This was my first PSP minis game. I played it for a while on the PS3 and then transferred it to my PSP. It’s definitely more suited for a handheld system and iFun4All obviously knew this as the game is coming soon to the iPhone and iPad.

Fish Tank is a Match 3 type of puzzle game that borrows heavily from Tetris and Bejeweled. It is set underwater, in a Fish Tank (duh), and its game board is set up horizontally with the game pieces (fish) coming from left to right towards rows and columns of bubbles. As they reach the right side, they become encased in a bubble and can only disappear when 4 or more fish of the same color are lined up. You can control which bubble row you what a particular fish to go with the D-Pad. When 4 or more fish are lined up, a button icon appears and you must press the corresponding button to make the cluster of fish disappear. You can speed up the fish with the R button and you can activate power ups with the L button.

The game is pretty straightforward although, I had a bit of a tough time with it my first time through. Once I read the directions and got used to its horizontal set-up, I was kinda hooked. The game features Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties and each level will vary in the number of colored fish available. You have a time limit and a mistake limit and when either of these are up, the game is over. There is also a Challenge Mode with 24 sets of various challenging “puzzles”, each with its unique level handicap.

Fish Tank also features Trophies on the PS3 and Achievements for the PSP. There is no multiplayer in either the PS3 or the PSP versions but that doesn’t hurts its overall value; it’s definitely a single player experience.

The graphics aren’t the greatest and on an HD TV with the PS3, it is quite apparent with the jaggy lines. It looks far better on the PSP, as to be expected. The music is annoying but catchy as I am humming it in my (can’t get it out of my) head right now. Once you get into it, it’s a fun and addicting game. If you enjoy these types of puzzle games, you may very well enjoy Fish Tank. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you may want to hold out until those versions come out.

Fish Tank is available now on PSN for the PS3 and can also be downloaded onto a Sony MemoryStick and played on the PSP. The iPhone and iPad versions are coming soon.

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

It’s great to see all three titles on one disc and at such a great price, $39.99.  In addition to the games, the disc also comes loaded with a premium Tomb Raider theme for the XMB dashboard, avatars for PlayStation Home, and 30 minutes of bonus videos for all three games.  All of the videos are Developer’s Diaries and are all available online, but it is nice to have them all in one place.

All three games remain unchanged, although Tomb Raider Legend and Tomb Raider Anniversary have both been remastered for HD resolution.  The disc info states that the available resolutions go up to 720p while the Xbox 360 versions (except Legend) are all available up to 1080p.  Not quite sure how this qualifies for a “remastered in HD” but all three games look good on the PS3. (I did a quick side by side comparison between the 360 versions and the PS3 versions and I found the 360′s graphics to be slightly superior.)

A few drawbacks in this collection are the absence of the two downloadable Underworld episodes, Lara’s Shadow and Beneath the Ashes, as well as the  the PSN title Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.  The DLC episodes were both Xbox exclusives and may never see the light on the PS3.  The inclusion of Guardian of Light would have been a nice addition but it is understandable why it was not included.  However, two Guardian of Light trailers are included in the bonus video content.

Trophies are included for all three titles and are split out per game as opposed to being listed under “The Tomb Raider Trilogy”.  Trophies unlocked for the regular retail version of Underworld will be unlocked for the Trilogy as well.  Although Trophies are “shared”, you cannot load game saves for Underworld in the Trilogy and vice versa.   Those are stored as completely separated game data and noted as Tomb Raider Trilogy saves.

While the Trilogy disc is a slight disappointment for me, I can’t help but still recommend it.  This collection features three excellent Tomb Raider titles and is a great deal for the $39.99 price tag.  Fans of the series probably own all of the games but the debut of Legend and Anniversary on the PS3 will have some great appeal to fans with only a PS3 only.  Die hard fans of the franchise may get it to add it to the collection as well as for the bonus footage and items on the disc.

The Tomb Raider Trilogy is rated T for Teen and is available now for $39.99 exclusively for the PS3.

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

Within the Arcade Mode are two menu items called Falling Wonder and Pudding Deity.  These play out similar to the Arcade mode but features a story, if you can call it that, as well as a boss battle at the end.  With the game featuring cute little Anime girls, I was disappointed to see that the story mode did not feature animation but instead was a text based dialog between characters.  The stories were quite lengthy and didn’t make a whole lot of sense either.  I tried to read through it but I ended up just skipping past most of it, speed reading it along the way.  The story, as with most fighting games, has no bearing on the gameplay before you so it’s purely up to the player how into the game they want to get.

