MMOMFG » Mobile Gaming Screens

I choose you, Victini: The first ever Pokemon #000 in your pokedex

Jake — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:25:33 +0000

ZOMG there is finally a Pokémon #000 in your Pokédex for the first time. This new legendary Pokémon, named Victini, will be available for the upcoming Pokémon Black and White games according to Andriasang. Just look at Victini, isn’t it cute giving us the peace sign?

Now that your interests have been peaked you may be wondering what the catch is on acquiring this legendary Pokemon. In order to acquire Victini you must obtain a Liberty Ticket that will be given out from the Japan launch date of September 18^th until October 18^th at any retail Nintendo Zone or DS Station kiosks in Japan.

There has been no information yet if Victini will be available on the North American version which won’t be available until spring 2011. I would imagine if Vicinti is available, you could just go to your local GameStop or wherever you purchase Black or White from and pick up a Liberty Ticket upon release.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – MMOMFG Review

Joel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:13:38 +0000

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

The Metal Gear Solid series has always had a unique style. Most people recognize this style with regard to the story. When you pick up a Metal Gear game, you know you’re getting into a magical realist romp, usually with some postmodern gimmicks and horrible dialogue. It’s a unique narrative style that you grow to love despite its flaws (and for what it’s worth, I’m one of those rare Raiden-loving proponents of Metal Gear Solid 2 who believes that that game truly has moments of complete genius).

But the gameplay of the Metal Gear series has always been unique, never really fitting accurately into any video game genre; it’s certainly never really sufficed to just call Metal Gear Solid a stealth series. There has always been a strange blend of stealth, action, puzzles, humor, and some stuff that quite honestly can’t be described with just one word. Each of these elements is handled very differently from how any other game handles them. You get a sense that the Kojima has a strong grasp on what he’s doing and that he goes about designing a game with a lot of confidence, which leads to more methodical and consistent experiences in the end. All this goes toward establishing a style that is uniquely and definitively Metal Gear, a style all the better for defying categorization.

Peace Walker is no different. It has the Metal Gear story and the Metal Gear humor, the stealth and the action (plenty of action actually, this time around), and it introduces some new mechanics of its own that you haven’t seen anywhere else. It’s certainly unique and mostly fun, but it definitely doesn’t get everything right. It has some major flaws alongside that distinct and lovable Metal Gear style.

What’s Good

The Story – Metal Gear Solid 3 had a concentrated focus on one particular plot element—Big Boss’s relationship with The Boss—and this focus led the game to have one of the best (and most coherent) stories in the Metal Gear series. Peace Walker is similarly focused on this relationship. The game delves further into The Boss’s back story and considers her motives in greater detail, rounding out one of the most complex and interesting characters in the Metal Gear series. The game still suffers from silly and repetitive dialogue, as Metal Gear games always do, but it has an undeniably emotional core that really comes to fruition in the ending, just like in Metal Gear Solid 3.

The story also suggests the differing motives that led to the conflict between The Patriots and Outer Heaven and sort of begins to straighten out the origins of these factions. By no means does it completely resolve the mess that Metal Gear Solid 4 created when it tried to pull all of the disparate plot elements of the Metal Gear series together, but it does attempt to work toward a partial resolution by putting focus on Big Boss and The Boss again and revealing their motives with surprising acuity and subtlety.

The Humor – Metal Gear’s brand of bizarre humor is very much intact in Peace Walker. You’ll certainly realize this while you’re completing whole missions where you’re forced to hold up enemy soldiers with a banana as if it were a gun. There are ridiculous missions involving ghosts—sneaking past and photographing them. There are missions that are direct references to the old arcade game Pooyan, complete with the high-pitched music from the game and the premise of shooting balloons attached to people. One of the missions actually requires that Snake take another character out on a date. And there are, of course, the Monster Hunter missions, where you have to take on the monsters from Capcom’s series as Snake. Whew.

As you can see, the humor isn’t merely in the easter eggs (although there are plenty of those, as usual). Full missions are designed with humor in mind and are only made more humorous when you encounter them amidst all of the game’s more normal missions.

The Controls – Metal Gear games have always had unique controls. Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, for example, used the pressure sensitivity of the DualShock 2’s buttons to create exceedingly precise controls that led to an enhanced sense of feedback from the game.

