(Review)

I'm not one who usually has indie games on my radar. Most of the time they just kinda slip by, skipped over in favor for higher-end, polished, AAA titles. Recently, however, indie developers have been able to raise money for higher production values through Kickstarter, and some dedicated people with creative minds are at the helms of these fundraisers. Among games like FLT: Faster Than Light and A Hat In Time, one particular game that caught my attention through Kickstarter was one called Power Up.

At first glance, Power Up seems to be a classic bullet hell game, and, at its core, it is. You're the last remaining human fighting the alien resistance, and while humanity may be completely and utterly screwed, you're not going down without a fight. You board a spaceship called "Weapon-F" and take off into space to take down whatever stands in your way. In accordance to the bullet hell genre, Weapon-F is somewhat of a glass cannon; one hit and it goes down in smoke. You have extra lives, but as far as I know, there's no way to regain lives. The "cannon" part of that phrase is shown off in Weapon-F's wide array of weaponry, and here's where the game gets its title.

Weapon-F is equipped with five different types of weapons: a standard front-shooting laser, a spreadshot, a "Backshot" (which shoots behind the ship), a "Sideshot" (which shoots above and below the ship), and a rapid-fire plasma cannon; using the Left and Right Bumbers (or X), you can cycle through any of the five weapons at will. All these weapons have their own unique benifits, but they start off a little weak. However, you can power up your weapons (see the wordplay?) by picking up spheres with a P on them that are randomly-generated within a level. Each weapon has multiple power stages, and whichever weapon is active at the time is the one that gets the power boost. Each stage raises stuff like firing speed, range, strength, and so on. This adds an almost RPG-esque quality to the game, allowing you to upgrade Weapon-F to your playstyle; whether you prefer clearing multiple enemy fighters at once with the Spreadshot or evading and clearing the space around you with the Sideshot, you can adapt to your own needs. Other upgrades also increase the ship's movement speed and force field charge, and massive screen-clearing Blast Bombs can be aquired and used when you're in a pinch or to annihilate a boss.

Power Up is very visually impressive. Normally I'd say there's too much going on on-screen, but in this case, it works exceptionally well. It adds to the tension of the bullet hell gameplay and keeps you on your toes. Every environment is unique, vibrant, and colorful, and every enemy you see has some great art direction behind it. There's even visual polish that I don't normally come across in low-budget games, and it's quite impressive. Speaking of impressive, the soundtrack is a mix of atmospheric techno tracks, tacking on more tension and just making you want to tap your foot along to the beat.

There are five levels (or "chapters") in Power Up, each taking the story further and being set in different locations throughout the galaxy. This sounds short and easy on paper, but as lives aren't replenishable and the difficulty rises all the way through, it almost takes on the vibe of a classic NES or SNES game; it's hard, sure, but it's the kind of hard where you want to keep pressing on and eventually beat the game just so you can brag to your friends about how you made the game your bitch. It's a fantastic experience, and the weapon customization, four difficulty levels, and unlockable paint jobs for Weapon-F (made available through total playtime or game completion) make for a game that you'll want to continue playing, even if there are only five chapters. Power Up does all it can to keep you involved and wanting to keep playing, and it does it very well.

Alongside all these things, there's one last factor that impressed me the most about Power Up, and it's this: the creator, Psychotic Psoftware, is one person. The founder and sole employee of Psypsoft, Mike Hanson, set out to raise the money and get the programs to use his incredible talents to make something for everyone to enjoy, and that to me is enough to warrant anyone's attention. The fact that this game was made by a one-man team makes me enjoy it that much more, and I recommend that anyone else even remotely interested in this little gem try it out.

Power Up is currently available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade Marketplace for $1, and a PC version is slated for a late December 2013 release. It doesn't stop there, though - Mike has stated that Power Up will eventually reach iOS, Android, and OUYA platforms sometime in 2014.

(I'd like to write a quick thank you to Mike for providing me with a copy of this game. This is a momentous occassion as this is my first review copy of a game I have ever gotten. Thank you so much for giving me the opprotunity to play and review such a great shoot-em-up and I look forward to whatever projects you have in store for the future!)

Gameplay

I apologize for the poor quality of this video. This is entirely the fault of my capture card and does not reflect the game's visual quality on a television screen.

