Review: Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Playstation Portable)

Tekken is one of my all time favorite fighting series. Not because I believe it to be the best fighter out there, but because of nostalgia. I can not tell you how many hours I have spent in front of Tekken 2 with my friends. That game was my main reason for owning a Playstation 1 for the longest time. I have purchased every last game of the main series and when I got a Playstation Portable I immediately picked up Tekken: Dark Resurrection, which is the updated version of Tekken 5.

Wow. Just wow. It is not a handheld light version of Tekken, it is the real deal that just happens to be on a handheld system. It is every bit as fast paced, graphically beautiful and technically impressive. It truly feels like a top of the line PS2-Tekken title right in my hands and on the go. Very nice.

"The fighting system is completely intact, the loading times are very short and the game runs at buttery 60 frames per seconds."

Tekken: Dark Resurrection contains all the usual stuff such as Arcade mode, Story mode, Practice mode and Tekken Dojo in which the players could download "ghosts", meaning a fingerprint uploaded by other players. This meant you could have the CPU behave as real people. The rooster is not slimmed down either, we have all the characters from the arcade plus three extras bringing the total up to 35 characters to choose from. The fighting system is completely intact, the loading times are very short and the game runs at buttery 60 frames per seconds. There is not much else to say quite frankly, it is a solid Tekken game that every Playstation Portable owner (who likes fighters) should pick up.

Review: LocoRoco 2 (Playstation Portable)

The LocoRoco is a species of round creatures living in peace on their planet far away somewhere in the universe. Together with their friends the Mui Mui they care for the planet's vegetation and make sure that everything is alive, colorful and pleasant. One day, of course, evil forces called Moja arrive to the planet and want to take over. The LocoRoco have no idea how to fight this new mysterious creature army and thus put their fate in our hands to play the role of the planet. Meaning we get to tilt the ground to the left and right using the shoulder buttons L and R. Pretty soon the army is defeated and the LocoRoco can continue their happy lives in peace. That was part one. Pretty soon a sequel was released, because LocoRoco was such a success that it even feels a bit like a defining title when it comes to the PSP library.

The Moja have regrouped from their defeat and they are now ready to once again try to take over theplanet where the LocoRoco live. This time they have learned a new song that let them suck the lifeforce out of things to effectively spread chaos. The basic controls are identical, but this time around there is also a few new things. Among other things the LocoRoco, which are more in number, can now swim under water. This opens up to completely new kinds of challenges. The player can visit the Mui Mui house through the main menu to build new rooms and craft all sorts of interiours for the little creatures to enjoy. Sometimes it is also neessary to defend the house against Moja attacks. LocoRoco 2 is just as difficult as the first one when it comes to collecting everything that can be found in the stages, so do not judge the game by its cover - players craving difficult challenges should have plenty to do if they aim for a 100% completion.

"LocoRoco 2 is undoubtedly one of the console's finest titles."

Initially I was a bit skeptical about playing the sequal as it seemed like "more of exactly the same" to me. But again, the saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it" proves to be true. With just the right amount of new innovations, coupled with familiar mechanics and even more of the adorable LocoRoco - who jump, roll, swim and sing - the game rolls straight into my heart. LocoRoco 2 is undoubtedly one of the console's finest titles.

News: Win shooters and guides!

There is a competition going on over at The Dreamcast Junkyard right now. The challenge is to identify 25 Dreamcast games from just looking at the VMU. For someone like me, who never owned an original VMU (I only have third party ones with no screen/buttons), this is absolutely impossible - but I am sure lots of you can enter this competition and have a very good chance at winning:

1st prize: Dux 1.5 + Redux: Dark Matters + The DCJY Ultimate Collectors Guide
2nd prize: Dux 1.5 + The DCJY Ultimate Collectors Guide

There will be two winners of the first prize and three winners of the second prize, so there are five winners all in all. I would say that is pretty good odds if you are up for the challenge!

Review: Me & My Katamari (Playstation Portable)

Ever since I first played We Love Katamari on PS2 in co-op mode with a friend I have been in love with the universe that is Katamari. I have played most installments in the series and now the time was here for Me & My Katamari. It is exactly what you would expect from a Katamari game. For those not already familiar with the concept, imagine a sticky ball that you roll around to pick stuff up. That is it. And the more time you get to roll, the larger your ball, or Katamari, can grow. From picking up dice and paper clips all the way up to picking up entire islands the game never seize to be utter fun. And it is beautifully developed for the PSP format, it runs and looks great and sports a whole bunch of challenges to overcome, cousins to collect and secret presents to open.

