Mutant Storm Empire

Platform: Xbox 360 Live Arcade, 800MS Points.
Verdict: Squelchy, shooty stuff.
Rating: 4/5
When all attention is turned towards the stars in search of new and wondrous, imagined forms of life, there lies plenty of undiscovered ickyness in the depths of our oceans. Things you could only dream of flit by in the darkened abyss, nightmarish in their composure, sickening in their alien nature and possibly closer to us genetically than any creationist would ever admit. Such globular, squelchy, tentacled spawn is also what makes Mutant Storm Empire so great.
Sequel to Mutant Storm Reloaded, Empire scurries across familiar ground using the ever so popular twin stick controls to shoot independently of movement. The same organic monstrosities are there, this time accompanied by some mechanical beasts and the same frenetic action is present, this time made all the more tense by gameplay changes.
To warrant the sequel’s existence beyond feeding the mouths of hungry programmers, Pom Pom Games have evolved Mutant Storm by cross breeding it with some classic shooters. Removing the all powerful smart bomb (replaced by a super directional attack), Empire also introduces colour based combo chaining (think Ikaruga) and replaces the abstracted series of rooms with a coherent, seamlessly loading world (like Smash TV).
Fusing these ideas from other shooters into one neon soaked gloopy hue, Empire manages to redefine itself with a new play style, initially unsettling Reloaded veterans yet inspiring new challenges and techniques.
Colour based combos up the difficulty for score chasers while the lack of a smart bomb removes an easy get out clause for the novice - things may sound tougher but a multiple lives system that replenishes at the end of each area eases the pressure somewhat, creating a chaotic shooter that can be blasted through with little grace or played like an artiste with pin point accuracy and a thirst for the razor’s edge and topping the online leaderboard.
Full of aquatic character, Empire has some of the best audio design this side of an amplified petri dish and is made all the better by the inclusion of an online co-op mode, which is just what you need when the going gets a little too squishy.

Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action

Platform: Xbox 360.
Ostensibly the 360’s mimic of the PS2’s Buzz! Hollywood, Scene it? comes with four wireless big button pads for that ‘i’m on telly in a real quiz show’ feeling.
Featuring 1800 questions, Scene it? is rammed full of trivia to challenge the film buffs out there and keeps track of which ones have been asked to keep things fresh on repeated playthroughs.
Game types range from innovative Pictionary style questions to plain dull ‘guess the order of release dates’ for films you’ve never heard of.
At this point it becomes clear that Scene it? isn’t an ideal family game as many questions go over the heads of the young or casual film watcher although memory based quizzes using film footage help level the playing field.
7/10

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Platform: Nintendo DS.
Sequel to the lovely Wind Waker on the Gamecube, Phantom Hourglass continues with the cartoonish style and sea faring adventures.
Showing how things should really be done, Nintendo have bestowed Phantom Hourglass with sublime controls and the perfect example of how to use the DS’ features without making anything feel forced or unnecessary (ok, so being required to shout at the DS may not be desirable when you’re gaming on the go).
With perfect, touch screen controls and charming presentation it’s a synch to lose yourself in the princess rescuing adventure. Puzzles may be too easy for some but it’s an adventure aimed at the younger generation with the added bonus of reduced frustration for those of us with adventure in our hearts.
9/10

Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat

Platform: Xbox 360, also PS3 and PC.
Going head to head with shooters like Halo 3 would leave many games trembling in the dust but CoD4 merely shakes the mud from its boots and soldiers on, bringing it’s own brand of chaotic realism to the mix.
As the suffix suggests, CoD4 is set in the present day, with a close to the bone fictional story of terrorists and nuclear bombs.
Ditching the bolt action guns of WWII for state of the art weaponry, CoD4’s action is refined yet retains the chaos of previous iterations.
Undoubtably one of the best looking games around, the battlefields are awash with smoke and bloodied inevitability with the FPS action claustrophobic and tense.
The tale may be a relatively brief affair and the endlessly respawning enemies a blot on gameplay but the addictive, RPG laced online modes more than make up for it.
9/10

Super Mario Galaxy

Nintendo Wii
After the disappointment (for some) of Super Mario Sunshine, Galaxies is Nintendo’s long awaited true sequel to the ridiculously good and rightly revered Super Mario 64.
Topping perfection is an unenviable task and while Galaxies doesn’t have the jaw dropping switch from 2D to 3D that Mario 64 revelled in, it certainly attempts feats of the same magnitude.
Set in space, in and around tiny planets and wildly imaginative worlds, Galaxies takes the notion of up and down and throws it into a blender with some dysfunctional laws of gravity. The result is a game full of mind bending, upside down platforming and pure reaction based gaming that shows the world Nintendo can still make proper games and that Mario is undoubtably still king of the Mushroom kingdom castle.
10/10

The Orange Box

Platform: Xbox 360, also PS3 and PC.
Verdict: The future’s bright.
Rating: 5/5
Now that my belly is fat with cake and my thumbs blistering from the excessive list of quality pre-Christmas games, it’s time to kick back and catch up on those titles I missed. They’ll handily help fill the gaming drought in this most depressing of months too.
With plenty of great games for Santa to choose from, The Orange Box was the most conspicuous omission from last year’s reviews, especially as it should have been one of my top 5 games of 2007. Time to make amends then.
The Orange Box isn’t a collection of citrus flavoured chocolates or some ill advised Dragon’s Den ‘innovation’ but a rather fine compendium of Valve made games. Included in this bumper package is the seminal Half Life 2 (the game that defined physics based puzzling) and its two highly rated episodic sequels. As if that wasn’t enough you get Team Fortress 2 (a super stylised multiplayer game) and Portal (a mind melting, space bending FPS puzzler) thrown in too. Both of which are inspiringly innovative in their own right and juicy, brandy soaked cherries on the already sumptuous cake.
For such AAA generosity there must be a catch right? Wrong. Unless you have some guilty complex that makes you insist on paying full price for every game in the (orange) box. Instead, pay your £30 and be glad Gabe Newell has seen fit to deliver his quality slices of prime gaming beef at a discount price. Be very glad.
So, you might have guessed I like it. You’re wrong (again), I really like it. I want to hug it, buy it presents and take photobooth shots of us on our perfect day. If that was any day in particular it’d be the day I finished the regrettably short Portal - the most perfect slice of gaming pie there possibly ever has been. Innovative, perplexing, amusing and downright marvel at the infinite vastness of space, mind bendingly brilliant. All in the pursuit of cake too.