Well, if you were looking for a spiritual successor to Strider, I might just have the game for you, Enter Moon Diver for XBLA and PSN, a game headed by Koichi Yotsui, who also headed the arcade hit. Play the game for even just a bit, and you will see the similarities with the old fan favorite. The question is can this game live up to it’s “predecesor?”

What’s This Game About?

Moon Diver is about the return of Faust in the 22nd century. Using the power of Mephistopheles – a force

So this is the face of ultimate evil? Yup, it's a Japanees game.

which can breathe life into that which has none, he intends to destroy humanity and take earth all for himself. Standing between him and this goal are the Moondivers, a group of specially trained ninjas who have been lying in wait for orders from their shogun to fight back. Well, that day has arrived, and you take the role of one of these Moondivers as you fight against Faust and his minions.

Seems like a pretty in depth story for a downloadable game, right? Only thing is I did not get hardly any of that from playing the game itself; most of that description comes from the Wiki. The “cut scenes” in the game do a good job of explaining that this evil person is trying to destroy the earth and four heroes are trying to stop him, but that is about all you can really get from them. I do not know if some of this has to do with the localization, but this game is a bit out there. Granted, many people are kind of used to that from a game designed in Japan, but even taking that into consideration, the storyline is a little on the obscure side.

So if the story isn’t really one to grab you, the gameplay must, right? Well….

Rinse, Lather and Repeat

In Moon Diver, you take control of four different characters: Seyfert, Hitori, Tolby or Ourion. Each handles a little differently, and they each have a different magic spell to start off. You then jump right into the platforming battles, running though levels, climbing walls, swinging swords… all very reminiscent of Strider. You will find yourself going up against many different types of foes, including robots that shoot, fly, or even explode after you do enough damage. You gain experience by killing the enemy, and you can also build up kill combos, which will increase your experience and, if you can get a 50 kill combo, refill both your health and magic.

Areas like this where you must defeat waves of enemies are common.

That’s right; I mentioned magic. You character starts off with one spell he or she can cast, and as you explore the levels, you will find others to equip as well. You can equip up to for spells at a time, switching among them with the D-pad on the controller. These spells can range from attacks that will damage everything on the screen to spells that will make your character invisible to most enemies for a short time, making it easier to build up kill combos. Each spell has different levels, with each higher level being more effective but also costing more magic. As you kill enemies, you can get orbs that will refill health and magic.

At it’s heart, the controls are fairly well designed, but it quickly starts to feel repetitive. You will go up against the same enemies over and over again, and at many points in most of the levels you will come across areas where you will have to destroy several waves of enemies before you can advance. There are boss battles, and those can be interesting, but they do not do enough to really break up the monotony of the game.

Remember where I said you gain experience and other spells in the game? Well, you will level up once you have enough experience, giving you a point to put toward health, magic or power (stronger attacks), and you can configure up to four spells to take with you into each game. Only issue is you cannot do either of these while you are actively playing through a level. You have to either beat the level or die, which will then allow you to make the changes.

Coop Is Better, But….

One thing that does change things up a bit is the ability to play up to four player coop. You and up to three of your friends can team up to take on the armies of Faust together. The good news is many of the spells you pick up throughout the game have combined affects: if you hold the magic button down, you allies will get

4 player coop can really be fun, but it also gets hectic.

a symbol advising them they can cast with you, and the combined power of your casting can be really impressive. You also can rescue your friends in coop if they die; you have a certain amount of time to break the bonds around your friends when they die so they can rejoin the fight.

There are only two issues with the coop. One is if two of you are using the same character, they look way too much alike. In fact, the only real difference is each one will have a marker for which player is controlling that character, and with as frantic as this game can get, it is really easy to loose sight of which one is yours. Add to that the fact that you level each character in the game up individually, and it will be really easy to have two people using the same character. The other problem is trying to keep four players together in a frantic platform fighter is easier said than done.

So now you are all probably figuring I am not enjoying Moon Diver. I’m sure this review up to this point has read like it was written by someone who was not happy with the game. Well….

The Hook

Moon Diver can be really frustrating. You will find yourself replaying levels both to try and get new spells and just to gain experience. You will lose track of your character in multiplayer, and you will die. A lot.

And yet, you will still want to play this game.

