New Games

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• Live Show: Backlog is running out of Pikmin
• Star Wars: Galactic Warfare mod hits Call of Duty 4
• The Rabbids hope your Fourth of July was fun
• Ms. Splosion Man spotted on Steam
• Will this Sonic fan film trailer make you do 'The Urkel'?
• Preview: Dyad
• Catherine: Underwear check trailer, screens, demo date
• Ms. Splosion Man priced at a mere 800 MS Points
• Rumor: Rockstar has 'disdain' for Team Bondi
• The world in my hands
• New imports for PSN: Rapid Angel and Yakiniku Bugyou
• Free App of the Day: Creatures & Castles
• Gaikai signs agreement with Capcom for streaming service
• Darkness 2 dev: iPad will 'encroach' on consoles
• Former Tom Clancy devs form new studio: The Game Bakers
• Review: Dream Trigger 3D

Live Show: Backlog is running out of Pikmin Posted: 05 Jul 2011 03:00 PM PDT [Backlog is the ongoing quest to rid Conrad Zimmerman's collection of unfinished games. As voted on by the Destructoid community, Conrad plays each game from start to finish live on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel every weeknight at 8pm Pacific] The Pikmin have been meeting with death and finding him to be quite the charmer, actually. Good thing, since I seem to have become an expert at placing them directly in the path of the thing most capable of ending their tiny lives. Good thing there's always more where that came from. I'm playing Pikmin 2 live right now on Backlog. Come join me and the goons in our live chat as we discuss the issues of the day over a backdrop of screaming onion-men. It's all happening right now over on Destructoid's Justin.tv channel!

Star Wars: Galactic Warfare mod hits Call of Duty 4 Posted: 05 Jul 2011 02:00 PM PDT more videos like this Quick, someone fetch us a Venn diagram showing Call of Duty and Star Wars fans! The long-awaited Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare total conversion mod, Star Wars: Galactic Warfare, it out. Creator Black Monkeys is offering version 1.0 final for download via Mod DB. In this video, we're shown running -- lots and lots of running. But it looks great, kidding aside. As fate would have it, Modern Warfare is on sale for $9.99 on Steam right now. You know what to do. Star Wars: Galactic Warfare mod officially released, Rebel scum await blaster death [PC Gamer]

The Rabbids hope your Fourth of July was fun Posted: 05 Jul 2011 01:00 PM PDT Because the way that Rabbid is working that grill, I can only assume theirs didn't end so well. Of course, that's overlooking the fact that the Rabbids are likely French, since Ubisoft makes their games. They could be from Canada, but they don't have an independence holiday. I suppose France helped us fight during the Revolutionary War, but the closest thing they've got is Bastille Day, which not only is about toppling the regime that helped us win our independence, but also isn't until July 14. So really, there's no telling what that Rabbid is doing the day after July Fourth. Nonetheless, thanks for the chuckle, Ubisoft!

Ms. Splosion Man spotted on Steam Posted: 05 Jul 2011 12:30 PM PDT Don't know about you, but I could go for a good 'splode session right about now. According to the chaps at RPS, Twisted Pixel's Ms. Splosion Man could very well make it onto Steam. Apparently, the game appeared in the Steam library of one of the site's writers, complete with achievements and everything. It's easy to forget that the Xbox 360 has accumulated so many worthwhile Xbox Live Arcade titles, many of which are exclusive and don't end up coming to other platforms for some time, if at all. It makes me sad when perfectly good games go unplayed by entire market segments. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come? Hey, someone's got to be optimistic around here. Twisted Pixel ‘Sploding Back Onto PC? [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Will this Sonic fan film trailer make you do 'The Urkel'? Posted: 05 Jul 2011 12:00 PM PDT Remember hearing about that Sonic fan film a while back? To refresh your memory, Eddie Lebron, the director of the not-half-bad Mega Man movie, is working on a 10-to-20-minute short film starring that other boy in blue. It will be live-action with a CGI lead, brought to life by none other than the one true voice of Sonic, Jaleel White. A trailer has finally been released -- you'll have to visit the official site to view it, though. First impressions: what is with that Sonic model? What is that thing? It looks like a deranged Easter Bunny! But the orchestrated Green Hill theme is incredible, and hearing Urkel again as though he never left is a total fanboy trip. His voice may be a little less whiny than back in the day, but that's not a problem, is it? Mega Man proved that Lebron knows what buttons to push, so we'll see if lightning strikes twice. Official Site of the Not for Profit [Sonic Fan Film]

