Some nice deals are added to the PlayStation Store.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
70% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition
50% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
Mortal Kombat
60% off original price: Was €24.99/£19.99
Spy Hunter
60% off original price: Was €24.99/£19.99/AU$32.95
LEGO Legends of Chima Laval’s Journey
40% off original price: Was €24.99/£19.99/AU$32.95
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
40% off original price: Was €24.99/£19.99/AU$32.95
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
30% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
Additional 20% discount for PS Plus members
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
40% off original price: Was €24.99/£19.99/AU$32.95
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
50% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
LEGO Movie Videogame
50% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids
50% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
LEGO The Hobbit
50% off original price: Was €39.99/£34.99/AU$54.95
LEGO The Lord of the Rings
50% off original price: Was €29.99/£24.99/AU$39.95
LEGO Batman: The Videogame (PSP)
75% off original price: Was €19.99/£15.99/AU$29.95
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 [PSP] 75% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Digital discounts: (valid until 29th April 2015)
White Night
35% off original price: Was €14.99/£13.99/AU$19.75
Shiftlings
50% off original price: Was €14.99/£13.99/AU$19.75
Blue Estate
25% off original price: Was €12.99/£9.99/AU$19.45
Additional 20% discount for PS Plus members
Ironclad Tactics
30% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Additional 30% discount for PS Plus members
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut
40% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Additional 20% discount for PS Plus members
Scram Kitty DX (PS4/PS Vita Cross Buy)
40% off original price: Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.95
Additional 20% discount for PS Plus members
Mercenary Kings
40% off original price: Was €17.99/£14.99/AU$26.95
Additional 20% discount for PS Plus members
Retro City Rampage DX (PS4/PS3/PS Vita Cross Buy)
60% off original price: Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.95
Terraria – PlayStation 4 Edition
50% off original price: Was €18.99/£12.99/AU$19.75
Additional 10% discount for PS Plus members
Defense Grid 2
50% off original price: Was €24.99/£19.99/AU$37.95
Additional 10% discount for PS Plus members
Zen Pinball 2: South Park Pinball (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita)
50% off original price: Was €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.55
Final Horizon
50% off original price: Was €11.99/£9.49/AU$17.95
Additional 10% discount for PS Plus members
Terraria (PS3)
50% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Additional 10% discount for PS Plus members
Terraria (PS Vita)
50% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Additional 10% discount for PS Plus members
Sacra Terra: Kiss of Death
60% off original price: Was €11.99/£9.49/AU$17.95
Luftrausers
60% off original price: Was €8.99/£7.39/AU$13.95
JUJU
60% off original price: Was €15.99/£12.99/AU$23.95
From Dust + I Am Alive
65% off original price: Was €21.99/£17.99/AU$32.95
I Am Alive
75% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Beyond Good & Evil HD
60% off original price: Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.95
Narco Terror
70% off original price: Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.95
Sacred Citadel
70% off original price: Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.95
Twisted Lands: Shadow Town
60% off original price: Was €11.99/£9.49/AU$17.95
Mountain Crime: Requital
60% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Snark Busters: High Society
60% off original price: Was €11.99/£9.49/AU$17.95
DUST 514: 200,000 Aurum plus 25,000 Aurum bonus
25% off original price: Was €99.99/£79.99/AU$150.95
Nihilumbra
50% off original price: Was €8.99/£7.39/AU$13.45
Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror
50% off original price: Was €7.99/£6.49/AU$11.95
Joe Danger 2: The Movie
50% off original price: Was €7.99/£6.49/AU$11.95
htoLNiQ: The Firefly Diary
40% off original price: Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$22.95
Baboon!
50% off original price: Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.95
Don’t Die, Mr. Robot!
50% off original price: Was €5.49/£4.49/AU$8.25
Flyhunter Origins
50% off original price: Was €6.99/£5.79/AU$10.45
Ace Combat Stocked Fuel (10 Units + 1 Free Unit)
Was €6.99/£5.79/AU$10.45, now €5.29/£4.39/AU$7.90
Ace Combat Stocked Fuel (50 Units + 10 Free Units)
Was €34.99/£28.99/AU$52.95, now €26.99/£421.99/AU$40.95
Let’s check up on Akiba’s Trip for the PlayStation Vita. Is this a game worth picking up? Is this a hidden gem in Sony’s handheld line-up? Should this game even be available outside of Japan? Does Akiba’s Trip go to far and does it cross the line? This and more in our Akiba’s Trip checkup!
