Toronto Thumbs

Review
Sine Mora

When I got the press kit for Grasshopper Manufacture’s Sine Mora I was super-excited to get my hands on it. For starters, it’s a bullet-hell-shoot-‘em-up (my favorite), and second: it has some heavyweight industry contribution. Another side scroller you say? Hardly. Sine Mora has design input from Mahiro Maeda, the legendary anime director of the Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Animatrix – Second Renaissance and most of all, the amazing animated sequence in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Needless to say, his contribution has led to some truly detailed and imaginative backdrops. To accompany the phenomenally creative design comes a unique and engaging score created by Akira Yomaoka (Shadows of the Damned and the Silent Hill series) which matches the frantic game-play like glow sticks at a rave.

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Review
Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure

When it comes to catering to the inner child, you don’t need to look farther than Pixar; they deliver the goods every time. People just fall in love with their movies; whether it is a story about toys that come to life, cars that are people, or a rat that can cook – there is magic within each adventure that resonates with something in our souls. My daughter once asked me if there was a way to jump into a Pixar movie to join our favourite characters. Asobo Studio’s Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure does a fairly good job answering that question; and while it may fall short of an “ultimate” experience, it is an exciting precursor of what (hopefully) may be.

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Review
Fez

You have never played a game quite like Fez.

In its early stages, you may think that you already have experienced it: the cute pixel graphics mix Cave Story with Minecraft; the platforming is nothing revolutionary; the 2D-to-3D rotation mechanic has also been done before; and there is no denying that Fez is proudly and openly influenced by the original NES Legend of Zelda, right down to a poster of that pink-sky and sky-blue waterfall of Zelda’s title sequence in Fez’s main character’s bedroom. That poster is a nice touch, and a revealing glance into Fez’s attitude toward play. Not every player will notice that poster; but those with a keen eye for detail and the desire to take their sweet time exploring the environment will be rewarded – in this case, with a little nod to one of gaming’s great sources of inspiration. Later on in Fez, that keen eye and that desire to take things slow become necessary to discover everything, just like in that original Zelda game. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

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Review
I Am Alive

I Am Alive made me consider quitting videogames completely.

Partly, that is my own fault. I began “playing” this “game” (two terms both rendered increasingly problematic in the evolving landscape of gaming, and certainly questionable terms brought to the forefront by I Am Alive) at the least opportune and most insensitive time. I live in Japan, and I began my descent into Darkworks’ and Ubisoft Shanghai’s boring wasteland on the one-year anniversary of the disastrous Tohoko earthquake and tsunami. While television coverage and everyone in my immediate vicinity was focused on commemorating those tragedies, I was clumsily lumbering around in a gray and nondescript post-disaster city, replete with evacuation centers and wailing injured virtual citizens. Needless to say, this made me feel like an asshole.

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Review
Nexuiz

Crusty gamers who have stuck around for more generations than they’d care to admit can get a little curmudgeonly when they think back to the “glory days” of whatever genre is being discussed. The time that I have invested in Call of Duty’s various multi-player modes since 2006 surely eclipses the hours I whiled away playing the likes of Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament; but my reverence for these ‘pure’ shooters is unflappable. Nexuiz openly mimics the game-play of these arena-based shooters, which should excite any of the gamers who still talk in hushed tones about their awesome rail-gun exploits or elaborate lag-compensation techniques from days of yore.

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Review
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

Psychological? No. Thriller? Occasionally.

It’s important to address at the outset that Alan Wake’s American Nightmare has not been designed to give fans of the original title more of the same. One needs only a cursory glance at the box art motifs to see the changes in tone: the original portrays the protagonist standing in a dark and foggy forest, his flashlight cutting a cold beam through the oppressive blackness. Stamped above the title, the words: ‘A Psychological Action Thriller’. In comparison, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare could be about a rural handyman who hasn’t got around to reading the instruction manual on his nail-gun yet.

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Review
Warp – I Wanna Be In You

If you’re going to name your game after its central mechanic, it had better be a damned good one. Happily, Warp’s teleporting system is strong enough to make this action-puzzler worthwhile despite the occasional frustrations it heaps on the player.

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