Super Mario Advance Game Boy Advance £29.99 Nintendo *** Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Game Boy Advance £29.99 Konami ****
A new Nintendo console normally means only one thing - a new Mario game.
The Game Boy Advance (GBA) is no different with the unoriginally named Super Mario Advance launching with the system. But while the portly plumber is back to his platforming roots (after successful excursions into golf, tennis and karting) this latest adventure is all a bit underwhelming. Sure the graphics are good - easily Super Nintendo standard - but it's the gameplay that lets this down.
In a break from tradition Mario, rather than jumping on his assailants, now has to pick up and use them as weapons against other baddies. This seems to interrupt the flow and makes for a less satisfying experience. Luckily there are loads of extras, with bonus games and different characters to use, and there is undoubted fun to be had here, but this is no classic. Still, it will at least keep things going until Super Mario World arrives next year.
Another classic platform game available on GBA launch day is the latest version of Castlevania. Konami's whip-cracking vampire hunter has been around for years and this latest instalment is little changed; there are numerous ghouls and ghosts to defeat. However, what makes the game special is its atmosphere. From the spooky music to the well-drawn backgrounds Castle vania makes use of the GBA's power. This version also uses a quasi-role-playing game system: you gain development points in combat, which is handy for the tough boss characters.
Average visuals and an overly dark environment (made worse by the GBA screen) detract, but this is gripping fare. Early days, but on launch day, Mario has been soundly whipped by Castlevania. (GH)
Original War
PC £29.99 Atlas Interactive/ Virgin Interactive ***
Well, here is a turn-up: an iddy-diddy manual that's so small and cute you could just pick it up and hug it forever.
The story, accordingly, is simple: you're in charge of a team sent back millions of years in time to secure a new, mysterious power source. But two other factions from the future have also staked their claim on the mineral.
Units come in four types: soldier, engineer, mechanic and scientist. Each has different skills which develop with time and, once the appropriate buildings are in place, you can "retrain" individual units and turn a mechanic into a soldier, for example. The main difference between this and other real-time strategy games is that you cannot create new human units; instead you must make do with the ones you are given.
While the principles take minutes to learn, surviving the game's many surprises is a rather more drawn-out affair.
It all feels oddly linear for a strategy game: many of the developments are scripted - the enemy will tend to materialise at prearranged times and places rather than build up his own forces, which creates the impression that you're playing against the game's designers. With its simple graphics and occasional multiple-choice plot decisions, Original War feels at times like one of the old-style text adventures. But not in an entirely bad way.
And yet you control so much: not just combat tactics, but how your characters develop. Characters' experience grows in-game, where skills improve with practice and between levels, where you can assign the experience points earned previously.
The trouble with making things so personal is that losing troops is hard to stomach; not knowing how many troops will eventually become available to you, and having become familiar with all the characters' quirks, you'll find yourself reloading in an effort to complete missions without a single casualty.
Since gung-ho warfare isn't terribly practical, back-door tactics tend to be the order of the day. And this is where Original War can become a bit of a drag, since proper reconnaissance can only be done by crawling soldiers, who take something approaching a geological era to scout out the map. The other option, of course - and the one you'll find yourself resorting to - is to steam in blindly, die, and reload. Which rather takes the shine off your inevitable victory.
In spite of the fact that almost all its elements are borrowed - fog of war, technology trees, experience levels - Original War manages to blend them together in, well, an original way. And while play can be on the slow side, not to mention linear, and the skimpy intro and basic graphics make it feel cheap, the novelty value and unfolding plot make it worth playing through. Just the once, mind. (AB)
Evil Dead: Hail to the King
PlayStation/ Dreamcast/PC £29.99 THQ/Heavy Iron Studios *
Thanks to Britain's ridiculous censorship laws, Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead became one of the more infamous video nasties of the early 80s. It wasn't until March of this year that the British Board of Film Classification finally approved an uncut version. A remarkable feat considering its main special effects relied on plasticine and porridge. But being banned never did anyone's credibility harm and the film, along with its two sequels, has gathered a massive cult following. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to make it into a game. This awful Resident Evil clone is the result.
Even in an industry where turning great films into criminally mediocre products is common practice, Hail to The King stands out as a misguided cash-in.
Raimi's trademark acrobatic camerawork has been replaced with a series of static frames so lacking in detail you'd think the designers had been forced to work with crayons. This is bad enough on the ageing PlayStation, but on the powerful Dreamcast or a modern PC it is simply unforgivable. As is the combat, which consists of waving your axe or chainsaw in the general direction of ghouls that keep appearing out of nowhere.
You could point an accusing finger at its graphics, its infuriating and repetitive gameplay or its failure to be even vaguely frightening or funny. But it's the way the developers have managed to turn such fantastic source material into an awful, unplayable mess that really grates. Imagine Hamlet performed by the Tweenies or a Smurf cover of Paranoid Android and you'll get the idea.
Bruce Campbell's vocal contributions are easily the best thing about the game, but only fans will be able to appreciate his particular brand of loveable ham-fisted acting.
Raimi has already said games like these are the closest to another sequel we'll ever see. We can only hope future instalments will be banned in this country. (MH)