The PSP, unfortunately, is no DualShock controller. In fact, it’s hindered greatly by its lack of a second analog stick. But Peace Walker’s designers did a remarkable job of working around this limitation by coming up with a few control schemes that actually work quite well and are, in the tradition of Metal Gear, pretty unique. The default control scheme requires the use of the face buttons for camera control, while the shoulder buttons control aiming and shooting and the D-pad controls crouching, general actions, and access to your items and weapons. This is an interesting control scheme, even for those used to Metal Gear’s odd control schemes, and it certainly takes some getting used to; but it does a surprisingly good job of overcoming the problem of the missing second analog stick.

You’ll undoubtedly run into some minor issues here and there—for my part I found that it’s easy to lose your grip on the left shoulder button while trying to do all of these other things with the face buttons, which will make you lose your aim; and having to use the analog nub the whole game can get tiresome—but these are about as good of controls as you can get with a portable game no less expansive than the average Metal Gear console game.

The Expansive Mechanics – Ever since Metal Gear Solid 3 introduced the backpack, the number of items and weapons in Metal Gear games has grown wildly. Peace Walker takes this even further, as item, weapon, and troop management will in fact take up a huge portion of your time spent playing the game. You have to put your recruited soldiers onto teams, leveling them up for different purposes (the R&D team develops items and weapons; the mess hall team cooks food, which will keep your troops’ morale up; the medical team heals soldiers in the sick bay). All of this micromanaging is lightly RPGish. You can also gather parts to build and customize your own Metal Gear, and you can send soldiers on “outer ops” missions in which you can watch your troops fight with the enemy because the game includes a complete battle simulation in a turn-based RPG style.

You can probably tell by the inclusion of this complete RPG simulation that the designers are dedicated to fully fleshing out every one of Peace Walker’s new mechanics. Even the menus are extremely well-designed, aesthetically pleasing and consistent, and easy to navigate, which is something I ended up appreciating a lot because of how much time you have to spend in them. There’s just something really remarkable about the level of dedication and commitment that was applied to the whole game. It’s hard not to respect.

What’s Bad

The Bloated Mechanics – With that said, the sheer amount of content in the game is just too much. The RPG simulation is really impressive, but after watching it a few times, I skipped it the rest of the game. Throughout the first few hours of the game, new features are introduced one after another just when you think they’ve introduced them all, to the point where I have to imagine that this must be part of Metal Gear’s humor and you’re supposed to laugh at how ridiculous it begins to get. It ends up being a pretty big distraction from the actual gameplay, and it’s hard to care about some of it. It doesn’t help that some of the features, while definitely developed in full, are not too well-explained. It took me almost halfway through the game to figure out how to level up my teams correctly to develop the items and weapons that I wanted.

The most frustrating and confusing feature of all of the game’s bloated mechanics is the process of building your own Metal Gear. I know that you have to collect parts from the bosses you defeat. But the whole process of determining which parts you need and how to get them is exceedingly confusing. I’m not even sure whether you’re supposed to destroy the parts of bosses that you want or leave them untouched to get them. Even more frustratingly, you need to complete your Metal Gear in order to get the game’s second ending. It’s really annoying to have to go back and play through these boss missions over and over again to blindly attempt to get the parts that you want just to get to that second ending; it really makes me miss the simple linearity that Metal Gear is known for.

Repetitive Missions – I’m going to dispense with the myth of “replay value” here. Replay value is a bullshit thing to judge a game by how long it will last. I know, you’re paying a lot for these games, so you want to get as much out of them as you can. And you might think that looking at them in terms of numbers of hours of playtime is the easiest way of determining how much you’ll get out of them, because, hey, these are cold, hard, empirical numbers. But consider: if 80 of those 100 hours of gameplay consist of doing relatively the same thing you did in the first 20 hours, are you really getting your money’s worth? I wish game designers would more often just cut out the fat and make lean, focused games that recognize that there is a point that all games reach (in most cases rather early on) when their mechanics have been stretched to their limits and everything that can possibly be done that is interesting has been done. If less game designers attempted to extend the lengths of their games with repetition, players might more often get to the end of a game and realize with amazement that they never actually lapsed into boredom at any point. But then I suppose not all of our games can be Portal.

Peace Walker unfortunately tries to extend its replay value, as games so often do, with repetition. Many of the extra missions are almost exactly the same as the main story missions. They use the same environments, and in a lot of cases the enemy soldiers are even in the exact same positions. The only thing they bothered to change was your objective: now you’re blowing up a crate with C4 or rescuing a prisoner or retrieving some items. The crate, the prisoner, and the items all tend to be located in the same place, and the sneaking to get to that place is exactly the same in all of these missions. It’s odd and pointless to have to play what is almost the exact same mission over again. I think it would have been a lot more fun to sneak through the same environments again if the extra missions picked up in difficulty a bit, but they don’t.

