Disney Universe is a virtual world containing six different Disney and Pixar lands.  Your guide is an AI cube named VIC and has been “hacked” by his evil alter ego named HEX, who loves chaos and destruction.  HEX has hacked into the Disney Universe and summoned evil programs to wreak havoc.  It is your job to rid the Universe of his evil doings.  You play as a funny, little, big-headed being who dons a suit of one of over 40 different Disney and Pixar characters.  Only a handful of the suits are unlocked to start, the rest to be unlocked whilst progressing through the game.  Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland are two of the six worlds are available to you at the start.  You must collect Golden Mickeys in order to open up the other worlds.

The Pirates world is based on the most recent film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  The areas within the levels are pretty small and claustrophobic however they are filled with puzzles that need to be solved in order for you to advance.  The game defaults with guide arrows to help you along, great for just casual, fun play or for young and inexperienced gamers.  You have the option to turn these off if you want a little more of a challenge.  You collect golden Mickey’s that will allow you to unlock worlds and purchase costumes.  These can be found throughout the levels as well as dropped by enemies and appear when items get destroyed.  Each level also has a collection item specific to that world that will unlock either character art, music, or a new costume.  Once you get to a certain point in a level, a challenge arcade will open.  The challenges are optional and range from running from explosions to defeating a set amount of enemies.  Completing challenges will win you gold.

Each character suit can be leveled up to four stars and they do get stronger with each advancement.  I played through with the Cheshire Cat suit for a while before I realized that no matter how many level up stars I collected, it didn’t do anything so when I unlocked the Alice suit, I changed over to her.  It’s a nice way to get you to play with all the different characters.  There didn’t seem to be any difference with any of the characters other than the look so choosing a character is really just player preference.  There are a lot of costumes, art, and music to unlock and, for added replay value, certain things can only be obtained by replaying levels so multiple playthroughs will be required for completionists.  Other costumes will be available as DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

The game also allows for up to four players in local co-op to battle it out against the evil bots or against each other.  While the game is mostly aimed to be co-operative, you can mix it up by messing with your friends in the game.  The game can be played in single player mode as easily as it can be played in multiplayer mode.  At the end of each level, the game tallies up your experience which is determined by how many enemies you kill, how much gold you collect, and how many times you respawn.  You can respawn an infinite amount of times in a level but the more you die the less experience you will earn.

This review is based on the Nintendo Wii version and graphically, the game looks decent.  The worlds are more reminiscent of the films as opposed to exact replicas as is the music.  I was a little disappointed to see that the Alice in Wonderland world was based on the recent Tim Burton film, but that’s because I am a die hard fan of the original animated film.  The music is also more reminiscent of the themes from the film.  They are definitely recognizable but are more based on the music than the actual pieces themselves. The games controls pretty well.  There were no Wii specific controls.  Nothing about the game is super difficult, although I had some issues with platform jumping but I seem to have this issue with all games of this type.

Gamers that have played any of the LEGO series games and/or Little Big Planet will feel right at home with Disney Universe.  Overall, Disney Universe is a great game for players of all ages and skill level and can serve as a fun game to pass the time in single player mode as well as a fun party game with multiple players.  You may not blow hours and hours of your time at once, but it’s a great game to pop in and play for a bit either by yourself or with a friend or two.

Disney Universe is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 years and up and is available now for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PC.  A Mac version will be available but no release date has been announced yet.

A review copy of the game was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the Wii version of the game.

You choose from one of four pre-made characters. Lucas – a fighter, Katarinna – a gunner, Anjali – a shapeshifter, and Reinhart, and entropic mage. Like most of these types of games, the characters are secondary to the action, however Square-Enix goes out of its way to give these characters some personality. Since the characters are all pre-made, they are featured with full voice-acting in both the cut-scenes and during the action.

Most cut-scenes feature a dialogue wheel where you can choose your responses to non-player characters. While most of these are pretty straight forward, some of them offer some real moral dilemmas and will force you to make some pretty tough decisions. For the most part, the meat of the game isn’t changed by these choices, there are ultimately some consequences to your actions that make it interesting to play through the game a second time.

Leveling-up is a little confusing at first, but it turns out to be a fairly simple. Part of the learning curve deals with a new concept to these types of games: Stances. You have two offensive Stances and a defensive Stance. You assign Abilities to each Stance and you can enhance them with Proficiencies. Then you select a Talent, or power-up a talent up to five times. Talents give you bonuses that improve your attacks, healing, or giving you bonuses when you are hit.