Preview: Dyad Posted: 05 Jul 2011 11:30 AM PDT Dyad is a self-described "abstract racing game" in development for PlayStation Network. Jonathan previously talked with creator Shawn McGrath about Dyad's inspirations, as well as the surprising reason why -- at least initially -- the game was made. Recently, I was able to play a handful of levels from this bizarre, beautiful, very promising title.   more videos like this The existence of Dyad (and other games like it) is why I proudly spend so much of my gaming time on digital platforms, where riskier design is embraced. You never truly know quite what you're going to get, which is absolutely true of Dyad. Yes, the "abstract racing" descriptor is accurate -- but not in the way I originally thought. Dyad has a bit of puzzle in its blood as well. The build I got to play was made up of earlier levels, so there was much in the way of gradually expanding upon the mechanics. Starting out simply enough, you are told to hook all enemies before they pass by as you fly through a tube ... thing. To hook, you hit the X button while directly in front of an enemy, assuming you're within reach. Doing so adds to your momentum. A combo system is then introduced; hooking two like-colored enemies keeps your multiplier going. Each successful hook gives you a decent boost in speed, meaning the better you are at Dyad, the more intense it gets. You're trying to latch onto the very things you are also supposed to avoid, after all. While I don't think you can necessarily "play it wrong," you won't get the full experience until you've had some practice. Next, oncoming fire is introduced, and you're also told to avoid hooking certain enemies that are differentiated by color. Now things are starting to get slightly more out of control. Skip ahead, and grazing circles are brought into the fold. Upon hooking an enemy, a circle will appear around it. Naturally, you need to maneuver through this circle without hitting the enemy. Easier said than done, especially once you're moving at breakneck speeds. Up to this point, I was having a rather good time. But it wasn't until the lancing mechanic that I became wholly sold on Dyad as a concept. By grazing enemies, you build up energy which can then be used to charge your character forward, lancing foes in your path. Every connection made during this brief amount of time earns you extra spendable energy. Imagine, then, how crazy a perfect run of a level might look. This game isn't so much about sheer memorization as it is about being able to correctly act on impulses. Tense stuff once you let the outside world slip past you. While it's technically possible to fail the game, perfection isn't demanded of you. Bronze, silver, and gold awards are what you're fighting for here. Perhaps my favorite aspect is how the vibrant colors and sounds shift on a level-by-level basis. As we've come to expect from games like Dyad, seemingly every action you make results in dynamic noise of some kind that meshes with the music. Being asked to focus on specific, constantly changing tasks -- combined with varied audio-visual trips -- kept me longing to play more. If you are known to become severely concentrated while playing visually overwhelming games, you had best put Dyad on your radar. It's got no firm release date at this point, with the development cycle taking a respectable "when it's done" approach.

Catherine: Underwear check trailer, screens, demo date Posted: 05 Jul 2011 10:40 AM PDT more videos like this *check* Oh, good. We're good. There's a couple of reasons why you'd have to check your boxers in the morning when you wake up. A particularly good dream? Or a terrifying nightmare? It could go either way for Vincent, the main character in Atlus' Catherine. This new trailer for the upcoming game shows how your daily life affects your dreams/nightmares, and that there may be something to that urban legend that says that if you die in your sleep you also die in real life.  If you're good in the pants department, be sure check out the new screenshots that Atlus sent along. Atlus also sends word that the Catherine demo will be released for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 on July 12th. That will should hold you over until the release date, July 26th.

