And then there’s Final Fantasy XIII.

Honestly, I really did try my hardest to like it, but it’s a lot like discovering how disappointing fast food is after enjoying delicious, hearty home-cooked meals for years. Yes, it might look similar, but it simply does not taste the same at all. To cut a very long story short, it ranks as possibly one of the worst Final Fantasy games in existence. This review is not going to be pretty, so I suggest you brace yourself if you’re a fan of the series. Braced? You sure? Let’s go, then.

With a list of titles quite literally as long as my arm, Final Fantasy is one of the longest-running video game series in existence, even if the individual games, with a few exceptions, have very little to do with each other. So you’d expect that a game with a pedigree like this would be able to spawn offspring as majestic and wonderful as others in the proud line. It’s a pity, then, that every now and again the genetics screw up and you end up with a candidate for the far end of the pastures, instead of the majestic racehorse you were expecting to breed. Final Fantasy XIII is that failure of the line, but what makes the failure remarkable is that it looks as good as the real pedigree stuff; it’s just lame in all four legs.

I’m not going try to have this make any sense to you; if you really want to figure it out, play the game at your own peril. In short, there are two “worlds” (for lack of a better term): Cocoon and Pulse. The two worlds are ruled by fal’cie, and in order to get work done, they turn humans into l’cie. They fun side of this is that they don’t tell the l’cie what it is exactly they want done. Any l’cie that fail to fulfil their purpose are turned into a gibbering wreck known as a cie’eth. Allegedly, Pulse fal’cie and Cocoon fal’cie don’t much like each other, and they try to use their respective l’cie to cause trouble for the residents of the other. The action starts on Cocoon, where a female soldier named Lightning is fighting against a government-sponsored edict of purging, the purpose of which is to send anyone who might have been exposed to a Pulse fal’cie on Cocoon to Pulse. If any of this made sense to you, congratulations: you’ve passed the first test.

Final Fantasy XIII is certainly the most stunningly gorgeous game in the entire series, and you’re not going to find a game with as much lush, lurid graphical detail for a while to come. I suspect that this is where Square Enix took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up removing pretty much everything that made the Final Fantasy series such an enjoyable experience. The departure of two of the series’ mainstays, director Hironubu Sakagushi and musician Nobuo Uematsu, might also have something to do with it, but the decline of this title may have actually started even before then.

Either way, for possibly three-quarters of the game, it’s a linear, confusing mess of a game with a horribly unclear story, an insipid battle system, and no exploration whatsoever. Exploration is what makes this kind of game fun. People enjoy traipsing to an abandoned corner of the world map and discovering something there for their troubles. The entire battle system could be summed up as “select auto-attack”, because there was very little point in choosing any of the other options. Yes, you could try directing the battles, but you pretty much spend the entire battle pressing A (360) or X (PS3) because…well…it’s faster. One of the more interesting aspects of the battle system is the new “stagger” metric, where enemies take greater damage after you’ve hit them enough times with the right combination of attacks. It adds an, admittedly minor, strategy element to the game. Not enough to make it compelling, but it’s interesting. You’re also given a score at the end of each battle. Why? For no other reason than “because it looked cool”.

And this seems to be the entire, faulty motivating factor behind the creation of this game. Not because it might challenge gamers. Heaven knows that it certainly wasn’t created because gamers might find it fun. Or even that they might enjoy the story. No…the entire rationale behind the game seems to be “because it looks cool”. Well done, Square Enix! You’ve scored a direct 10/10 for looking cool. Unfortunately, games are more than just about looking cool, and, to return to my prior metaphor, you’ve shot your prize racehorse in the kneecaps. Lovingly, of course.

