Jelly Pops Review

     I bought Jelly Pops almost solely because it was made by Pom Pom games, makers of the really, really great Alien Zombie Death (reviewed in January 2012). And at first, I was really disappointed. It certainly doesn't live up to the greatness of AZD. And I think I may have been anxious at the time to focus on playing Wipeout HD Fury (reviewed in June 2012). But now that I've had a few months break from it and picked it up again, I finished it off and really enjoyed my experience with it.

     Jelly Pops is a PSP/PS3 mini, which can be played on either system once you purchase it once. It was made by the same three person team at Pom Pom which made AZD. Gameplay consists of guiding a snake up and down on the left side of the screen as the level flows past you from left to right. It's a strange effect, as the snake is supposed to be moving from left to right (and you do get that impression), but it never really leaves the left side of the screen.

     On the left side of the screen is a life force meter that depletes over time. If it runs out, you die. To refill it, you must collect life force gems as they fly by. To increase your score, there are different kinds of gems you can collect. And then there are a few types of “negative energy” that you can't touch or you'll die. The only controls are to use the nub or left analog stick to guide the snake, and pressing x to “boost” or move faster (an ability you earn on each individual stage after surviving a certain amount of time and earning a stage medal). There is also a multiplier system similar to AZD's. The score multiplier meter slowly fills up over time, and when it gets totally full, it resets but puts you at a new multiplier level. So once it fills up once, each scoring gem you collect gives you double points. Once it fills up twice, you earn triple points, and so on. The meter fills up more quickly the faster you go. If you weave up and down the screen, it moves slower, and if you boost straight ahead by pressing x, it fills up faster (although it is harder to control snake when you boost). The level ends when you die.

     The game uses a medal system very similar to AZD's. Each stage has 7 medals you can earn. They all have 2 stage medals, which you earn for getting through a certain number of stages or sections within the level. They all also have 2 score medals, which you earn for reaching certain scores. Earning the first stage medal in a level grants you the ability to use the boost function for that level from then on (starting with your next run-through, I believe). Collecting the first score medal unlocks spirit gems for that level. Starting in your next run-through of that level, mobile spirit gems will appear. Collecting them earns you additional points.

Besides those 4 medals, each stage has 3 more that you earn for doing various things, such as collecting a certain number of a certain type of gem, collecting spirit gems, and collecting certain colors of gems in a chain without touching anything else.

     Each of the 8 levels has a gimmick that you need to exploit in order to earn the medals. I won't spoil them all, but some task you with powering up life force gems before you collect them by first touching same-colored gems. Some include rollers that you can push around to knock hazards out of the way, and others have gems you need to collect that move around and shoot at you as you try and get them. The variety is nice and each level feels unique.

     Each level also has it's own visual style in the form of an animated background. These are really great looking. Along with the look of some of the obstacles and gems, they really give you the feeling that you are in some form of wet, microscopic environment. Highlights include a red level with giant red-blood cells floating by, and a brown level with what look like grains of salt seen through a microscope floating through it.

The game basically has two music tracks, and they are both excellent. There is the title-screen music, which is really good. Then there is the level music, which plays during each level. The level music is a basic track, and your actions provide the rest of the sound. Collecting gems creates sounds that add to the music, and because each level has different gem set ups, each level sounds different despite having the same basic background track. The level music is really great, and will stay with you. I remembered and thought about it often during the months between the first time I played this game and when I just recently picked it up to finish it. It is a slow, melancholy song that is strikingly similar in my mind to some of the band oOoOO's music. In fact, when I think about Jelly Pop's music, I often end up listening to a mash up of the level music and some oOoOO song in my head, and they are a perfect duet. Great music.

     Unfortunately, Jelly Pops also has a small glitch (just like AZD!). I completed the game 100%, and then when I loaded up my save file later, it still read 100%, but none of the medals for the last two stages were unlocked. It's weird, because my high scores were saved, and even though they were higher than what was needed for the score medals, they were not unlocked. This is annoying. I had my PSP on sleep mode the whole time I played, so I unlocked all of those medals without having to re-load, but I can imagine it would be frustrating to lose medals if you had to re-load your save while still trying to get those last few medals only to find some of them missing. Not a huge deal over all though.