Ms. Splosion Man priced at a mere 800 MS Points Posted: 05 Jul 2011 09:40 AM PDT Twisted Pixel's Ms. Splosion Man -- the follow-up to 2009's Mr. Splosion Man -- hits Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday. It's got a price now, and it's only 800 MS Points. "The value of all life on Earth was originally placed at almost triple the amount of Microsoft points," Twisted Pixel writes in its press release, "but a surprise ruling from Twisted Pixel today cited a declining economy and a general disappointment in humanity as the root for assuring its destruction at the incredible price of 800 Microsoft Points." I'll have my full review up when I'm done playing it or something, probably before it's available for purchase by humans. I'll go ahead and say that 800 MS Points is probably a steal.

Rumor: Rockstar has 'disdain' for Team Bondi Posted: 05 Jul 2011 09:20 AM PDT According to supposedly leaked emails, Rockstar will not work with Team Bondi again, despite the success of L.A. Noire, due to "disdain" for the Australian developer.  "It's pretty well reported now that the working conditions were bad," said an unnamed source who had worked with Team Bondi. "What hasn't been discussed yet (from what I've seen) is the relationship between Team Bondi and Rockstar. "I've heard a lot about Rockstar's disdain for Team Bondi, and it has been made quite clear that they will not publish Team Bondi's next game. Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged -- Brendan treats L.A. Noire like a success due to his vision but I think Rockstar are the ones who saved the project. They continued to sink money into L.A. Noire, and their marketing was fantastic. Without their continued support, Team Bondi would have gone under several years ago." Team Bondi boss Brendan McNamara seems to lie at the heart of the conflict, labeled by ex-workers as a "bully with no talent." His ethics have come under fire since a number of former developers accused the studio of mistreatment. It seems that, despite being attached to one of the most critically acclaimed games of the year, Team Bondi is facing a huge wave of bad publicity that it might not recover from. The emails behind the whistle blowing at Team Bondi [GI.biz]