The more action-oriented missions, however, do pick up in difficulty, which is exactly where added difficulty isn’t needed. Like the stealth missions, these missions all tend to be very similar to each other, just with the added annoyance of enemies having more and more health each time. Which brings me to my most major negative point…

Bosses with Crazy Amounts of Health – Peace Walker simply was not balanced for a single-player mode, and this is most apparent in the boss battles. The bosses are huge, and some have something like ten different attacks, which makes them look and seem pretty epic. I didn’t get the chance to try out co-op in Peace Walker, but I imagine it would probably be great fun to strategize while taking on these giant bosses as a team; and their amount of health would probably be a lot more reasonable because you’d have as much as four times the firepower. But, if you’re playing by yourself, the designers made the huge mistake of failing to decrease the amount of health that these bosses have.

To put it into perspective, one of the final bosses takes about 50 rockets to kill (with the rocket launcher I used at the time; depending on the one you use and how much you’ve leveled it up, it will take slightly take more or less). On top of that, you can’t actually just shoot it with 50 rockets: it will take more than 50 if you’re not hitting its weak point every time; the boss also puts up some kind of shield from time to time that makes all of the rockets that you shoot at it fly back at you; and, of course, you only actually have between 5 and 7 rockets at any given time, and you will have to frequently call in for extra ammo using the supply marker item. All told, this makes the boss battle take as long as 30 minutes to complete. This is completely absurd and unnecessary. Despite the unusually large number of attacks that these bosses have, your interest isn’t going to be sustained for 30 minutes. And when you happen to die near the end of these battles, you’ll really start to hate this game for making you start over from the beginning.

Worth Remembering:
The last few missions of the main story and the ending. This is where the stealth missions pick up in difficulty a bit, and you’ll experience a real sense of satisfaction as you sneak past guards. Then there is a pretty great (if slightly too difficult) action-oriented mission that ends in a battle with a helicopter while some rousing background music with vocals plays. It’s a really fantastic moment.

The cinematic ending of the game is also remarkably well done. As I said of the story above, it’s really focused and quite emotional like Metal Gear Solid 3’s, and Peace Walker’s ending really exemplifies all of this.

Worth Forgetting:
Most of the boss battles. These guys are huge and epic and you really want to love them, so it’s really unfortunate that you end up having to hate them just because of their massive amounts of health. But it’s more than enough to inspire incredible abhorrence. They’re a pain in the ass and you won’t get very far into the game before you’ll start to hate whenever an action-oriented mission pops up.

Keep in mind, of course, that I didn’t get the chance to try out any of the co-op or versus modes. Keep in mind that this was because they’re ad hoc only, and you can consider yourself quite geographically lucky if you happen to have friends nearby willing to play Peace Walker with you.

Even if I were able to play the multiplayer modes, I don’t think my view on the game would change too much. It has plenty of flaws but also succeeds in many unique ways. Peace Walker is everything that you would expect from a Metal Gear game and then some.

*MMOMFG purchased a copy of MGS: Peace Walker for review

3DS remake of Ocarina of Time confirmed, screens to prove it

Seiji — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:29:08 +0000

Nintendo are bringing a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, arguably the best game that the Nintendo 64 ever produced, to the 3DS. That’s right, it will be handheld and in 3D, putting you right into the action while putting Link and all of Hyrule in the palm of your hand.

It’s another great game added to an already impressive list. There aren’t too many details to be had, but we do know that Nintendo is “fixing” the water temple to make it a bit easier and less of a ball-ache to play through. I can hear your sighs of relief from here.

Could it possibly get any better for you Zelda fans? Will Ocarina on 3DS convince you to buy Nintendo’s new handheld or have you already taken a hammer to your piggy bank?

As more details on this 3D Zelda remake and any other 3DS games come about be sure to check back at MMOMFG. We’re kinda stoked about it.

[View with PicLens]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or Niko Bellic Goes to Hogwarts?

Contributing Writer — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:39:52 +0000

If you’re a Harry Potter fan over the age of 10, you’ve surely fantasized about Harry taking down Lord Voldemort with a well-aimed burst from a Tech-9. Or maybe carjacking Ron Weasley’s flying car and letting Ron plummet to his death.

