By Matthew Scott Hunter
‘Dark Void’ (T)
Up, up and away
***
Capcom
Xbox 360
Everyone who plays “Dark Void” will forever regard it as “that jetpack game.” The jetpack is the most memorable element in this third-person shooter/flight simulator hybrid. It’s too bad the game doesn’t seem to realize that. It demands that you slog through a few extremely generic shooter levels before you finally get a chance to play Rocketeer. And as third-person shooters go, they don’t get much more unbalanced than “Dark Void.” For some reason, you can empty clip after clip into your robot foes without putting them out of commission, but a single melee punch will reduce them to scrap. Go figure.
Running and gunning is simply a chore. Enemy fire takes a big chunk out of your health, forcing you to constantly utilize cover, inching your way from one protective bulkhead to the next. But once you strap on Commando Cody’s backpack, it’s a whole different game. While initially disorienting, the aerial acrobatics quickly become the single reason to play. Why crawl across a battlefield in small increments when you can bring death from above before ultimately descending on top of your remaining foes to demolish them with your overpowered punches? The story is stupid. The dialogue is worse. But the man-versus-machine dogfights are definitely worth the price of a few gallons of jetpack fuel.
‘
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: The Ultimate All-Stars’ (T)
****
Capcom
Wii
It’s a miracle that this game even got released in our hemisphere. The anime-styled characters of Tatsunoko won’t be familiar to most Americans, so westerners will just have to be content with the Capcom half of the roster, including characters from “Street Fighter,” “Mega Man,” “Viewtiful Joe” and even “Dead Rising.” But you don’t have to know any of the characters to enjoy the gameplay, which is fantastic. Over-the-top moves have never been more colorful or spectacular, making this one of the best 2D fighting games you can get, especially on Wii.
‘Sands of Destruction’ (T)
***1/2
Sega
Nintendo DS
You are Kyrie Illunis — a boy with the power to destroy the world, and each of two warring factions would like to use you on the other. This is how the story begins in this very Japanese RPG, which features some excellent voice work. As good as the narrative is, it’s the combat system that is the real star of the show, and fans of micromanagement will delight in making the best use of their Battle and Customization Points. But old-fashioned random encounters slow things down. It’d be nice to take more than three steps before being forced to fight the same villains you fought three steps ago.
‘Army of Two: The 40th Day’ (M)
**
Electronic Arts
PlayStation Portable
Unfortunately, the PSP isn’t big enough for an army of two. An army of one would’ve been preferable, since your A.I.-controlled partner is completely useless. He’s almost as dumb as the enemies, but he’ll shoot you more often than they do. The game manages to have the same dialogue and morality system as its home console brothers, but it does this at the expense of atmosphere and framerate.