The battle system was very simple, no complicated combos to learn or pull off.  I think that it is nice to have simple controls since fighting games as of late have become super ultra complicated.  However, this seemed to work against AoSXE.  I found that, in most cases, the control was consistently inconsistent no matter what character I would choose. I could just find that one attack that worked against my opponent and literally just button mash the heck out of it and win.  Other times, nothing seemed to work and I would get my butt kicked, continue the match, and then annihilate my opponent. The characters themselves were not very balanced either.  Some felt a lot more powerful than others.

Despite the game’s simple control scheme, there was no training or tutorial, just the button config in the options menu and a lame practice mode.  In Practice mode, the CPU does nothing so it’s a good place to try out new characters and learn what their attacks are.  For me, this worked a little bit but I had the same experience whether I knew the moves or not.  (OK, I did a little better after knowing what button did what). (Note: As I was writing this review, I discovered that a week or so after the game’s release, a downloadable game manual was added to the media section of the game’s official website.  This manual explains a lot about the game.)

The gameplay itself can only be described as frantic and confusing.  The two fighters battle it out within a circular boundary before some rather nicely rendered background locations.  You fly about the screen and the camera uses a zoom in/out style, much like Super Smash Brothers Melee.  The characters are tiny in comparison to the screen and, even when zoomed in all the way, are barely recognizable.  With missiles and other projectiles all over the screen paired with several elaborate special attacks involving huge lasers, chains, electric fields, and ice, you can lose sight of exactly which character you are playing and where you are on the screen.

The local co-op has its fun moments but it isn’t a game you can necessarily pick up and play nor is it a game that makes you want to learn how to pull off the moves (because it has none).  Norm and I played through a few fights but since he hadn’t played the game prior to that, I was button mashing him to death with the same attack that it just got old for both of us.  There is no online multiplayer support for AoSXE and I think that hurts the game’s replay value.

The music is the best thing that the game really had to offer.  A bumpin’ and upbeat techno soundtrack fit well within the look and feel of the game.  I liked the music so much, it made me want to pick up some glow sticks and get my rave on!  I have left the game on the menu or in practice mode just to have the music on in the background.  Side note: Your PS3 controller automatically turns itself off after so long which will suspend the game (and the music) until the controller is reconnected.  You can also stream the tracks on the official Suguri website.

Another nice feature of the game is the ability to save replays of matches and then upload them to YouTube.  You will need a YouTube account, and of course, Internet access for this to work, but most people probably have both these days.

While I was not the game’s biggest fan, I did play through it several times and, while inconsistent, I was always pleased when I won a battle especially if I had lost the first time through.  I think the game does have its audience within the fighting game genre and with fans of doujin.  Practice makes perfect and I think that if the player is willing to invest the time into each character that may boost the game’s replay value.  Unless you love fighting games of all kind or are just a fan of quirky and strange Japanese doujin-style games, Acceleration of Sugeri X Edition may not be the game for you.

Acceleration of Suguri X Edition is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up and is available now for $5.99, exclusively on the PlayStation Network.

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

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Your mystery begins in the small, quaint town of Little Riddle when the Mayor is murdered.  Good thing you are a part of the Blue Toad Detective Agency!  The game is broken down into a series of cutscenes, puzzles, quizzes, and a Whodunnit round (where you guess who the culprit of the episode is).  During the episode, you will be given clues to help solve the mystery as well as different and challenging puzzles to solve that will move you through the town of Little Riddle – helping villagers and getting clues.  The puzzles are mainly logic, math, and other problem solving puzzles some of which may require the help of a pen and paper to solve.

There are 12 puzzles per level as well as quizzes given throughout just “to see if you were listening”.  Most of the questions can be answered by simply paying attention to the cutscenes but be sure to listen AND watch as some questions will be asked about things you saw during the cutscenes.  If you get one of the four questions wrong, you are deemed a Loser…so make sure to pay attention!  You can still fail all the quizzes and puzzles and win the game by guessing correctly in the Whodunnit round.

As you get clues, you will be able to visit key places in Little Riddle by simply selecting it on the map.  The order you choose the location can possibly affect what you see and hear so choose wisely.  As you investigate each lead, you will have to solve a puzzle to either help the villager you just interrogated with a task or to get more clues out of them.

Each puzzle has a Gold Award Time which will award you a gold medal if you correctly solve the puzzle within that time frame.  If you guess wrong, you can try again but you will not be able to get the gold medal, only the silver or the bronze.  More than two incorrect answers and there will be no medal.  You can try as many times as you want as there is no time limit.  If you choose to give up, you will get the answer, along with a detailed explanation of the answer (if needed).

