The Gran Turismo series inspires devotion among fans like few others, especially in the world of hardcore driving simulators. ‘The Real Driving Simulator’, as it’s called, has become a genuine event for those obsessed with peeling around some of the world’s most exciting tracks in hundreds of the world’s finest cars. As such, Sony and Polyphony Digital seek to wring as much money out of the franchise as possible.
I'm going to come straight out and say it. I hate the title of this game - PowerUp Forever. It just screams mundane at me. But there's this test that simple titles should be able to pass: it's the "duh test?" Unlike a Mass Effect which requires explanation (and mystery) or a Call of Duty which at least tells you what the setting is, but not the gameplay, the simple title tells you everything you need to know about the game in the title. PowerUp Forever pretty much says it all... get those powerups and just keep going and going. The thing is, it was pretty cool.
Anyone who's played a few casual games will have heard of the phenomenon of desktop tower defence — a simple little flash game that has seen millions of man hours lost in a flurry of hastily built ramparts and squeaking enemies. I even introduced it to my office just before Christmas, and an afternoon was lost as yelps of defeat sounded from every PC in the room.
FlOw is an odd — yet strangely compelling — concept. Symptomatic of the kind of creativity that's heralding the PlayStation Store as a haven of addictive smaller games — look at Riff: Everyday Shooter, the ever-expanding PixelJunk stable and LocoRoco et al for more of this — it's a trippy and relaxing journey through, ironically, a pretty brutal process: natural selection.
I was a mall rat when 1942 hit the arcade scene back in 1984, which is to say when I wasn't busy annoying other mall rats, I was in the arcade. I have fond memories of the game, not because it was my favorite - though as I look back now, I did have quite a bit of fun - but because it was one of the few games I was actually any good at. There was also something infinitely cool about the big boss plane flying up underneath you before you took it out - that thing was so out of proportion!
It may be another odd curio to add to the PlayStation Store's list of collectible little masterpieces, but Riff is something else - an addictive chunk of simplistic gaming not seen since Super Stardust HD burst onto the console last year.