The world in my hands Posted: 05 Jul 2011 09:00 AM PDT If we're being preposterously basic, videogames are about universes. An unmatchable chance to step into another world and be someone else for a while. It might be fighting against the evil empire or not letting the terrorists win, but there’s always a setting. More often than not, that setting is a horrid place -- somewhere you wouldn’t normally set a foot, but is safe to explore digitally. The Capital Wasteland. Wilamette. Rapture. Afghanistan. Silent Hill. That room where they kept Raiden when his Liquid Snake was exposed. Other worlds are nicer. Places you’d like to visit, maybe even live in if you could. Videogames don’t always have to be about horrible nightmares and grimly realistic portrayals of the ass-end of society. They can be safe havens and utopias. Continue onward for a tour of the most exemplary examples of fictional real estate. Empire City (inFAMOUS) The first time you catch sight of Empire City, it explodes. A giant, expanding dome of electrical death blows everything to tiny bits. The once proud urban island is now a twitching corpse lying cracked and broken. Gangs of criminals run the streets, some of them armed with crazy super powers and antisocial hoodies. Entire districts are on fire. That’s the charm, of course. Empire City brings the phrase “lived in” to new and filthy levels. Because of the explosion, the city has been torn to pieces and cut off from the rest of society. There’s no food, rotten trash is seeping out of every alleyway, the streets are littered with burned-out cars and people are dying. Sucker Punch have crammed a ridiculous amount of detail into all the nooks and crannies, with each building lovingly adorned with dirt, scrawled over with graffiti and outlined with neon. And it’s the neon that really catches your eye. The bright lights shining out at you while you go about your business catching bad guys - or being a very naughty boy. Cole is electrically motivated, meaning each piece of sparkling scenery isn’t just eye candy, it’s power. Every light fixture, telephone pole, fuse box and passing sedan is a potential lifeline. So you’re a parasite, sucking the essential juices out, but you’re also a superhero. As Cole helps the city - via tiny errands like “save these guys”, “kill these guys” and “race across the city for a perfectly valid reason, I’m in the FBI, don’t question me” - it begins to rebuild itself. Block by block, the streets get clean and the bad guys wearing dustbin hats go away. Things return to normal, and it feels good. A feeling of connection grows between you and Empire City as you beaver away, and it instills the same sense of pride I get when I clean my apartment once every six months or so. This is your city. You live in it, you work in it and it’s a damn nice place when it isn’t full of giant piles of sentient garbage and sexy bald junkies with lizard tongues. Liberty City (Grand Theft Auto IV) When you step off the boat in Liberty City, you know about as much as a tortured Eastern European immigrant with an annoying, fat cousin. Grand Theft Auto IV’s city may be based on New York, but it’s a beast all of its own. It’s not a particularly amazing looking place, Liberty. As I said, it’s a softly brown representation of an American metropolis. But it’s in the presentation where things shine. Parts of town don’t just feel like locations in a game, they feel like real streets connected to a real city. Cars pass by and honk their horns for no reason, trash blows by, people buy hot dogs from corner stalls and complain about the prices. The illusion of reality is an engaging performance all on its own. If I step out into the street and block traffic, some jerk-off in a van might decide to introduce his fist to my balls. During the fight some bystanders may start cheering or run away screaming, then perhaps someone accidentally gets violently involved. Now two fat guys in tracksuits are chasing me down the street and they get arrested for assault. On the off chance I have something else to do besides videogames, I sometimes leave the game running and the city becomes my window, so I can watch that prostitute chase a Mexican guy down the street while I cook noodles. All that happens before you even get to the Euphoria Engine, which turns robots wearing people skin into living, breathing, urban assholes. Then you can push them down the stairs. New World (Jak and Daxter) You can take your hard-hitting realism and shove it up your grain filter. If I could live in only one digital universe it would be Jak and Daxter’s home turf. It might not have a name, but just looking at it makes me want to kiss Julie Andrews on the mouth. I mean just look at it. It’s so colorful and friendly and lush and freaking comfortable. It’s like every day is a visit to the carnival, every hill is a free ride and all the people are made of delicious, huggable candy. Your best friend is an otter-weasel, there are magical ruins all over the place and every girl is a cute elf girl. Even when it all goes horribly wrong and you travel through time only to be captured and tortured by an evil baron, don’t despair. The dark future is still brighter than a bag of rainbows, the evil baron has a deliciously comical moustache and the torture actually gave you the power to turn into a half polar bear, half elf hybrid. Everyone you meet has been pulled out of some wonderful pantomime universe where people