practical outings, but soon ramp up to giant spiders and demonic hordes. This being an RPG, some kids are a little bit magical, with a huge range of spells and skills powered by the ARCUS Orbments - a neatly employed skill system driven by Quartz power. As the plot rockets along, all sorts of curious folk cross the team's path, helping out or obstructing them. Some of it is ludicrous - the minute you arrest a bunch of enemies threatening world peace, you don't let one of them whip out a monster-summoning flute! Some of Cold Steel is deeply emotive, with a nomadic tribe threatened by gathering armies and young relatives used as pawns by the various powers in play. But everything is on a grand scale, with challenge and betrayal on all sides. The epic scenery, for a Vita game, can chug in some of the cut scenes, but otherwise this is a fluid and exciting romp. I'll keep the plot vague, as that would spoil one of 2016's must-own titles, which can be played as deeply or as lightly as you like. You don't have to fight every random battle out in the sticks, you can ride or race past most of them, and the difficulty can be adjusted if you find yourself up against a new rock hard beast. Battle is naturally repetitive, but rarely boring. You'll need to scan your enemy for its weakest point of resistance to the best physical and magical attacks. Then, swap out your party for the most effective warriors and lay waste to them. Special links are the reason why this team is so strong, bond pairs together and you get extra defensive skills or bonus attacks dealing massive power. The only drag is the highly repetitive quest system and some of the noddy tasks you get, even though its obvious world peace is under threat. Fortunately, most of them are optional, but you need to raise your skills and powers somehow, and getting some social points to spend quality time with your chums is useful, so don't ignore them all. With such a fantastically realised world, and some glorious orchestration to provide the soundtrack, it is a shame that your freedom to explore is limited. There are some decent characters among the usual RPG fodder, and while you might not like being able to decide their stat progression yourself, there's still the fun of juggling orbments, upgrading weapons and other tweaks to take up the downtime between quests. Trails of Cold Steel is easily a 40 hour plus game, and worth a second playthrough in a higher challenge mode. With the sequel already well underway, expect this game to dominate Vita discussions in 2016. Not only does it shame western developers who claim they can't do much with the Vita but it is a hugely well-crafted adventure and universe that I look forward to exploring further.

Abe has been a fantastic poster child for innovation in games throughout his quirky career, and we have been fortunate enough for his adventures to bless the Vita. 3D adventure Stranger's Wrath and Munch's Odyssey hit the Vita a couple of years ago, and now here comes the original, almost a year after arriving on PS4. Abe's Odyssey might be approaching 20 years old, but it has lost none of its charm, challenge and intensity. The HD remake lit up the PS4 last year and it finally makes a bow on the Vita, having lost very little in the translation, perhaps some shine and sparkles. The portals look a lot simpler and there's a few less mines and furniture, and the lighting is toned down. If you can be patient, a physical limited edition release for Abe's has been confirmed, so hang on if little plastic cards are your thing! It looks a little more pastelly than the PlayStation's original cartoony palette, but otherwise is visually sharp and fluid. You can't open other apps while playing it, so I guess it uses the recently freed-up extra Vita power and RAM. The aim is to rescue your fellow Mudokon grunts from the meat farm and other hellish menial tasks they have been assigned. You can either avoid, trap, destroy or take over the minds of your captors, and get them to do some of your dirty work for you. Hopefully when the grunts vanish into the portal, they go to a better place. Through a mix of trapdoors, platforms, teamwork and cunningly (or annoyingly) placed save points, the action drives you relentlessly forward in the hunt for more chaps to rescue. The mix of platforms, sensors, bombs, mines and need to throw grenades or distracting bottle tops in the right place cause burst of delight and angst as you pull off a tricky rescue or **** it up at the last step. Jumping, rolling, dodging, hiding in the shadows and other skills must all be used at the right time, with the right timing to proceed. At least getting it wrong usually only knocks you back a few steps. Then you need to keep an eye out for doors that lead into the scenery or to other hidden areas where a Modokon might be hiding. Of course, you don't have to rescue them all, you even get a trophy for "accidentally" topping one. But, having gone to all the trouble of putting such a fine game together, it seems rude not to try. New tricks through the levels keep things fresh, talking to your fellows through whistles and farts will never get old. If there are issues with the game its that the original controls were very digital whereas the Vita's analogue stick can see Abe sometimes jump forward instead of up. There's also the odd lag between pressing the button and the desired effect taking place, defusing mines being one such annoyance. Otherwise, tuck into this feast of puzzling fun that feels so thoroughly modern, it seems almost rude to call it retro. Kudos to Just Add Water and Oddworld Inc for adding a little touch for Vita owners, you can play with lights on the screen, by using the rear touch panel during loading scenes!