"refreshingly whimsical, funny, pretty, cute, engaging, addicting and inspiring .../... the King's never ending talk gets old fast"

Since it is such a regular Katamari experience (I mean this in the nicest way possible) it comes with the same old pros and cons as they all kind of do. The pros are that it is refreshingly whimsical, funny, pretty, cute, engaging, addicting and inspiring. The cons are that the King's never ending talk gets old fast and if you try to play more than an hour at any given time you can get pretty bored to be honest. The game is, even though it is extremely imaginative, a bit repetetive. There is only so much you can do with the concept "roll a ball" I guess. But it is more than enough. It is not a miniature Katamari experience for a handheld system specifically, but a full fledged Katamari game with everything intact. If you love the Katamari games you will love this. I know I did.

Review: Killzone: Liberation (Playstation Portable)

What could go wrong? It is Guerilla themselves that made this PSP title. It must be great. So I thought, jumping in to Killzone: Liberation. And at first I felt it. It was a good game, I had fun. And then... things fell apart.

It is a top down (well, slightly isometric) third person shooter that tells a main story from different factions viewpoints. It sports an offline multiplayer mode, it has lots of details and interesting areas to explore and it can be quite challenging, especially if you play it on the harder difficulties. But that's pretty much where the good things end. Then we come to the controls. The controls aren't very good, particularly not in situations where you and your opponent are on different height levels. The aim assist is a complete joke. I would even argue it borders on totally broken. I died so many times due to the aim assist freaking out that I was ready to just give up on the game at times. I stuck with it though, but only to say I beat it. When it was over I quickly put it back on the shelf and moved on.

"I stuck with it though, but only to say I beat it."

So, what is my final verdict on this game? From the above we can deduct that I think it is forgettable. Further on I would say that Guerilla do not completely understand third person games in the same way as they do first person games. If you have a PSP and love the Killzone universe I would say it is worth picking up at a cheap price, but there are much better games in the genre on the PSP. For example Resistance: Retribution. Or even the GTA games.

Article: How the PSP became my most neglected console

When Sony first anounced that they were going to do a handheld gaming device I immediately throught "yeah, good luck with that", since Nintendo was completely dominating that market since forever. Do not get me wrong, I am no fanboy, if anything I prefer variety and since Sony had proven themselves capable of great things with the PS1 and PS2 I saw no reason as to why they would not make a great handheld. The problem is how the market is today. I just did not think they would be able to gain footing at all in times when Nintendo had completely ruled the handheld world with the Game Boy Advance SP and also had this new shiny thing called the Nintendo DS coming up. And to some extent I was right, the DS outsold the PSP with... well, let us just say there was never any fair competition. But this article is not about the DS. It is about the Playstation Portable, and why it became my most neglected console that I own. To understand my situation we are going to look both at the systems pros and cons from a general viewpoint and then from my personal one. Let us start right away.


The general pros

Graphics
First of all, the graphics. The PSP was capable of running impressive games for the time, it was almost like having a portable PS2. Miles ahead of the Nintendo DS.

Quality
Huge and impressive display together with great design and a bit of weight to it gave the console a very premium feeling.

Multimedia
Then there was the fact that you could play movies and music on it, even though no one ever did. So I guess this last point is fairly mute when I think about it.


The general cons

Battery life
The graphical powers together with the huge display meant that battery time was taking a big hit. Many of us ended up playing the PSP only at home plugged into the mains so we did not have to worry about the battery running out in the middle of a gaming session.

Loading times
Since the games come on discs there are plenty of loading times around. Something that does not really go too well with a handheld system. It should be quick to fire up, play a bit and then shut down in a second.

The memory card
The memory cards that were compatible with the PSP was not cheap. It was not as extremely bad as with the Vita, but it was much more expensive than getting an SD-card for the DS.


My personal pros

Great exclusives
The PSP had two incredibly good God of War-games (Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta). It had a Little Big Planet of its own. It had LocoRoco 1 and 2. Two of the best puzzle games I have ever played (Lumines 1 and 2), Me & My Katamari, the Patapon-games, and of course the most terrifying survival horror game I know of: Silent Hill Origins. It also had that Castlevania game with Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night as hidden bonuses. The list just goes on and on. So many great exclusives that I really wanted to play.
Many of these games found their way onto the PS2 at a later date, I know, but they were exclusives from the beginning.

