For those who don’t know much about Minecraft, here’s a small run-down: blocks. The basis of Minecraft is the idea that anything can be accomplished with blocks. Give the player the ability to destroy and create blocks with various tools and the sky is quite literally the limit. Add in a randomly-generated sandbox world and a very robust crafting system and you’ll have legions of people hooked for life.

Minecraft is an ever-changing open world that you can mould in to whatever shape you want. And here it is for the Xbox 360, brought to you by developers 4J Studios who were hired to handle the port from PC to Xbox. If the developer sounds familiar, you may remember them from their port of Perfect Dark to XBLA.

Now as we all can attest, ports don’t always work out. The sad truth is that gaming history is littered with the diseased carcasses of spectacular games that didn’t port well from one platform to the other. So, the first question many first asked was, “Is the Xbox version as good as the PC version?” In a word: yes. In multiple words: a thousand times yes.

4J Studios did an astounding job of porting the game and making it accessible to everyone. The buttons are mapped out intelligently and everything works just as you would imagine it should. When you first spawn in a world you’ll notice the draw distance is long and the frame rate is buttery smooth. This port could be mistaken for not being a port at all, and 4J Studios should be applauded for their hard work.

One of the newly added modes, the Tutorial, is there to help guide new players through their first day and night in the world. It takes you through chopping down your first tree, to crafting the tools necessary to chop and mine faster, to building your very own house so you don’t get chomped on by the beasties that come out at night. This is great because if you were thrust into the world without any knowledge of what might happen, it might sour you on the experience all together.

Another new feature for the Xbox 360 Edition is multiplayer and co-op. Because you’re unable to host your own server on the Xbox like on the PC, you can have up to 8 people in multiplayer in your world, all helping towards making your world a better place. Or better yet, running amok and burning all the pigs alive. Same goes for local co-op, where you can have up to four players split-screen on the same console.

This is the Minecraft experience that console gamers have been after for years. Everything is intact and with the promise from Mojang and Microsoft of frequent (and free!) updates that add new goodies, we have a lot more to look forward to.

You can keep your cheap knock-offs; the wait may have been long but it has been worth it.

I know I am a little late on this one. Minecraft Xbox has already made over 1 Million Dollars for Mojang and topped all the Microsoft charts.

notch: Minecraft: Xbox 360 edition should be out today, and the reviews are popping in. 83 on metacritic so far, which is about 0.23 per Xbox.

That is not just because it cost 4 billion Microsoft points when it was released;

notch: Apparently, Minecraft for Xbox costs 4 billion Microsoft Points! If it sells just ONE copy, we’ll all be rich!!

 

notch: (That’s a temporary glitch, btw. Not the actual cost.)

 

…or the fact that notch encouraged people to buy it over and over again;

notch: I think there might be a bug in the marketplace, could you help me test it by buying the game over and over? #marketingbytricking

 

Kappische: @notch great moneytization stratagy!

 

As I said above it did very will from the start!

notch: Well then. Saw the official sales numbers for the first 24 hours of Minecraft Xbox 360, and it’s very, very good. Profitable in an hour.

 

Lets take a look at the art – I have a feeling we have seen this before though…

Very nice…

You can buy Minecraft for the Xbox 360 here;

Buy Minecraft Xbox

Video reviews

The wonderful guys at the M1neTube have made a couple of vids for you.

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Taking A Little Crazy Tour With An Unexpected Doorbell… HD;

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Infinite Item Duplication Glitch HD;

Thanks for reading,

#DoneyKebab

First Prize is a shiny copy of Diablo 3

Second Prize is a copy of Syndicate

Third Prize is a copy of Men at War: Condemned Heroes

To enter, copy and paste the following into your twitter status and make sure you’re following us:

“Celebrate the launch of Diablo 3 with @GamerEuphoria and win some games for your PC #GEDIABLOCOMP Rules: http://gamereuphoria.com/?p=14785”

Good luck!!!