decided that yes, they will wear hipster jeans and a mini tube top to command the military. Yes, they will shave off their beard, except for two weird strips, and live in the desert with a Hispanic monkey-parrot. Yes, a monocle does make it easier to take over the world. This is a world where it is not at all unusual to meet a morbidly obese man who owns a hover chair and spits smaller hovering clones at you when he gets angry. And there is always some crazy shit going down. If you’re not hover-boarding through the forest smashing evil alien plants, you’re defeating a brother and sister who want to drown the world in toxic waste, or sending yourself back in time as a baby, or fighting giant spider robots. Or maybe the guy you beat in the championship race has become a cyborg, and he’s going to blow up everything with a purple spaceship of death.  Renaissance Era Italy (Assassin’s Creed II) Let’s get this out of the way first: I think the Assassin’s Creed series is a big wad of rubbish. A festering clod of shallow drivel. A ball of wet dog hair masquerading as golden twine. You’re an assassin, but not really, because stabbing people in the face and yelling “I have just killed this person, I am a killer!” at a crowded party is the work of a deranged twat. You can expertly navigate busy streets and towering buildings by holding down one button. You’re a 12th century bastard, now a Renaissance nobleman, now it doesn’t matter because it was all the dream of a bartender. A dream he was forced to have by a nefarious troupe of chartered accountants.  But I was wrong. Assassin’s Creed isn’t a game. It’s an interactive museum! Meticulously crafted recreations of Renaissance architecture are handed to you on a silver platter. Suddenly the ridiculously simplistic movement system is actually a positive, as you climb all over Italy like an archaeological monkey-man. Important cultural and historical landmarks are helpfully pointed out to you by the tour guide system, and Europe has no shortage of history bubbling under every brick. More than once I’ve gleefully stopped saving the world from evil Italians because I needed to read about how the building nearby was where the Pope used to wash his socks. The Planet (Final Fantasy VIII) Every Final Fantasy game has a sprawling overworld, dotted with fantastical cities and terrible dungeons, just waiting to be explored by an unlikely band of po-faced teenagers on magic steroids. They aren’t the friendliest of worlds, though. Most are at the point in technological development where a steam train is mind-blowing, literally every country is at war, or a giant fish is vomiting fireballs from the stratosphere. Final Fantasy VIII, on the other hand, is like a warm hug. Aside from a little political unrest - and that one time when a sorceress tried to compress all space and time into a single moment, thus giving her ultimate power and destroying the universe - things are pretty chill. Even the biggest of cities feel like small towns, with friendly people and nice bars around every corner. If you’re lucky, Ma Dincht will invite you over for some delicious hot dogs and then you can go sit on the beach. Don’t misjudge. It isn’t a land of hillbillies, bogans and chavs. Electric cars, elevators, computers and orbital defense bases are ubiquitous thanks to a high level of technological advancement. But everything stays bright and happy and ruthlessly pleasant wherever you go.  There’s no shortage of activities either, with lavish parades every other week, a full TV program schedule and a city made entirely of glass and grey plastic. If you’re a student, your afternoon class will be learning advanced combat with whips and a gun-sword, followed by a fight to the death with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Then the entire school will rise out of the ground and fly away so everyone can go fishing. The whole place is so drenched in happy sunshine and friendly people you barely even notice the persistent “monsters descend from the moon to kill us all” problem. Unnamed City (Mirror’s Edge) Okay, so technically this is more of a dystopia. Mirror’s Edge paints an orderly and bleak picture of the near future. Big Brother clamps down on all freedoms in order to ensure a safe and clean society. A few thousand protesters are slaughtered occasionally. People can’t express themselves. The usual shotgun approach to eliminating human rights. You have to admit that the Nazi regime had some swanky uniforms, though. I know you’re supposed to be appalled by the sanitization of the city. Outrage and personal indignation should well up in my kidneys as the cries of oppressed children ring in my ears. But I can’t hear anything but digitally remastered David Bowie blasting through my ergonomically designed stereo system. I can’t see the protests because I’m inside a style-optimized apartment and everything is amazing. It’s all so white and so clean and so damn perfect I want to lick it. There’s no garbage and no dirt, and I’m sorry to all those gasping freedoms, but I really like my plush leather cube couch and matching armchair. They even color coded my walls and doors, so when I stumble home drunk after a night at that mathematically symmetrical night spot with the shiny glass roof I know the red room is the one I should puke into. Life is comfy. What was I going to use that liberty and freedom of choice for, anyway, if not to buy conspicuously trendy furniture?