To say the game is “linear” is about as understated as saying that the sun is “big”. Sure it’s big, but it’s big on a scale that’s difficult for most mere mortal humans to comprehend. In the same way, Final Fantasy XIII, right up to about three-quarters in, is about as straight a line as you’re ever going to find in an RPG. And I use the term “RPG” in its loosest possible sense. It certainly tries its hardest to look like one, but it doesn’t quite quack like one, if you’ll excuse the horribly twisted metaphor. Sure, it opens up much later, but inevitably it’s way too little far, far too late. Yes it makes sense to restrict movement and exploration for perhaps the first one or two hours of the game (roughly the length of time it should take for the story to get underway), but the whole point of an RPG is the “RP” bit of that acronym allowing the player free reign to explore, talk to people, and understand the world that the game designers have built. Final Fantasy XIII allows you none of that. This is one of the things that’s driven the fans of the series into a rabid, slavering frenzy, and it’s a perfectly valid complaint. Even racing games are no longer this linear, so why should our RPGs be? In fact, it appears that with each passing game in the series, it becomes more and more linear. I glumly expect that, at this rate, the next single player game in the series is going to be just a line drawn on our screens. It’ll be a very pretty, sparkly line, but it’ll be a line, nonetheless.

The cardinal rule of any good storytelling is “show, don’t tell”, and I’m sure you’ve heard this many times before. It’s a valid rule, because telling is boring. If you want to get people interested in astronomy, the best way is to show them the heavens through a telescope, not tell them about it in as many words as you can muster. The best educational books, at the very least, had pictures. In storytelling, the best way to get people to sit up and take notice of your story is to show the action happening, not tell it.

In RPG terms, this usually involves having the protagonists chatting to various people around the towns, villages, or cities that they visit. Final Fantasy XIII did away with the conversation opportunities that makes the world-building possible, and here’s where they shot their horse: they replaced it all with a “codex” that goes on to explain every character motivation, every plot twist, every confusing mess, and every strange term you’ll come across. I call this “Mass Effect Syndrome”, because the precise same thing happened there. The primary difference is that in Mass Effect, reading the codex wasn’t a necessity to understanding the story. In Final Fantasy XIII, if you haven’t read the codex, you will never understand what’s happening. And that’s a massive failing in the “show, don’t tell” department. Dear Square Enix: if I had wanted to spend more time reading than playing, I’d have bought a book. Consider that a hint from one of your devoted fans.

Surprisingly, Square Enix made a better call than usual with the cast of Final Fantasy XIII’s protagonists. The übereffeminate list of girly boys is reduced to one (and he’s even given an übereffeminate name: Hope). The list of annoying female characters is reduced to one (Vanille). The strongest characters are female. And, provided you read through the wall of text that Final Fantasy throws at you, the characters even have decently fleshed out characterizations and motivations. The only truly likable character is the token black guy, Sazh, but on the whole, the cast were not bad at all. Voice casting, too, is better than I’ve seen before, and the I didn’t spot any particularly jarring voices (bar Vanille’s, but she’s a strange character to start with). On a side-note, I notice that Square Enix like naming their characters after weather phenomena: Cloud, Squall, Lightning, Snow. Who’s next, one wonders? Dew? Cumulonimbus? Katrina?

No, that’s not me being witty. That’s the actual excuse that the Square Enix developers gave when asked why they licensed a song by Leona Lewis instead of coming up with a song specifically for the game, like previous incarnations of the series. It’s a minor disappointment, but the music on the whole isn’t as memorable as the music from the older series. Some of the songs for the game seemed badly chosen, and you end up with a horrid case of soundtrack dissonance now and again. A happy, chirpy tune is just not appropriate for a grave, epic event. It’d be like having a song by Vengaboys playing during the storming of Normandy in World War II. However, despite all this, the music is certainly dramatic at times, and when it gets it right, it’s suitably atmospheric.

Make no mistake: were this a game with any other title, it would have been something quite awesome. In and of itself, it’s not a bad effort at all. The biggest problem is that it bears the name and pedigree “Final Fantasy”, and as such, we expect great things from it. It’s only natural to compare it to previous titles in the series, and to the RPG genre as a whole. And here is exactly where the game falls down. As a Final Fantasy game, it’s merely mediocre, and certainly not the wonder horse that everyone was hoping for. As an RPG, it barely sits within the RPG racecourse. It certainly is a pretty game, but by removing so much of what made previous Final Fantasy games among the best RPGs there were, Square Enix have lost the soul of the series. As a fan of their prior games, I dearly hope and pray that they get it back for the next game.