Terms and conditions:

1)      You must be following our @GamerEuphoria account on Twitter

2)      The winners will be picked at random after 5PM on Friday 18^th of May and announced on Twitter

3)      All decisions are final and there are no game/cash alternatives

4)      Competition open to UK and Eire only (Sorry Folks)

I wanted to do this post to tell you lot about a Carmageddon: Reincarnation Kickstarter post I was told about last week.

This game is in development by Stainless Games, based in the Isle of White, UK. I’m sure you all remember the original Carmageddon? Pretty good time, running down old people!

Check out the Carmageddon: Reincarnation Kickstarter to support the project

Please go and contribute.. It would be great to see this game made, there is not long left though. Lets Tweet, Facebook the crap out of this!

At the point of writing this they have raised just over 200k of 400k needed.. p.s. Notch (Creator of Minecraft) is a backer! and everything he backs has been funded so far, have hope !

Check out the Carmageddon: Reincarnation Kickstarter to support the project

See you soon,

#DoneyKebab

Sean Halliday picks The Witcher 2:

The PC version was one of my games of the year in 2011, so the concept of it being ported to the 360 was one that was both curious and worrying. Thankfully the port kept all the quality of the PC version (obviously without the high end visuals and the addition of a few more loading screens) which allowed the game to take the 60 by storm.

The Witcher 2′s main key to its success is undoubtedly the power the players decisions have on the plot. It’s no mere gimmick but in fact a integral part of the experience. From the start of the game the players decision shape the experience the player is about to embark on. It truly gives a sense of story telling done right.

With solid core gameplay and great work being put into the writing and voice work, The Witcher 2 is a fantastic experience to behold.

Thomas Mullin picks Prototype 2:

Have you ever had one of those days? As any self-respecting adult can agree, we’ve all had those days where the stresses of life can get on top of us. Radical entertainment have provided us with the solution to life’s many stresses in the form of Prototype 2. Is it clever, thoughtful and ultimately a stunning piece of video game art? Not by a long shot, but it does provide enough thrills and spills to keep the gore hounds and the unhinged happy after a day in the real world.

James Heller is not an eloquent man, and aside from his verbal arsenal of F-Bombs, and the C-Bomb (well it is rated 18 for a reason), his ability to tear up a military base with the ease of a hot knife through butter is cathartic. You shouldn’t be playing if you’re looking for some meaning in the level of mass-carnage you’re capable of inflicting, as the story is laughable but it does lead the player to an almost worthwhile conclusion; but don’t worry about that as there is a city to slaughter.

Open world games don’t get much more hectic than this, but it’s easy to control and fun to play. Go on, relieve your stress and forget about the woes of modern life for an hour or two. Let Prototype 2 give you the power to play out that anti-hero power fantasy you’ve always had.

Rob Jones picks The Witcher 2:

The Witcher 2 is my favourite game of April for two main reasons: it’s been far too long since the Xbox saw a truly amazing RPG grace its shores, and CD Projekt really outdid everyone with The Witcher 2. I now understand the PC players’ smugness during the game’s one year exclusivity to PC.

And the second reason? CD Projekt, as a developer, has gone above and beyond with the Xbox release. The actual release aside, they went so far as to add oodles of new content and even supply the soundtrack to the game right there in the box! What’s not to love about these guys?

The Spec Ops franchise is a strange beast. It’s never really hit the heights of been widely praised by critics and gamers. Fitting to its name, the franchise tends to slip under the radar with its installments.

Spec Ops: The Line is the first installment of the franchise on current generation systems. Focusing more on action and story telling this time around, Spec Ops: The Line could easily be considered a reboot of the franchise. With the game release in just over a month a demo has recently assaulted both PSN and Xbox Live. Does the demo show what could be this years sleeper hit? Or is it nothing more than just another loud and proud shooter?

 The demo starts off with the customary third person shooter on rails section. Taking control of a mini-gun mounted on a black hawk, the player is tasked with shooting down attacking choppers. The visuals are the first notable feature of the demo. There’s a decent level of detail put into the enemy helicopters as well as the environment.

