Day 22 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Chibi Robo Let's Go Photo UK Release

Yesterday it was announced that Chibi Robo: Let's Go Photo for 3DS will finally be making its way to UK shores on 3rd July 2014. I'm a huge fan of the series starring the adorable little robot so let's see what he has in store for us this time around.

Chibi Robo is now working for a museum but unfortunately it's lacking any exhibits. The Curator has given you the task of finding objects (referred to as NostalJunk) to fill up his museum, it sounds simple enough but you'll have to use your 3DS camera to do it.

You will be given a specific shape and it's your mission to go out into the real world and take a photo of something identical to that shape. It will then be rendered into the game so Chibi Robo can cart it off to the museum and put it on display. Here's a video to show you the process in action.

When you're not snapping photos of the weird and wonderful there's a number of side-quests and tasks to keep you occupied. Chibi Robo will have to make sure the museum stays clean and tidy, while also helping the games cast of eccentric characters with their problems.

In Japan Nintendo were apparently running NostalJunk contests where you have to submit your best in-game photographs for a chance to win fabulous prizes. Hopefully we'll get the same thing here.

This could be one of the best community based games since Animal Crossing: New Leaf, so make sure to mark 3rd July 2014 on your calendar.

Day 21 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 completely revitalised the franchise, shifting focus from tank controlled characters and static cameras to an over the shoulder perspective, getting the player closer to the action than ever before. This however, altered the kind of terror on offer; unnerving atmospheres were replaced with heart pounding, white knuckled excitement that kept you on the edge of your seat. 

The game stars Leon S Kennedy, the rookie cop from Resident Evil 2, who is now working for the US Government and has been given the task of finding Ashley, the President's abducted daughter. Capcom set the tone for the game in brilliant fashion, within the first ten minutes you're barricading yourself in a house surrounded by an entire village of lunatics, including one fellow wielding a chainsaw. I lost count of the number of times I had my head brutally removed in this first scene.

 You later discover that the entire community has been infected with a parasite capable of taking over the hosts body and turning them into mindless puppets. This allowed Resident Evil to move away from the signature zombie masses to a more intelligent enemy, one that would evade your attacks and use weapons and strategy to defeat you.

A considerable portion of the game sees you escorting Ashley to safety, a task that many players found frustrating as she's very slow to move and little more than baggage. Many a time I've been surrounded by enemies only to quick turn and end up shooting her in the face, it was kind of funny the first time but gets old pretty quickly. Thankfully Ashley gets recaptured at certain points of the game, usually when you have to defeat a boss, so there's sufficient breathing space that allows you to have a bit of fun without having to worry keeping her from harm.

There's plenty of replay value on offer thanks to the various unlockables and side quests that are worthwhile devoting your time to. Completing the game will unlock the Mercenaries mode, allowing you to pick from a number of characters and fight waves of enemies until you die or the timer expires.

Resident Evil 4 was a risky endeavor for Capcom as they had completely changed the series formula, but the gamble paid off as there's no denying how good this game is. If you like your horror games exciting, terrifying and a roller-coaster ride to the very end then this game is just what you're looking for. So what'll it be, stranger?  

Day 20 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Halo: Combat Evolved

At a time when the majority of my friends had their Playstation 2's, I was getting acquainted with Microsoft's new Xbox console and it's launch title Halo: Combat Evolved. In a market that's now over-saturated with first person shooters it may be difficult for some to find something special about Halo, but at the time this was considered a masterpiece of gaming that made people believe Xbox was a true contender in the 'console wars'.

Halo begins with a massive starship, crewed by human space marines, coming across a mysterious ring world after being chased across the galaxy by the alien Covenant. When the Covenant send in their boarding party the humans decide to abandon ship and flee to Halo, but before they leave they revive the last of their race of super soldiers; Spartan 117, otherwise known as Master Chief. 