6/10

Fayyaad Hendricks

You are Rico Rodqiguez, the Latin-American secret agent sent to the island of Panau to de-stabalize the government and overthrow Pandak ‘Baby’ Panay who recently turned his back on America, which we all know is a biiiiig mistake. You get thrown into the midst of political instability with one overarching objective – to cause chaos and aid in overthrowing the dictator.

After arriving on the island, you rescue Karl Blaine, an informant who introduces you the three main factions on the island. Each faction has their own agenda and completing missions for them brings you closer to the finding find your boss Tom Sheldon, who according to the Agency, has gone rogue. When you run out of missions to do, causing chaos – by say blowing up random government installations or taking down statues – will bring you closer to more missions and to downing the corrupted government.

The game environment is typical of open-world third person shooters. You’re on an enormous island where you can go just about anywhere. You’re never short of transportation with more than a hundred vehicles to choose from, including motorbikes, sports cars and even helicopters. The game environment is in fact so enormous that it almost overwhelms you. It’s even bigger than the Oblivion world – which took me 160 hours to get through – and much harder to traverse. The size of the open world is one of the most bothersome areas of the game and the island sometimes seems too big. Hijacking a car or motor cycle and driving to another spot on the island just drove me crazy. The are only a small number of routes that snake between the multitude of mountains on the island. Consequently, a location just a few kilometres away could take you almost 10 minutes of driving to get to. There are a few alternatives though.

Helicopters are freely available at most army bases and considerably cut down time spent travelling between locations. But herein lies my second big issue with the game: helicopters, planes and jets have the manoeuvrability of a steamroller laying tar on a highway. Moving through circles during a race or shooting down a fixed target becomes a frustrating, cumbersome plot point you just want to get over. Dying drops you at the closest saved location. That means, for example, that if you just spent 10 minutes trekking across the island, and you get blown up or killed before completing a new mission – which happens quite often – you get sent back, resetting whatever progress you’ve made. More so, parking your helicopter and stepping out for a quick firefight, is a big no-no. Turning your back on your transportation for a few seconds, respawns it at its original location and leaves you wondering “Dude, where’s my helicopter?” Sure it’s great that whenever you arrive at a military base there is always air transport available, but having to step out of your vehicle and trek out to find another is irritating.

Another way of making quick work of the distances is calling your black market contact to pick you up. But you have to change to your beacon and throw it immediately on a location that the helicopter could land on for it to work. But the game doesn’t warn you if you throw it on an inappropriate location, so you can end up repeatedly throwing the beacon on different spots without ever reaching your contact.

Just Cause’s distinctiveness is in its mechanics. Rico has an awesome grappling hook that, when fired at a vehicle or road in the distance, pulls you towards the object at lightning speed. You’re also able to tether two objects together. And it works during combat too. Pulling a sniper off a high building is much easier than firing multitudes of shots. You can tether a soldier to roof and beat him like a pinata or drag him behind a moving vehicle. The grappling hook also helps to move between moving vehicles or onto hovering helicopters to facilitate a quick highjack.

Rico also has a seemly endless supply of parachutes. This helps when base jumping out of a helicopters, or when hurtling towards the ground. Using the grappling hook and opening your parachute at the last second creates a slingshot effect that helps your traverse short distances very quickly.

The problem with the mechanics is that other than using the grappling hook and parachutes, the controls are often very counterintuitive. For example, I can’t count the number of times I died jumping out of a burning helicopter, because instead of jumping out Rico decided to hang underneath the helicopter as its crashes. During combat, I died repeatedly from not being able to change guns quickly or dodge accurately. I’d often grapple myself towards the baddies instead of pulling them towards me. Finally, I could never figure out how many guns I’m allowed to have and why I could never find any ammo for any of the better guns.