Given the location of the game (war and storm torn Dubai) the environment during this on rail scene is rather limited. Large buildings, cranes and lots of sand is all that’s on offer for the first five minutes. Thankfully the demo keeps things from being dull by heavily investing in the block buster action movie explosions gimmick. Helicopters will crash into buildings and cranes leaving, behind them over the top destruction. While it is enjoyable to watch things blow up, this doesn’t disguise a quite dull section of the demo. Simply put the first five minutes feel a little lifeless.

After the repetitive turret section, the player is treated to a brief of the plot via a brief cut scene. The next segment of the demo sees the player taking to ground combat in the boots of Captain Martin Walker (voiced by the “voice of one million-and-one video games,” Nolan North). Walker’s objective in this section of the demo is to investigate a distress signal along with his squad.

The level is set up to allow the player to get to grips with the controls and features of the game. The cover system is naturally explained, along with the standard run-through of which button does what. After the tutorial, the demo builds up some atmosphere with the player strolling along a deserted and ruined road. The use of sound effects and a murmuring background soundtrack do a decent job of building suspense.

With the scene and mission objectives set, its only a matter of time before combat breaks out. Spec Ops: The Line isn’t trying to do anything new, this is even more evident in its gameplay. Cover based shooting is the name of the game here, and thankfully the cover system is to a good standard, with smooth and responsive controls.

Gunplay conveys a decent sense of weight to it, resulting in a satisfying experience. While the gameplay is satisfying, and indeed solid, it doesn’t really feel like something you haven’t already played a number of times. Generic is a term that could be applied but it does feel rather harsh to attach such a term to the demo’s mostly polished gameplay.

There are a few issues with the cover system (which most cover based shooters seem to suffer from) in the shape of taking cover behind objects at a odd angle. This issue can result in the player taking cover on the wrong side of a wall, which leads to a cheap death.

Spec Ops: The Line boasts squad commands (keeping up a tradition of the franchise) for the player to utilize. The commands are pretty much the basic stuff you’d come to expect e.g. target a enemy, move here, defend this and flash and clear. These commands aren’t required to complete the demo but the player is reminded to try them at a number of points.

The commands are useful and work well to a point. Often the team mate AI is a little slow to react, this is especially true when it comes to taking out a marked target. Requesting the AI team mates to flash and clear a location works well, a little too well with the tactic feeling a little over powered. The team mate AI doesn’t do anything particularly wrong nor does it do anything particularly smart. Left to their own devices the friendly AI tend to stay behind the player firing off a random pop shot or two.

Enemy AI is a mixed bag, with some enemies playing it safe and staying behind cover and others pulling off odd acts. There were a few occasions when the enemy decided the best tactic would be to run into the open and take aim almost asking for their head to be blown off. Some enemy types have laughable AI, a great example of this is the knife wielding goon. Sprinting into a hail of bullets with just a knife in hand, the AI is worthless. The enemy type feels extremely out of place and seems more comedic than anything.

Presentation wise, Spec Ops: The Line shows off some nice textures in places and some nice use of lighting. The graphics wont blow anyone away but they are to a good current standard nonetheless. The environments featured in the demo are richly detailed, and allow the player to buy into the whole war torn look the demo is going for. Character animation is decent, as too are the character models themselves.

There is a sense of the demo not featuring the best level to ‘sell’ the game to the player. The features that the games developers (Yager Development) have been boasting don’t really make appearance. The dynamic terrain elements of the game only make a brief cameo in the shape of sand falling onto a group of enemies. It would have been a nice touch to see more of the terrains deformation and expansion in the demo.

The demo for Spec Ops: The Line does a decent job of showcasing what’s still to come. The gameplay is solid and the gunplay enjoyable, and while it may offer nothing new to the genre it does have some nice touches such as using the environment to your advantage. The AI isn’t really a challenge to defeat (it should be noted only Easy and Normal difficulty settings are open on the demo) but this doesn’t mean the AI is dumb.

The game looks and sounds good resulting the combat feeling more enjoyable to participate in. The demo doesn’t do much to sell the story to the player but the action makes up for this. Spec Ops: The Line has potential to be a decent slice of bullet ridden fun, as long as people don’t expect the next big thing. Simple, fun, and containing Nolan North’s voice, Spec Ops: The Line could be worth checking out this June.

