Snapshot
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Snapshot: Tokyo Jungle (PS3)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Tokyo Jungle for PS3. Tokyo Jungle appears to be a cute, low-budget oddity – a cute action game about Pomeranians and baby chicks, wandering around a human-free Tokyo. The notion of its cuteness dissipates very quickly: despite the use of simplified, thankfully detail-free animation for the act, Tokyo Jungle is a necessarily gruesome game about animals surviving just as they do in nature, eating other animals and doing their best to avoid getting eaten. The Pomeranians stopped being cute the first time I saw two of them team up to drag a giant dead cat home.As long as you keep that content warning in mind, I can't recommend Tokyo Jungle enough. The violence shouldn't have been surprising, but the clever structure of the game is a well-earned surprise.
Snapshot: Snapshot (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Snapshot for PC. Finally, someone made a game for all the Instagram hipsters in the world. All those crazy kids with their fancy smartphones, taking too-close photos of burritos and Starbucks cups, only to crop them, blow out the saturation, and add kitschy comments bookended by less-than-three hearts for all their digital friends to see. Retro Affect's Snapshot is exactly like all of that, except way cuter and not at all like that.What Snapshot does have in common with Instagram is its photography foundation: It turns taking a picture into a pivotal mechanic in an otherwise classic platformer. Also like Instagram, Snapshot is incredibly addictive.%Gallery-165173%
Snapshot: They Bleed Pixels (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: They Bleed Pixels for PC. I have a soft spot for difficult, precision platformers. Super Meat Boy was my number 2 game of 2010, edged out only by Alan Wake. I also have a soft spot for character action games. 2004's Ninja Gaiden, for example, is probably my favorite action game of all time. Imagine my delight, then, when I first played They Bleed Pixels, which is both a precision platformer and a character action game.Whenever I'm not contemplating hurling my controller from my second story office window, They Bleed Pixels is an absolute blast.%Gallery-164730%
Snapshot strikes a pose on Steam
Snapshot is now available (surprisingly) on Steam. Retro Affect's 2D puzzle-platformer has been in development for several years and stars a robot named Pic, who can change the environment around him by taking pictures and placing them in the environment. The creative game is also coming to the PS Vita and PS3 later this year.Snapshot is the second project from Retro Affect – the studio's first effort was Depict1, a freeware game that came out of Global Game Jam 2010. Kyle Pulver, one of the members of Retro Affect, also recently launched his solo project Offspring Fling, a fun-yet-evil game about throwing babies around.
Snapshot: A Virus Named Tom (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: A Virus Named Tom for PC. A Virus Named Tom developer Tim Keenan of Misfits Attic makes a point to mention the uniqueness of his game's 54 local multiplayer levels to every potential reviewer, in almost every email.He has good reason to do so.A Virus Named Tom is a tile-flipping exercise in cartoonish hacking simliar to Pipe Dream, but with a Jetsons-like futuristic twist. As the single-player campaign ramps up in difficulty, it becomes a challenging, stressful and exhilarating test of dexterity and logic – but A Virus Named Tom is better as a multiplayer game, if only so you don't feel so idiotic for failing to solve yet another grid-based puzzle on the first try.After all, failing with a friend is always better than failing alone. Take those suckers down with you.
Latest Minecraft snapshot adds 'Wither Boss,' baked potatoes and invisibility potions
The latest install-at-your-own-risk Minecraft update (snapshot "12w34a") is now available over at the official Mojang blog. Once installed, several fundamental changes are made to the way maps and nether portals function. You'll also get some new items, things to make from said items, and probably the coolest creature ever.Dubbed the "Wither Boss," this new baddie is a three-headed floating skeleton torso that shoots exploding skulls from each head. It does not appear as though the creature actually exists anywhere in game yet, but the files are all there, waiting to be hacked in if you've got some kind of death wish (as seen in the demonstration video above by Sethbling).This update also adds potatoes and carrots, the former a reagent for baked potatoes and the latter a key ingredient in invisibility potions, of all things. Splashing the potion will make you and any surrounding mobs invisible, but will not affect your armor or any items you happen to be carrying. Meanwhile, splashing a baked potato on yourself would just be silly.