OK, maybe that’s just me.

But while it probably won’t get quite that dark (or fun), it sounds like there could be a GTA IV feel to the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows console games. Electronic Arts is changing things up for the close of the series, and has designed this installment to play like a third-person shooter. Thankfully, it also sounds like they’ve done away with some of the annoying puzzle solving and exploration missions.

The initial screen shots released by EA show a grittier and far less magical world than we’ve come to expect from this franchise. In some, it looks more like Harry is rooting Viet Cong strongholds in the ruins of Hue City than hunting for Death Eaters.

The first installment is due out this fall on PC, PS3, DS, Wii, and Xbox 360. And like the movie version Deathly Hallows, they’re splitting the video game into two parts, so you’ll have to pay twice if you want the full story. Which is totally worth it, if Harry gets a little Nico Bellic in him (TWHS). I’ve always wanted to bitch slap that punk ass Malfoy.

[View with PicLens]

Contributing Writer: Brian English

New Final Fantasy Title Hitting the DS This Fall

Justin — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:01:15 +0000

And it’s called The 4 Heroes of Light…stop me if you’ve heard this before. A Final Fantasy title featuring four heroes. But it might not be all that bad as this title is a completely new Final Fantasy title for the DS. Looking at the press release it seems like this title “goes back to the basics and origins of the FINAL FANTASY series, with a classic story of four young heroes embarking on an unforgettable adventure; a tale of dragons, kings, princesses and witches.”

Wait a second, a new title that features the origins and basics? Ok, so maybe it isn’t entirely new, but it seems like there is a hint of multiplayer involved and the story book appearance is a nice change. The talk of an easy battle system might help bring new gamers into the genre but anytime the word “easy” is used to describe the gameplay I cringe a bit.

When we find out more about this new/old story or any features, will be sure to let you know.

[View with PicLens]

Dementium II – The MMOMFG Review

Jeremy — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:00:48 +0000

Dementium II

Dementium II, a game billed as being so horrifying you might actually crap, or wee, your pants. Think I’m exaggerating? Please! I never exaggerate, and DII is definitely not a game for you if you find you are unable to pucker up in those tense, fright filled moments when the worst nightmares of the criminally insane (William Redmoor) come knocking at your screen. Luckily for me, an adult sized dipey arrived with our review copy, you know, just in case. Would said embarrassing turd catching device prove useful? Read on to find out…If you dare.

What’s Good

Gory Pixels - DII easily showcases some of the best graphics, and attention to detail, I think I have ever seen on a DS title. Walls splattered with blood, etchings in inmate cell blocks, and carefully constructed shadows and lighting features all lend themselves to creating a horrifying and beautifully destroyed environment. Every detail implemented, whether in real world or in the images that escape from Redmoor’s mind, serves to create an atmosphere, tone, and intensity matching that of the best in the horror/thriller gaming genre.

Smooth as a demon’s butt - I couldn’t get over the simplicity and comfort of the controls. Aside from the occasional miscue of jumping randomly (double tap feature), the controls and button scheme were extremely smooth and as a result, virtually had no learning curve. The incorporation of inventory in the touch screen allowed for practically no control layout memorization and as a result its players can jump right into to the hellish nightmare of Bright Dawn and the mind of Redmoor. While the melee mechanics were hit and miss (no pun intended) most of the time, and could stand to use some work, the FPS controls and mechanics were also among some of the best in my experience with the DS.

Scary Demons, and Weapons to Boot - It is always nice to see the imaginations of developers at work, no matter how disturbing they may be. This horror FPS won’t feature your run of the mill zombies or demons, but some of the most nasty and disturbing SOB’s I’ve encountered. Point in case, flesh rotting corpse strewn across a table with a chain-link running continuously through its torso with fun wisps of blood spurting out. Also, creepy flesh rotting dude with some kind of farked up mouth where the rib cage should be. The flesh-eating slugs trying to bite your toesies off aren’t all that cute or cuddly either. Two thumbs up for giving me the heebie-jeebies Renegade Kid. Luckily, the developers were also kind enough to give you a plentiful armory to blast those biddies in their ugly mugs with all kinds of weapons, ranging from an ever trusty shank to a fun little uzi.