The look, feel and storyline are almost exactly the same as Mercenaries, the Pandemic game. But even though they both have uber-destructable environments, faction-based missions, and the overarching story of over throwing evil dictators, you shouldn’t compare the two. Just Cause is similar, but with all the good things taken out. The Mercenaries world is exactly the right size and the added benefit of having a partner makes it more fun to play. The mechanics in Mercenaries are a perfect balance of destruction, mission-based work and intuitive gameplay. Just Cause 2 is a lumbering, unpolished knock-off with no co-op.

While the grappling hook and parachutes offered something different, poor control mechanics and a weak storyline lets the game down. The good part of the game – the parts where you’re armed with a unlimited weapons, mowing down anything in your path – is really good. Everything in between drove me crazy.

6/10

Sameer Parker

Not so much.

And it’s not because it’s a bad game. It’s because it’s a good game.

My husband gave me the control, not explaining what exactly was going to happen. So there I was expecting the guy to get up by himself, but lo and behold, I had to push a button to get the guy to stand up. Then I had to push a button to get him to open his cupboard to get dressed. And he made a suggestion that he needed a shower because he probably smelt a little after sleeping. So I did that before he got dressed. WOW. It was kinda cool. Here was a guy who was at my very beck and call. How often does that happen? It was fun to realise he would not do anything unless prompted by me pushing a button. Finally, a man I could control…

And it got better. He has his son over for the weekend and every interaction with this boy is dependant on what kind of father you want your character to be. There is a schedule for his activities while he is there on the wall in the kitchen. Like when its snack time, homework time, supper time and bed time. There is also a clock against the wall so you can monitor the time. It’s entirely up to you whether you follow it. Either way, your actions have consequences. Being a woman, I took priority in following the schedule and let me tell you it’s like looking after a real kid. He bartered for more time in front of the TV and not doing his homework right then. It’s your choice whether you allow him to stay up past his bed time or not. It’s being a parent. In a video game. But better than the Sims. Because people use a real language called English. The voice acting could be bit better, some characters sound a bit bored, but overall, it adds to making you feel there emotions.

I found it refreshing to have to open a cupboard door, the fridge, the shower, to brush my teeth, urinate for goodness sake, when has a character in a game ever used the toilet? Not even in Mass Effect could you take a leak. The toilet is usually just part of the scenery, for decoration. Having to interact with inanimate objects is enjoyable. It does seem like you’re in more control than say Grand Theft Auto where you push triangle to get in and out of the car but you can’t change gears, you just steer. In this game there are suggestions for things you can do, but you are under no obligation to follow through. And yes sometimes it feels a bit contrived that you can only scratch in one drawer that is blinking at you and not explore the other drawers in the same cabinet, but come on, baby steps…The choices you do make has consequences and when have you experienced that instead of dying and having to start from a save point? It feels like I have a choice

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that ultimately, I don’t, the story has been written, the outcomes established, but I still feel like the fate of the characters are in my hands. (You play more than one character whilst solving multiple murders and the story has variations for the end) Each persona gives you the choice to be a certain way. You can choose to build your character with strong morals according to the choices you make. This is not a typical game, it elicits feelings more than allowing you to solve a puzzle or have kick-ass moves. I went from feeling utterly frustrated as a father at loosing my son in a crowd, to feeling scared and helpless in an apartment as a woman. I enjoyed the variety.

The emotions however became too much for me, I could not handle the tension. The scene at the mall where Ethan loses sight of his wandering son in a crowd was scary as a person playing a game because I kept wanting to run faster to get to him. To push through the throng of people blocking my view of my short son was nearly impossible, like real life. My heart beat faster, my breathing increased and I sat up straight on the edge of my couch. I kept craning my head to try and look over the heads of the crowd. That has never happened to me before. Other games my husband has thrust into my unwilling hands has left me detached and uninterested. Killing aliens or mythical creatures is not my forte. Clearly. But this game made me feel involved in the life of this character I was controlling. At one point I felt like I was watching a thriller and wanted to cover my eyes only to remember that I was still holding the control. The girl in the apartment who is attacked was just too much. Her fear transcended being a non-living entity to me being in the apartment, feeling that something is amiss(after a really unnecessary long revealing shower) The feeling that someone was in her space made my hands shake with nervousness. That was when I handed over the control and watched the ‘movie’ as my husband finished the game.