It is really hard to explain how it did it, but this game got me hooked. I found myself playing through an entire level three times the other night just to be able to do things exactly the right way so I could get a spell I had just spotted. There is something truly satisfying about going back into the game and trying to figure out just how to get through levels faster and just how different they will feel now that you have some new abilities. In short, this game constantly challenges you to improve upon the way you play it, and that makes it a game which is hard to stop playing.

Moon Diver has its faults and can be an incredibly frustrating game, but something about it does just grab you. As I mentioned, it really is hard to explain. I just know I am enjoying this game a whole lot more than I feel like I should be. Maybe it is just the old school gamer in me relishing in what seems to be a game made for the Retro crowd. Whatever it is, I’m hooked.

Moon Diver is not going to be a game for everyone. Some people will be hooked by it even more rapidly than I was; others will probably not get into the game at all. Still, if you were a fan of the Strider or have been looking for a recent game with that nostalgic retro feel, this may be the game for you.

My original plan for the 30 Reviews in 30 Days was to do one final feature at the end in which I did a review of my top 5 games of all time. The closer I go to that time, however, the less that made sense. After all, I had already done reviews of the other games on my top 10, so if I did it that way, I was either not going to spend enough time on each game or write one massive article no one really wanted to read. So after careful consideration, I decided to review my top 5 with the last 5 reviews in the series.

Now these top 5 are in no particular order. I just plan on reviewing them in the reverse order they are listed on the About page of Everyday Gamers. At any given time, I might consider any one of these games my top game.

So, without further adieu, lets get to my favorite PC game of all time, StarCraft.

How real-time strategy should be

I used to not be a real-time strategy gamer. They just really did not interest me. Sure, I had seen people play the Command and Conquer games and WarCraft, but I had no real interest in playing them myself. The idea of balancing resource management with unit building and attacking the opponent just did not seem that interesting to me.

The Terrans: Easy to learn, deadly in the hands of a master.

So you can imagine my reluctance when, while in Canada for my best friend’s wedding, some of his friends told me I had to try StarCraft. They finally got me into a LAN game, and before the game was even half done, I was hooked. When my friend told me he wanted to get me something for being his best man, I think I surprised him by telling him I wanted the StarCraft Battlechest. I have since introduced others to the game.

So what makes StarCraft the best RTS in my opinion? Well, several things. The first is the game just feels intuitive; it really did not take long to master the controls, which is not always the case for this type of game. Another is the memorable units; ghosts, battleships, ultralisks, carriers, archons… They just stick out in your mind, set apart from the cannon fodder of other RTSs.

In the end, though, two things really stand out that make StarCraft the best.

It’s all about balance

StarCraft manages to pull off something that many other games have tried and failed: creating three races that play completely differently and yet are completely balanced:

Terran: This would be the human forces. The humans are a well balanced race, strong in both attack and defense but not overpowering in either. Terran forces rely upon upgrades in technology to make them strong enough to really battle, and you need to really consider how you group units to attack with them if you want to have any kind of success.

Two words that strike fear in any StarCraft player: Zerg Rush.

Zerg: The Zerg is the race you want to use when you plan on just overwhelming your opponent. Its basic unit, the zergling, is very easy to mass produce, leading to the ever popular Zerg Rush. the problem is the base level of units for anything created by the Zerg are weaker than the other races. Sure, you can produce them in mass numbers, but you have to upgrade them to really go toe to toe against the other race’s heavy hitters.

Protos: The Protos are the hardest race to master in the game, though for many people, once you have mastered them, they can be the most fun. The Protos is the most powerful race in the game, but the units you create while playing them are also the most costly. You cannot just create mass numbers and try to attack with them as you will run out of resources quickly.

So you have three races who play about as differently as you can imagine, but they are balanced against each other amazingly well. Sure, you will probably find one you gravitate toward (PROTOS ROCK!), but in the end, they are all great.

RTS games are all based on the rock-paper-scissors gameplay mechanic (one unit is stong against and enemy unit but weak against another enemy unit) , and StarCraft is no different. The fact Blizzard managed to balance this type of gameplay among three different races is just incredible.