Akiba’s Trip is a 3D beat ‘em up game centered around two groups hunting each other in the Akihabara district (Tokyo). At least, that’s what it wants to present itself as. Some might say Akiba’s Trip is just an immature outing of Japanese gaming culture which has found its niche on the PS Vita. Both statements could be correct in this case, if you think of a 3D Streets of Rage / Final Fight combined with Senran Kagura in which ripping of the clothes of your enemies is completely normal.
The gameplay of Akiba’s Trip consists largely of button mashing. The attacks you perform are limited and I never had the feeling I was packing a real punch. After you have landed some punches in a specific area of the body, it’s time to rip the clothes off that body part. Creepy? Kinda. It does help that it’s not just girls that you are harassing, but where I could find this stuff funny and silly in Senran Kagura (a fighting game), I find it a bit distasteful in here, since it’s really in an urban setting and the game basically forces you to grope your enemies. Not a fan. The jumping mechanic is pretty useless and doesn’t really have much of a purpose. I did not get much satisfaction from the gameplay unfortunately.
Akiba’s Trip Undead and Undressed does look quite good on the PS Vita. The game is colorful and has nice attention to details. The characters are mostly nicely animated and are well designed. The game does have a nice dose of humor and can be really funny at times. The story is nonsensical and has some predictable twists. It serves the game well enough, but can’t cover for the lackluster gameplay. The camera does get in the way of the action in quite a few moments, which is unfortunate. Since it’s all based in Akihabara, it is logical that the camera has to deal with narrow streets and corridors, but it does get annoying after a while. Just like the loading times, which are atrocious. The loading times are better when you jump from one area of the map to another one, instead of actually walking from one place to another. The mission based structure was a bit of a miss for me, especially if you’re playing in short bursts the missions are not exactly clear on what you have to do when you come back halfway through a mission after a day or two.
OlliOlli was a great success on the PS Vita (and later porter to a variety of other devices), so it comes as no surprise the sequel came out so fast. But does this second game in the series live up to its legacy? Does it bring anything new to the table? Is it going to kill your hands again? Do you need to love skating to enjoy this? We’ll find out all those things and more in this OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood checkup!
OlliOlli was the first game since a long time to capture the spirit of skating. OlliOlli is not all about insane tricks and stunts, which never would be possible in real life. Just like in that real life we’re talking about, OlliOlli brings the difficulty. Skating isn’t easy, neither is OlliOlli 2. It’s also no Bloodborne, so don’t get scared away by the difficulty. The difficulty is largely fair and the great thing is that after you die, you can get back in the action within seconds. No loading times, just an odd button combination you have to press. This is a big gripe, it clearly should have been one button press and it’s two. You’ll be pressing those buttons a lot. OlliOlli 2 in general is a game which isn’t all that great about preserving your buttons and sticks of your PlayStation Vita, but it’s a price I’ll gladly pay.
There is no story in OlliOlli2. There is a theme though, which is all about movie sets. We go to the West, we go to theme parks, we go the future and so forth. These settings bring a nice variety of scenery, but is largely just a visual skin which largely doesn’t affect any of the gameplay. Of course there are some exceptions, like the broken rollercoasters which form an integral part of the experience. The various settings don’t overstay their welcome, right when you’re getting sick of a particular style things get changed up drastically. The Hollywood movie theme is a great choice, since this allows them vary the backgrounds often. It is unfortunate that besides the different environments, not much else has changed. Olli Olli 2 feels more like a level pack, than a full fledged sequel, which is a shame.