The story has been done before, yes, but never like this.

Dusty Monk, now president of Windstorm Studios, worked on the game, codenamed Titan, for three years. He told IncGamers that a change of management and direction at Microsoft put paid to the project.

“There was a bit of a changing of the guard at Microsoft at this time,” he said. “Microsoft, from its gaming division, was really changing directions. They were looking really hard at the Nintendo Wii and they were really excited by the numbers that the Wii was turning.

“This was about the time that Microsoft decided that its Xbox platform and XBLA really needed to go more in the direction of appealing to a more casual, broader audience.

“So part of this changing of the guard at Microsoft came along with the changing of the attitude to this very expensive, very long and very protracted $90 million project we were working on, which was Titan. To cut a long story short, Titan was closed down.”

Monk said the game “was absolutely going to compete against” World of Warcraft and is confident that it would have had a good chance against Blizzard’s behemoth.

“Even though a lot of people talk about how you just can’t build a WOW killer, I absolutely believe that we could have built an MMO, if Microsoft had maintained their commitment, that if it hadn’t been a WoW killer it certainly would’ve competed,” he said.

Monk pointed out that Ensemble was “really good at competing against Blizzard”, with its Age of Empires games historically going toe-to-toe with the Warcraft series. And he noted that many of Titan’s design decisions are reflected in the next pretender to the throne, BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, especially its “heroic stylised artform”, earlier narrative time-frame, and cover system. It also had a system similar to Warhammer Online’s public quests.

“We had all this incredible talent, we had the right people, the right passion, we had a phenomenally successful IP – the Halo IP… and we had a company that had our back when we started and the funding to put together that type of project.”

Oli Welsh [Eurogamer]

It wasn’t long though before we learned that West and Zampella – fired by Activision last month – have formed a new company called Respawn Entertainment and that they have signed a multi-game deal with EA Partners, under which they will retain ownership of any intellectual property they create.

And then it wasn’t much longer after that that Eurogamer got on the phone with West and Zampella – who are at such an early stage of their venture that they don’t even have an office yet, let alone any employees or game ideas – and got to try and pry some answers from them about the Infinity Ward debacle.

“Vince and Jason wanted to stress how happy they were to have the opportunity to speak with you, because the European gaming community is so important to them,” their publicist told us afterward. “They were also hoping that you might mention that they are looking to hire multi-lingual community managers so that they can get unfiltered input from European gamers in their native languages.”

Jason West will act as president of Respawn Entertainment, while Vince Zampella is general manager. They’re joined in our interview by EA Partners’ David DeMartini.

Call of Duty 2 was a major success on Xbox 360, helping to pave the way for Infinity Ward's greater successes with Modern Warfare.

So then, to paraphrase a famous interview question, what first attracted you to multi-billionaire publisher Electronic Arts?

Vince Zampella: [General laughter.] Hi, this is Vince. Uh, I don’t know if you know this, but we were fired.

Really? Tell me about that!

Vince Zampella: So, you know, the situation was kind of forced on us, so once that happened the next day we were flooded with calls and emails from publishers interested in working with us, which came at a great time for us and obviously in a tough situation, so people showing that much interest in us really helped us get through it.

Jason West: Absolutely. We had a lot of offers come our way and deals were presented to us, and we looked at it and we really thought the EA Partners would give us the freedom and independence we needed to make great games. They respected our culture, and we own the IP, so we can make sure it’s treated with the respect it deserves.

I realise you can’t talk about the Activision divorce very much, and I know your attorney has responded to the latest round of accusations and so on, but how do you feel about people you spent seven years working for calling you “insubordinate and self-serving schemers”?

Vince Zampella: It sucks. Horribly.

Jason West: Yeah, we think it’s false and outrageous and we’re glad we’re able to now move on and focus on the future.

Is there anything else in their claims you can address? They said you held Modern Warfare 3 hostage, for instance. It’s pretty venomous stuff.

Vince Zampella: False and outrageous and that’s all we really have to say about it.