     I had fun with Jelly Pops, but it was a little too short and easy, especially compared to AZD, which offered a longer play time, greater challenge, and more engaging play. I think it might ultimately be forgettable (except the music), but it was fun while it lasted. Kind of what I would normally expect from a mini, except that my first mini was AZD, which went so far above the call of duty. Jelly Pops is a Tier 1 Mediocre Game.

Wipeout HD Fury Review

     I'm not going to go into too much detail about Wipeout HD, the game that Fury is a DLC pack for, except to say that it is an absolute masterpiece, one of my favorite games, and very solidly in the Tier 1 Great Game category (meaning it is almost perfect in my opinion). Needless to say, Fury needs to be really good to hold your attention after you've played Wipeout HD, and it is indeed really good and really different. It centers around three new modes of play, Eliminator (which has been featured in previous Wipeouts, such as the Pulse entry on the PSP), Detonator, and Zone Battle. These new modes are available to play on all of the old Wipeout HD tracks as well as 12 new ones drawn once again from the fertile source material of Pure and Pulse. There is a new 80 event campaign to play through that splits these new types of events about 50/50 with more traditional single races, tournaments, and speed laps, all on the new tracks. From here on out I'm going to do a mini-review of each of the three new events, as they are the stars of the show.

       First up is eliminator, which isn't new to you if you've played Wipeout Pulse. In this mode, you fly around the tracks trying to score points by destroying other ships. You also score a small amount of points for hitting another ship with a weapon (even if they don't get destroyed) and by surviving laps. You also loose points for being eliminated yourself (you then re-spawn, as do any other eliminated ships). Unlike in a normal race, weapon pads don't fade out for a few seconds when a ship flies over them, so everyone gets a fair shot at the weapons. There are no shields, turbos, or autopilots in the weapon slots, just offensive weapons, and you can't absorb them to regain energy. By pressing circle, you can sacrifice your current weapon to activate a shield for a few seconds. You also regain a small amount of energy at the beginning of every lap. The event ends when a ship hits a pre-set point target. There are a few differences between this eliminator mode and Pulse's. I can't officially confirm this, but the weapons seem less powerful than they were in Pulse. The leach beam is definitely wayyyyyyy less powerful than it was in Pulse. Also, the special weapons from Pulse (the shuriken and repulsor) are absent. I believe in Pulse you scored by the kill instead of by points. And finally, and most importantly, Fury adds a feature that makes eliminator a lot more fun and interesting. Tapping L1 flips your ship around 180 degrees, allowing you to fire front firing weapons behind you. This drastically slows you down, but you can quickly flip back around and accelerate again. This seemingly simple mechanic really adds to the event and makes it even more fun than it was in Pulse. Backward quakes, rockets, and missiles add a whole new element to the mode, and it is terrifying the first time someone charges up a plasma then spins around to instantly fire it in your face (and an insane rush the first time you do it to someone else). The amount of strategy and fun this simple addition brings to the table is really impressive.

       This is mode can get really insane, especially on the elite difficulty. It's hard to even explain how chaotic the track can get. I've literally cringed several times as weapons go off unexpectedly and exploding ships go flying everywhere all the while everyone is approaching uncontrollable speeds. Did I mention you'll be doing all this (and all of the normal racing event) in some really wonderful looking new ships, which are similar but different to their HD counterparts, and feature enhanced stats? Wild. I've had so many great moments occur in this mode.

       Next up is Zone Battle, which puts you in competition with other ships while in the always thrilling zone mode. In a traditional zone event, you are alone on the track as you accelerate automatically, going faster and faster as you go through different zones. This continues until you crash and burn. In zone battle, you and your seven opponents accelerate automatically and the event ends when one player reaches a specific zone. Running over a speed pad in this mode charges a meter at the bottom of the screen. You can drain the meter by pressing square to accelerate a certain number of zones, up to eight at a time, or you can press circle to drain the meter to recharge your energy. When you press square to accelerate through zones, you also leave a hexagonal wall behind you that you hope the other ships will crash into. When you press circle, you put up a temporary shield that lets you pass through walls as your energy recharges. Hitting a wall drains your meter and your energy, and losing all your energy means re-spawning and losing some zones. This mode is my least favorite of the three. It's a great idea, but its mechanics aren't quite as tight as the other modes. On normal mode, I found that you just need to hit many speed pads to win, pure and simple. If you don't, you'll loose. If you ever use your meter to recharge your energy or pass through a wall, you'll loose, making the whole mechanic of passing through walls and recharging energy useless. It also means that if you hit a wall or two or miss a few speed pads in the beginning of the race, you'll never catch up. The mode is more fun on the elite difficulty, as the zone goals are higher and you actually can recharge your energy without loosing. You can also catch up if you get a little behind on elite, because the goal is higher and another ship won't just get there before you get a chance to do anything. I know it sounds like I'm down on this mode, but I really do like it and had a lot of fun with it, especially on elite difficulty. I just wish its mechanics were a little tighter. P.S., the ships you use in this mode are gorgeous; black chassis's with clear holographic wings and fins.

