PSN Review: Funky Lab Rat

In this lab, it’s not just humans who are doing the thinking.

By: Uma Smith

When we think of rats, we imagine creatures that crawl around in the sewers nibbling away at anything they can find. But our concept of these little critters is about to change with Funky Lab Rat, a PSN-exclusive puzzler developed by Hydravision. Will this particular rat become a welcomed addition to our homes… or at least our video game consoles?

CONTROLS (3.5/5)

You have the choice of either using the DualShock 3 controller on its own or alongside the Move. The left analog stick moves your character while the right analog controls a cursor on the screen used for repositioning objects such as springs and blocks. If you are using the Move controller, it serves the same function as the right stick. For the most part, moving these objects is straight forward and easy.

The jump is executed with the right shoulder button, which can feel really awkward. Plus, because there is no sense of suction or friction when landing, you will find yourself accidentally leaping too far off from the platform on numerous occasions.

The four face buttons each serve its own function for pausing, rewinding, restarting and “zapping” (skipping) the level. The layout is displayed on the upper-right corner of the screen, so there is no need to rely on memory, which is ideal considering you’ll need to allocate much of your brain power to solving the puzzles

GRAPHICS/SOUND (4/5)

Funky Lab Rat’s graphics are very clean and crisp with a frame rate that remains consistent and smooth. The overall appearance is simple and colorful, giving a cartoon style to the game. There is not a lot of intensive graphics here, but the presentation is appealing and easy on the eyes.

The soundtrack does set the groovy style for the game quite well. With the same short piece of background song looping on a continuous basis, be prepared to endure the repetition. The game’s sound effects are adequate for its cartoon theme as you hear the “boings” and “squeaks” while moving throughout the levels.

GAMEPLAY (4/5)

You play as a rat named Diego, who has consumed a pill that grants him special powers. He manages to escape from his cage and must now venture through a laboratory filled with deadly obstacles and bottomless pits.

Funky Lab Rat is essentially a single-player 2D platformer with the main game being the only mode accessible. With 10 different worlds each consisting of eight levels, this single mode will last for quite a few hours. The level’s objectives are straight forward: you must figure out how to get past the obstacles to reach the golden doorway at the end.

Diego has the ability to stop time, which allows you to move objects within the environment. For example, if there is only one spring present, you can change its location and reuse it at different spots in the level. Wooden objects can be placed in mid-air and be rearranged to form a bridge or stepping stools. There is a limit to the number of times you are allowed to execute this particular ability. If a mistake is made, you can rewind time to the moment before the error took place. This will be especially helpful when you find yourself involuntarily falling to your death with your jumps.

Each level has a number of pills to collect, which opens up later worlds. For the first two worlds, Funky Lab Rat seems like a walk in the park. But as you progress, the physics-based puzzles become more complex and difficult. Simply reaching the exit and completing the level will not be enough when you realize that you are a few pills short of entering the next world. It is a challenging experience that calls to be played over and over again.

OVERALL (4/5)

Funky Lab Rat is a simple and fun game with addictive puzzles and cartoon graphics. The controls may take some time to get used to, but priced at just $9.99 this PSN exclusive is worth playing.

XBLIG Review: Space Police on Super Highway 9

In Space Police, crime is the disease... and smashing it with a space car for points is the cure.

By: Jess Castro

“Drive fast and far to enforce the law.” That is the sworn duty of every officer of the Space Police. Of course when game developer Haiku Interactive says “enforce the law”, they mean to smash bad guys into fiery collisions while speeding through oncoming traffic in their latest Xbox Live Indie Game release, Space Police of Super Highway 9. It’s a bite-sized, fun-filled job, and with a thrifty price of $1, somebody better be doing it.

Space Police of Super Highway 9 is a single-player top-view driving game that will surely remind old-school gamers of arcade classics such as A.P.B .or Spy Hunter. When you fire up the game, you get to choose from two vehicles: the L4W-Mower, a fast and sleek futuristic police sedan, or the CopTank9000, a heavy duty vehicle that deals more damage with less speed. After you select your ride, your duty is to rack up points by ramming into the “baddies”, a small variety of future space cars that are out to wreck havoc on the city streets. Slam into these accident-causing, mine-dropping scumbags from all sides until they go down in a fiery blaze of bonus points. You can also beef up your score with “impress” points by driving dangerously close to innocent drivers or oncoming traffic.

The police cars are not invincible, though. They’ll take damage from crashing into innocents, slamming into walls, or running over the enemies’ road mines. If you are able to drive at top speeds without taking damage for a certain amount of time, your car will slowly replenish its health. As with any game, the farther you go, the more challenging it gets. Bigger and more aggressive enemies appear as the road becomes crowded with more innocent cars to crash into. The justice drive continues until your health bar fully depletes, forcing you to restart and attempt to beat your own best score. The only form of competition amongst fellow players is leaderboard ranking, as there are no multiplayer modes (or any other type of modes, for that matter) available.

Both police vehicles in the game have great responsive controls. Weaving in and out of traffic while smashing the baddies is a fast, yet precise arcade-style ride. Driving in Space Police is nice and smooth as you steer with the control stick and accelerate with the right trigger. There are no fancy guns, lasers, missiles or nukes equipped on these cars, so I suppose the city funding for futuristic law enforcement is at an all-time low. Instead, your police car is equipped with a turbo function, which is activated by holding the A button for a charge, then releasing it for a speed boost. This is primarily used for bursting into the baddies for max damage. Pressing the left trigger while steering causes your vehicle to drift, which is handy for cutting off the baddies into one another.