What’s Bad

Where have I heard that song before? - Oh, that’s right, I’ve heard it for the past four hours of my romp through this hell hole. The music in DII quickly becomes a point of annoyance to the end where you might consider checking yourself in to Bright Dawn on your own bill. I am not aurally toned enough to tell whether or not the music is in fact repeating itself throughout the whole game, but I can hear well enough to know that the same high-intensity tones repeated themselves far too often. So much so, that I literally had to play in intervals, or turn music completely off, to keep my ears from bleeding.

We want ammo! - Another drawback to DII is the extremely limited supply of ammo that can be found around Bright Dawn. I suppose it makes sense though, as this is after all a mental facility for the criminally insane and leaving boxes of shotgun shells lying around probably isn’t the best of ideas, but this is a horror FPS damnit! Show me some lead! This was especially disappointing considering how solid the FPS mechanics were. But as a result of limited ammo supplies, I found I had to revert to meleeing my way through more of the game than I would have preferred.

Worth Remembering:
The bloodshed. Horror titles are always remembered by the amount of blood spilled and body parts dismembered. Dementium II again ranks among the best with its display of bloodshed so plentiful that it literally spills onto the pages of the included manual.

Worth Forgetting:
Puzzles and riddles that are almost as horrifying as the hellish beasts roaming the halls of Bright Dawn. Not all, but a couple of the puzzle/riddle “sections” have you backtracking and circling like it’s your job. Maybe I am not as competent in my puzzle solving abilities as much as I’d like to think, but there were a couple of occasions where I had to quite literally walk away for fear of hurling my DS; particularly when I realized I had to retrace my steps one too many times, something I am no huge fan of.

Renegade Kid absolutely showed its guts (to us) in this action packed and often times adrenaline filled horror FPS. The shortcomings mentioned herein are easily dismissible and don’t necessarily take away from the overall experience so don’t let blood curdling music keep you from missing out on a rather enjoyable DS game. While this eerie title wasn’t crazy scary to the point where I wee’d or crapped myself, at least that’s the story I’m sticking with, it did have me muttering WTF on several occasions. If you are a fan of the first Dementium title, you will absolutely love this follow up. If you haven’t had the pleasure of playing the first, you will still probably love this follow up. If you don’t like it you are most likely certifiably insane. Just remember, “about 5/6th of the world’s population knowingly suffers from some form of psychosis. The other 1/6th suffer as well, but just don’t know it” (Dementium II manual).

*MMOMFG was provided a review copy of Dementium II for the DS from the developer

ModNation Racers PSP – MMOMFG Review

Dustin — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:18:32 +0000

ModNation Racers PlayStation Portable

What do you get when you combine cute Sackboy-esque characters, kart racing and a motherload of customization options in a pint-sized package? ModNation Racers for the PSP, obviously. After having previously loved the MNR beta earlier this year, I was chomping at the bit for the opportunity to test the waters with the full product. In this case, my first run through the full product would be on a handheld system. Would the portable version cut back on the glitz and glamor and offer limited options? Not so fast, my friend! Sony Computer Entertainment San Diego Studios, developers of the PlayStation Portable version of ModNation Racers, have taken the formula for success of a sure to be hit game franchise and put the pedal to the metal in a rip-roaring gaming experience in the form of a PSP title. Just how much fun can one Mod have with a kart racing title? Well you’ve come to the right place, as I’ll give you the ins and outs of ModNation Racers and whether you’re getting the whole shebang or if this is just an appetizer to the full console version out later this month. Read on, my racing friends!

What’s Good

I’ve got serious gas – Straight out of the box, MNR delivers full speed action and will leave you on the edge of your seat. This isn’t your typical Kart title that gets pumped out by every game studio. Even if you played the PS3 beta version that came out in late December 2009, you get the same excitement in a handheld package. Swerving across the tracks at full speed while only requiring a few button presses will allow gamers to appreciate the scenery and the action on the track and not the actions at their fingertips. Far too often button mashing and multi-button mashing leads to on-screen accidents. This is a good and a bad point for ModNation Racers, but I’ll get into the negative side of the controls shortly. In terms of a real kart title that goes beyond being a PSP replication of a larger PS3 title, you’re getting the full product here. From the second you start a career mode, you’re in control of whether you’re going to just enjoy the story, which is hilarious, or if you’re going to take full advantage of the game’s level of depth, i.e. the customization and community.