     Last but not least is Detonator mode. This is also a zone mode with a twist. In fact, it seems like detonator was designed as a visually and mechanically trippy-er version of normal zone mode, which is wild enough as it is. In detonator, you control an odd little team-branded craft and race through up to 14 laps, each one faster than the last. Scattered around the course are mines and one bomb per lap. You can shoot the mines with your unlimited ammo cannon, but you have to reload every fifteen shots. You can also run over EMP pads to charge up your EMP weapon and then fire it by pressing L1. It is a quake-like weapon that clears all mines in front of you. The more it's charged up, the farther it travels. You score points by destroying mines and bombs, and by chaining together shots without missing. Mines you leave on the field turn black at the end of the lap, and are worth less points from then on. You earn medals by reaching score goals, and the round is over when you ship explodes or if you complete all 14 laps. This is a really great mode. It really seems to stack things in your favor, as your cannon shots hug the track, can blast through multiple mines, and even bounce off of walls, allowing you to shoot around corners (or just spay and pray and hit mines off of ricochets). The EMP lets you wipe out whole sections of mines, and the detonator ship is just as agile as a normal zone craft. You also regain ten energy per lap, allowing you to make up for mistakes. But as the laps progress, both your speed and the total number of mines on the track increase, and it's amazing and wonderful how quickly things turn into a desperate high-speed battle to stay alive long enough to get to the score goal you need for your gold medal. Things can go bad really fast if you hit a couple of mines in a row or a bomb, and as the laps roll on, you start to become very vulnerable in the second or two it takes to reload your cannon. It's also a lot of fun to learn how to get your score up when you're having trouble meeting the score goal. Do you try and be really accurate to gain chain bonuses, or do you try to blast every mine in sight to stop them from becoming black mines on the next lap? I think this mode is so fun because you have to struggle both to not explode and to achieve enough points to get the medal. This mode is also really beautiful. Mines and bombs explode into crazy colors and particles, and when you run out of energy, the camera pans around your ship as it detonates into a million little particles which stay in a sphere shape and then begin to pulse with the music as the score results pop up.

     Speaking of the music, there are a handful of new tracks, and they are all great, as usual. The Wipeout series' licensed techno/dance music is always so perfectly matched with the setting and adds so much to the experience, and these tracks are no different. Not to mention the track that plays during the new title screen and perfectly accompanies the beautiful and hypnotizing new title screen visuals.

     The graphics on the new tracks seem to have taken a small step up, which is amazing, as HD already looked great. There is plenty of eye candy here, and if you're into photo mode like me, there are many more great PS3 wallpaper photos just waiting to be taken (see photo dump at end of article).

      There are a few new trophies included with Fury, and they are generally fun to pursue. They usually challenge you to do something different than you would normally do in one of the three new modes. They are fun, but all of them can be accomplished in just a handful of tries, so if you're looking for a challenge along the lines of Zone Zeus, you unfortunately won't find it here.

       Since I'm reviewing this DLC on its own, as if it is its own game, I'm going to have to put it as a Tier 2 great game. It is really, really awesome, but if you compare it to Wipeout HD on its own, it's not as tight and perfect. However, if you look at the two games as a complete package, which they kind of are, things change a little. Although on its own Fury isn't as good as HD on its own, Fury does add to HD as a complete package. In other words, Wipeout HD with the Fury expansion loaded in is a better game than just Wipeout HD alone. That is a great compliment for a DLC pack. So the two together are definitely a Tier 1 Great Game, no question, and a must have for racing game fans and non-fans alike (I don't play any other racing games, but Wipeout is one of my favorite game series). There is so much to do. With the additions brought by Fury, there are now 8 event types, and 28 course (if you count the reverse courses, which I definitely do as they are often quite different than their forward versions). I've played these games for over 85 hours (without touching online multiplayer) and have loved almost every minute of it.