Snapshot: Krater (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Krater for PC. Krater defies our usual classifications. At first glance, it appears to be a dungeon crawler, replete with monsters, spells and loot. And yet, it also has elements of real-time strategy, with players managing multiple units, each with their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Further still, we've got traditional role-playing elements, including an overworld map and even random encounters.What really sets it apart, however, is the way that Krater treats its characters.%Gallery-138382%
Snapshot: Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers for PC. Some games teach us about the perils of war, how physics work or what we can look forward to in a future of space exploration, aliens and super-intelligent robots. But some games provide insight into something even more mystical, even more special and remarkably less intelligent than those robots: ourselves. Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers is one of those games.And it has high-powered laser action. Like, a lot of high-powered laser action.
Snapshot: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Multi)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC. I have a real soft spot for Travellers Tales' LEGO games. They certainly aren't the pinnacle of innovation, and they're not exactly on the bleeding edge of video game technology. Quite the contrary, they are simple and unembellished, using familiar mechanics and tried-and-true concepts. And, of course, LEGO titles all charm with their lampooning of whatever series they're based on, be it Star Wars, Harry Potter or Batman.In other words, Lego games might not be groundbreaking, but they're generally reliable. In that respect, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes seems no different, though it adds a wrinkle or two.%Gallery-157391%
Snapshot: Home (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Home for PC. Home doesn't take more than an hour or two to complete – and you'll have to do so in one sitting, as there is no save system – but that doesn't mean it won't have a lasting effect. As a horror-themed adventure game, the simple, pixelated 2D presentation belies Home's ability to disquiet and unsettle. It serves as a great reminder of what older games once taught us: With a little bit of coaxing, imagination can take you a long way.%Gallery-153906%
Snapshot training amateur photogs on PS3 and Vita this fall
Snapshot isn't a new game, though this may be the first you've heard of it. Nope, Snapshot's been kicking around indie game festivals and such for quite some time (since at least 2009, if not earlier), though we now know that Snapshot's being developed for PSN on both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.In Snapshot, you follow a little robot named (appropriately enough), "Pic," as he ventures across a puzzle-filled 2D world. By snapping square photos of the environment, Pic can alter the world around him – "taking photographs of light and using it to interact with physics" and momentum-based puzzles are both given as examples of Snapshot's gameplay twist.The game's a Sony exclusive (at least for now), with cross-platform save functionality built-in, and it's expected some time this fall. Check out the latest trailer just above – it's quite pretty!%Gallery-156371%
Snapshot: Sorcery
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Sorcery for PS3. Having been announced along with the PlayStation Move in 2010, Sorcery bears the burden of high expectations. This was supposed to be the game that showed what the Move could add to a non-party, non-minigame, and full-sized adventure in which your Move wand enabled you to fire magic bolts in any direction.It is, of course, unfair to judge the game by the expectations around its announcement. Such lofty circumstances make an enjoyable, if lightweight, game seem more disappointing.However, I will say that if Sorcery is to act as a Move ambassador, it is not up to the task. While there were certainly times I didn't mind using the motion controller, there were precious few times I was glad to; my experience aiming the in-game magic wand was, in equal parts, hitting the target accurately, flailing uselessly, and recalibrating.
Snapshot: Datura (PS3)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Datura for PS3. Standing amongst fallen leaves in an unknown forest, a face stares at me from the side of a tree. It's not a real face, of course, only a mask. Expending considerable effort, I pry the mask from the tree, revealing a hollow behind it. Housed within the hollow is a small pickaxe. Upon grasping the handle, I black out.I wake up in the middle of a frozen wasteland. Crawling along the hard surface, I clear away some snow with my forearm, exposing the ice underneath. It's not a wasteland at all; it's a lake. Beneath the ice is a golden chalice. A noise from behind prompts me to clear away more snow, exposing a horror underneath: A woman is trapped below the ice, and she's still alive.The pickaxe still rests in my hand, so I immediately go to work, chipping away as the woman squirms against the surface. My heart pounds as the axe falls again and again, slowly cracking the ice. Finally, the ice gives way – directly beneath me – and I tumble into the chilly abyss, sinking down as I watch the light of sky recede into nothingness. Again, I awake in the forest, the mask in my hand, which I quickly discard.This is a moment pulled directly from Datura. Did I do something wrong? Something right? I haven't got a clue.
