Eidos/IO Interactive’s Hitman series has always been the thinking man’s stealth action game. You don’t into heavily fortified military bases to take out genocidal terrorists (most of the time), you are sneaking into public locations to eliminate a designated series of targets. Simply not being seen isn’t enough, you have to cover up evidence of your presence and eliminate any cause for suspicion. You don’t just hide in ventilation shafts and cardboard boxes. Often times you’ll have to disguise yourself and figure out how to sneak your weaponry onto the mission site. Your job isn’t just to kill your target and move on, you’ll also have to avoid (or reduce the possibility of) innocents being killed. After 2 successful games and a weaker third title, Hitman returns to top form, just in time for the next generation of gaming.

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No, this doesn’t have anything to do with Dave Chappell, conscious hip hop music, or a brief Fugees reunion. However, Ultimate Block Party (known in Japan as Kollon) is a fun little anime-inspired PSP puzzle game brings back memories of Tetris Attack. You arrange colored blocks in groups of four to clear them out. As with many good puzzlers, things aren’t nearly that simple. When playing against a CPU or friend, the disappeared blocks are sent to the other player’s side, adversely affecting their game screen. Blocks can glue together, become harder to move, or even cover up the playing field. Clearing out blocks can earn magic squares, which give certain advantages such as changing all the blocks in a row to a certain color and blowing up clusters of blocks. As expected, you can chain together blocks and add on to your score. You play as one of 8 characters, but there are no real differences between them. It offers a Vs mode, an arcade mode, and a single player endless mode. There is also a campaign mode, but all it is is simply Arcade mode with just one character and some intro animations. In a nice little touch, the game offers Ad-Hoc play (something that wasn’t in the Japanese release), but good luck finding another player who has a copy of this game.

Ultimate Block Party may not be Lumines, and it doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of game modes, but it’s still a solid title for casual gamers. It’s hard to find thanks to the lack of decent marketing around its release, but puzzle fans should definitely check this game out. Now that I think about it, this would make a good Xbox Live Arcade game.

In 1995, late into the Super Nintendo’s life cycle, Square-Enix, then known as only Squaresoft, released Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger was a role playing game which took place over the course of several time periods. It had an innovative battle system, beautiful graphics, an awesome soundtrack, and multiple endings. It was, and still is to this day one of the greatest RPGs ever made. Half a decade later, Square would release a follow up. While it wasn’t as critically acclaimed as the original, it would be an excellent game in its own right.
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It’s that time of the year again folks! The scariest night of the year, October 31st is upon us once again, and in between the candy, costumes, and practical jokes, we got a dose of some of the scariest games that have ever graced a console. One of which is an unknown chapter of a well-known franchise, and the other is a modern-day update to one of the most prolific titles in gaming. So without further ado, turn down the lights, keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times, and try not to wet yourself.
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I featured this game’s sequel as this week’s $20 GOTW, so with Halloween less than a week away and Dracula X Chronicles hitting the PSP this week, lets take a look at this classic but overlooked installment of Konami’s signature horror series. While it had the look and style of earlier Castlevania games, Bloodlines introduced some subtle changes in the formula that made it stand out from the rest of the series.
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Later this month, Konami will be bringing Dracula X to the US for the first time ever as a PSP remake of the original PC Engine game. The original version of the game, as well as Symphony of the Night, will both be available as hidden extras on the disc. No time like the present to look at the most recent entry in the series. This follow up to 2005’s Dawn of Sorrow, sticks closely to the franchise’s more recent “Metroidvania” style of gameplay while adding in some new twists of its own. Not the least of which is that you’ll be controlling two characters at once, each with their own skills and abilities. Features such as this help keep the formula as enjoyable as it has been in the past several entries in the series.
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Okay, I realize I shouldn’t like this game as much as I do, but in spite of its over emphasis on the female form, slightly sluggish yet simple play control, and lack of variety in its play modes, it can actually become a bit enjoyable if you don’t expect much from it. Developed by Yuke’s Future Media Creators (you know them from the Smackdown games) and published by Konami (you know them from Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Contra, and dozens of other great franchises), RRXX is a sequel to 2004’s Rumble Roses, a Playstation 2 wrestling game. The game’s big hook is that it features an all-female cast. Each of them scantily clad to boot. This game clearly isn’t for everyone.
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Even though this game has been overshadowed by its sequels three times over, Soul Edge was and still is a revolutionary title in the fighting genre. A 3-d fighter with weapons based gameplay, Namco’s classic took the genre to new heights. Although this certainly wasn’t the first fighting game to feature weapons, (SNK’s Samurai Showdown and Sony’s Battle Arena Toshinden having been released prior) it made the weapon deeper and more fluid rather than simply having sword slashes as a substitute for punches and kicks. The game also had a deep storyline taking place in the 16th century featuring a diverse cast of warriors. Later games in the series would expand on the plot even further, adding new characters and plot twists. The home version of the game wasn’t bad either. As a matter of fact, the Playstation version of the game, renamed Soul Blade, featured new playable characters, new game modes, and other cool extras. Along with Namco’s Tekken 2, Soul Blade was one of the few arcade-to-home conversions at the time that managed to surpass the original arcade game it was based on.
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