Real Talk By: KJ and Vex

With the Summer of Arcade ending, KJ and Vex got their brains moving to discuss this years lineup. With the every game costing 15 bucks, buying all for most would be deadly. If you purchase all 5 of this year’s games, you get a 15 dollar rebate. What a goofy ass deal, pay 75 bucks and you only get 15 back. This is why we are here to discuss What titles you should download. So clear your Queue and get ready to download some real truth.

KJ: My Main Pick of this years SOA, would be Lara Croft and The Guardian of light. This adventure is two player cooperative and has been designed to fully accommodate it. The levels change slightly, depending on whether you have a friend playing with you or not. Your can’t just mindlessly plow through this game either. Expect a balanced challenge here. The story is generic, but who really cares when its an arcade title. An ancient mirror keeping a powerful demon at bay, has been released. Lara must stop the threat with the warrior that has been guarding the demon; Totec. In each stage, there are a set of challenges that you can attempt to complete. Doing these can earn you extra power ups and points. There are so many different tasks, that it really keeps the gameplay outside of the box. Overall, if you want a true action adventure title that has meat, (the game is a meaty 2GBs) then this is your game. I pick Lara Croft and The Guardian Of Light, and Monday Night Combat in second as the Games to download this year. More on M.N.C with Vex further down.

Last Year’s lineup was superior in every way

Vex: Much like wine, one can wish with time things could improve. Yeah right. This years summer of arcade doesn’t fill the descriptions bill sad to say. This is not to say there weren’t any great games, but in comparison to last year, no contest. This year the prices were too high for 4 out of five games, but not the quality regrettably. The game I would have to say was worth the price and hype is Monday night combat. This game has replay value, great graphics for an arcade title and a variety of characters with different abilities. Some might argue that there are some balancing issues with some characters, but those pan out amongst the chaos most of the time. you progress through the game, you can customize your class to a certain extent which can help against characters that are abused, such as the assassin. If she gets too close, its unbalanced. The game offers two very addictive modes called Blitz and Crossfire. CF is a versus tower defense mode while blitz offers a four player co-op/defense mode against enemy AI. There is no versus Deathmatch, but it’s not missed due to the overall fun had in the two fore mentioned game modes. I had another arcade game prior to playing this that was gonna be my MF for the summer, (Limbo) but the replay value and overall fun this game offers can’t be matched.

Overall, last year’s games to us were just better. Every game wasn’t 15 dollars, but yet they all could have been. The quality was just there. From the originality and humor of Splosion Man, to the outstanding graphics of Shadow Complex, value was easy to find. I’m not sure if the same thing can be said about this years line up. Make your own summer of arcade, and do it with: Joe Danger (PSN), Scott Pilgrim V.S. The World (PSN/XBLA), Monday Night Combat (XBLA), Shank (PSN/XBLA), and Lara Croft (PSN/XBLA).

Monday Night Combat gets MF MF MF MF M out of five

+Gameplay is beyond addictive

-There’s just not enough maps here to earn a five.

Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light gets MF MF MF MF out of five

+Well crafted puzzles and coop gameplay

-False advertising on the online coop means you loose a MF. Online not functional till September 28th

Castlevania HD gets MF MF M out of five

+Fun with 6 players in short bursts

–Game can get Foolishly hard out of nowhere

-Level up system is gone.

Hydro Thunder gets MF MF MF out of five

+Fun when playing local split-screen with homies.

-The game just gets stale after a while. Most will not be playing this at all in the next few months.

LIMBO gets MF MF MF MF M out of five

+ Satisfying and rewarding puzzles that rarely cause frustration.

+ Visually stunning deaths.

– Way Too short for the price.

The XBL Summer of Arcade 2010 gets an overall MF MF MF M out of five