Amazing Stories all tied together

As good as the balanced races are, the stories built into the game may be better. Many RTSs have a throw away story at best. It may not be horrible, but it does not generally stand out. StarCraft is the exception to this rule. Each race has its own unique storyline containing 10 missions. In these missions, you will get connected with the heroes of those races, being drawn into their struggles as they try to survive in a universe torn apart by war. There are even a few points, like the abandonment of Kerrigan, that will grab you an not let go.

The Protos: Power overwhelming, but manage your resources wisely.

What makes the stories even more amazing, however, is that they are interwoven. Characters from one race’s storyline will appear in another race’s missions, helping you understand how everything in the universe is connected. This carries over to the expansion, Brood War, giving you a chance to see what happened after the major Protos battle at the end of the first game.

So you have balanced races and great stories that tie together into one epic storyline, but those alone would not have made this game still extremely popular 10 years after it was made. So what has kept it going? How about the ability to create your own maps and scenriaos, a multiplayer community on Battlenet that still plays the game, or the tournaments that go on in Asia. The game is so popular in South Korea that Blizzard decided to announce the sequel at an event there as opposed to even announcing it at BlizzCon.

StarCraft is a game that has taken on near mythic status over the years, and for good reason. The stories and balanced gameplay have made this an RTS that has yet to be topped. There is a reason the Battlechest still sells for $20 ten years after the game was made. StarCraft gets a 5 out of 5.

You know, writing about my Top 5 games is going to make me want to play them all again.

Racing Puzzle Game set to Your Music

The premise of Audiosurf is pretty simple. You choose a character to race, choose a song from your collection and race.

That’s right: Audiosurf takes your songs and turns them into racetracks. The game analyzes the tempo and instrumentation of the song you choose and creates a race track from it. You will see peaks, valleys and visuals all based on the musical track you choose, which means the game is only limited by your music collection.

That is not all. As you race on the track, you see colored blocks in front of you. You want to match the blocks by running over them, filling the rows in front of your racer. These blocks vanish whenever you match 3 or more of the same color. The blocks do not vanish immediately, which gives you a chance to match more and gain bonuses. The other thing you want to keep in mind is matching hotter colors (red, yellow, orange) gains you more points than matching colder colors (blue, green, purple).

So just how do you match these colors? Well, that all depends upon which character you choose.

Pick your character, pick your play style

There are three levels of characters in Audiosurf: casual, pro and elite. Casual contains the three basic character types: the Mono, the Pointman and Double Vision. Which character you choose determines what kind of track you run:

Mono: Hit the colored blocks while avoiding the gray ones. The colors of the blocks will change with the music, growing warmer as the intensity increases.

Pointman: There will be blocks of several colors on the screen, and it is you job to match them. The Pointman can pick up blocks and drop them into rows later. There are also many different power ups in these tracks, such as paint power ups that will paint all the blocks you have collected the same color.

Audiosurf is a game you just have to experience.

Double Vision: There are two vehicles on the track at the same time. You control one with the mouse and the other with the arrow keys. You can play this single player or with a friend, with each of you controlling one of the cars.

Pro level introduces the Pusher, who can push blocks to either side when running over them, the Eraser, which can erase all the blocks in your collection of a certain color and Vegas, which allows you to stack power ups for later and shuffle the blocks you have collected in hopes of getting a match. It also adds the ability with the Mono to spread your collection wings out to pick up all the blocks in front of you or to jump over blocks. Elite removes Vegas, and instead of letting you jump blocks with Mono, you can remove gray blocks from your collection at the cost of the points you have accumulated.

Take on the world

As you have probably already guessed, the ultimate goal of Audiosurf is to get as high a score as possible. The game will analyze each song you put into it and come up with a medal system. You will get bronze, silver or gold medals if you score high enough. There are also bonuses you can achieve, like a 30% bonus if you get through a Mono level without hitting a gray block.

So why do the scores matter? Audiosurf compares each song with its database, giving you the leaderboards for each song. If you load up a song others have played, the current leader for your difficulty will be shown. You can also compare your score with your friends, giving you bragging rights.

Of course, if you really want bragging rights, you’ll turn on Ironmode. This makes the tracks go faster and fails you out if you have an overfill (collect one more block than you can fit in a row). The scores can be much higher, but so is the challenge.