Jason West: We’re here to reboot, start this new company and do our thing. You know we love gaming, it’s in our blood, it’s what we do, so we’re really glad to be able to get back to it.

Leaving aside specific stuff, do you anticipate other people from Infinity Ward joining you at Respawn?

Jason West: We’re kicking off our hiring today and then we’ll announce the make-up of the team at a future date.

Your press release says you will own your IP, but it seemed like some of the friction at your previous studio came through other areas like marketing – I remember Robert Bowling once went mental because of something Treyarch referred to IW’s COD games, for instance. How much control do you retain over how your games are publicised and marketed under this arrangement with EA?

David DeMartini: I think everything we do with all of our partners is a large collaboration, so I certainly can’t speak to the past, but on a going forward basis I think we view this as a significant collaboration and much as the guys will independently head down the path, come up with an idea for the IP… I mean, this is a little unusual – they’ve signed an arrangement, they’re going to come up with the idea, they’re going to come up with the team – so I think what we talk about is today is day one, I think they need to put a team in place, I think they need to come up with some ideas, and then we’ll worry about what the best way is to promote and market the games once we have an idea that can be shared.

Respawn Entertainment will function as the new base for the Call of Duty originators.  The formation of the studio means the two will maintain complete creative control over their content, but the new studio will publish and distribute its games exclusively through Electronic Arts channels. The exact details of the agreement between Respawn and EA was not disclosed.

The full Press Release follows:

Today, Jason West and Vince Zampella, creators of the multi-billion dollar Call of Duty(R) franchise, announced the formation of a new development studio — Respawn Entertainment. The move positions the Respawn Entertainment leadership team as the owners of the intellectual property they create. The company will focus on creating state-of-the-art gaming experiences for global audiences. The studio is currently assembling a world-class team of designers, artists and engineers. Applicants can submit resumes to jobs@respawn.com.

Respawn is pleased to also announce that it has awarded Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS), through the distinguished EA Partners program, exclusive worldwide publishing and distribution rights to future games. Terms were not disclosed. West and Zampella are represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

“Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me,” said Vince Zampella, General Manager of Respawn Entertainment. “For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise. We’re very proud of what we built – and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again — open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA.”

“We’re excited,” added Jason West, President of Respawn Entertainment. “Now that the team is in control of the games and brands, we can ensure that the fans are treated as well as they deserve.”

Frank Gibeau, President of the EA Games Label commented, “This is the start of a great publishing partnership – one that I expect will develop blockbuster game franchises. Jason and Vince are two of the top creative leaders in the entertainment industry. At EA, we’re honored to be their partners and to give them the support they need to hire a team and return to making incredible games.”

About Respawn Entertainment

Founded in 2010, Respawn Entertainment is an independent videogame development studio based in Encino, California. The studio was formed by Jason West and Vince Zampella, former co-founders of Infinity Ward and creators of the multi-billion dollar franchise Call of Duty(R). More information about the company will be available soon at www.respawn.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA(TM), EA SPORTS(TM), EA Mobile(TM) and POGO(TM). In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA. EA SPORTS, EA MOBILE and POGO are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The new games takes placed in a ravaged medieval Europe, where supernatural forces have risen to prominence. After witnessing the death of his wife, Marie, the new protagonist, Gabriel, sets out to save the world and bring Marie back to life. The plot may not be particularly inspired, but the involvement of the Metal Gear Solid team  provides some measure of hope that the game will fair a lot better than previous efforts at taking the franchise into the third dimension.

To provide fuel for the hype machine, a number of screens have been released and they are positively incendiary.

Eurogamer Germany took a photo (screen below) of the US Xbox Live Marketplace moments ago showing a Gears of War logo inside a feature window followed by the text “Gears of War 3 Announced”, “The epic story concludes April 2011″.

The photo follows recently leaked gameplay details of Gears of War 3 and similar Gears of War 3 date rumours from March.

Cliff Bleszinski will be star guest on the American television show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon next Tuesday. We’ll be watching and reporting what we see.

Edge Online quotes a “US publishing source” as saying the cover system is getting an overhaul for the third instalment. Expect to face new enemies with tentacles which can reach you even when taking cover.