Most of my confusion stemmed from the names they chose for everything. Having played many a table-top game, I’m used to Abilities and Proficiencies being very different so it took me a bit to absorb the way they use them.
Here is the problem: you don’t have a lot of options to create really unique characters. To keep the flow of the story going, Square Enix chooses to make you fill the shoes of one of their heroes instead of allowing you to create a hero in their universe. There are two advantages: it simplifies an otherwise cumbersome leveling-up process and it allows your character to have a voice and personality in the cut-scenes.

I honestly prefer to be able to create my own character and choose spells and weapon proficiencies instead of being forced into a limited path. While Dungeon Siege 3 simplifies things quite a bit, it’s also a very constricting format. As a spell-caster, I like to choose various elemental attacks, yet I am forced into using electricity and entropy as my only options. The only way I can use other elemental attacks is by equipping certain weapons. Much of the fun of these types of games is finding a power combination that works best for you. This game limits those choices to the Proficiencies that you choose to add to your Abilities and the equipment you choose. And while the process of leveling-up your character is fairly simple, your equipment management is incredibly complex and confusing.

There are tons of weapons and armor in this game. Equipment comes in different varieties from Normal to Unique, and many have special attributes, such as Doom and Fire. The menu displays how equipping a certain item will affect your character’s attributes, but its effect changes based on your Stance, so you have to balance weapon sets for each Stance. Also, you have to use the in-game guide to understand what each of the attributes do. Weapons and armor have so many traits that you will probably be spending most of your time in the equipment menu trying to put together the best combination for your enemy. Unfortunately that comes at the expense of the co-op experience.

When playing local multi-player, you can’t level-up your characters at the same time. In games that are over ten years old, you had a split-screen so you didn’t have to wait for your partner to level-up their character before you started on yours. Missing the split-screen really pushes you to hurry your Attribute, Proficiency and Talent selection. This goes the same for equipment management. You share equipment, so one player can sell off your equipment or use an item that you would like to use. It’s kind of nice that you can look at your whole party’s equipment all at once, but it also adds to the confusion of managing the whole thing, and only one player may equip themselves at a time, so you have to wait for your partner to check out the new item they picked up before you can look at yours.

You also have to carry equipment for the other two characters you are not using. You can switch between the four pre-made characters and level them up as you choose. However, if you are going to use them, you better use them throughout the game as you have to equip them and level them up as you go. This encourages you stick with one character through the whole thing, for better or worse.

When you are playing co-op, the person who starts the game is in control. They control the camera and they choose which character will be the focus of the story. The second player can add and drop at any time, and each time they join, they have to choose one of the other three characters. It’s strange at first, but after awhile you realize this just gives player two more options, although I feel it is best to stick with one character through the whole quest.

The story continues the lore of the Kingdom of Ehb on the continent of Aranna. This was the setting for the first two games, although Dungeon Siege 3 takes place approximately 150 years after the first game. It is clear the developers put a lot of emphasis on the lore of their world, as you can read all about it by examining books and papers that you find throughout the game. The story is affected by the choices you make, which makes you think about some of the moral dilemmas the game puts you in from time to time. You will be saving, judging, and killing a variety of characters, but in the end the only thing that will matter to you is the combat and the treasure it yields.

Combat is pretty chaotic; it’s fast paced and the enemies will surround and overwhelm you at every turn. Unless you have a ton of protection, you will be doing a lot of stick and run maneuvers as you try to avoid the main crowd of enemies. It’s fun, especially with two players, yet a bit repetitive. Understanding how all of your stats work together and how that affects gameplay is tricky. While there are a ton of ways to buff your characters, I have a hard time actually figuring out what I’m doing that makes my character stronger in certain instances.

Fortunately, the controls themselves are simple enough. Your character responds well, however I have a hard time trying to activate my powered-up abilities because I have a hard time figuring out when I can use them. You need to have enough mana and spheres to activate them, and in the din of combat you have to be sharp to find the right time to use them. It’s still a joy to rip through a hoard of enemies with a friend.

And that is what is most important in a game like this. Square Enix has kept it simple and it’s a fun game for friends and couples to enjoy together.

Dungeon Siege III is rated T for Teen and is available now for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

A review copy was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.

Conduit 2 is rated T for Teen and is available now exclusively for the Nintendo Wii for $49.99.

Conduit 2 is rated T for Teen and is available now exclusively for the Nintendo Wii for $49.99.