These tracks are side by side – The career mode has a great feel to it, driven by story and gameplay, you can’t help but continue to hit next track after each successful race. The benefits include unlocking new Mods, karts, customization accessories and tracks. That’s quite the benefit for just having fun and rockin’ out on the racetrack. I’ve played through the career mode twice and had a great time just playing through to win each race and the second time through to try and complete every accomplishment, each track featuring three challenges, which unlock more of the bonuses listed above. Every time I go to customize my kart, it is fun to check out what I’ve unlocked and see just how more ridiculous I can get my Cart to look. Who wouldn’t be amazed when they see a kart fly by with a couch as the driver’s seat, a canoe paddle for a spoiler and tires that would make a monster truck jealous?

Customization goes a long way – For being one of the most user friendly titles in a long time, San Diego Studios have upped the level of creativity for gamers allowing them to put their custom touches on just about everything. Got a knack for customization and you don’t want to settle for just one color or one body type for your racer? No worries, ModNation Racers has enough customization options to keep you playing well into the night. If you’re wondering just how deep, let’s just say I spent well over an hour making a racetrack and then just test-drove it for at least another hour, tweaking it just to my level of perfection. Sad, but true! With the community features where you can share, download, and tweak others’ creations, you’ll find the perfect combination between creator and borrower. If you’ve got a knack for working with your fellow gamer, or striving to make the best tracks, you’ll be in customizer’s heaven.

You’ll be back; you’ll definitely be back – ModNation Racers is one of those games that can reach a number of different gamer personalities. If you’re a kid, a grandparent or even my girlfriend (none of the three are related), then you’re probably going to have a good time with MNR. In fact, in the PS3 beta, my girlfriend built a car for at least 45 minutes. I haven’t shared the PSP version with her yet, because if I had, she’d probably be making Mods and karts and I wouldn’t have had time to finish my career mode. Once I hit publish, I’ll gladly share the title with her, as I’m sure she’s going to have a good time. Just like LittleBigPlanet, Sony has hit the nail on the head for cross-genre games and I salute them for doing so. It is hard to find games that can interest the general consumer and get more people gaming. ModNation Racers is definitely a game even my Dad could pick up and love. Perfect Father’s Day gift?

What’s Bad

Just sideswipe or stomp him already! – I’m rocking the old school PSP 1000 and when trying to stomp or sideswipe someone, I am sacrificing my control on the race to attempt to get the opponent, generally ending with me in a wall. Drifting is good and provides boosts, but at times, it isn’t worth your time as most tracks early on never offer a drift of longer than a mere millisecond before the drift would end with you facing a wall. Obviously you can design tracks that allow more drift friendly turns, but if a kid were to play this title without having the controls down or the concept of drifting, it wouldn’t be all that easy for them to master. Definitely a slight learning curve in terms of power moves, but the races are easy enough, you’d never necessarily need to use them.

I’ve got the boring menu blues – For such a fun and gorgeous game, the menus certainly didn’t get any love. I was definitely underwhelmed when turning on the game for the first time, ho-humming my way to find career mode after a few presses of X here and there. If the game incorporated the flashy, fun style throughout the menus, it would have spiced things up a bit more outside of just the career mode.

It’s all in the details – I know I’m being a complainer here, but there isn’t all that much to list as negatives for MNR. If I have to pick another What’s Not complaint about the game, it would be that with so many options for customization and track building, it was hard to tell what most of the items available for building even were until after I placed them on the track and test drove. I wish there had been descriptions of the items so I could have saved myself some time. Half the time, I’d place stuff all over my tracks, then test drive them and hate what I put down because I simply selected them on a whim. If that is a valid complaint, I’m not so sure, because truth be told, I was just throwing crap all over the tracks, but for the real custom track builder, as a preview option or brief details about each item would go a long way.

Worth Remembering:
This is easily the must customizable handheld title on the market. San Diego Studios went above and beyond the average port of a blockbuster (to-be) console release and delivered what they needed to do with ModNation Racers for the PSP to make it completely worthy of a purchase. The story was funny enough and the action was deceivingly addictive enough to have me putting down my console controllers and picking back up the PSP again and again. There are multiple race types, hundreds of challenges and 50+ ModJobs (custom objectives tallied up through your MNR career and normal gameplay, which unlock more add-ons) and hundreds of karts, Mods and track options to keep you playing for weeks, if not months.

