Super Monkey Ball 3D Review

Our first 3DS review isn't the immediate pick on everyone's 'must have' 3DS list when purchasing the console but perhaps you should reconsider? Upon poping in the little white 3DS cartridge and seeing monkey's in ball's happily rolling around the stage I'm reminded of Super Monkey Ball's original debut on the Gamecube and the fun I had when playing it.

If your not used to Super Monkey Ball where have you been? It's a delightful little puzzle game where the object is simple, guide your monkey in a ball to the goal within a minute. A simple premise at first when your tasked with rolling the ball down a simple slant in a straight line, but the further into the game you get the more testing the stages become. Rolling the ball around a swirl with no walls and with springs which fling you off into the distance is not an easy task at all! But Super Monkey Ball 3DS somehow manages to not make you get frustrated, perhaps it's the colours or the loveable monkey's themselves but I never found myself getting annoyed because I couldn't do a level.

The advantage of having a 3D screen helps this game immensely, especially on the latter level's when evading obstacles such as the spring's I mentioned earlier is crucial and the added perception you get really helps. The controls for this game are simple enough, you have the option of using the control stick or the gyroscope in the 3DS itself to control the ball. If you do opt for the gyroscope though make sure you turn 3D off, as moving the system all over the place to control your monkey makes you lose the sweet spot of the 3D very easily and makes viewing a nightmare.

Like every Super Monkey Ball game there are the additional mini-games, not so much this time though. We have Monkey Racing, a delightful Donkey Style kart racer and Monkey Fight which kind of feels like Super Smash Bros, but with monkeys. Each mini-game does a solid if unspectacular job and can take up some of your time but both pale in comparison to puzzle mode which undoubtedly steals the show and it's easy to see where the develops spent the most time perfecting the game.

Super Monkey Ball 3D is a great little starter game for you brand new handheld before some of the more bigger names come to fruition in the summer (who said Zelda?), for now, Super Monkey Ball will delightfully fill your time and provide with a few hours of 3D fun.

7.5

Crysis 2 Review

First person shooter's these days are a dime a dozen, mostly generic war shooters that occasionally may or may not involve space nazi alien's that are planning to take over the country/world/universe (delete as applicable). Crysis 2 is no different, story wise it's about alien's coming up from the ground trying to take over the planet while a government conspiracy is happening and you, the man with 'the' suit, is the only one who can stop it.

So the plot of Crysis 2 is very much well trodden and doesn't really set it apart from other shooters. So what does make this a worthy addition to your game collection? Unlike most first person shooters, it won't be the gun that saves you the most, it'll be the suit. It allows for varying gaming mechanics to aid you in your fight against evil, there's armour mode which allows you an additional few ounces of armour to help you stay alive just that little bit longer or run through fire and pretty much feel untouchable. Stealth camouflage gives you the Predator's very own invisibility, in fact any self respecting Predator fan can see the little nod's to the 1987 classic film throughout Crysis 2. The suit also gives you increased athleticism so jumping higher and running faster is a given, you can also slide on the floor, use thermal vision and of course, grab ledges. While many other shooters can offer some of these things, Crysis make's everything seem very fluid, spiriting, sliding, jumping, grabbing and camouflage can be done one after the other within seconds. To stop you using all these abilities all the time however is a suit meter which counts down from 100 to 0. Depending on what ability you use decides how quickly it depletes, running while being in camouflage drains the meter massively, crawling while camouflage drains the meter much more slowly making stealth kills easier.

As you would expect from a FPS there is a decent amount of variety in weapons but unfortunately not much variety in weapons. Expect to take on the same looking private army and then only three different types of Ceph (the alien species in the game). While the Ceph are interesting enough I can't help but feel like there just rehash's of Elite's and Hunter's from the Halo series with added tentacles. Even right down to shooting in the gaps of their armour to take them down easy, it just feels like not much effort was put into the Ceph at all.

The levels are varied enough and despite the whole game being set in New York the developers have given us plenty of changes in scenery to not make the game feel the same throughout. One of Crysis 2's major plus points are the graphics, make no mistake, this is a beautiful looking game. I personally would still put Killzone 3 ahead but this takes a very close second. Some of the set pieces in the level's are outstanding though, seeing building's collapse, helicopter's crashing three feet in front of you and walking along a collapsing bridge are just some of the set piece highlight's that will give you a wow factor every time you play it. The length of single player mode is lengthy and will take you a decent 12 to 15 hours to complete depending on your skill level. It's a nice change from the 6 or 7 hour campaign now go play multiplayer feel that most shooters tend to have. Speaking of multiplayer, it is here in Crysis 2 of course and like my complaint with Killzone 3's multiplayer, it's good without being anything special, there is nothing that set's it apart from the rest and I have my doubts as to the long term community that will evolve from Crysis 2.

During my play through I did notice some quite alarming graphical errors that really shouldn't of happened. On numerous occasions after a cutscene my gun wouldn't be there, in fact one time I could see Alcatraz's (the lead character) hands grip a 'gun' but the actual gun wasn't there. What makes things worse is that I couldn't fire! So I had to let myself die or restart the chapters to be able to shoot. Pop up is also there, while it doesn't affect the actual gameplay it can be annoying and it is such a shame as the rest of Crysis 2 is beautiful but these few graphical errors I encountered really do spoil the experience a little bit.

Crysis 2 is a good game, it falls short on being great because it does feel like I've been here and done it before. It takes the Call of Duty style of gunplay and modern setting with a Halo feel in terms of plot and enemies. On paper it's potentially a great combination but it can just feel like they tried too hard to focus on making the suit spectacular instead of innovating the gameplay to really challenge the suit.

7.5