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD Review

So I just got my Platinum Trophy in Stranger's Wrath HD, a PSN game. It was a very fun game to play, with its easy to use 1^st person/ 3^rd person hybrid perspective, really great character design, interesting story, and well done combat scenarios. It has a few problems here and there, and some strange game design choices, but overall it is a really great game.

You play as Stranger, a cowboy dog-man (or something) who is bounty hunting in order to pay for a mysterious surgery that he needs in a wild west world (where all the normal people are chicken-men and all the outlaws are lizard-men). The Stranger (like every other character and creature in the game) is very well designed. If you've played any other Oddworld games you will recognize the crazy and unique creature design and the “feel” of the whole scenario. The characters and situations are an odd mix of goofy, funny, depressing, disturbing, and bizarre. For example, the grubs are a funny looking race of lizard people who talk funny, but their lives are portrayed as kind of hopeless. It's a bizarre motif, and it takes a little while to get used to, but it is excellently executed and lends a very unique flavor to the game.

The game has a general flow to it. You come into a town, head to the bounty store, take on a mission to bounty an outlaw, and then head to their hideout to take on their gang and finally the big outlaw his or herself in a boss fight. You then head back to town to “get peid” and then take on another bounty. Once the town is out of outlaws, you'll be heading out to the next town and the next set of bounties, all in pursuit of enough moolah to pay for your surgery. Let's take a look at the controls of the game.

When in 3^rd person mode, cross is jump and double jump, square is used to bounty an incapacitated or dead enemy (sucking them up into Stranger's bag for transport back to town), and triangle is used to “shake-off” damage (an interesting take on the regenerating health bar. When you are holding still, you can press triangle to recharge your health bar while draining your stamina bar, which will then slowly recharge). The left analog stick controls your movement, and the right the camera. L1 makes Stranger perform a spinning punch, and R1 makes him headbutt. In 3^rd person mode, Stranger will run on all fours if you get his speed up by running for a while or running downhill, something he can't do in 1^st person mode. Pressing R3 switches you over to 1^st person mode. The face buttons all do the same thing in this mode, except that circle is now used to manually reload and bounty-ing a foe will force you back into 3^rd person mode. The left and right analog sticks now function like a traditional FPS, with the left controlling where you walk and the right controlling where you look. R1 now fires the ammo you have loaded in the right slot of your crossbow, and L1 fires the ammo in your left slot. R2 and L2 both make you punch. Pressing L3 in 1^st person mode allows you to use your binoculars to look at far away objects and fire your sniping ammo. Pressing the arrow buttons in either mode pauses the game and allows you to select the ammo you want to equip to the right and left sides of the crossbow by moving a cursor over the ammo type and pressing either left or right to equip it. This control scheme sounds a little odd at first, forcing you to constantly switch between the more maneuverable 3^rd person mode and the 1^st person mode where you will be doing all of your shooting, but it is executed beautifully.

Your only weapon in the game is the crossbow, but there are several types of ammo for it, and they are all unique. Bounty-ing a dead outlaw (regular or boss) gets you much less money when you cash them in back in town, so the game has a great balance of situations where you try to incapacitate foes without killing them and situations where you need to quickly kill enemies in order to survive. The ammo types reflect this, as there are several lethal varieties, and several non-lethal varieties. For example, there are spiders that you shoot at enemies to wrap them up in webs, and skunks you fire to make enemies puke, allowing you to bounty them without killing them. And then there are exploding bats and stinging bees you can fire at enemies that will kill them. Combine this lethal/ non-lethal mechanic with the “shake-off” damage system mentioned earlier, and you get some intense firefights. You'll be trying to find a way to incapacitate an enemy to get more money all the while also trying to find some cover to hide behind and shake off your damage. You'll be forced to kill enemies instead of incapacitating them sometimes just so you can survive, and other times you will find clever ways to knock them out one by one so that you can get more money. Other ammo types have different effects. The chipmunk ammo lures enemies to the spot it was fired at (and makes wisecracks at you while it sits on the crossbow, waiting to be fired). There is also a furry and mad creature that can be shot at the ground or a wall and will attack enemies that walk by. Most of the ammo types have an upgraded form, which changes their appearance (some hilariously) and their effect. Since all of the ammo types are living creatures, you can catch most of them in the wild. Everywhere you go you will see them flying or crawling around and can shoot them to stun them and then collect them. The ammo types are all balanced and greatly effective when used in the right situations, and you will find yourself using every single one many times and in many combinations to get the job done. The fact that you can equip two different types at once and fire them independently gives you great versatility. It's the icing on the cake to the really dynamic and standout ammo types.