New imports for PSN: Rapid Angel and Yakiniku Bugyou Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:40 AM PDT It's like MonkeyPaw reads my mind. They keep cranking out import PSOne titles for the PlayStation Network that I've been wanting. This week they've announced two new titles for PSN: Rapid Angel and Yakiniku Bugyou. I wanted at least one, and I'll be happy to take the other. Rapid Angel is a Beat 'em Up title where you'll play as one of three heroines. This game will hit stateside for the first time with this release. This is a good looking game. You can see for yourself in our gallery. Yakiniku Bugyou is a restaurant simulation and cooking game where you'll grill meats and vegetables in a Yakiniku restaurant as a chef. You'll have to man the grill and make the food to the best of your ability to please customers. I'm hungry just looking at the cover art. Each of these titles will be priced at $5.99 when they hit the PlayStation Network this week.

Free App of the Day: Creatures & Castles Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:20 AM PDT It's been a while since I did this, and I come bearing gifts of ... "alrightness." Creatures & Castles is a decent, though not outstanding game, so that's worth the wait, right?  Anyway, you draw out routes for your little hero, and have to time its movements so as to avoid various nasties along the way. It's a pretty cool little game, so get it if you want. Unless you don't want. Then don't. [Found a free App for iOS or Android? Think it's good? Hit up Jim Sterling or Maurice Tan and let 'em know. Please do so -- finding good free games is hard!]

Gaikai signs agreement with Capcom for streaming service Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:00 AM PDT Cloud-based streaming service Gaikai has announced that they've signed an agreement with Capcom Entertainment  Gaikai’s service will will now power future Capcom titles, which means Capcom games inside web browsers. The press release says that  aside from Gaikai's Affiliate Network, Capcom titles will be enabled to stream inside Capcom-controlled websites, but no franchise names were listed.   "Capcom produces some of the industry’s most unique franchises, consistently leading their genres with the highest quality," said Robert Stevenson, Senior VP of Interactive Entertainment at Gaikai. "And as a forward thinking publisher who has had great success in the digital space, we’re excited to be working closely with them on such properties." I wonder what Capcom is going to do with this.

Darkness 2 dev: iPad will 'encroach' on consoles Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:40 AM PDT The Darkness 2 project director Sheldon Carter believes that Apple's iPad poses a threat to traditional home consoles, expressing his "absolute" belief that it will encroach on the market.  "I think the home console experience is going to be with us for a long time," he said. "Do I think that the iPad will encroach? Absolutely, it has to. You think about how many iPads are out there already, iPads and other mobile devices.  "But I don't think it'll be exclusive, I don't think that just because somebody buys one of those things they wouldn't buy a console." Carter said it would be "awesome" to have a Darkness game on an iPad, with swipe controls for the demon arms. Sounds ripe for the Wii U version, right? iPad will 'absolutely encroach on consoles' - Darkness 2 dev [CVG]

Former Tom Clancy devs form new studio: The Game Bakers Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:20 AM PDT What kind of games would you expect to see from a new studio headed up by former Ubisoft Worldwide Director of Conception (Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Splinter Cell Double Agent and Rayman Raving Rabbids) and the former Producer of Tom Clancy’s EndWar? Wrong. Whatever you're thinking of is wrong. In fact, one of the friends of this new studio said that their work would be labeled "Popcap meets Nintendo." This new studio, headed up by Emeric Thoa and Audrey Leprince, is called The Game Bakers. And no, they're not baking up anything like a Tom Clancy title. In fact, their first game will be called Squids, and it's set for PC, Mac and mobile platforms. It's an adventure title where you'll play as squids that defend the ocean from the Black Ooze. It is planed for a late 2011 release.  A press release says that The Game Bakers will focus on smaller scale projects that will take advantage of the exploding mobile market. They're wanting to get in on this touch screen action, it seems. They have been joined by senior developers and talents from the videogame world and the comic book industry.