Pretty format on the media (UMD)
I recently heard a few people complain about the UMD discs. That they were too sensitive and drove the price of the console up way too high. Well. I love small discs. I loved them on Gamecube, I loved them in my minidisc player and I loved them in my PSP. I love to put UMD:s into my console, take them out, sort them... Mmm...


My personal cons

"Too" premium
The big pretty screen felt a bit too fancy to just be knocked around in the backpack. It was a similar feeling to getting my first smartphone and hesitating to just pop it down my pocket.

RPG's is not my thing
Although I absolutely can enjoy an RPG it is not my main interest in gaming. And the PSP had RPG's as one of its main strong points. The system was overflowing with great RPG's that made everyone go crazy - except me.

The analog stick
While the PSP actually had an analog stick I always wanted to avoid it, even in 3D-based games. Because my thumb would hurt if I played for more than half an hour, since my hands are pretty big and my thumb had to knuckle down in a very awkward angle to use the analog stick. It rested much more comfortably on the d-pad.


So, here we come to the conclusion as to why the PSP is my most neglected console. It is the most regrettable combination of "too premium" and the poor battery life. For some reason it always was out of battery when I wanted to play, so it always had to be hooked up to the mains. And I never took it anywhere since it felt too expensive to risk dropping it. And when I was home, ready to play, I figured "why not just play a regular game on one of my many stationary consoles instead?". So it just sat there, in my bedroom, hooked up always charging but never on. And then stores stopped carrying the games and people moved on.

It is a shame really, but it is also never too late to give it some attention. I am actually playing it right now, I am in the middle of Killzone: Liberation. What I think of that game? Read my upcoming review and find out!

Review: Shenmue (Dreamcast)

It was time. Ever since I got a Dreamcast I had my sight set on a copy of Shenmue. I had heard it was one of the systems truly great and that I should not miss it for anything in the world. And then all the shoot 'em ups happened. I mostly used my Dreamcast for shooter goodness and soon forgot all about Shenmue as it gathered more and more dust up on my shelf. So this one day I met a guy who was new in town and we had quite a bit of stuff in common. Mainly video games, and more specifically we both felt we had used our Dreamcasts way to sparsely over the last years. And the one game we had in common, that both of us owned and had not played, was Shenmue. It really was time. We decided to go "book club" on it and play it separately but report to one another from time to time with thoughts and impressions. And here is what I thought.

"mindboggling amounts of dynamic dialogue with the many NPC's"

Shenmue is a groundbreaking game in many regards. It is one of the first open world games to feature so much attention to detail and realism. Time schedules, high resolution textures in every corner you care to look closer at, mindboggling amounts of dynamic dialogue with the many NPC's, the arcade in the town has real arcade ports... Heck, I have been told even the weather is accurate for the time. It is truly a world to lose oneself in. And here lays my first realization: Shenmue is a cosy and engaging game that does not take it upon itself to mercilessly entertain with tense action and explosions and so forth. It counts on you, the player, to give as much as you want to get out of it. I went all in and even if the game does have a neat notebook to store things,that needs to be remembered in, I grabbed myself a real notepad and a pen and kept some notes of my own.

I play as Ryo, a teenager living just outside of a small town with his family and their dojo. One day this mysterious man comes to visit and demands some kind of mirror. Ryo's father refuses to give it up and only when the man threatens the life of Ryo, Ryo's father explains where the mirror is hidden. But it is in vain because he gets killed anyway. Ryo then takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of this and revenge his father's death. Who was that man, what was it with that mirror he wanted and why was Ryo's father prepared to die to keep it safe? The first part of the game then becomes an exploring part where we get to know many of the locals as we ask around for the mysterious man and his speeding black car. A great way to slowly show us the ropes and present the characters, the villages and towns and the overall setting.

"At one point I had to just... wait for the bus."

The story unfolds in a steady and pretty slow pace, I can understand how this would frustrate stressed gamers as the game demands that we take the time to look around, chat with people and go on with many every day life tasks. At one point I had to just... wait for the bus. But that is okay, because I have the time to let Shenmue be what it is. I am not in any hurry to complete the game as fast as possible. I go with the flow.

So, I sooner or later find a second mirror, the plot thickens with connections all the way up to the top of the Chinese mafia all while I still feed kittens, return home every evening to not worry my mother and I am also trying to earn enough money to pay for a ticket to Hong Kong, the city where my father's murderer supposedly are currently residing. And a strange Gollum character starts following me, always one step ahead. This is... quite something.