Each scene is replayable if you think you missed anything and in general, solving the puzzles doesn’t affect the actual the outcome of the game for as long as you guess the correct culprit, you are deemed the winner.  At the end of the episode, your medal score is tallied up in a meter but that was it.

The game can be played solo or in co-operative multiplayer locally with up to 4 people.  Nothing changes except you alternate puzzles and quiz questions.  You can opt to help each other with the puzzles or not, but in the end, you are all on the same team so it makes more sense to help each other out.

Graphically, the game looks great.  They really paid attention to the smallest of details which is especially important in a mystery type of game where all the details are important.  The town of Little Riddle looks almost as real as a town seen in a model railroad and really gives you a great sense of the town.  The voice acting is top notch and is reminiscent of old radio dramas where it is about as much fun to just listen to it as it is to watch it.

It should be noted that Little Riddle takes place in the UK and is also developed and published by Relentless Software, a UK company.  This is important since the units of measure are using the metric system and the money is listed in pounds.  This is mostly for American gamers who are probably less familiar with meters and liters as we are with inches and gallons.

All of the episodes end with a grand cliffhanger, making me glad I had all the episodes on hand.  I would say that the game is best enjoyed by playing all of the episodes, however, the gameplay stays the same throughout all episodes so if you aren’t sure if you will like the game, you should try it out with the first episode.  The game is a lot of fun and will either make you happy at how smart you are when it comes with puzzle solving or you will feel incredibly stupid if you have had a hard time with the puzzles.  There is little to moderate replay value as once you complete an episode you can go back and play the puzzles again as well as watch all of the cutscenes.  There is nothing to gain other than your own satisfaction of solving the puzzles and getting gold medals for all of them.  (The trophy is only unlocked by getting all gold medals in the story mode only).  While it can be a fun game to play with others, that just depends on the group.  The game is slow-paced and requires most of your attention.  Each episode can take you anywhere between 1-3 hours to complete and that just depends on how long the puzzles take you and how many times you opt to try to solve them.  If you like logic and math puzzles wrapped up in a mystery package, this is a great game for you.  Having the puzzles wrapped into a pretty decent story line made me keep coming back for more.

Blue Toad Murder Files is rated E 10+ for Everyone 10 years old and up and is available now on the PSN for $26.99 for all 6 episodes and for the PC for $19.99 for all 6 episodes.

A review code was provided but did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PS3 version.

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With SkyHeroes, you are able to customize your character from the ground up starting with gender to facial features to the voice.  There are a lot of options in each category so you will definitely spend a lot of time with character customization, at least in the beginning.  You can go back and edit your sim as you progress through the game.

You can also upgrade your aircraft.  As you progress through the game, you will unlock pieces that you can use to upgrade your existing aircraft or build new ones.  You can have a plane that you use for racing and one that you use for dogfighting and you can fine tune each aircraft by switching out parts and even painting your plane to help camouflage it.  You are armed with a machine gun and a missile launcher on your plane as well as several pick ups found in most of the levels.

The game features a Story Mode as well as Quickplay and Multiplayer Modes.  In Story Mode, the game takes you through each challenge and through the underlying story.  You take on several little challenges like dogfights or races, all of which will lead up to more grand battles that will feature a little of both.

In Quickplay, you can choose to Race or Dogfight.  Within each, you can choose Free-For-All or Team Battles.  Once you have determined the kind of game, you can choose all the options like how many laps or AI you want in the game as well as the time limit and whether you want to turn on/off pick ups, missiles, and/or your machine guns.  You can choose to play the game locally in splitscreen co-op or you can go online for 10-player action.

The game controls rather well and offers a variety of controller configurations. Even though I don’t like the inverted Y axis, I found it to be the best configuration for me.  Some of the challenges felt way more difficult than they should’ve been, some missions taking several tries to pass.  I admit, flight games are not my forte but I doubt a 10 year old could’ve done that much better which may make the game a little frustrating to some.  You can crash into buildings and such without dying but there are other things that will harm you so there is a little trial and error on your part to see what you can get away with.  The game moves rather fast and you will find enemies flying past you while you are trying to find them.  There is a radar system with your plane’s reticle in the middle of the screen and a series of green or red arrows that are more confusing than helpful until you get used to it.

The graphics fit the MySims style and made a nice backdrop for the story.  The levels were pretty small as I hit the out of bounds territory rather often.  The game would warn you that you were out of bounds but the opponents could be found further out of bounds so I’m not sure where that balances out.

My biggest issue with the game was the annoying gibberish that the Sims use to speak.  Honestly, I had no idea what the story entailed as they use the most annoying gibberish to replace talking.  It was so obnoxious and annoying, I tried to cycle as quickly through the dialogs as possible.  Sadly, I couldn’t find anything in the options menu that would mute the horrible voices so I was stuck with quickly going through the dialog portions.  I’m also pretty new to the franchise – not only have I never played a MySims game, but I have never played a Sims game.  The gibberish voices is enough to keep me away.