Spec Ops: The Line is set for release on June 29^th (EU) / June 26 (NA)

Risen 2: Dark Waters is a harsh mistress. The game doesn’t ease you into things, instead it chucks you straight into the action and sets you off on your adventure. This generally sets up what the player should expect throughout the game. Risen 2 isn’t going to hold your hand, what it will do is throw the odd vague hint the players way. Tutorials are few and far between and when they do appear they tend to leave the player in the lurch. The game doesn’t explain how the mechanics work, but instead gives a brief outline to what roles they have in gameplay. This leaves the player having to practice and learn various part of the game, this is especially true with the combat.

Admittedly its quite a nice change compared to the streamlined role playing games of today. Instead of being spoon feed instructions on how to play the game, Risen 2′s tough love feels quite ‘old school’. Risen 2 is equally as uncompromising when it comes to navigation of its maps and quest tracking. The lack of quest markers makes listening to the directions given by the quest giver vital. The map will only display the quester giver and not where the player must go to complete the quest. This lack of direction is again refreshing as it encourages the player to explore the map.

Some players may find the harshness of Risen 2 to be a huge negative. Unfortunately there are no options to alter the games lack of direction; this creates a tricky situation of Risen 2 potentially falling into a niche market. The lack of direction does offer a number of positives however with the game requiring a focused mind and a sense of adventure. The lack of quest markers opens up a number of possibilities in terms of exploring the world.

Requiring the player actually listen to the quest givers is a double edged sword. On the plus side it allows the game to develop a genuine sense of being a true role playing game. The flip side however, is it show cases some weak voice acting and awkward dialogue. The quests themselves are a mixed bag of the extremely dull to the overly long and drawn out. Thankfully the core of the monotonous quests tend to be side quests which are not essential to the game.

The core quest line and story is where Risen 2′s biggest selling point stems from. Pirates are one of the wonders of the internet. They are forever being proclaimed as ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’ and thus any game allowing the player to be a pirate is automatically interesting. Picking up after the events of the first Risen, Dark Waters sees the world once again engulfed by the threat of the Titans rising. In order to stop the Titans rising, the player must go under cover and join the crew of the infamous pirate Steelbeard.

The story doesn’t require the player to have played the first Risen, and only loose references are ever made to the first game. Given the life style the protagonist is thrown into you’d expect to be living the life of a pirate and at least in part, expectations are met. The story places the player is some nice settings and situations that feel distinctively ‘piratey’. These moments are far few between however, leaving the story (and the game for that matter) feeling like it has dropped the ball.

The feeling of being a pirate is undermined by the nature of a lot of the quests. Risen 2 unfortunately hosts a lot of quests that makes the player feel like the whipping boy as opposed to a character. This element of the game becomes increasingly frustrating as the game progresses, things are not helped by a rather forgettable story that doesn’t really offer any interesting plot points or character development. Instead of feeling compelled by the end of the game, the feeling is more that of a shrugging of the shoulders while muttering ‘k’. It’s a shame that more couldn’t have been made swashbuckling side of the game, instead it prefers to stick a hat on your characters head and assign you some dull quest objectives.

Risen 2′s character progression is a frustrating affair. Character specializations range from combat focused, ones such as blades and guns, while others are more passive. Toughness increases the players ability to take damage and intimidate NPC’s (as you would assume given the name) cunning on the other hand opens up the games more crafty side. Voodoo is the most interesting of the bunch thanks to a number of nice little tricks it has on offer. Realistically the player will only be able to fully explore two specializations in a play through.

Depending on the players dedication (and point of view) this could either be a good or a bad thing. The restriction in mastering a number of skill trees stops the player from becoming too powerful resulting in a sense of balance. The possible negative side of this is some specializations either close or open up certain parts of the game. This can be quite frustrating at times but on the flip side does offer incentive to replay the game.

