1. Sine Mora, (PSN)
8/10, issue 79, p115
In this excellent PSN side-scrolling shooter time is whittled away from an on-screen countdown when you’re hit. If that strikes zero: dead o’clock. You have to be constantly on the attack to win precious extra seconds by annihilating enemies. You’re given the ability to temporarily slow down foes providing both ample opportunity to admire the game’s vibrant art design and, more importantly, weave elegantly through walls of gunfire. Bosses are absolute belters, too. Each one is animated with exquisite expression, like torpedoing an underwater behemoth that looks like an aircraft carrier-sized Big Daddy, chasing a ghostly freight train or battling a scuttling arachnid in a giant wind turbine. Biting the big one carries a heavy price because of the sparse (and savage) checkpoint placement. Still, despite difficulty spikes occasionally diluting the fun, Sine Mora remains a supremely confident blaster that’s delicious like a midnight Domino’s
2Jetpack Joyride (PS Vita)
9/10, issue 79, p113
It may have been out on iOS for over a year, but Jetpack Joyride coming to PS3 and – especially – Vita is still cause for celebration. You’re storming from left to right (naturally) through a science facility, titular jetpack strapped to your back. X boosts you up into the air, and you need to avoid frazzling yourself on obstacles and missiles while collecting as many coins as you can. That’s it. Or at least it would be were there not for the bucketload of objectives that mean you switch up your playstyle with pretty much every go. Oh, and its hero is called Barry Steakfries. Yeah, you read that one correctly. If you don’t like this Mini, we can probably never be friends.
3.The Walking Dead: No Time Left (PSN)
8/10, issue 79, p111
This sets up a rousing emotional finale. We’ll obviously spare you the details here, but you know something’s going to happen and that ‘something’ packs an emotive gut punch while taking a pair of rusty shears to your heartstrings. Each prior episode has done a brilliant job of steadily building the emotional connections with every member of your band – none more so than Clem – and the strength of those bonds is capitalised on to full effect. There are also a couple of excellent scenes in the run-up to this climax, with the game taking a darker turn that’s in keeping with the sense of despair and anger building up within the characters. The decisions you’ve made in previous episodes are consistently referenced, and you’re forced to deal with the weighty consequences of your actions more than ever. This falls slightly short of series high point Long Road Ahead (Episode 3) but this is just one part of a greater whole – and what a truly great whole it’s turned out to be.
4.Virtue’s Last Reward (PS Vita)
9/10, issue 79, p108
When examined in its component parts this amounts to little more than point-and-swipe puzzling – pictures of watches and all the scrolling text in the world – yet it adds up to something unique, consistently surprising and thoughtfully crafted. Its premise is perfect for a portable puzzler: nine strangers are kidnapped and plunged into a mysterious facility full of logic puzzles. You’re striving to achieve Bracelet Points (BP), which are won and lost on a vote – you and another prisoner have the option to ally or betray one another. Both ally and both get points. If one of you betrays, one gets points and the other loses them. If both betray, no one loses any points. It’s a game within a game within a game, and as such it takes over an hour before you have any clue what’s going on. Because for the first hour, you’re not supposed to. The best bits are those you can’t explain with words, like the way the game lies to you. There are moments on a par with putting your controller in port 2 to beat Psycho Mantis in MGS – the type that make you feel like Neo for figuring them out. For a dark, cerebral and genuinely unique journey on Vita, this is peerless.
5.Need For Speed Most Wanted (PS Vita)
8/10, issue 79, p105
All its freedom and scope, its functionality in real-time four-player and asynchronous multiplayer finds its way on to handheld with no gimmicky touch controls or tilting. Graphically it’s far from like-for-like with its big brother. Framerates are generally playable but there’s the odd race in heavy traffic when the Vita strains to keep above 20 fps. Between that and the inherent difficulty of trying to thread your car through minuscule gaps on a small screen, the challenge occasionally spills into frustration. The racing pack’s culled to six to keep performance playable and traffic’s been thinned, but with that compromise comes a distinct absence of the miasma of smoke, sparks and fury found in just about every corner of the PS3 version. With just four players able to race online, multiplayer events are muted, so bashing your mate’s Speedwall scores remains the bread and butter of connected enjoyment. Still, it’s a well-realised Vita motor city – and easily one of the best racers on the platform.
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