Accompanied by his digital sidekick, Cortana, Master Chief had to fight his way through 10 brilliantly designed levels that saw you uncovering the secrets of this fascinating place. The levels would see you venture across snow covered mountains, tropical islands, dense swamps and alien cruisers, with the variety and attention to detail being phenomenal in every sense of the word.

Halo had a graphic quality that really demonstrated what the Xbox was capable of, sunlight would slip between the leaves of trees, while plasma shots would burn brightly across the battlefield; sometimes leaving you so stunned that you'd be shot to pieces before you realised what was happening. Audio was also impeccable as grenades would give a satisfying explosion; followed by the trickle of falling debris, the Covenant's plasma weapons had their own distinct sounds and not to mention one of the most wonderful gaming soundtracks of the era.

AI was also very well presented, not just from the enemy standpoint, but also your allies as they would provide suppressive fire and other tactical manoeuvers to help you secure victory. The Covenant however are also just as clever, especially in the Legendary difficulty mode where they seem almost unbeatable, flanking around you and using stealth to make you feel helpless. You can always get your own back though in the easier settings, with Grunts retreating when their Elite leaders are killed by a well placed plasma grenade.

Halo had some great multiplayer support as well, no Xbox Live, but there was support for up to 16 players via system link. You could customise maps how you wanted, deciding which weapons to include, alongside vehicles and power ups to add tons of variety. You could even tackle the story in co-op mode, which was great for when you needed a helping hand beating the game on Legendary, and you could even partake in Warthog jumping (something that you can't do now as the Warthog's are destructible).

Halo: Combat Evolved was everything a launch title should be. It demonstrated the power of the system, delivered excellent gameplay and set the standard for all those to come, while making owners of rival consoles green with envy. 

Day 19 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Sunset Riders

Sunset Riders is my favourite western game, after Red Dead Redemption of course.

This western-style arcade game from Konami was ported over to the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis. It was a side-scrolling run-and-gun shooter where players would have to blast their way through wild west themed levels and defeat a boss to collect a bounty. The console version has two playable characters; a young gunslinger named Billy and a shotgun wielding Mexican named Cormano, other than the weapons there wasn't really any difference depending on who you played as. The game also featured a two player co-op mode so you could tackle the game together with a friend.

The SNES version of the game has some slight differences due to Nintendo's family friendly policies. The Mega Drive version featured female enemies that threw dynamite at you, but these have been replaced with male bandits in the SNES version, probably Nintendo not wanting to glorify violence towards women. Also the Native American themed boss in the Mega Drive version, known as Chief Scalpem, was renamed Chief Wigam in the SNES version.

Sunset Riders is perfect if you want something simple to just pick up and play, so grab a buddy a wreak some havoc through the west. Yee-hah! 

Day 18 out of 100 Happy Gaming Days: World of Illusion

I'm a bit late with this one. I was extremely busy yesterday and to be honest writing a blog a day was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but that just means there's going to be a double post today!

World of Illusion was one of the greatest Disney platformer's of the 16 bit era. It featured some beautiful graphics for the time based on Disney's animation style, with levels taking inspiration from classic Disney movies and cartoons such as The Little Mermaid, Mickey and the Beanstalk and Alice in Wonderland.

The story begins with Mickey and Donald rehearsing their act for a big magic show, and while they're rehearsing they discover an unusual wooden box carved to look like a face with a velvet curtain across its mouth. All of a sudden they both fall into the box and are transported to the World of Magic, where an evil Sorceror explains he will show them the way home, as long as they can find him and defeat him in a magic duel.


The game is pretty easy to complete, however there is a lot of replay value as you can play as Mickey or Donald, and in co-op mode with a friend. Depending on which character you've chosen you'll encounter different routes and levels, for instance with Donald having a bigger backside than Mickey he can't squeeze the through smaller spaces like Mickey can, so he needs to find an alternative route to proceed.

The co-op mode was also very inventive with players being encouraged to help one another, otherwise they stood no chance of completing the game. Some sections involved giving each other a boost to higher ledges and then throwing a rope down for the person left behind, or jumping in sequence to move a rail cart across a level.