Review: Dream Trigger 3D Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:00 AM PDT When I first started playing Dream Trigger 3D, I despised it with every fiber of my being. It was chaotic and confusing, with controls that didn't make sense and a tutorial that does nothing to explain how one is supposed to play.  After spending a fair few hours with the game, all of the above is still true, but now I like the game. It's always weird when that happens. Dream Trigger 3D (3DS) Developer: ART Co. Publisher: D3 Publisher Release date: May 10, 2011 Price: $39.99 Dream Trigger 3D is a fairly unique combat game that will do absolutely nothing to help the player understand its unorthodox style. I believe I died within ten seconds when I attempted to play the game for the first time. It felt brutal and uncompromising, but now I can blast through stages quite easily. You just have to let the game "click" and it all falls into place.  You move a character around the top screen using the analog nub and shoot with one of the shoulder buttons. It is important to note that you're invincible while shooting, which is crucial Intel when the bullets -- presented as small red squares -- start flooding the screen. Enemies on the top screen are invisible, seen only as vague white spheres. In order to get them to physically manifest in the arena, you have to draw the stylus across the bottom screen and let a sonar wave move across your marked areas to send out a "ping." Any enemies caught by the ping are forced into visibility and can be destroyed. You may only shoot while you have energy, but energy is replenished by each ping that that gets cleared.  Dream Trigger 3D comes across as the bastard child of Rez and Lumines, with influences from both games clearly visible throughout. The main trouble with the game is that it is not designed to work with the way in which a human being processes information and physically interacts with a gaming device. This, as one might expect, presents something of an issue.  For a start, having to concentrate on the bottom and top screen at once is, quite frankly, impossible. It cannot be done unless you are a human/chameleon hybrid. At first, it's tempting to try and flit between the top and bottom, laying precise traps on the touchscreen to expose the enemy on top. This doesn't work, however, as you will soak up damage the moment you take your eyes off the action. What you need to do is just "spam" the bottom screen with your stylus, slapping down as many potential pings as possible and hoping for the best. It's not precise, but it will do the trick.  To call the game a "shooter" is rather misleading, too. You don't really shoot anything. Enemies are killed by pressing the fire button and then moving the player character over enemies. Don't expect to be doing any shooting in this so-called shooter.  Once the player gets used to the information overload and learns to block out half of it, Dream Trigger 3D is actually quite an easy game, but that is not to say it's unsatisfying. It's rather cool to get into the flow of the experience, spamming the bottom screen, then taking out the creatures that appear. Successfully exposing an entire squad in one swift move always feels like an accomplishment, and there's plenty of opportunity to replay the game and acquire higher scores.  Each level ends with a mid-boss right. Mid-bosses need to be pinged a considerable amount of times before their health meters appear, at which points they can be drained of life by holding down and fire remaining over them while they attempt to avoid damage. Full boss stages are unlocked during the course of play, and require similar tactics, albeit with a lot more danger involved.  The game's main mode boasts a considerable amount of levels, although navigating the world map is a chore. In order to access any level, you have to manual move through each stage between it and your current location, using a combination of face buttons and analog movement. You'll need to switch to your stylus to actually open a stage, however. I don't know why the developers didn't just stick to one control method when navigating the sprawling world map, but it's time consuming and cumbersome in its current incarnation.  Be aware that the game can get fairly repetitive as well. Once a few levels have been played, it becomes clear that there are only so many enemy patterns, and encounters begin to feel rather samey. It certainly remains fun, but after a while, I'd expect a fair few players to lose interest, especially since the difficulty barely seems to change once the controls have been mastered.  By far the biggest issue, however, is that Dream Trigger 3D isn't very comfortable to play for too long. With a thumb on the movement nub, a finger on the shoulder button, and a hand constantly dragging the stylus, there's no way to hold the 3DS without turning your hands into a pair of twisted claws. You'll look and feel like a victim of crippling arthritis before too long, and this is made worse by the fact that the face buttons also have uses -- be they as fire buttons or HUD removers -- and it's easy to accidentally press them while holding the 3DS like a little disabled boy.  Dream Trigger 3D is a visually stimulating game, at least, and the music isn't too bad either. Here, the inspiration from Rez is most obvious, with abstract, stylish imagery and techno beats working with the gameplay to create a cool audio-visual treat. If nothing else, the game provides a rather pretty distraction and makes full use of Nintendo's 3D gimmickry to create something graphically striking.  This is a game that is hard to recommend to many players, but those with a taste for the odd and an ability to forgive rather bizarre design flaws will find a good little game hidden under a film of potential inaccessibility. Enjoyment of the game requires no small amount of work from players, who will need to bash their heads repeatedly against it before breaking through. For many of you, I can't say you'll find anything of worth on the other side. For some of you, however, the effort will be fairly rewarded.

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