The basic gameplay is very simple, you skate from left to right. Grinding and tricks are part of the experience, but don’t expect to be doing 720’s within the first hour of playing. It’s a more realistic approach and a lot of the more advance tricks you won’t need throughout the game, only if you want to attack high scores these come in to play. OlliOlli 2 controlls very well. The gameplay is super tight, whenever you die in OlliOlli 2, it’s because of you. No excuses will be tolerated, the game is very fair. What is a bit of a head turner is the difficulty spikes. There were a lot of times where I was breezing through levels and all of a sudden came to an abrupt stop and had to stay with a particular level for over 10 turns to complete it. It would be nice if Roll7 can make the difficulty of the levels more steadily inclining in the next game.
Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart is a spinoff of the Hyperdemension Neptunia series. Instead of Neptune or Nepgear taking the prime spot on the stage, it’s Noire who is the main focus in this game.
Small world after allCompile Heart switched things up graphically a bit for Hyperdevotion Noire. Instead of the cute looking anime style graphics of the mainline games, Hyperdevotion Noire is sporting a chibi art style. This means tiny bodies, big heads. They dipped their feet already in this kind of graphical style with Monster Monpiece. They approved their detailing of the characters a lot since then, but the graphics still look more like PSP or PS2 game than a full fledged PS Vita title. The Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth series wipes the floor with the graphics presented in Noire. And that is a pitty. The skits and story parts on the other hand look amazing, a real step up from Re;Birth2. The movement of the characters is more ‘active’, which helps engaging in the ludicrous story.
Tactical gameplayThe gameplay has received a complete change of pace as well. Instead of the classical turn based RPG system used in the Re;Birth series, Noire is a tactical RPG, in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, La Pucelle Tactics and the Disgaea series. The tactical battles take place in fully realized 3D battlegrounds. Unfortunately these are filled with a lot of objects which don’t enhance the actual gameplay, like cannons, floors with sudden holes in it and rotating belts. Although I understand wanting to spice things up a bit, these items are mostly an annoying hindrance. Besides that Noire features standard tactical gameplay: You can manage your teams characters and placement on the map before you start (in a limited capacity), once the battle starts you can move all your unites (each with a different range), each character has its own set of moves (healing, bufs and attacks), you can use items instead of attacking, if two characters stand next to each other they will help each other attack, and so forth. Noire follows the standards of the TRPG genre and doesn’t bring anything fresh to the table, except for its broad range of exceptional and well established characters.
Hyperdevotion Noire is a celebration of all the characters in the series. It’s nice to see all the characters we have come to know come by in rapid fashion. All of these characters are based on gamecompanies or gameseries. Not just the top dogs make an appearance, also small niche studios make their appearance as one of the fighting (and talking) dames. If you follow the game industry at least a little bit, there are a lot of fun statements and known, but exaggerated, behavior to be found in Hyperdevotion Noire. The game is mostly focused on Japanese studios, which is understandable, since Hyperdevotion Noire is a very Japanese pop culture product in almost every sense of the way.
The following PS Vita games will be on sale until the 4th of February:
Ethan: Meteor Hunter
50% off – Original price £7.99/€9.99
Guacamelee!
60% off – Original price £9.99/€12.99
SENRAN KAGURA Bon Appétit!
40% off – Original price £11.99/€14.99
SENRAN KAGURA SHINOVI VERSUS
40% off – Original price £24.99/€29.99
Urban Trial Freestyle (PS3/Vita bundle)
80% off – Original price £11.49/€13.99
Jet Car Stunts
60% off – Original price £5.79/€6.99
Minutes
50% off – Original price £6.19/€7.49
PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate
60% off – Original price £9.49/€11.99
Rollers of the Realm
50% off – Original price £7.99/€9.99
OlliOlli
70% off – Original price £7.99/€9.99
Last year Idea Factory brought us Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 and in the review we wrote for the game back then we were very enthusiastic about it, and rightfully so. The game fixed a lot of issues the original game had. Now it’s time for a remake of the second game in the series, namely Mk2. This game was already a huge step up from the original in game mechanics, but since the battle system of the third game in the series, Victory, introduced a way better battle system which is adapted for the Re;Birth series it is still a welcome remake.
In Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 Sisters Generation it is all about the younger sisters of the CPU Godessses we met in Re;Birth1. The CPU goddesses Vert, Blanc, Neptunia and Noire have been captured and are being held in the graveyard. Neptune’s little sister (Nepgear, based on the Sega GameGear) is the new hero in this game, but in all honesty, she is basically the same character as Neptune. The personality is the same and she is more or less going through the same path of growth. Nepgear has to step up her game and gather power from the different countries mascots in order to save her sister and to help fight the growing power of Arfoire.
The graphics of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 are exactly the same as Re;Birth1. Unfortunately, not one improvement seems to have been made. So it is good news that the graphics of Re;Birth1 were already amongst the best on PS Vita. The color palette which is used is very bright and full of vibrant colors, which I appreciated a lot. The sound is solid, although some of the voices can get a bit tedious. This might have something to do with the cast of characters, which consists of mostly very young ladies. In your party no men will appear by the way, so if you are looking for a game which empowers female lead characters, Re;Birth2 would be the game for you. Cave and 5pb are the highlights characterwise in this long RPG. The game is really character driven and there is a lot of dialogue, some of which is amazing and some of it is cringe worthy. The game has the problem of being a bit wordy at times, without saying all that much. All the ‘information’ drivel you will have to sit through to get some good unlocks is horrendous and is really something they should be cutting back on in Re;Birth3.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 Sisters Generation is a turn based RPG. The fighting mechanics are simple, yet deep. A lot of systems get added along the way, but if you have played Re;Birth1 there won’t be all that much new to discover. The battle system is still super solid and very enjoyable. A great addition in the beginning is the option to turn the difficulty up or down, which will help cut down on grinding. Re;Birth2 is not an easy game on its standard difficulty, even for hardened veterans in the genre. The game does reward smart strategies and will punish players which are going through the motions. There are three basic attacks, one to break the defence of the enemy, one to hit ‘em hard and one to run up the combo meter which you can use for an extra attack at the end of each attack chain. You can also choose to use this combo meter for one special attack, but than you do loose all the combo meter progress. You can customize a lot of the moves you want to use in battle, which helps make the battle system a lot deeper than the average RPG.
Game developer AQUAPLUS opened an official website on Thursday for a PlayStation Vita port of the PlayStation Portable game ToHeart2 Dungeon Travelers. The game is slated for release on April 30 in Japan as a premium edition for 7,400 yen (about US$63), regular edition for 4,800 yen (US$41), and download edition for 4,017 yen (US$34).
The premium edition will include a microfiber towel, a Konomi Yuzuhara rubber strap, a compilation of production materials including rough drawings, and a soundtrack CD. Players who preorder the game will also get a Tamaki Kōsaka strap.
The game itself will feature higher resolution visuals, a full remake of the 3D map, more detailed icons, and a revised user interface.
An European release date of ToHeart2 Dungeon Travelers has not been announced and does not seem likely at this moment. We do hope the game comes to the EU naturally and with the steady stream of typical Japanese games coming over to the PS Vita in Europe, we wouldn’t rule it out. Stay tuned and we will keep you posted.
Source: ANN
Hyperdimension Neptunia™ Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation will have two release dates in Europe: It will have a retail release on February 6th and a digital release on February 11th. Idea Factory also announced that the game will support PlayStation (Vita) TV. Want to know more about Hyperdimension Neptunia? Read our review of Re;Birth1 and Producing Perfection!
Konami revealed it will be bringing Suikoden 1 and 2 to the PlayStation Vita at the PlayStation Experience keynote. It was announced that these RPG’s were coming in a week, but it was quite clear this was for the American audience. Soon after a blogpost was made for the US PlayStation Blog. To our regret, there wasn’t a similar post on the European blog. Several questions to an employee of Konami on the popular Neogaf board went unanswered, while other question did receive answers. Once we now more than just the American release date (which will be this Tuesday, on the 9th of December) we will let you know right away. Stay tuned!
Konami has not released any information stating Suikoden I and II will come to the European market. A release date for Suikoden 1 and 2 is still unkown, but we sure hope one will be given soon.
Darkest Dungeon is coming to the PS Vita and PS4. During the PlayStation Experience keynote a new trailer was released, which made it clear that this 2D RPG is something different. Check the trailer below of this upcoming RPG coming from Canadian developer Red Hook Studio.