Overall, MySims SkyHeroes is a decent flight game and fans of the MySims franchise or the Sims franchise may thoroughly enjoy the game.  This game is obviously aimed at kids but parents may be more interested in Kid Adventures Sky Captain for the Nintendo Wii which was a lot easier to control and had more dynamic challenges.  Kid Adventures lacks the character customization of SkyHeroes as well as a brand name like MySims but may be more age appropriate especially for the younger crowd and for parents looking for something a little less aggressive than SkyHeroes.

MySims SkyHeroes is rated E 10 + for Everyone 10 years and older and is available for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360.

A review copy was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This review is based on the PS3 version.

Kick-Ass New & Improved is a PlayStation Network downloadable beat ‘em up RPG.  This is a new and improved version of the game that was released back in April 2010.  Those that purchased the previously released version can update it with this version for free.  New enemies and levels were added to this version as well as extra moves and missions.  Other enhancements like AI balancing and improved sound and trophies were also added.  I did not play the previous version so this review is based solely on this new and improved version.

The game is played with a semi-top down view and is really a lot of button mashing to kill thug after thug.  You have your light and your heavy attacks along with some Special Abilities.  You can level up your character as you earn experience which is earned by killing enemies and busting items found in the levels.

The game is presented in a cell-shaded style with actual cutscenes from the movie which is fitting for a game based on a comic book/graphic novel.  The voice acting is decent as well although some of the lines get repeated a bit much.  However, there is nothing greater than Hit Girl spouting out obscenities like she’s an adult.

Events are pretty much the same as the film but there is little to no story introduced so the game does assume that you have either read the comic or have seen the movie.  I hadn’t seen the movie or read the comic book before I played the game so some of the game didn’t make a lot of sense but it didn’t really ruin it for me.  In fact, it was kinda cool to watch the movie and see how well they were able to recreate some of the scenes and environments from the film.  Apart from that, it wasn’t that impressive.

You can play the game as Kick-Ass, Hit Girl, or Big Daddy and you can also play along with another character in local co-op.  I didn’t realize how much harder the game got as you went along until I started up the third level with Norm and I was level 10 and he was level 1.  We ended up having to start the game all over again so that he could level up his character.  The controls are a little wonky and sometimes the camera will position itself so you can’t see anything at all so you end up fighting the camera control a bit.  It’s quite a bit worse in the local co-op. If one of you should die during the game, you can revive the other player by holding the circle button down for a few seconds as their life meter goes up.  This is pretty difficult with a bunch of thugs on you so generally, you are left to fend for yourself.  If you do survive, then you can revive the other player.  If you don’t, you restart from the next checkpoint. It’s pretty particular as to where you stand so sometimes it’ll take you a few tries to get the revive meter going.

The game does have an autosave feature but sometimes it doesn’t save the game for quite a while so you may find yourself restarting levels as the game progresses.  It’s not necessary to play the game with another person, but it sure does help things.  It was hard to tell if the game’s difficulty was upped by the fact that there were two players instead of one.

The game’s AI isn’t anything to write home about.  Thugs are triggered basically by invisible checkpoints so if you have a ranged weapon like Hit Girl’s guns, you can stop a little before that happens and get a head start on their health meters.  Once you hit them, they do come running – and from all directions too.  Sometimes, you will find groups of thugs all running into each other or running into walls.  You can also kill by using the environment around you like power boxes, fuel barrels, and fork lifts.  So there is a small level of experimentation to see what works best.  I have found that as long as you keep moving and get a good hold on your jump/slam attack, you can almost survive everything.

There isn’t a ton of variety in the gameplay, it really is a button-mashing  beat ‘em up.  Leveling up is done in the pause menu by accessing your FaceSpace profile.  It should be noted that the film was all about MySpace with no mention of Facebook, but for some reason the game went with the hybrid name.  Not sure why and I guess it doesn’t really matter, I just found it worth noting.  For a little added spice, there are pickups in the game including lost comic book covers that you can collect to view in the gallery later.   If you can collect all 8 covers, you can read the entire first issue of the Kick-Ass comic.  The game holds a moderate replay value if you are interested in playing the game using all three characters and if you want to play the game with friends.  If you complete the game, which will you take you about 4-8 hours depending on your skill and if you played it in co-op or not, you will unlock Extreme mode and The Arena Mode.  Extreme Mode is the game on a higher difficulty setting which is a lot like playing the later levels of the game as you are probably at about level 20-25 by this point.  The Arena Mode is a survival mode where you must survive waves of enemies.