There's a lot of great Disney games for the Mega Drive but World of Illusion stands out for it's great design and multiplayer, and with Castle of Illusion recently getting an HD remake some are expecting World of Illusion to get the same treatment. If they keep the same design values that encourage true cooperative gameplay, I'll be happy... and maybe some bonus content too! :P

Day 17 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: The Silent Hill Collection

Never has a game series been so terrifyingly disturbing, and with 3 games in one box you better make sure you're not wearing your best underwear before you play this.

This collection is comprised of the second, third and fourth games, and while there are some that I prefer over others this is still a great collection.

Silent Hill 2 tells the story of widow James Sutherland who has journeyed to Silent Hill after receiving a letter signed by his deceased wife. The letter beckons him to meet her Silent Hill, the town holding great meaning for the couple, so James wanders over to the cursed town to see what's going on. He arrives to find the town shrouded in fog and seemingly deserted, save for the horrific monsters crawling the streets and stalking your every move. Can James discover the truth before it's too late?

Silent Hill 3 follows the story of Heather, a teenage girl who is being pursued by the cult of Silent Hill. After she finds her father bludgeoned to death by a monster controlled by the cult, Heather goes to Silent Hill to seek revenge. I'll be honest I really didn't enjoy this one, I found Heather to be really annoying and the story was nowhere near as gripping as Silent Hill 2. Some still consider it a great game but I just never saw the appeal.

Silent Hill 4 sees poor Henry Townshend of Room 302 wake up one morning to find the door of his apartment sealed from the inside. As if things couldn't get any worse a huge portal appears in his bathroom wall leading Henry to various locations, and eventually to Silent Hill, where he tries to unravel the mystery of just what on earth is going on. Some feel this is the lower point in series as Silent Hill 4 was never intended to be a main Silent Hill game, and although the gameplay here does deviate from the previous games, the story will keep you playing until the very end.

All-in-all a great collection that every survival-horror fan should own, try it if you dare.

Day 16 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Super Mario Kart

With only 7 days remaining until the release of Mario Kart 8 (I've got my pre-order), I thought it would be a good idea to look at the game that started it all; Super Mario Kart for SNES.

Super Mario Kart set the standard for the future of the series introducing imaginative track design, multiplayer fun and showing what Nintendo's Seal of Quality really meant. The game had a total of 8 playable characters; Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool/Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Koopa Trooper, Bowser and Donkey Kong Jr. There are a total of 20 tracks on offer from all over the Mario universe; Donut Plains, Bowsers Castle, Choco Island and the now notorious Rainbow Road.

Players could compete for various cups in the Mario Kart GP mode racing solely against the computer across 5 tracks in each competition, or they could have a friend join in too. There were two difficulty options available, 50cc and 100cc, and if you managed to earn gold in the first three tournaments you'll gain access to the Special Cup with the remaining 5 tracks. If you reached the top spot in a tournament you would see a wonderful animation showing your character with their trophy, with a different animation depending on the character you chose.

You could also race one-on-one against your friends or compete in a Time Trial across any of the 20 tracks, but my favourite has always been the Battle Mode. In Battle Mode you and a friend could fight it out across 4 arena-type stages, firing weapons at your opponent to burst the 3 balloons attached to their kart. Unfortunately you're unable to get any AI controlled opponents to fight in Battle Mode, but the arenas were just the right size for 2 players.

Super Mario Kart, as previously mentioned, also had a selection of weapons available. Thankfully the Blue Shell was yet to make an appearance, but banana skins, green/red shells, mushrooms and many more were there to make or break your race. The computer also had their own weapons to use against you, for instance Yoshi is able to leave Eggs around the track for you to crash into, but as far as I'm aware a player controlled racer is unable to access these exclusive weapons (which was a bit strange but it kept things interesting as you didn't know what was going to attack you next).

Super Mario Kart was a fantastic game and the hype for Mario Kart 8 has built to ridiculous levels, and with an amazing series behind it it certainly has a lot to live up to.