In high traffic situations, you can toggle a police siren with the B button that will signal all the innocent cars to move out of the way so you can home in on your targets or attempt to ride fast to recover your health. It’s best to use it sparingly, however, since it deactivates your ability to score impress points. All the controls are simple and blend well together, giving the gamer potential to either develop techniques for achieving high scores or just keep the finger on the gas and trash everything in sight with ease.

The graphics and sound of Space Police are very simple and do not aim to impress, but that doesn’t mean the game is an eye/ear sore. The game runs at a smooth frame rate, as several on-screen cars scroll up the screen without chop or lag and sound effects respond well to the on-screen action. The singular techno-cop tune that plays during the game is kind of catchy, but may get old after your 10th play. Overall, the visual and audio presentation of the game is polished, but the real attention-grabber is the addictive point-scoring gameplay.

OVERALL (4/5)

Haiku Interactive’s Space Police on Super Highway 9 is a must-buy for fans of old-school arcade gaming or budget conscious gamers. There are no extra modes or online play to speak of, but for the low price of $1, you get a solid action racer that will be sure to eat a little of your time away.

XBLIG Review: Sketchy Tower Defense

This tower defense game’s unique approach in visuals is a little bit sketchy.

By: Uma Smith

Sketching has always been my favorite pastime activity whenever I feel a lack of mental stimulation. Who would have thought that the concept of mindless random drawings could one day be incorporated into something that requires planning and strategy? This is where Sketchy Tower Defense comes into play.

Developed by Pixel Troll, this Xbox Live Indie Game title dares to enter into the tower defense genre that has already been explored by numerous game studios. Essentially, new entrants to this already-saturated field need to offer more than before to gain players’ attention. Bearing that in mind, does the prospect of Sketchy Tower Defense standing out from the crowd seem a bit… sketchy?

The basis of the game’s visual presentation is set on a bunch of drawings on what appears to be a grid paper layout. Everything is represented in a sketch-type manner, as the game’s title suggests. Even the text on screen appears as if it was penciled in.

The objective is to protect your castle against a bunch of enemies that come in waves. You are equipped with the ability to build towers that attack any intruders that come within range, thereby slowing their progress and limiting their chances of survival.

Sketchy Tower Defense takes on the endless-gameplay approach, which gives a simple arcade feel to it. The levels never actually end but instead continue on wave after wave with the number of enemies increasing in both size and difficulty. As this is happening, you must purchase more towers and upgrade your existing ones accordingly in order to keep up your defenses.

Most games within this tower defense genre have pre-selected points on the map where you are allowed to build towers. Sketchy Tower Defense, on the other hand, gives you full autonomy as to how you want to make use of the grid-paper layout. With each tower taking up four square grids on the map, you will be setting up your maze in the way you see fit.

You take control of a little black figure, which you use to move around the grid and build your towers. One thing to note is that you can walk through your enemies without taking any damage. While they are being eliminated, enemies will leave behind gold coins which you collect and add to the set amount that you are given at the beginning of each level.

From there, it is up to you to determine how you want to allocate your gold to certain types of defenses. You have a variety of towers to choose from with each type varying in degrees of damage and effect on your enemies. Of course, with each upgrade, your towers’ effectiveness and efficiency increase.

The single-player mode is adequate considering that the game has a small selection of maps with different environmental settings to choose from. However, the multiplayer mode is where the game can be more appealing. A friend can join in during the game and help with building and upgrading the towers, thereby combining your efforts in designing and maintaining your defenses. There is no better way to test your friendship than to prove how long you both can work together before getting into an argument on what to build and where to place it.

There is also a competitive mode in which the game takes a split-screen approach. With the screen divided horizontally, players compete to defend their own castle against their set of enemies. The enemies you destroy will end up showing on the opponent’s screen, which translates to a true measure of one’s tolerance towards annoyingly-skilled players.

Do note that the co-operative and competitive modes are local only. As a matter of fact, there is no online for this game whatsoever. For those who depend on online leaderboards to establish their personal worth prepare to be revoked of those bragging rights.

OVERALL (3.5/5)

Although Sketchy Tower Defense does suffer from a few shortcomings, including its lack of online capabilities, it is worth checking out if you enjoy the tower defense genre. Considering that the game can be acquired for 80 MS points ($1), its simplicity and unique approach to the visuals does reflect its value, if not more. Brace yourselves as sketches have evolved to more than just mere defenses against boredom.

Be Clever, Win Angry Birds

Angry bird is not amused by this contest.

If you’re any kind of a sports fan you know the NFL Divisional Playoffs took place this weekend. And, in three of those four games to losing team shared something in common (other than being overmatched): they were named after birds — Falcons, Seahawks and Ravens.

Well, it just happens that I have a PSN code for Angry Birds sitting right in front of me, and I thought to myself… how can I, a simple game reviewer, bring these two divergent elements together? With a contest, of course!

The rules are simple. Come up with your best one- or two-liner (something short, like a Tweet) about this ornithological downfall and post it down below. Be clever. Be topical. Be punny.

I’ll pick my favorite tonight and send that person a code for Angry Birds.

Win X-Men Arcade!

It was either this or a topless photo of Rebecca Romijn, I think I made the right decision.

In celebration of our review of X-Men Arcade finally being completed we’re giving you the chance to win your very own copy of X-Men Arcade for Xbox Live. And we’re keeping it real simple this time.

To win check out our review over on the main Rotorob site and post a comment there telling us who your favorite X-Man or villain is from the comic series.

I’ll pick a winner at random on Sunday, Jan. 16.