Character progression is a strange beast when it comes to Risen 2. Instead of the traditional experienced points system , Risen 2 uses ‘Glory’ to allow players to level up. Glory is gained by completing quests and killing enemies (much like experience points) but they don’t unlock skills. Unlocking skills can only be achieved by spending gold on them. This produces the problem of skills being rather hard to unlock given the scarce amount of gold the game feeds the player. Not unlocking skills for prolonged stretches of time creates a feeling of lack of development. This lack of development detracts from the enjoyment of the game quite quickly and the early difficultly of Risen 2 also stunts any character growth which can effect the player in the long term; its a vicious cycle.

Specializing in the art of blades can be a risky move due to the awkward nature of Risen 2′s combat. Taking on enemies in melee combat boils down to smashing the left and right mouse button. As previously mentioned, Risen 2 feels a bit harsh on the player when it comes to fighting. The tutorials for the combat are so vague they become pointless which results in the player frantically testing out buttons mid fight. The key problem with the melee combat however is the unblockable attacks the enemies seem to have. Human enemies in particular seem to have the canny knack of withstanding player attacks while bursting through the players blocks.

It’s an awfully frustrating experience to go though time and time again. Fire arms mix up the stream of melee combat but they are so erratic in their efficiency. Using a fire arm requires the player to stand still and enter into a animation which resets every time the player take damage. Once the player fires off a shot the likely hood of hitting the target is low making fire arms a rather ineffective method of combat. Risen 2 does have a handful of boss battles scattered throughout. For the most part boss battles play out with attacking a obvious weak point and then entering into a quick time event until the enemy dies.

Combat isn’t the be all and end all of role playing games, interaction with other characters and NPCs is vital to the genre. Risen 2 is once again hit and miss. The voice acting can be decent, however for the most part its just odd. Some characters talk in such an over the top manner it becomes quite ridiculous. It’s unintentionally hilarious in the same way Ed Wood films managed to become comedic. As long as you don’t take it too seriously, the over the top voice acting does have cheesy appeal to it.

Risen 2 does contain quite a bit of dull voice acting when it comes to the side quest givers. Flat monotone voices dish out instructions making things feel rather uninteresting and a lot of the NPC’s look similar in terms of appearance. There are some genuinely neat characters further into the game, the best of the bunch being a troll like creature who learnt to speak English from pirates (along with all the cussing). This character has some of the best lines in the game resulting in some funny and enjoyable dialogue. It’s a shame there aren’t more characters that offer the same charm.

The presentation of Risen 2 is technically flawed but visually appealing. There’s a fantastic use of colour on show resulting in some great looking environments. Tropical islands are both bright and bold with lush plant life on display. The lighting system plays its part in conveying a believable look to the world of Risen 2. Character models vary in quality with the core cast being nicely detailed and rendered. Side quest givers and a bulk of the human enemies tend to look similar and lack detail. Animation of the human characters tends to be rather robotic with arms moving in a rustic manner; this is most noticeable during cut scenes when characters will flail their arms around randomly.

The creatures of Risen 2 are both well detailed and decently animated. Some of the creature design is genuinely impressive, at times unique, allowing the game to forge something of an identity. The technically poor aspects of Risen 2′s visuals come in the shape of its instantly growing plant life. When the player moves closer to a bush or a tree for example , it will grow instantly before the players eyes. Other minor issues stem in lip syncing when characters speak, it’s not a huge issue but it is rather glaring.

Risen 2: Dark Waters is a flawed game in a lot of areas, yet it still packs a strange charm to it. The combat is indeed frustrating and fiddly, the story and quests are indeed nothing special but the charm of the game still shines through. The concept of being a pirate is quite interesting and Risen 2 captures elements of playing as a pirate but doesn’t make full use of the idea. It’s a real shame that developer Piranha Bytes didn’t make full use of the concept and instead partially touched upon it.

Looking past the flaws and harsh nature of the game, Risen 2 is enjoyable at times but average in parts. Exploring the games environments is undeniably fun for all audiences. Hardcore role playing games fans will find a decent amount of fun to be had in Risen 2′s 40 odd hour experience. Fans of more modern day role playing games may find Risen 2′s hard ways to be too harsh and not rewarding enough. Enjoyable but flawed and frustrating, Risen 2: Dark Waters has a decent amount to offer, as long as you’re dedicated and patient enough.