Good job you’ll have explosives which can be sent underground to attack enemy cover spots, then. Mech suits which provide serious protection and increased firepower are also promised. Word is all these elements will feature in both single-player and multiplayer modes.

The game’s storyline will take place during the summer. There will be new locations to explore, including underwater environments.

Here’s hoping for more news on Monday, when Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski will reveal what could very well turn out to be Gears of War 3.

Ellie Gibson [Eurogamer]

For nearly any other series it would be a resignation, an admittal that this is a B-side, destined to dwell in the shadow of its elder sibling. But when it comes to Nintendo’s flagship character it’s a cause for celebration – a chance to take another peek inside the ideas factory which produced the wonderful charm and variety of Super Mario Galaxy 1.

Pretty soon, I’m immersed in a chunky, primary coloured-world which delights and surprises at almost every turn. These are not what you could ever call leftovers in any ordinary sense; here are ideas which would keep other series running into double figures, casually tossed into the digital ether like bright confetti.

It all starts on a space ship. This time, instead of leeching a ride from Princess Rosalina, Mario has his very own galactic craft, ingeniously codenamed Starship Mario. Which, because it’s a little planetoid complete with atmosphere and foliage, looks more like Luigi. Nevertheless it makes for a snazzy place to rest up between excursions into the cosmos, gradually becoming populated with various members of the extended Mario roster as you explore the universe and meet them.

The level map is presented in classic Mario style, with branches and secret levels aplenty.

Bumbling around on this most egocentric of spaceships serves as a quick reminder of Galaxy’s system of gravity and perspective. This gives me a chance to reacquaint myself with the basic spin and ground pound attacks as I terrorise the glutinously chipper Toads dotted around the surface. Then I’m whisked off to one of SMG 2′s early levels, a gentle learning curve galaxy known as Puzzle Plank.

Puzzle Plank is what would happen if you crashed an Early Learning Centre into a B&Q in space. It’s full of brightly coloured wooden blocks, ground-poundable pegs and swishing buzzsaws – these chop away sections of the platforms, dropping you into the void. Fittingly, it’s a slightly slower-paced area, asking a few questions of the old head muscle. In one instance those poundable pegs protruded from both sides of a surface, creating adjustable platforms which had to be stomped appropriately to reach the teleporting star for the next area. Towards the end, a familiar nemesis made a fresh appearance: say hello once again to the sliding block puzzle.

Normally even the suggestion of one of these frustrating toys is enough to get me stropping in a corner, but the wonderfully tactile, 3D approach which Nintendo has taken had me beaming. Instead of a flat set of tiles which have to be shuffled endlessly around to reveal a picture of something inane like a ballerina poodle playing a trumpet, Galaxy’s sliding blocks are floating in the azure, with pounding points indicated on the outside edge. Pound these in the correct order and the whole thing slips satisfyingly into shape. It’s as innovative and tactile a solution to an old problem as you might ever need.

Next up in our demo session was Boulder Bowl, a harsher environment of bare volcanic rock and sticky tarpits, populated by rock-spitting mushrooms and the venue for my first boss encounter. It’s in Boulder Bowl where you will also come across one of the new power-ups for the first time, the less-rebellious-than-it-sounds Rock Mushroom. This flinty fungus swathes Mario in stone, granting him the power to curl up and roll around with a shake of the Wiimote. Doing so turns our hero into a thundering sphere of rubble, crushing most enemies and exercising a turn of speed. The rolling dash can also be used to clear obstructions and shatter rocks or crystals to reveal goodies. Plus it can be used, as I quickly discovered, to knock down the safety barriers on the edge of planets and tumble to a slow death in the vacuum of space.

In true Nintendo style, it’s a mechanic which is quickly used for purposes of playfulness as well as practicality. Before long, after a quick ring-fenced scenario crushing some itinerant meanies, a hugely tempting ramp appears over the horizon, prefaced by a set of querulous ten-pins.

