Staff Picks: March Edition

All things considered, we play a rather large and varied amount of games here at DarkZero. So much so, that it is hard to pick just one that stood out amongst the crowd over the course of a month. However, that rather difficult process is exactly what we tasked ourselves with doing in this article.

So, without further ado, here is a cross section of the stand out games – some familiar, and some slightly less renowned – we played over the course of March.

Ian

Primrose | iPhone/iPod Touch

£1.79 | Download

I think I must spend about a thousand pounds a month on iPhone games. While I’ve made a few pretty terrible decisions in the past, the £1.79 spent on Primrose is absolutely justified. From Jason Rohrer, the man behind indie masterpiece ‘Passage’, Primrose is a game in the far more traditional sense, a puzzler existing somewhere between Othello/Reversi and Lights-Out.

Points are gained by surrounding coloured squares on a grid, with squares of another colour, which in turn replaces the colour of the surrounding squares with that of the original. It sounds complicated but is amazingly simple, at the same time providing a depth that allows for complex chains of colours that wash across the playing area. Undoubtedly difficult to master, but a joy to sit and fiddle with whenever a free moment arises, even if there are times when I have no idea what I’m doing.

Dan

Street Fighter IV | PS3, Xbox 360

Best Price: £27.99 (HMV) | Buy (360) | Our Review

Some were skeptical when news first arrived that a fourth Street Fighter game was coming. The launch of Street Fighter IV shattered all doubts and hesitation, as critics and gamers alike hailed the fighter as not only a worthy successor in the series, but also one of the best things to happen to the genre in years. Equipped with a full range of character voice overs, cel-shaded stylized graphics, vibrant art and ink effects, online battles, and an outstanding range of varied yet balanced characters with special moves and explosive combos, Street Fighter IV became an instant hit. Few fighters can offer such a brilliant blend of accessibility and depth. For anyone who has ever enjoyed a fighting game, SF IV is an absolute must.

Ben

Ceville | PC

Best Price £19.99 (Amazon) | Buy | Our Review

The most memorable game I’ve played this month has been point & click adventure Ceville . It’s not perfect, but the witty writing, superb voice acting and good characters make this a must for fans of the genre. If you’re new to adventure games it’s a good starting point thanks to the friendly interface. The specific nature of the story-driven puzzles can still become quite challenging on your own so I recommend playing this with a friend or family member.

Dominic

Persona 4 | PS2

Best Price: £9.99 (Play.com) | Buy | Our Review

I cannot stress enough how much love has gone into Persona 4. As a fan of role playing games, I have played a hell of a lot in my lifetime and apart from special titles, for example Final Fantasy VII, Suikoden 2 and Xenogears, I’ve not had this much pleasure from an RPG since those games.

Persona 4 just hits every note virtually spot on when it comes to the RPG genre. The game has a fantastic cast of characters that are full of personality, including a guy who isn’t exactly sure about his sexuality. The game also has an exceptional story that is extremely unique and full of twists to keep you constantly wanting of the plot to unfold. There’s nothing on the market that contains a story about jumping into TVs, people getting murdered and having a stuffed Teddy bear as a friend.

Praise could keep coming and coming for this game. Soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard in any RPG series, even on par, if not better than those famous battle themes from Final Fantasy games, this is easily up there for the best soundtrack for an RPG game.

You should buy this game. Right now it’s extremely cheap on Play.com. Atlus deserves your cash as they have produced one hell of a game and any RPG fan has no right to not have it in their collection. Everyone has a Playstation 2 don’t they?

Kang-An

iDracula | iPhone/iPod Touch

£1.79 | Download | Our Review

To me, iDracula is everything that a portable game needs to be. Unlike other developers, MoreGames understood the fact that a game should be developed for the platform it’s meant for, and they did just that with iDracula. You won’t find any story or plot here, from the menu screen, you choose a map, a mode and you just start shooting at an endless wave of monsters with a wide variety of guns from rifles to machine guns to flamethrowers.

It’s obvious this game was meant for on-the-go gaming, just pick up and play it for a few minutes to have some instantaneous fun. It’s obvious that gameplay was the only thing emphasised here, and for a portable game, that’s all it needs. The recent update released by the developers also introduced more maps and game modes and weapons, making the game all the more fun. Any gamer with an iPod Touch/iPhone who’s looking for a solid action game should definitely purchase iDracula immediately.

Andi

Street Fighter IV | PS3, Xbox 360

Best Price: £27.99 (HMV) | Buy (360) | Our Review

Shoryuken! Aggh! Shoryuken! Aggh! Shoryuken! Aggh! Shoryuken! Aaaaagggghhhhh!

This is the sound that echoes through my house. It is the sound of me, sat on the internet, teaching people who play as Ken a lesson in PAIN.

I’ve got a horrible feeling that Street Fighter IV is going to ruin my gaming year. I’ve not touched anything else in the last 30 days, save for a weekend fling through Resident Evil 5. Every time I turn the game on, I’ll learn something new about my chosen character (which are Vega and Abel, if you’re interested, which you aren’t) and I still genuinely feel like I am still at the start of my journey – even though I spend a remarkable amount of my time pummelling Sean and Ian. If I can get hold of an ultra-expensive fight stick in the next month, you can expect me to be writing about Street Fighter IV again.

Sean

We Love Katamari | PS2

Best Price: You’re late, sorry! | Our Review

Pulled this out again after getting fed up with the frankly piss-poor iPhone version. It’s still incredible, owing in no small part to the fact that it’s the last Katamari game that Keita Takahashi actually worked on. The sheer love that was put into this game shines out of every available orifice – it’s bursting at the seams with ideas that’ll have you grinning from ear to ear every single time you play it. It’s a shame EA only sent about five copies to the UK, because if I had my way there’d be a copy in each and every home. Which you’d then all have to play for an hour each day, while a masked soldier stands in the living room, supervising you and threatening to shoot anyone who doesn’t want to join in.

If you haven’t played it yet, or you’ve only experienced the pale imitation that is Beautiful Katamari, do what you must to find a copy of its PS2 forebear. Even if it means getting ripped-off by some greedy tosser on eBay, it’s completely worth it.

Alasdair

Resident Evil 5 | PS3, Xbox 360

Best Price: £29.99 (ChoicesUK) | Buy (360) | Our Review

A predictable choice, yes. But is there any greater sight than a head exploding in RE5? Not many games make it as enjoyable, as satisfying, to send shards of skull flying in allsorts of directions after a well aimed headshot. The fact that you can take a pal along for the ride too makes it all the sweeter. Barely stopped playing this since I got it, predominantly in co-op, and I doubt that’s about to change any time soon. Edges out GTA Chinatown Wars as my best game of the month.

Seth

Peggle | Xbox Live, PC

Price: 800MP | Buy | Our Review

After a number of days playing Peggle long after the point where I should have been asleep, I realised that I’m still undecided at how much skill factors into your success at the game. I also realised that I don’t care. Attempting the 55 orange peg challenges shows how often a random bounce is the difference between the triumphant tones of Ode to Joy, or a wasted ball and a quick restart.

When a game gives you as much positive feedback as Peggle does, you can’t help but feel good about yourself, and it’s a testament to the quality of the game design that you can just as easily play the game for five minutes or five hours. It’s a game that very much lives in the moment, you can’t plan strategies in advance or discuss tactics, and yet somehow it’s broken free from the ‘casual’ mould. Oh, and the rabbit is the best.