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.