Worth Forgetting:
There isn’t much worth forgetting in such a jam-packed PSP title. If I had to list anything, it’d likely be the controls, as I am still frustrated about the stomps and sideswipes, as previously mentioned, ending up face first into a wall doing more problems than good during the race. These are small complaints from a damn near perfect handheld title. If anything could have been user-friendlier, it would have been the menus, which are pretty bare bones.

Sony’s San Diego Studios went above and beyond the average port of a console release (MNR slated for May 25) and delivered a full product that can’t help but pave the way for “fuller” handheld ports in the future. If ModNation Racers for the PSP is the appetizer, the full console version is going to be an absolute feast. I often found myself trying to decide whether I wanted to build new tracks, finish the career mode or simply play one of the fast-paced single race offerings. With plenty of online support, leader boards, the ability to swap or download/upload cars off the community section, ModNation Racers has something for everyone. Whether you’re a tinkerer, a gear-head or just a fan of cute Sackboys, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this title, even if you aren’t a fan of racing games. Sorry for the clichéd comparison, but MNR is totally Mario Kart meets LittleBigPlanet meets Gran Turismo. That is definitely a compliment and based on this comparison, I’ve got my new go-to game when I’m in bed or on the road. ModNation Racers is definitely one of my top handheld titles for 2010 and possibly of the past few years. I’m not generally a full time portable gamer, but I will be for the next few weeks, at least, which is great as I’ve actively had my PSP on me for the last week, whether at home or on the go.

*MMOMFG was provided a review copy on PSP from Sony

No sleep for Olympus, God of War: Ghost of Sparta descends on PSP

Dustin — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:36:38 +0000

Can’t get enough of that blasphemer Kratos and his incessant urge for God killing? Well neither can we. Luckily God of War 3 won’t be the only Kratos-based title to appear for a Sony PlayStation system in 2010. The heavens are shaking in their proverbial boots today as Ready at Dawn and Sony Computer Entertainment announced God of War: Ghost of Sparta, an adventure set to take place shortly after the original God of War. The game is expected to highlight Kratos’ rise to the God of War status and focus on his attempt to rid himself of the ghosts of his past (spoiler alert: herpes).

The PlayStation Portable title is expected to provide 25 percent more content than the previous Ready at Dawn PSP GoW title: God of War: Chains of Olympus. Good news if you’re craving some pint sized smashing.

According to SCEA’s Eric Levine, the game will “finally answer long-awaited questions about Kratos’ tattoo, scar, and family,” as reported by Kotaku earlier this morning. E3 can’t get here sooner as the game will likely be on display, or potentially demoed. Rock on, War Gods!

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New Pokémon Black and White Screenshots, I Choose You!

Jake — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:54:39 +0000

Pokémon fans rejoice, there will be an addition to the series called Black and White that will be hitting the stores in the Fall of 2010. New and old fans alike should enjoy these first official screens that were released today. Many thanks to Destructoid for digging through the official Pokemon site in Japanese to discover them.

The screenshots show off the new 3D zones that are being introduced, and the newly combined Pokémart and Pokécenter. In Black and White, there will be more intense combat scenes, like doing battle on a raised walkway above a highway with littered with trucks. Talk about a swift kick of excitement to the Poké balls.

How many people still play Pokémon out there? I know it used to have a cult following. Is the generation that grew up with Pokémon still purchasing these updated titles as adults?

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Final Fantasy XIII iPhone App out now for the rich folk

Dustin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:05:41 +0000

Having recently wrapped up the review of Final Fantasy XIII here at MMOMFG, we can’t get enough of the RPG. Well technically, we can get enough. Square Enix, trying to capitalize on the game’s current success, have announced a new App that brings exclusive Final Fantasy XIII wallpapers and images to your iPhone and iPod Touch. You can view your favorite members of FFXIII including Snow, Lightning and a handful of others in a number of memorable scenes and poses. The App not only lets you stare at pictures all day, you can also load up your calendar and clock with the FF images utilized. HOLY SMOKES!

I’m not going to say any of this is ground shattering, but it is fairly cool to utilize the advanced clock and calendar features. Here is the kicker though: These cost $8.99! Nearly 9 freaking bucks for some pictures! Any iPhone user is smart enough to just take a picture of something and use it as your background without having to pay for it.

Lower the cost Square Enix or you may miss out on some potential purchasers. Five bucks is reasonable, but nine is just too much. Check out the fancy pics below, which look nice for nearly a 10-spot. The App is available today if you’re either rich or a super fan of the series/game!

Final Fantasy XIII Larger-than-Life Gallery | iTunes

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