Striking through these and over the ramp spins me through one the series’ trademark dizzying shifts in perspective, following Mario as he soars, arms akimbo, towards another distant moon. But wait, that’s no moon – it’s made of girders for a start, and it’s inhabited by a giant, fuzzy blue armadillo. Darth Vader eat your heart out.

Occasional timed challenges pop up where Mario must defeat a certain number of enemies to win a 1-Up. This isn't one of them.

Rolladillo is pretty much what you’d expect, judging by both his name and his inclusion as a boss in a Mario game. He trundles around his little planet, attempting to crush the hero with just enough poor judgement to expose his fluffy blue bottom when he overshoots the mark. When he does, it’s time to break out the new power-up and slam his booty with a quick boulder-roll. And what a lovely booty it is – covered in the oh-so-cuddly fur effect which made the first game’s queen bee so charming.

With Rolladillo dispatched to the chemist for a family tube of preparation H the demo moves on to the delightful Cosmic Cove, probably the prettiest of all the environments being shown. It’s a water level, and the mechanics of swimming, including the air gauge and the underwater bubbles which refresh it, return. It’s a different world in the aquatic element, slower and less precise, requiring less twitch judgement and a bit more forward-planning. That is until you hit the giant switch up by the elderly penguin hanging around on the surface. Quick as a flash the water is turned to ice and, in a way which looks like it’ll define the series, one environment quickly undergoes a costume change to become another challenge entirely.

Stepping out onto the frozen surface of the lake allows Mario to ice skate. He glies elegantly across the frosty waves, pirouetting when he jumps like a slightly butcher Billy Elliot. It doesn’t have a massive influence on the gameplay – there is no speed skating mini-game or ice dancing to be done, but it’s fun, and a perfect example of the sort of throwaway idea found throughout the game.

Next up came two old favourites, and another new toy: the ghost-house environs of Haunty Halls, Yoshi and the bulberry. Yoshi is just the same as always, appropriately untouched by evolution. Tongue grabbing is done via the pointer and Wiimote trigger, and his trademark flapping float-jump saved me from certain doom more often than professional pride allows me to disclose. The bulberry itself isn’t an entirely new idea, but is reworked with that classic Nintendo charm which pardons a little plagiarism.

Essentially it’s a torch, and the circle of light which it projects when Yoshi eats it gradually dimishes with time. This being a Boo level, there are some decidedly suspect engineering decisions being made in regard to structural integrity – there’s scarcely a floor without holes. Some of these floors are also suffering from something of a Schrodinger-esque existential crisis – until they’re illuminated by the bulberry they remain staunchly non-existent. Cue a frantic five minutes rushing from one glowing fruit to the next through a winding maze of sudden drops and dead ends, as the vital circle of light around Yoshi shrinks and shrinks. Definitely the most fun I’ve ever had in a haunted library with a dinosaur.

That's a bulberry right there. Eat five of these a day and Jamie Oliver gives you a kiss..

The last galaxy we saw, Honeybloom, marked the return of one of the first game’s big favourites – the bee suit. Depicted in the side-on, 2.5D style which the camera occasionally switches to, this colourful zone is all flowers, grapes and fuzzy bee soldiers. Picking up the flight-enabling bee-suit early on, Mario putters his way around the exterior of a summer-green cube, resting on carnivorous flowers and little fluffy clouds to recharge his flight gauge.

All this amounts to a tiny slice of what the final game will have to offer, I’m told. As with the first game, nearly every level in Mario Galaxy 2 will feature multiple stars, subtly shifting the goals and structure of each galaxy each time. The comets also return, albeit in a slightly different form – the collection of each medal unlocking a specific challenge for each level, such as the need to complete it without taking damage.

Although the precise number of levels is being kept under wraps for now, the sheer depth of variation already on show bears witness to a playing field of real diversity. Super Mario Galaxy 2 feels fresh yet familiar, challenging yet charming. It’s a game for anyone with an ounce of soul left in eyes tired of staring down sniper scopes and iron sights. The toybox beauty of this sequel, its aesthetic appeal and prismatic hypnotism, have charmed all over again.

Dan Pearson [Eurogamer]