I also wanted to mentioned the super-fun environment kills you can pull off in the game. There is a lot of deadly stuff laying around in the world, and you can use it to your advantage. There are many explosive barrels to be shot that will blow enemies up. They are placed really well and really add to the experience. There are also many machines you can activate with your electric bug ammo, such as cranes that will drop the rocks they are holding or mills that will crush downward when activated. Using the chipmunk to lure enemies under a crane and then activating it and seeing their bloody gibs fly everywhere is hilarious. You can also punch enemies off high structures and drown them by having a fuzzle trap pull them into the water. Late in the game you get an ammo upgrade that forcibly pulls enemies to where you fire it, allowing you to pull enemies into water to drown or near short-circuiting consoles to get electrocuted. It's a blast, and it really adds to the gameplay. When you approach a group of enemies, you usually try to get some kills using one of these methods before they notice you and a fight breaks out, and during the fight, it's a great thrill to see the enemies walk under a crane or near an explosive barrel and to quickly take them out.

Sniping is also done really well. You can only hold a few sniper rounds, and they are hard to find, but they are really effective at a really long distance. You almost always hit your target and one-hit-kill them. I thought I'd mention it because I love how the sniping is almost 100% effective but ammo is scarce. It just feels great to almost never miss your sniping shots.

After a firefight, take a look around you. There will be stingers that the enemies have shot at you everywhere. It's really cool to see the other side of a rock you have been hiding behind and see just how many stingers the enemy has been firing at you. If you get hit by stingers or knives, you will see them stuck in Stranger. Shake the damage off, and the stingers go flying, sticking into objects in the environment. Take out a big boss and go look at their body. There are all the bee stingers you shot at them littering their body. It's the little touches that help make an already great game even greater, and this game has a lot of those little touches. Like previous entries in the series, this game wants you to feel like you are in Oddworld, and you will feel that way.

The story and dialogue are both good. The dialogue is generally well done and funny, but some of the lines aren't quite as clever as they think they are. But you will laugh plenty during the game. I can't really talk about the story without spoiling it, so either play it for yourself or check out my comments in the spoiler section below for a few additional hints. The talking system is a little bit of good and a little bit of bad. There is a ton of spoken dialogue in the game, from the cutscenes to the random conversations you overhear as you walk around. As you progress through the game, it will seem like there is an unending stream of things you can make Stranger say and overhear people talking about. Pressing square will make Stranger talk. If you aren't around anyone, he will just say what he has to do next. If you are next to someone, he will ask them about his next objective. These conversations are often quite amusing, as are the things you will overhear people talking about. Unfortunately there is a weird problem with talking to people. If someone else starts talking, the person who is currently speaking will stop speaking. So if someone is about to tell you what you need to know and someone else walks up to talk to you and starts talking, the first person will stop talking. This can happen multiple times in a row, meaning you'll have to keep asking people about stuff until you get an uninterrupted answer. This is really annoying, and even cuts off random conversations you are overhearing. The random stuff people say is really funny, and you'll want to hear it, but unfortunately you won't always get to because of this bug. The talking system is cool, and reminiscent of the first Oddworld's, but this problem mars it pretty badly.

The game certainly has its difficult moments. Some of the boss fights are very hard as you will be facing an army of henchman along with the boss. These lengthy fights can take many tries to complete, but fortunately they are just shy of frustrating. I played the game on normal difficulty and then on hard. It is worth playing again on hard mode. All your mistakes are punished more severely on hard mode, but not to a frustrating extent. It will provide a challenge, but isn't really all that hard if you've already played through the game and are experienced with its systems. I got all of the game's trophies in 2 ½ playthroughs. Most of the trophies aren't really that interesting, with the exception of one that I will talk about in the spoiler section. My rough estimate is that each playthrough took me around 10 hours, but I'm just guessing.

The music and sound effects are all in the good to passable range, but nothing really stands out. The voice acting is above average across the board (although I could do without the small pauses Stranger sometimes takes between words. His acting is good otherwise, but the pause or stutter is a little off at times). Kudos to the voice actor who plays the chipmunk ammo; well done, it's hilarious. There are a few sound effects that are a little grating, such as the blaring neon sound that gets really loud when you are next to some neon signs, and especially the sound of some catapults and missiles, which constantly drone on in the background during a few sequences.