But for every, for the time, new idea there is a drawback. The part where every NPC has an own life with a schedule and real things to do is awesome, but this also means that if you want to talk to a shop owner that has closed for the day then you have to wait until the following morning to be able to talk to them. And if you have nothing else to do at the moment, you are just going to have to wait. Stand around and just wait. Another cool thing is that you can talk to every NPC in the whole game, and they will have unique and sometimes interesting things to say. The drawback to this is that you sometimes can not steer the conversation in the direction you want at the time. There is something you must trigger to get the NPC's to talk about something else, and you have no idea what or when. And when they do change, you have to go around the whole village and talk to every last one of them again. And this is something you will have to repeat several times in order to progress the story.

All in all I think that Shenmue had some great ideas that overshines the shortcomings and the tale of Ryu was engaging enough to make me want to play the sequal.

News: The Dreamcast Junkyard Ultimate Collectors Guide is available as a physical copy

If you are a die hard Dreamcast collector chances are you have come across the wonderful website that is The Dreamcast Junkyard. You might also have looked through the guide to collecting Dreamcast games written by Mike Phelan. It is a guide that lists every game ever released for the system world wide, including the indie titles and even upcoming ones. This guide has now become a real physical thing to hold in your hands for the relatively low price of £10 + £4 in shipping (roughly $20 all in all).

Bear in mind that the guide is not a coffee table kind of book, it is meant to be a tool for collectors. This means there is no bells or whistles. It is pure text, charts and checklists back to back. For a closer look at the guide check out this YouTube video.

If you want to buy a copy then here is a link to their shop.

News: Sega bling for our feet

For 7,500 yen, or roughly $60, you can now get your feet the deluxe package they have been dreaming about for years and years. There are three versions of shoes which include Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive/Genesis. We have all long yearned for some new footwear in just the right retro style, have we not? To show the world that we mean business. Well, not me personally because I rock fairly generic black military style steel-toe boots and have been for the last two

decades. But I know for a fact that there are a lot of sleek sneaker lovers (or what ever this kind of shoe is called, do not ask me, I am too old to understand anything) out there and these shoes should be right up their alley. As long as they like Sega, that is. Anyway, I have digressed. Where was I? Oh, that is right. It does not matter what the answer is to my initial question - I honestly find it hard to come up with any reasons at all as to why anyone would not want to buy at least one

pair of ANIPPON's newly released Sega shoes. They are absolutely gorgeous if you ask me. Feast your eyes on these puppies, listen to the voice of your hearts and go grab your wallets. See you on the block!

Review: Colin McRae Rally 04 (Xbox)

Remember when rally games was not filled to the brim with "attitude", dubstep and energy drinks? Colin McRae Rally 04 is a pure rally experience that might seem a bit boring to some, but awesome for me. Instead of extreme pwning it is only about driving around minding your own business on rally tracks through forests and mountains. There is no music, no cool lifestyle menues, no edge, no MTV complex. It is just me and nature. Well, and a rally car.

This title screams pure rally and seems to nail almost everything that makes rally games appealing to me. Long nice tracks, lengthy championships and a great sense of realism without unnecessary bells and whistles. Being spoiled with later titles like the Dirt series, as far as the feeling of driving goes, I initially thought the cars were a bit slippery. There was barely any grip to speak of even under perfect conditions. I got used to it pretty fast though and half way through the game I was driving like crazy through dense forests, narrow mountain trails and treacherous mud tracks.

"I really can't imagine playing anything else than Colin McRae Rally 04 at this point."

The driving feels great, there is always times to improve and nothing gets in the way. Just pop the game in and off you go. I can not tell you if this game is like driving a real rally car and competing in a championship because I do not even have a drivers license. I am only coming at this from a general gamer's perspective, and one that is not very in to driving games as a general rule of thumb. But once every blue moon I go for a virtual drive, and I really can't imagine playing anything else than Colin McRae Rally 04 at this point. I have found my go to driving game. Pure rally bliss!

Review: Viewtiful Joe (Playstation 2)

I have a history with Viewtiful Joe, and it is not of the wonderful kind. I remember I bought it many years ago trying to get in to some lesser known (well, kind of) PS2 games and gave it a go. Me and my girlfriend got pretty far, I remember we were closing in on the last stage when we met a boss that we just could not, for the life of us, beat. I was infuriated. We bought this game that started out so good and we had so much fun and then it got impossibly hard and tedious. What a disappointment to put it up on the shelf without the satifaction of having beaten it.