Not again! I still remember the first time, trying to master all those tricks with my ageing finger joints cracking and popping away as the buttons flew, with my inevitable faceplant near the end of a level making me feel about as athletic as a slug in acid. The game play in Olliwood remains more-or-less identical, with progress through the skate park training runs, plus the dual-layer Amateur and Pro mode levels, across four worlds, starting in Olliwood, progressing through an Aztec jungle, rail road landscape, a gruesome carnival of the dead and finally the oppressive future of Titan Sky. Not that you'll notice much of the scenery, because your focus is glued to the few pixels around your skateboard as your try to get perfect landings, grinds and tricks to boost your score. There are new tricks, but I have no idea what they are because I'm usually too busy digging bits of tarmac out of my face. Seriously, this game is all about challenge and even on amateur, while you can just about progress through the levels, it takes extreme dedication to get through the pro ranks and master the sickest of tricks, combos and then landing the bastard to get the super-high scores. There are five challenges per level and a few play-throughs required to pick them up to advance. Then there's the Spots and Daily Grinds where you can try and get the best score to impress on the global leaderboards, yet more challenge to a game already stuffed full of challenge. If you're in the skateboarding frame of mind, then this a perfect mix of science and score hunting, if not it soon becomes a temptation for us cack-handed mortals to slam dunk the Vita and trying something else, wherever you fall on that scale will determine how your mileage varies. As a hunk of code, OO2 is near perfect with subtle, yet slick visuals, to keep the focus on your deck. Thumping urban audio to keep your head in check and all the previously listed challenges neatly mapped out before you. Ready, steady, splat!

Bloody hell, if they put this in front of prospective fire fighters as part of the job interview, most of them would go home and become yoghurt farmers, or something a little less challenging! Flame Over is a seriously tough slab of game, cut from the unforgiving cloth of the roguelikes, but with its own distinctive, and slightly singed, aroma to it. When you're playing it right, Flame Over is a deadly ballet, dancing in and out of rooms to preserve your life, pirouetting around to fight each devilish tongue of fire with water or foam, and striding purposefully with metronomic cadence to find the recharge points and bonuses around the randomly generated levels. To add to the chaos, there are people to rescue (which add to your time) and cats (extra lives). Finding the feisty Miss Ion and keeping her alive is an essential part of most levels. She gives you simple tasks, if you ignore the massive fire raging around you, to perform with upgrade tokens as a reward. The isometric perspective means you can't see every bit of the out-of-control BBQ. You are constantly juggling perspective and hose direction to keep the conflagration under control, before you get too toasted - shown by a red ring encircling you as the heat grows. Even the first level is a serious challenge. And, once you make it out alive, avoiding death - literally - if the timer happens to run out, things only get tougher. Annoyingly, when you make it out, you can have loads of cash, but often no token, which means you can't gain any benefit from the power-up screen at the start. A slightly more friendly bit of design here would have helped, but apparently Mr. Grumpy was in charge during development. Also, don't say "spend money now" when you can't actually spend any! Still, when you get a token or two, the upgrade process soon becomes another cunning part of your strategy, lots of water bombs, or a hardier fire fighter? You decide. As it is, you race into the next level with little time and more backdrafts to battle, making rescues the priority over the fire, it becomes a vicious juggling act. Play Flame Over a few times and you learn the strategies for saving and earning time as a priority. There are tips on the loading screen, but there's plenty you can learn yourself through clever play. Learning the properties of the different materials is another key to success, as is finding the big circuit switch that will kill the electrical fires, making your task a little simpler. Using the map, you can find reload points and other essentials, but Flame Over is essentially about time management, and is remorseless in its punishment when you **** things up. Spread across four areas, offices, the lavish executive suites, nasty chemical labs and the factory (which add their own challenges in the form of toxic spills, gas, exploding barrels and other nasties), the various power ups become essential. There's a defibrillator kit to revive collapsed victims, holy water to prevent recurring fires and several fire fighter performance improvements to help you battle the flambe more effectively. There are some brilliant touches in Flame Over, from the green glow that reminds you where the exit it, to the clever upgrade strategy and the pernicious nature of the fires. Mastering a major room fire brings a great sense of achievement, dicing with your