Never look at your music the same

Ausiosurf does something truly amazing: it changes the way you look at your music. You start looking through your collection, wondering just how certain songs will play out in the game. Sometimes the answer is pretty obvious: Andy Hunter, being a techno artist, tends to move pretty fast, as does Demon Hunter. Some effects will catch you by surprise, however. For example, I was playing Skillet’s “Whispers” off the Comatose album. Just as it hit the beginning of the chorus, right before the singer screams “No!’, there is a pause. Well, my racer actually paused on the track, making my anticipation for the chorus grow.

Of course, you can also just run the visualizer if you just want to just sit back and relax.

Audiosurf is the rare game that takes something you have and makes it an integral part of the game. As an added bonus, the full version of the game gives you access to the soundtrack for The Orange Box. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I have raced to “Still Alive.” Audiosurf gets a 5 out of 5.

So the first 25 reviews are in the bag, and I have not reviewed my top 5 games of all time.

Gee, I wonder what the last 5 reviews are going to be?

Sucker Punch, the studio that brought you the Sly Cooper series on the Playstation 2, has created a brand new I.P. from the ground up. SP’s inFAMOUS is a super hero story centered around an everyday bike messenger who goes by the name of Cole. With the lack of back story or comic book tie-in, Sucker Punch has successfully created a story that is accessible to any gamer interested in jumping into the shoes of a super.

Players are introduced to the story of inFAMOUS through beautifully rendered comic book story windows. The narrative begins when a package that Cole is delivering explodes leaving Empire City – the game’s world – a mess, and Cole in a coma. Cole awakes from the coma to find the city devastated, and discovers that he has an electrical power which he can use to wreak havoc on the game’s inhabitants, or help reclaim the the world in which he lives.

Empire City is a living, breathing open world not much unlike GTA’s Liberty City.  As Cole you are given free reign to run about the world interacting with NPC’s, scaling massive buildings, and completing missions. At first glace the game’s parkour-like approach to maneuvering throughout EC, may draw Crackdown comparisons, however a little hands on time will show the gamer that the control scheme is somewhat of a mixture of Crackdown, Mirror’s Edge, and Assassin’s Creed. When Cole leaps to, or from a building he will automatically stick to the next mountable piece of environment if you are in fact close enough to said object.

Combat is handled in a few different manners – you can perform hand to hand combat, which for it’s part works really well, or you can use one of your electrically charged super powers. The standard electrical attack functions much like a gun does in a shooter with the weapon making way to the Cole’s arm, and bolts taking the place of bullets. The on screen reticule works wonderfully, and makes taking out enemies a breeze.

Probably the most compelling aspect of inFAMOUS is the choices that you are given throughout the game. You can approach each of the game’s scenarios from a multitude of angles, but one way or another you have to chose whether to play as good, or evil. Depending on the path that you take, the game will unfold differently – Cole will have access to either good or evil powers, the cities inhabitants will fear, or learn to trust you, and ultimately the game’s story will be effected.

Through the development powers of Sucker Punch, Sony has published yet another game that gives those without a PS3 a reason to purchase one. inFAMOUS is one of the most fascinating, and fun to play titles to come out, not only this year, but possibly this console life cycle. If you’re still on the Playstation 3 purchasing fence… here’s one more reason to jump on board.

Chocolate Shop Frenzy – http://everydaygamers.com/2009/01/23/chocolate-shop-frenzy/

Touchgrind – http://everydaygamers.com/2009/01/18/touchgrind/

Zombie Mansion – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/13/zombie-mansion/

Paradise: The Beginning – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/13/paradise-the-beginning/

Ivory Tiles – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/13/ivory-tiles/

Dizzy Bee 2 – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/13/dizzy-bee-2-2/

Dr. Awesome – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/13/dr-awesome/

Space Deadbeef – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/13/space-deadbeef/

2079 – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/04/2079/

Dessert Dilemma – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/03/dessert-dilemma/

Blue Defense – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/12/03/blue-defense/

Movie Challenge – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/11/29/movie-challenge/

Sapus Tongue – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/11/20/sapus-tongue/

Trace – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/11/19/trace/

Touch Hockey: FS5 – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/10/17/touch-hockey-fs5-2/

Cloud Girls – http://everydaygamers.com/2008/10/10/cloud-girls-3/