Battleship is a bit of a mess when it comes to describing its origin; it’s the game, of the movie, of the boardgame that was based on a pen and paper game, and it doesn’t come more convoluted than that. Whatever you may think of movie tie-ins, and despite the fact the movie itself was panned critically at the box office, it’s definitely not the worst use of a franchise ever, in fact it has some clever ideas.

You play as US demolitions expert Cole Mathis, stationed on the islands aroundHawaii, who is tasked with blowing things up and shooting aliens when they invade the Pacific islands. Oddly, he’s also given control over the American naval fleet (for reasons unknown) so that he can co-ordinate its forces to strike at the aliens on both land and sea. It seems that Cole is more than just a petty officer, and more akin to a god-like soldier and naval strategist as he’s called on to save the world.

For the most part, Battleship is a pretty standard FPS fare, with little in the way of variety. In fact it’s rather dull. The weapons on offer are a bland combination of military arms form the humble pistol to the standard assault rifle and the clumsy alien weaponry isn’t much fun to use either.

Enemies lack any great variety and are little more than pop-up targets on a shooting range. They lack any level of real intelligence and will either remain in cover or charge the player directly. Friendly NPCs are just as dumb and more often than not run into the open and get killed. At the very least they don’t die when you shoot them.

The real clever part of Battleship is the way in which naval battles play out and their influence on your ground conflict. There’s no denying that it offers a little extra to the standard run and gun nature of the game.

With a press of a button, the player is taken to the command screen, where they can order ships to move to different locations. The player’s ships can be seen from the land and their movements ca be tracked in real time, which is a rather nice touch.

Moving a ship into a support position will allow the player to launch what is essentially the game’s airstrikes. Different ships launch different attacks, so placing the right one on a support position is beneficial though not crucial. The aliens have their own fleet and from time to time, you’ll need to order your ships to attack enemy positions to stop them from launching PEG attacks on land.

The player can find Wildcards on land, by killing the enemy, which grant boosts in ship defence and attack, and even the ability to take control of one of the fleet’s ships. While that may sound exciting, it’s a small section which involves mashing the fire buttons until the enemy ship is destroyed, or time runs out; whichever comes first.

Where Battleship is truly lacking is its presentation. The graphics feel outdated, textures are muddy and character models are repetitive. The colour scheme is exceptionally dull where even the grass and trees, which should be full of lush greens, feel quite flat. Watching the fleet move in real time on the ocean is a great touch, but even the turning animation of the ships is a little wooden.

There’s little innovation or excitement in the audio department as the same music seems to play over and over. Gunfire holds little weight and seems a little tried and tested, leaving the whole experience feeling out-dated. Thankfully we don’t have to listen to Rihanna’s voice, as the licence hasn’t extended to likenesses and voices. It’s kind of a small mercy, but the voice acting in place is standard vocal fodder.

All in all, Battleship has some great ideas and at times the merging of combat on land and sea works rather well, although it’s not a crucial element to the overall gameplay. The novel approach to gameplay should be applauded but the cut and paste mission structure and repetitive gameplay leave it feeling a little subpar. The omission of an online mode, one that could have utilised the ship and land combat, feels like a nail in a coffin as the game has little replay value.

Battleship may not be the worst use of a franchise, but it’s definitely not the best. The whole situation seems rather silly, considering its humble origins, but at the very least it tried to incorporate elements that define the brand (i.e. ship-to-ship combat). Miss out on Battleship and you won’t exactly be missing a revolutionary title.

• Added cocoa plants to jungles
• Added a “large biomes” world type
• Added specific names for the different sandstone and smooth stone blocks

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w19a/minecraft.zip* (See below!)
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w19a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

* The client now comes with both the client-side and the server-side JAR files. The file called “minecraft.jar” should be in your “.minecraft/bin” folder as usual, and the “minecraft_server.jar” file should be in a folder called “.minecraft/server”.