The HD graphics look really good in this game. Some of the outdoor areas like the Mongo Wilds are really stunning. There are a few graphical hitches, such as some digitized shadows that appear in some views and shadows that are visible through floors and walls, but in general, this is a beautiful game. The game will occasionally hiccup while you are traveling through a tunnel or canyon to a new area, but once you get there it runs perfectly.

Overall, this is a great game. It has a few flaws, but its solid and well designed combat really make it a great experience. Oddworld is a great franchise, and I hope it continues with a new game (or an HD Munch's Odyssey!) sometime in the near future. It is a Tier 2 Great Game.

Spoiler Section – DO NOT READ!

Spoiler Section – DO NOT READ!

Spoiler Section – DO NOT READ!

Spoiler Section – DO NOT READ!

There are a few things I wanted to mention that involve some spoilers for the game. Namely, about halfway through the game the entire tone of the game changes in dramatic fashion. In the first half of the game, you are trying to get money. In the second half of the game, you are out for revenge, and all your money is gone. The theme of the game takes on the more traditional Oddworld theme of nature vs. industry. I spent the first half of the game trying to balance saving money against buying upgrades, only to find out that I did not need any money to complete the game. The game makes you think that you are going to need $20,000 to complete it, but really, you don't. I can't really knock the game for this because the second half of the game is done really well, but its just odd that it throws the whole wild west get-money theme out the window out of nowhere and sets you off on a revenge quest. It would have been cool if you really did need to keep doing bounties until you got all the money you needed. But as I said, the second half of the game is just as well done as the first, so this change in tone is easy to overlook. Also, the one trophy that was pretty cool is the “More Moolah” trophy, which you get for collecting $20,000 before the game's second act. It's a trophy that you get for playing the game the way the game tells you to play it, even though you really don't need to play it that way.

End Spoilers.

End Spoilers.

End Spoilers.

Alien Zombie Death Review

I'm going to try to only do reviews of games that I am done with or mostly done with, and I am done with Alien Zombie Death, and that is because I have gotten 100% completion and loved every minute of it. There are 112 medals (which are like in-game trophies or achievements) to earn, and I just finished getting the last one. It's a blast, and if you are anything like me, you will love it too (and if you don't love it, you will only be out .99 cents!).

Alien Zombie Death is a PSN Mini that is playable on PSP and PS3. Like many Mini's, you buy it once and can then download it on either PSP or PS3. You can easily transfer save files between the two with a USB cord so that you can play on both with the same save data, which is pretty cool.

In the game, you control a spaceman on a space platform who is attacked by alien zombies. In each level, you fight hordes of aliens as they attack you from all sides. Your goals are to achieve a high score and to earn medals by achieving certain goals within the level. The level continues until you die after taking three hits. Let's get into the meat of the game; it's gameplay and graphics.

Each of the 14 levels takes place on a mining platform that is orbiting a planet or its moon. Levels are 2d fields made up of a metal structure with multiple vertical levels and some of the surrounding space. In the background you can see the planet or moon that you are orbiting floating around. Each planet or moon is different looking, which is a nice little detail. The platforms in each level differ quite a bit too. Some are narrow and tall, others are longer.

You can move around in four directions on the platform. You use the directional buttons to move right or left, the triangle or up button to jump up a level, and the cross or down button to drop down a level. You press square to fire to the left and circle to fire to the right side of the screen, so you can move in one direction and fire in the other direction. A note on the controls: I found it most effective to use triangle and cross to go up and down, and I used my index finger to press triangle so that I could continue to press the fire buttons with my thumb (kind of a reverse Monster Hunter Freedom claw technique). Some people might not like this technique. I personally have no problem with it, but I thought I would mention it.

You have unlimited ammo with your main rapid-fire weapon, but if you pick up one of the three weapon power-ups, you will have a few seconds to use them before you are switched back to the normal gun. There is a missile power-up that chases enemies down, a laser power-up that cuts through tougher enemies like butter, and a triple-shot that is great at taking out big crowds. And what will you be shooting with these guns? Many, many aliens. There are the standard aliens that run at you in droves, flying bat-like aliens that hunt in big packs, slow amoeba like creatures that shoot at you, and giant flying aliens that fire waves of bullets at you, along with a few other interesting varieties. Each of the seven different types of aliens are unique and require different techniques to defeat. The basic green guys that attack you just need to be mowed down by the dozen, while some of the bigger varieties will need to be shot many times before they go down. Each enemy or group of enemies react to being shot at. Groups scatter to avoid being wiped out, and bigger enemies attempt to get out of the line of fire. Each enemy has their own little well-done AI that they use to dodge your attacks while trying to get at you themselves, and it makes for a dynamic experience.