health, water supply and the surging flames, but there's little direct reward from the game, just plenty more similar battles to fight. My complaints about the game are mostly minor. It feels a bit unbalanced, with lots of money wasted in the early going and lots of unspent tokens stacking up in the second half. A few cosmetic touches also really, really annoy me, The music is quirky, but they could have done a little more with it. The intro is skippable, but is poor and there should be an option to turn it off to save time. There's no quick replay button (for those many times when you don't get a token or enough cash). Also, it needs more than a little "bloop" to notify that you lost a life, and, as you may have noticed, the difficulty is definitely set at sadist level with no way to dial it down. While it has some character of its own, and the Caretaker and other guests to liven things up later on, it could also do with some better use of its characters. Flame Over just feels a little lacking in the British humour department that a game like this is crying out for, but that's a minor moan. As a pure game, Flame Over burns about as bright as a Bunsen burner with magnesium tape held in the flame. It is a rock of a challenge that only Herculean gamers will complete, with some right bastard trophies! If you're up for the challenge, jump right in, if not best go play Pokemon with the kids

From PS Vita Roundup Ever had one of those days? Where you wake up, the house is carnage, all your friends have vanished, and there's no one else around but a burbling little flying robot with fox ears? Meet Kick (the kid) and Fennick (the foxbot), they are having that kind of experience. Kick and Fennick looks gorgeous from the off, in native resolution, with vibrant colours across all layers of the 3D background. Their adventures start out with a few timid steps in a futuristic city, exploring across a 2D plane, before Kick stumbles upon an energy weapon, just casually left lying around the place. Its purpose is two-fold. The laser side of it can knock out weak walls or blast the enemy bots, while the recoil allows him to take huge leaps around the scenery. That feature can be used to find plenty of hidden secrets and collectibles tucked away in the corners of each level, with some subtle 3D tilting and zooming to help show the way. It maybe gets a couple of minutes to get used to the jump mechanics, and questions of 'why can't he climb?' or shouts of 'just walk around the obstacle' soon fade away. There's also the handy kickback of the weapon to help crash through obstacles. In later levels, power-ups for the laser-bazooka give you some extra zing, but the special cogs you can find around each level become harder to track down. Their mission is to get Fennick a new battery, but surely there are battery shops in every high-tech future building like these? Still, off you trot through each level, heading to a tower in the core of the city. Your first encounter with an enemy happens to be a massive mechanoid happens a few levels in, but isn't really much of a battle. From the second set of levels onward, there are more regular baddies to zap, and more electro-pitfalls that would lead to your doom, if Fennick wasn't around to restore you to just before your last klutzy move. Get things wrong enough times and you do go back to the start of the level, but they're mostly short enough for this not to be a crisis. Fennick can also show you where to go, if you run into a dead end. Kick can survive pretty much any fall, and manoeuvre a little in mid-air to control his landing point. The double jump mechanic is essential to master, so spend some time practising it, using the slo-mo effect to land that second stage. You'll soon be double jumping under or over electric beams, making massive blind leaps and using magnets, bounce pads, teleporters to advance. A New Breed of Hero? It is hard to be critical of such a smooth game, that is so pure in what it does, with its steady progression of new tricks through the levels. Yet, there's remarkably little interaction between the duo. I suppose doing so would have risked having them labelled as a would-be Ratchet and Clank, or Jak and Daxter, but is that such a bad thing? Also, you find a Special Gear on each level, but rarely do they provide anything "special" beyond the odd costume change. If I was being picky, there's little reason to go back and search for that last missing cog, except for completeness' sake and the trophies I guess. But, there's nothing like the replayability of a Mario level, and little in the way of alternate routes. Also, across 45 levels, they are perhaps just a touch too similar in look and overall design to each other. That said, Kick and Fennick is a gorgeous, challenging puzzler that perhaps isn't quite ambitious in the gameplay stakes as it makes out through the superb graphics. Certainly a bigger, better, badder sequel would be something to behold (where's the speed run option?). And it proves that you don't have to be Naughty Dog or Nintendo to create a new generation of lovable gaming characters that could happily sit atop their own franchise. File size 824MB Not compatible with PlayStation TV Developer: Jaywalkers Genre: Platform adventure Players: 1 Price: £7.99 (free on PS Plus in Feb) Score: 8/10