Links

 
(News)

Through the Steam announcements blog, Valve has announced that Family Sharing will be a feature coming soon to Steam. Essentially, you'll be able to authorize a friend or family member's computer to play games within your library. You will not be able to both play games from the shared library at the same time, however, so it's a useful but limited feature. If the lender wishes to play a game the other computer is running, the other player can opt to buy the game themselves or to quit the game and let the lender play. I'll assume there's a time limit for this, but the post wasn't clear. Each user of the shared library will have their own save data and set of achivements for each game. The feature will first be available in a limited beta starting next week; a full release will be "coming soon".
 
(News)

Another batch of info has come out about Pokémon X and Y through the Japanese magazine CoroCoro. The information in the magazine is always leaked before the magazine actually comes out, for some reason.

First off, Mewtwo is getting a second Mega Evolution. The one previously announced is called Mega Mewtwo Y, whose Mega Stone will be exclusive to Pokémon Y, while this new one, Mega Mewtwo X, is exclusive to Pokémon X. Mega Mewtwo X has an entirely different look from its Y counterpart and gets changed to the Psychic/Fighting-type combination. It gets an Attack boost and gains the Ability Steadfast.

Another Mega Evolution was revealed, as well - Mega Garachomp. Its Ability changes to Sand Force and it keeps its Dragon/Ground typing.

The first evolutions of Fennekin, Chespin, and Froakie are shown. They are all pure Fire, Grass, and Water; they have no secondary type. These Pokémon have yet to have been given English names. Chespin's evolution can learn Mud Shot, Fennekin's can learn Psycho Cut, and Froakie's can learn Bounce.

A Rock/Dragon Pokémon with the Ability Hard Jaw and an Rock/Ice-type Pokémon with Freeze Skin are both Gen VI's fossil Pokémon. A white dog Pokémon will have Fur Coat as its Ability, and will in some way be customizable, presumably with accessories like in the Sinnoh Pokémon Contests. A Psychic-type cat Pokémon was shown off; it has a female and male versions, each with their own movepools, similar to the Nidoran line. The female is primarily white and the male is mostly blue, and the female is offensive and the male is defensive.

In battle, Hard Jaw increases the effectiveness of bite-based moves, such as Crunch and Thunder Fang. Freeze Skin turns all Normal-type attacks the Pokémon with the Ability uses into Ice-type attacks. Fur Coat reduces the damage taken by physical attacks.

The typing chart was shown off, showing Fairy-type's full weakness/resistance setup. Defensively, Fairy type is resistant to Dark, Fighting, and Bug, and takes no damage from Dragon. However, Fairy-type is weak to Poison and Steel. Offensively, the Fairy-type is super-effective against Dragon, Dark, and Fighting, and isn't very effective against Poison, Steel, and, for some reason, Fire. Strangely, the Steel-type was tweaked to have lost its resistances to Ghost and Dark.

Trainers can go to a salon to change their hairstyle and clothing, and Team Flare is run by five scientists.

Pokémon X and Pokémon Y release worldwide in retail and in the 3DS eShop on October 12th, 2013.

 
(News)

Assassin's Creed: Liberation, a PlayStation Vita-exclusive game and the first Assassin's Creed game to feature a female Assassin as the main character, is getting an HD remake in a similar fashion to Resident Evil: Revelations. Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD will launch in digital-only format on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC next year and will feature new missions, cutscenes, and story elements stacked onto the original game's features and its graphical overhaul. Oddly absent is a Wii U version; considering Assassin's Creed III and the upcoming Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag both have versions for Nintendo's home console, it was assumed this would be a new trend for the series. Either way, this is a great way for those without a Vita to try out Liberation for themselves.

Also announced was a mobile- & tablet-exclusive game called Assassin's Creed: Pirates. This app has nothing to do with AC4 or the other mobile app for AC4 that was previously announced and is its own seperate app. It will feature real-time naval battles with customizable ships. Players can go up against their friends in one-on-one battles with fully 3D visuals. ACP will launch in the Fall of this year.
Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD Trailer
(Launches on XBLA, PSN, and PC in 2014)
Assassin's Creed: Pirates Trailer
(Launches on mobile platforms in Fall 2013)
 
(News)

It's been a while since any major titles have been in the Club Nintendo rewards, and it seems the trend will continue for the next month. However, these are fantastic games that everyone should check out.
  • Zoda's Revenge: Startropics II (Wii VC [NES])
  • Pilotwings (Wii VC [SNES])
  • Art Academy: First Semester (3DS)
  • Mario VS Doney Kong: Minis March Again! (3DS [DSiWare])