Leveling Down

Inazuma 11 is a soccer game, but it’s pretty different from FIFA

When I was in Japan, I was pleased to see more portable gaming devices being played everywhere, especially on the subway. I hate to admit it, but whenever people were playing on the subway, sometimes I’d try to sneak a peak at what they were playing. It’s like DS stalking. On one particular subway ride, I managed to catch a peek of a kid playing some game that looked like a RPG, but there was something different about it – the protagonist was kicking around a soccer ball. Intriguing… Turns out the kid was playing the third installment of the Inazuma 11 series, a wildly popular soccer RPG series in Japan (and a very popular kids anime). I decided to pick up the first game in the series (in Japanese of course) and ended up playing that for the rest of my trip. What is a soccer RPG? Is the game only for kids? Is it weird to stalk people’s portable gaming choices? (Probably). Hit the jump for answers to all these questions and more!

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Jim Raynor looks a lot better than he did in the original Starcraft

I’ve decided to give in and partake in Leveling Down’s Summer of Starcraft. Not that I haven’t been playing hours and hours of the game (much to my wife’s chagrin), but I wasn’t sure if having six straight articles on Starcraft was what the people wanted. Nevertheless, espion4ge has been focused on multiplayer, so I figured I’d give my single player impressions – especially for those of you considering buying this game that might be a little intimidated by the multiplayer suite. Hit the jump for my impressions!

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Torchlight improves on many things over Diablo II, but lacks any sort of multiplayer.

Torchlight is a relatively recent Diablo-style action RPG game that was released on the PC last October. Being a single player only game, it retailed for $20, but with it also being on Steam, it’s gone on sale several times for the measly price of $5. At $5, it’s a recommended purchase for anyone, but at $20, I believe you may need to be more of a serious solo Diablo player to get your money’s worth. I’ve sank about 7-8 hours into the game so far, and am ready to share my thoughts.
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Today’s FPS games need to respect where they came from!

As I’ve mentioned oftimes on this site, I spent a lot of my formative years playing deathmatch in Doom 2 over the modem. I have a lot of fond memories of the game, and after a lot of thought, I finally decided to buy in on XBLA. Since then, I’ve poured at least 20+ hours into it, and I’m not even halfway done, so I definitely have gotten my money’s worth. The question remains, is this old school game worth picking up on XBLA for non-nostalgia reasons? Hit the jump for my impressions and my thoughts on that question.

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Demon’s Souls can be enjoyable – for the right type of player.

After completing Mass Effect 2 last week, I decided to change gears a bit and fire up Demon’s Souls on the PS3. This was one of the games that I bought a PS3 for: a Japanese developed dungeon crawler that is said to be among the most hardcore games out there. After spending a couple hours with it this past weekend, I am inclined to agree that it is quite hardcore – but perhaps it’s either too hardcore for me or I’m just too leveled down to handle it. Read on for my thoughts and experience based on my first couple of hours with it.

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Monster Tale’s innovative combination of Metroidvania and monster raising works beautifully.

I was able to check out the Monster Tale demo that was set up at E3 last week, and with the Majesco booth tucked away from the main show floor not many people got a chance to learn what DreamRift’s Monster Tale is about and more importantly, how it plays. That’s where I come in – while crowds were fawning over the newest Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc., I’m bringing you all impressions of a game that seriously has potential to be the sleeper hit of the year for both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Read on for some detailed impressions from this aging hardcore gamer.

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This game is as ridiculous as it looks – yet people like it anyway

My sister in law visited us this past weekend and I was forced to play Just Dance on the Wii (which she brought). It is a testament to the power of the casual market that Just Dance has sold over 2 million copies – which is absolutely ridiculous to me. The name of the game by itself turns me off, but I have a rule in my household: any video game that my wife wants to play deserves a shot, because, frankly, the chances to game together are few and far between. So, is Just Dance worth its big sales numbers, or is it as bad as hardcore gamers assume?

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The worst thing about the Big Boss bundle? No plastic case for the game

As of Tuesday, I am a new owner of the Big Boss PSP! I’ve been fiddling around with it the last few days and playing it a bit on my subway commute to/from work. In this article, I’ll provide some impressions on the actual Big Boss PSP package itself as well as my thoughts and experiences overall as a first time PSP owner.

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After more time with Reach, I’m starting to really appreciate armor abilities

The Halo Reach Beta is pretty much over, but Bungie released two more game types last week that I wanted to talk about a bit. When Bungie started releasing information about the beta, Invasion and Generator Defense were the two gametypes I was most interested in, for two reasons. First, they are new objective based games, which I generally prefer to slayer. Secondly, they pit Spartans vs. Elites, which I thought could lead to some excellent gameplay nuances. How do the two modes end up stacking up? Hit the jump for my impressions, and some final thoughts on the beta.

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For US Soccer fans, the man in front is Gooch. Aside from poor player faces, FIFA World Cup 2010 is awesome!

I haven’t bought a sports game for three years or so (I think it was Madden 2006 for the Wii, and that was more to try out the controls), so it might seem pretty out of character for me to be checking out FIFA World Cup 2010, the official video game of the 2010 World Cup. I’m actually a sports fanatic, it’s sports video games I’m not too big a fan of. But with the US poised to make a halfway decent showing in the world’s game this year, I’ve got World Cup fever and I decided to pick the game up after trying the demo. The game is a blast, and although I don’t know enough about sports games these days to review it, I definitely can give my impressions for anyone interested in checking it out.

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