There are also hazards to watch out for, such as spinning blades and bands of electricity. Each level combines all of these elements in a different way to create a unique challenge. Some levels are bigger and throw hordes of aliens at you. Some are smaller and try to box you into corners with multiple hazards as bigger aliens shoot at you. In each level, radar icons show you where aliens and power-ups are located if they are out of your field of vision. This system works great as you can keep a rough idea of where everything and everyone is and make a mad dash when you see a health pick-up or weapon power-up icon suddenly appear across the level.

Killing aliens fills up a meter that constantly drains itself. If you kill enough enemies in a row to fill this meter up, your multiplier permanently goes up by one, so you are encouraged to kill enemies in groups to exponentially increase your score. The points start to really rack up when your multiplier is x30 or more!

Each level gives you medals for killing certain amounts of certain types of enemies, collecting a certain amount of coins that appear for a limited time as you play, reaching a certain score, or blowing up the UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects) that occasionally fly by on the outer edges of the screen. Trying to get coins or hunt UFO's gives you a nice incentive to play the game with a different agenda other than just getting points and killing aliens, and popping a new medal is very satisfying, especially if it is a difficult one that you have been trying to get for hours!

The game is pretty challenging. Most gamers can probably earn enough medals to unlock all of the levels, but earning every medal available is going to take some time and dedication as you will be diving deep into the most difficult sections of each level to obtain the scores and coins needed to get some of the harder ones. I'm estimating that it took me approximately 15-20 hours to earn all 112 badges.

And I had a blast doing it. This game challenges you like a 2d spaceship-shooter would. I recently played Ikaruga, and it's hard not to compare the two, as AZD also has you dodging bullets and enemies at a frantic pace and just barely surviving one wave of enemies only to be confronted with another more dangerous wave. Sometimes you will sit back and marvel and how you just survived some seemingly impossible combination of dozens of aliens, bullets, and hazards on the screen by slipping through the tiniest open space, grabbing a weapon power-up, and wiping out the enemies chasing you. The game feels perfectly balanced to me, as the difficulty in each level ramps up from easy to crazy to you-will-die. Yet I never felt like I was the victim of a cheap death. When you die, you will think to yourself, “Oh, I shouldn't have jumped,” or “I should have gone for the power-up first, then the coin.” You almost always die because you made a mistake. Because each level ends in your death, the game allows itself to go over the top with the number of enemies and bullets on-screen, and it's thrilling to survive a few moments longer on your next run-through and finally snag that medal you were after.

The visuals are very nicely done too. The design of each alien and the spaceman are all awesome and very well done, as is the animation. It is the new AZD player's joy to discover what each new alien looks like and how it tries to kill you (and how you should try to kill it). While the planets and space in the background of the levels look cool, they are a little pixelated. This is more noticeable on the PS3 version than the PSP version. The lettering and some menu icons also look pixelated on the PS3 version. As a trade-off, the character models (which look great on the PSP) look sharper on the PS3. There really isn't much in the way of music during the levels, but there are tons of sound effects that sound cool and work really well. Each monster has its own sound effect for when it enters the level and when it dies or shoots at you, so listening will help you a lot.

Unfortunately, this game has two glitches that I experienced. The first is that the music on the level select screen sometimes stops playing when you come back to it from a level. The music will return if you exit to the title screen and then go back to level select. The other glitch is that the game crashes quite often when you quit a level to go back to the level select screen. Fortunately it auto-saves your game first, so your progress is kept, but your PSP will be shutting itself down. I believe this happened to me once on the PS3 as well, but it happened many times on the PSP.

And those two things are the only really bad things I have to say about this game. I totally loved it and am very excited to play the sequel, Alien Zombie Megadeath, sometime in the near future. I can't believe that such a high quality and well done gameplay experience only cost me $0.99!

This game is a Tier 2 great game. Patch the glitches and it's instantly bumped up to Tier 1. Highly recommended.

Explanation of the Review Tier Chart

Click on charts to enlarge