Features:

• The Diver System allows players to jump in or out at any time, for a maximum of up to four players total. Guest players are awarded experience points for helping out.
• Combos increase in power and intensity based on the number of players. Collect new combo moves by picking them up on the map or fulfilling certain requirements.
• Adjust the difficulty level at any time with the Chaos Accelerator. Higher levels are rewarded with enhanced visuals and greater experience points. Players set the challenge rating as they see fit.
• 12 stages to explore and master.
• Local and online co-op for up to four players.
• Character designs by Roberto Ferrari (formerly of Tatsunoko).

Moon Diver is available now on the Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 MS Points and is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 years and older.

After a brief introduction, the game picks up when Rapunzel leaves her tower and starts her adventure with Flynn Rider.  They must work together to get to the castle.  The game can be played as a single player game, with AI controlling the second character, Flynn.  You can switch back and forth between Rapunzel and Flynn on the fly and you will have to do this a lot in order to advance through the game.  You can also play the game in co-op mode, where the second player takes that role, making the game a little less frustrating.

The game is styled as a 2D/3D platformer. The camera moves left and right as you move, like a side-scrolling platformer, but you can move into the background, kind of like the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. Depth perception can be tricky when trying to make particular jumps, so you will have to make several attempts to make what looks like a very simple jump.  The controls can be spotty. You must shake the Wii remote to do certain actions in the game and I felt like I had to shake the crap out of the controller just to get it to do something in the game. This could have been me trying too hard or just bad recognition by the game.

Levels consisted of little tasks to complete in order to advance.  Within each level, you collect pictures for Rapunzel’s memory book by blooming flowers as well as finding and collecting new pallatte colors.  The pictures and colors collected are then used to paint pictures for particular characters to complete tasks.  While you can finish a level without collecting all of the items, certain pictures call for the use of particular colors, so you may as well collect them.  Most of the items are easy to find.

The level design was not over complicated although it felt like most levels began in the middle with you having to go all the way to the right, complete some tasks, then retrace your steps all the way over to the left of the level, complete some more tasks, then retrace your steps back to the beginning of the level to end it.  This sometimes caused some confusion as to where to go next but if that happens, Pascale, Rapunzel’s chameleon friend, points you in the right direction.

The game also features little mini-games like racing, collecting, and working together to do particular tasks like breaking certain colored barrels or keeping lanterns from touching the ground.  The AI wasn’t particularly intelligent and during some mini-games, the AI character often gets in your way.  But since the game isn’t terribly difficult to play, this doesn’t cause any issues except general frustration.

Tangled works slightly better as a co-op game but still functions well as a single player game.  The inclusion of co-op is a nice addition especially for families with more than one child.  This can also allow a parent and child to play the game together.

Combat is rather simple in the game with Rapunzel wielding her trusty frying pan and Flynn a sword.  A fun fact is that no one actually dies in the game.  Rapunzel can whack guards with her frying pan which only knocks them back.  Only Flynn can knock them out.  Zzzz’s appear when the enemy is KO’d and after a short time, they disappear.  The game’s focus is less on combat and really more about Rapunzel and Flynn working together to get through the levels and to the castle.

Despite the beauty of Disney animation, the graphics aren’t very impressive.  There are a lot of jaggy lines and not a lot of detail.  The cutscenes steal the show as they use a painterly style to move the story along.  This works well within the Wii’s graphics capabilities and were fun to watch.  The voice acting was also a little disappointing which took me by surprise.  The dialog seemed cut from the film as opposed to recorded specifically for the game.  It felt choppy and lacked emotion in some portions.  During dialog cutscenes there is an annoying little chime after each character spoke.  That was especially annoying and I’m not entirely sure why it was there.  The music, however, is another highlight of the game, taken from the film’s score, it worked well and never got old.

There are some minor differences between the film and the game like Flynn’s nose for treasure.  In the game, he can pretty much sniff it out and when it’s found, he then digs it up like a dog.  Some levels feature more of the characters than seen in the film but it’s a nice opportunity to get into the story and get to know some of these characters.  Rapunzel wields a frying pan and Flynn wields a sword, although he rarely, if ever, used a sword in the film.  There is a missed opportunity to build a level featuring the dam scene from the film.  I watched that part thinking the whole time how awesome that would’ve been to play in the game.

Kids and fans of the film will probably get the most enjoyment out of this game. It promotes working together to achieve your goal. It’s also paced well for children as it is a rather short game and can be completed in about 5-7 hours depending on the skill of the player. There is some moderate replay value if you want to collect everything in the levels and complete all of the mini-game objectives.

Tangled is rated E for Everyone and is available now for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

A review copy of the game was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River will be out on June 7, 2011.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River is out in North America on June 7, 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Brink will be hitting stores in North America on May 17, 2011 and Europe on May 20, 2011.