So... That will not fly. Not with me. Yesterday I decided to give the game another go since I most certainly are even better at games today than I was back then. Viewtiful Joe is the debut title for Clover, the people that went on to make Ôkami and God Hand (as well as a Viewtiful Joe sequal and a couple of spinoffs). They have a unique way of designing the artwork in their games, I think I would have been able to tell it was Clover even if their logo was not featured in the beginning of the game. Viewtiful Joe also combines two weaknesses from Ôkami and God Hand but I will get to those in a minute. First let us talk about Joe.

"It's energetic, frantic, violent and douchebaggy."

Joe is a douchebag on a night out with his girlfriend Silvia to watch a douchebag movie. The villain in the movie suddenly reaches out of the cinema screen and snatches Silvia. Joe jumps after and finds himself being a super hero in a movie mashup. That is pretty much it as far as story goes. Viewtiful Joe is a 2D platformer beat 'em up that is short but hard. There is seven episodes in total, where each one has two parts and a boss fight or something similar. The visuals are cartoony and does a good job conveying the over the top attitude of the game. It's energetic, frantic, violent and douchebaggy (I think they went for "awesome" here, but I do not agree). I had fun going through the episodes once again, re-learning all of Joe's cool moves and I really did not remember the game being this much fun. Nice! But then I reached the later episodes and the feeling came over me like a wave. Tedious gameplay that overstays its welcome. It just takes a bit too long to get through it, even if it is just seven episodes. So the Ôkami weakness of dragging on forever was present. And then it also inherited God Hands "enough already, it was fun in the beginning but now I am bored". In small doses Viewtiful Joe is a great action game. But in small doses the player will not be able to completely master the controls and keep up with the speed that the game demands. So... It falls somewhere in between a fast action fix and a full fledged hardcore game and it does not nail any of them.

News: Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs

Team Saber Rider have bought the license to make a 16-bit gun-and-gun based on the 1987 TV series Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. They are aiming for a release on PC, Mac, Linux, 3DS, Wii U, SNES, PC Engine and Dreamcast. Yeah. What a odd and wonderful list, right? The PC Engine version is particularly interesting to me but it is because of the Dreamcast release I am covering this bit of news on VGL. They are running a kickstarter campaign right now. It is nearly funded with four days left to go, so I see no reason as to why this would not make it.


I take for granted that most of my readers fondly remember Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, so I think I speak for all of us when I say "Hurray!".

Review: Redux: Dark Matters (Dreamcast)

I was not the only one who initially felt that Redux: Dark Matters was a scandalous failure. The complaints started flowing in over at Hucast’s HQ. This resulted in everyone getting a second disc with a fixed version of Redux: Dark Matters free of charge. Well, we had to pay the shipping, but other than that it was free. Did this new version change my mind on Redux? Read on and find out!

Redux 1.1 fixes the visual problems completely. It is crystal sharp with great colors and the same smooth 60 FPS gameplay as DUX 1.5. The textures are all revamped and the sounds are tweaked. Gone is the pod launch attack, and that is a good thing. If you recently read my review on DUX 1.5 you will know that I found that particular attack somewhat pointless since there already is a proper charge shot in the game. Cleaner control scheme, cooler graphics, better sound, even further tweaked balance and a lot more bling. All the way from small pickups down to parallax backgrounds things have been improved and this makes me really enjoy the game.

"Redux: Dark Matters is the definite version, but it is not a completely new game."

Should gamers who own DUX 1.5 get Redux: Dark Matters? Well, let me say this. Redux: Dark Matters is the definite version, but it is not a completely new game. I would rather look at these games as three iterations of the same core game. They are all worth a couple of bucks for the collector I would say, but for an average gamer that just wants to play the best version of DUX out there Redux: Dark Matters is the only logical option. It is the most polished version of them all and it is in many ways like the original DUX on crack. Just make sure to buy the 1.1 version if you are going for a used copy. Really, really make sure.

Article: How Hucast tricked us all

In may 2012, Hucast emerged on Kickstarter. It was the creators behind DUX, that asked for $25,000 to make a sequal - Redux: Dark Matters. It was going to be a totally new shoot ’em up that would be extra sweetened the more streatch goals was reached. In the end Hucast got over $50,000 and although they originally said one particular stretch goal was 60k, they contacted all backers and said that the two player mode (and yet another new level) would enter the game. Excited over the great result Hucast went to work and the fans began their patient waiting.