Snapshot: Waveform (PC)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Waveform for PC. The games industry has entered a tense period of existence, with all the trash talk, petition-signing and next-gen jitters compounding into a nice, industry-wide hemiplegic migraine. We need something to soothe our psyches without boring our minds, a game that straddles the boundaries of "peaceful" and "challenging." That game just might be Waveform.Waveform offers a polished, pretty glimpse into the life of a light wave as it travels from Pluto to the sun, dodging dark matter and collecting light particles along the way. Players control the sine wave itself, straightening, elongating and bunching it up to guide the piece of light into the path of delicious particles, without crashing into any space trash.The endearing pomf pomf pomf of consumed light particles satisfies the senses like a far-away fireworks show, and the entire experience is ridiculously calming -- until the Singularity appears.
Snapshot: FIFA Soccer (Vita)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: FIFA Soccer for the PlayStation Vita. FIFA Soccer for the PlayStation Vita follows EA's typical response to new console launches: it does much to show off what hardware can do, but leaves a number of features on the cutting room floor.After losing some of its simulation tilt in FIFA Soccer 10, developer EA Canada crafted a successor upon the ideal of slowing the game down to more real world standards. Fouls increased as consistency in deflected shots dropped, and the result was a much more methodical game on the pitch. It went from being too "arcadey" to leaning too heavily on "simulation" for my personal liking. FIFA Soccer 12 rebalanced those two halves and presented a much better representation of simulation soccer as a fun playing experience.FIFA Soccer on Sony's new handheld is based on FIFA Soccer 11, and fans of the footie franchise will see the differences.%Gallery-148765%
Snapshot: Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (Vita)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational for the PlayStation Vita. As the best selling title during the Japanese Vita launch, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational must have some kind of spark, right? That spark, as it turns out, is very simple. It's just well executed arcade golf.
Snapshot: Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen (Vita)
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen for the PlayStation Vita. There was a time when I would have thought Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen was the greatest game ever made -- a very specific time, as a matter of fact. The year was 1998, back when Shinobido 2 was released for the original PlayStation. Of course, back then it was called Tenchu.That's a bit of snark, but it's also accurate. Developed by Acquire, the same studio behind the Tenchu series, Shinobido 2 bears a strong resemblance to its ninja granddaddy, albeit with a few new wrinkles.%Gallery-140180%
Snapshot: Touch My Katamari
There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we tell you about games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Touch My Katamari for the PlayStation Vita. Touch My Katamari is the best portable Katamari ever made by default. The reason is clear: the PlayStation Vita has two analog sticks, and it is therefore possible to play with the proper controls that the King of All Cosmos intended. Other portable Katamari games don't count.Playing Katamari Damacy on a handheld system feels ... so right. I can roll around in a surreal, fantasyland Japan for two minutes, pause the system, and get back to what I'm doing. I can absentmindedly amass darumas, cow pylons and automobiles while I'm watching TV.Even putting aside the portability, Touch My Katamari is a legitimately good Katamari game. Not the best Katamari game -- Namco can never top the work of creator Keita Takahashi, especially if it continually reuses old levels -- but a good one.%Gallery-142216%
Minecraft's latest snapshot introduces ocelots (look at his little spots!)
We've never seen an ocelot! Well, not one made out of cubes. The latest mob to hit Minecraft spawns in jungle biomes and can be tamed (or bred!) using raw fish, as seen in this video demonstration. The snapshot also changes skeleton AI and updates language files, but we know who the real star is.
Sony Ericsson's C905 shutterbug (and friends) in the wild
Press shots are often beautiful, but the problem with 'em is that they're usually about as real as Joan Rivers' face -- not the best way to get a real impression of what a device looks and acts like in the flesh. GSM Helpdesk scored some hands-on time today with the full range of Sony Ericsson's new wares, and the headliner of the bunch, the mighty 8.1 megapixel C905, is looking ready for battle. Not literal battle, of course, but battle in the marketplace with a whole host of feature phones being released this year from its top rivals -- particularly important at a time when market share is falling. The 2.4-inch display is apparently "clear" and plenty impressive for managing your extensive photo library, and we're digging the curvy styling; UIQ would've been nice, but we suppose the dumbphone set deserves killer cameras too. Also pictured are the low-end J132 and K330, the S302 (which with a 2 megapixel camera, may not be worthy of the name "Snapshot"), and the F305 gaming phone. We'd had high hopes for the F305 -- as we do for pretty much anything that can be shaken to control games -- but the live shots here are leaving us a little underwhelmed. Maybe the white version will do it justice?Read - C905, S302Read - F305Read - J132, K330