The game has its fun moments but has just about as many frustrating ones.  It’s definitely a lot more fun with a friend than playing alone.  The good thing is that as you play each character, they will keep the levels they have earned thus far.  Just like the movie, Kick-Ass New & Improved holds nothing back and features all the blood and guts, profanity and spunk as it’s celluloid counterpart.  Unfortunately, the game doesn’t quite live up to its name.

Kick-Ass New and Improved is rated M for Mature and is available now on the PlayStation Network for $9.99.

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

Now, I’ve played pretty much every karaoke video game on the market (US market, anyways) from the PS2 versions of Karaoke Revolution to Lips, SingStar, and of course, Rock Band and Guitar Hero.  Funny enough, I had never tried the Disney Sing It series.  There are two main modes to play – Sing It (solo) and Party Play (1-8 players).  There is also a Vocal Coach trainer featuring Demi Lovato as your vocal coach.  You can view your trophy status in Trophies, view the high scores in High Score, change the game options in the Options menu, and access the online store and worldwide Leaderboards in the Online Play menu.  It should be noted that there is no online multiplayer featured in this game.  The game comes bundled with one USB mic and will work with any USB mic you have from other games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

Surprisingly, the Vocal Coach mode has some pretty decent pointers and is a great place for beginners to start.  Demi goes through proper posture and breathing to riffs and power singing.  If you have never played a karaoke style video game, this will get you up to speed by the time you finish the training.  You can go back to it at any time and it serves as a nice little warm up before you start.  The Vocal Coach is only good for one player at a time so if you have friends over, you will have to run through the training separate for accurate scoring.  I had a friend over to help me review the game since I really didn’t know any of the songs featured on the disc!  Our only issue with the Vocal Coach was that is was a little confusing as to when we were supposed to come in and since we didn’t know what Demi was singing, it was hard to follow along.  To fully take advantage of the Vocal Coach, you will need to do it a few times to really learn the training melodies she is using.

Sing It is the quick drop in mode, you just select a song and start singing!  At the beginning, you choose your difficulty – Easy, Medium, Hard – and Normal or Karaoke Mode.  In Karaoke Mode, the artist’s vocals are turned down.  This is the single player mode and only features the one singing line.  The game is scored using pitch detection.  The closer you are to the correct pith, the higher your score will be.  The game gives you feedback as you sing.  As you sing correct notes and pitch, your style meter will begin to fill.  Once completely filled, your Style level will increase and you earn more and more points.  At the end of the song, you will receive your score.  A fun bonus is the Encore button appears and will allow you to playback your last performance.  During the Encore, you will have access to effects that you can toggle on or off during the performance.

Party Play is where things really heat up.  You can choose the following modes: Duet, Competition, Performance, Team Play, Pass the Mic, Sing-Off, and Karaoke.  Duet allows you to play with another player by singing alternate parts and even harmonies depending on the song and the difficulty.  You can choose to pass the mic or have one mic per player.  In Competition, you can play against friends where each of you sings the same song and the one with the highest score wins.  If you have two mics, you can sing together and the one with the highest score wins.  Performance mode can be played with one or more players where you sing along with the videos – with no on-screen help or scoring!  This is for those who really know the songs!  Team Play allows you to compete in separate teams; Pass the Mic is for up to six players to sing a part then pass it the mic to the next player; Sing-Off is the head to head mode for up to eight players .  You can even split into two teams and compete.  And last is the Karaoke mode with the artist’s vocals turned down.

Overall, the Disney Sing It: Party Hits is an accurate and fun karaoke video game.  Our only complaint was that the actual sing screen was hard to follow, especially with two or more players.  We had a hard time figuring out which mic was Player 1 or 2 and the song lyrics were set up so they were above the pitch board.  The lyrics were more like a teleprompter than karaoke.  If you don’t know the songs very well (like me), it made it difficult to “read” the music and get the words right.  It would’ve been great to be able to modify that set up in the game’s options to have the lyrics appear on the pitch board.  Other than that, the pitch detection was pretty spot on and I had no issues with vocal lag.  This particular game is definitely aimed at the tween Disney crowd with a few extra songs like Owl City’s Fireflies and Paramore’s Ignorance and Brick by Boring Brick thrown into the mix.   If you have the PS3 version, you will be able to download more songs in the future including the free Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus) track – Ordinary Girl.

Disney Sing It: Party Hits is rated E for Everyone and is available now for the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 for $39.99.

A review copy of the game was provided and did not affect the outcome of this review.  This is a review of the PS3 version.