The first release date, february of 2013, came and went. The updates were few and far between, but the complaints were even fewer. Let them take the time they need, most of us said. The game was delayed multiple times. But then, a snowy january afternoon when I was sitting at home a package fell through my door and down on my floor. The game had arrived. I eagerly opened it up and was greated with a wonderfully designed case filled with extra goodies. You know, some cards, a sticker, stuff like that.

I immediately put the Redux disc in my Dreamcast and on the television screen appeared... a pixelated logo seemingly out of focus. ”Wow” I thought, ”what a curious choice for a logo!”. What followed next could almost be described as a small shock. Redux: Dark Matters was not a ”new shoot ’em up” at all. It was an exact copy of DUX, but with slightly higher resolution, some new textures and deeper backgrounds. That had been shoehorned onto a Dreamcast disc with no thought on how the end result would be.

The result was blurry. In fact, the result was so blurry I could not look at the game for longer than ten minutes before getting a headache. Those who wear glasses can imagine playing without them to understand how Redux: Dark Matters looked.

What happened? How could Hucast go from ”a totally new shoot ’em up with extra levels and a two player mode” to ”DUX again, with no extra levels and no two player mode” at the same time as keeping their backers money without losing sleep? I do not know. It happened none the less.

Redux: Dark Matters is only marginally different from its predecessor and with blurry visuals. Hucast made a mediocre shoot ’em up worse, announced it as a completely new title, collected over $50,000 and laughed all the way to the bank.

I would like to explain here that it is important to read my upcoming, full, review of Redux: Dark Matters because Hucast listened to their fans and tried to make things better. Read that one before judging Hucast.

Review: DUX 1.5 (Dreamcast)

When I said I would take some time to sink my teeth into DUX 1.5 and Redux: Dark Matters I did not think I would take this long to do it. Of course I have not been playing just these two games since my last entry but let us pretend that is the case, for poops and giggles. So, this is my first review of two - focusing on DUX 1.5 and briefly covering Redux: Dark Matters because of reasons soon unveiled to you.

(DUX 1.5 is a slightly updated version of DUX, just as the name would suggest. Since I have not played the original I am not going to compare the two, but rather share some thoughts on DUX 1.5 as a game completely of its own. What I do know is different is the balance and the soundtrack.)

DUX 1.5 is a horizontal shoot ’em up developed by Hucast and released on Dreamcast in 2013, meaning it is one of those games that got released long after the system was discontinued. It plays as one would expect although a bit slow and it is definitely on the easy side. This is something I do not necessarily write off as negative as the shoot ’em up genre has plenty of sadistically difficult games as it is. I managed to 1CC it the same day I first fired it up and it quite frankly did not need anything more than patience.

"It plays as one would expect although a bit slow and it is definitely on the easy side."

The visuals are extremely pretty. Not technically impressive, but the color scheme... Oh, god, the color scheme. It is right up my alley with lots of pastelle colors and bright white objects. It runs buttery smooth and sounds pretty nice as well. The soundtrack is not something I will remember, but it is fitting to the levels and it feels taken care of. The controls are not complicated, but there are quite some things to remember. We have our standard shot (one button for regular shots and one for auto), a charge shot, bullet soaking and pod launch. The ship has a pod in front of it, sort of like in R-Type, which can protect the ship from most kinds of enemy fire. This pod can be used as is, launched forward to cause destruction and also soak up bullets on screen to clear a path or get the player out of a pinch. It all works, but I feel since we have an extremely powerful charge shot there is really no point in having the launching pod as well. It seems like two attacks that does pretty much the same. I ended up ignoring the pod launch during my time with the game.

"the only real challenge in reaching the end is paying attention through long, slow scrolling levels"

All in all I want to recommend DUX 1.5 to everyone that likes a more slow paced shooter with pretty visuals (without being a cute ’em up) and that has a lot of patience, because the only real challenge in reaching the end is paying attention through long, slow scrolling levels.

Immediately after beating DUX 1.5 I popped in the Redux: Dark Matters disc and was expecting nothing less than an amazing successor/remake of the formula. Perfected gameplay and impressive visuals together in perfect harmony and so on and so forth. What I got was garbage. The resolution was very strange and the result of a rushed decision was a game that looked so blurry it made me feel nauseous.