If you havent downloaded Minecraft you can grab it here: www.minecraft.net/download

Also! Cobalt was updated yesterday! Read all about it here: http://www.oxeyegames.com/cobalt-v105-alpha-change-log/

// The Minecraft Team

Taken from the Minecraft 12w19a post on the Mojang Blog

How To Install

As always I love to stick this video in to help you guys with downloading and installing the snapshots. By the look of the comments some people are still having issues;

It seems installing 12w19a (and 12w18a) is different to installing 12w17a and older. You also need to copy the Server folder into your Bin folder.

* The client now comes with both the client-side and the server-side JAR files. The file called “minecraft.jar” should be in your “.minecraft/bin” folder as usual, and the “minecraft_server.jar” file should be in a folder called “.minecraft/server”.

If your having trouble leave a comment and hopefully someone can help you out. (I plan to make a new video showing how to install soon)

Video Reviews

Feel free to check out the M1neTube playlist containing the previous snapshots until more videos are available..

Thanks for reading

#DoneyKebab

You’re thrust into the tutorial as Sheriff Lonestar, a space cowboy and part of the mercenary group known as Awesomenauts who are employed by an unknown alien corporation to ensure that the mining of Solar, a valuable and scarce material in the galaxy, goes ahead uninterrupted. On the opposing team you’ll find three other mercenaries with the exact same orders, and it’s a battle to make it to the other team’s drill-core and destroy it before they destroy yours.

That’s about as much story as you’ll be getting from Awesomenauts. It thrives in its simplistic nature, offering straight-forward battle versus friends or enemies.

During this battle you and your friends will be helped by a steady stream of helper robots, emanating from a small door near your drill-core. Regardless of danger they’ll keep pushing forward towards the enemies’ turrets, raising their powerful shields when they get close so you can take out the massive, screen-size death guns from cover. You’ll be thanking these little buggers more often than not because without them, the turrets are a force to be reckoned with.

Once you’re through the tutorial the “Xbox Live Battle” option opens up, which is essentially where the entire game plays out. You’re up against other people, trying to destroy their drill-core with a choice of six eccentric characters from the Awesomenauts line-up. Sheriff Lonestar from the tutorial, a reengineered creation of the semi-intelligent cow people of the Bovinion system; Froggy G, a wisecracking frog hailing from the ghetto marshes of Ribbit IV; ex-Soviet space-chimp Yuri, who was accidentally swallowed by a wormhole during a routine mission and ended up super-smart, to name only a few of the wonderfully bizarre characters, each with their own distinctive special abilities to suit your chosen play-style.

Each character starts off with a basic attack and the ability to unlock special attacks with collected Solar currency. Solar drops from fallen enemies and robots but is also scattered around the battlefield for the player to pick up. Each character has two special attacks to unlock, ranging from holographic bulls that rush opponents, to spinning water attacks; each attack is specially designed for that specific character. This is a good thing, but it also means that the higher level unlockable characters can be a bit overpowered compared to a starting character, i.e. Sheriff Lonestar versus Yuri the crazed ex-Soviet jetpack monkey with an absurdly powerful death ray.

It’s all about balance in the end, and while that balance does exist to an extent, you’ll sometimes find yourself dead in the proverbial water if you go out on your own. Awesomenauts is a game that rewards sticking together and, if your team happens to have one, hugging your healer like a mad man. Going one on one with another player can often mean certain death at low levels.
Strangely enough, Awesomenauts almost didn’t see the light of day, with its publisher, DTP Entertainment, filing for insolvency mere days before the stated release. What this means for the continued support of this multiplayer-based game is as of yet unknown, and should be taken into account by would-be players. There’s currently no word from the Awesomenauts developer, Romino Games, as to whether or not the publisher’s financial troubles will affect current plans to keep the gaming experience fresh and updated.

The publisher’s money woes aside, Awesomenauts is a very fun 2D side-scrolling game that does a good job of capturing the essence of the more well-established MOBA games and distils it into an easy to pick-up-and-play package. If you enjoy battling friends online or with up to four players in splitscreen in a quirky galaxy far far away for complete domination of their natural resources, Awesomenauts may well be right up your.. what’s the space equivalent of alley?