It’s difficult to tell if Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am is trying to be a terrible game or just is one. I guess it doesn’t really matter because you should likely avoid this title at all costs.

Just like the television series and movie that subsequently followed, Zombie Ninja Pro-Am meanders around without much of a purpose. In fact, the designer’s goal isn’t focused at all on the game clearly; instead it’s more about screwing with the player's head. I guess that's to be expected with Aqua Teen.

From here, you’re put into one of three games. There is a golf portion which is fully simplistic: all you do is turn and push X to time the power and accuracy of the swing. This is entirely completed with the X button.

Following your hit, you’ll enter the second portion of the game where you’re forced to slowly run down the course. This part is essentially a beat em' up as you’ll meet numerous characters from the show and other such things you have to kill before being able to hit the ball again. You carry a variety of items to kill enemies with including your club, a sword, guitar, spray and more. On the way, you can also pick up various power-ups that can be utilized in the golfing and racing portions of the game.

Once in awhile, you’ll enter the third aspect of the game which is three races with golf carts against the alien frat boys. This like every other aspect of the game: it's extremely simple as there are missiles and turbo available throughout.

The combination of all this is a terrible game through and through. The graphics are horrifying with ghastly frame rates and repetitive enemies they throw at you. The controls as mentioned are very simplistic and the gameplay is short. There are just 12 levels in the game and it shouldn’t take you more than a handful of hours to complete the experience if you are really willing to put yourself through it.

About the only thing worthy in this game is the voice acting which is spot on; the characters from the show are in here including the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past. He is joined by the Commentator Guy, ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt. Overall I’ve got to say that the dialogue can be humorous at times.

The only other benefit in the game particularly for fans of the series is the 12 minutes of cameo clips of characters and the four full episodes, including one that has never been aired.

In the end, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am appears to be more an attempt by the designers to play a prank on those foolish enough to buy the game by giving them a lesson in tedium. Pure and simple, this game has absolutely no benefit unless you enjoy torturing yourself.

With Square Enix providing solid support to the Nintendo DS of late (]]> Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:59:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_and_1_streetball_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_and_1_streetball_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_and_1_streetball_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

It seems like it was yesterday that And1 was a fledgling shoe company looking to make it big using a grassroots campaign like no one had ever seen before – touring around the country playing playground basketball games that turned into ball-handling exhibitions by an extremely talented crew of streetballers. Fast-forward to today and the And1 Mixtape Tour is so popular that simple mentions of the name will illicit thoughts of insane dribbling moves. The shoe line sells well and the Mixtape crew even has its own television show on ESPN. Videogames seemed to be a perfect medium to venture into next just by the nature of the beast, but after giving it a playthrough, I’m not so sure this is a good first step.

Unfortunately, the only thing I can really say that I enjoyed about And1 Streetball is the innovative I-Ball controls, but even that has problems. But let’s deal with the highlights for now. When controlling the ball handler, I-Ball controls allow you to bust out some of the same impressive tricks real-life ballers like the Professor use to trick and deke around unsuspecting defenders. Sounds a little like NBA Street’s system, but here button combinations aren’t utilized. Instead, each of the eight directions on the right analog stick corresponds to a particular trick.

The I-Ball controls get even deeper by allowing for combos – up to three if you time things correctly. Dribbling in place and tilting the right stick in a direction pulls off a level 1 trick. From there, a direction on both analog sticks results in a moving level 2 trick. This then leads to the last combo tier in which you can break your opponent’s ankles, which for those who don’t understand the jargon means that you just sat the man guarding you flat on his butt. All of these tricks build up a meter that gives you a mic when filled. Up to three mics can be built up and can be unleashed in two ways – either as generic animated sequences that guarantees a bucket worth three to five points (known as breakdowns) or to set the whole team on fire (just like the old NBA Jam games) that increases all of the abilities for the entire team.

Now we get to the holes in the I-Ball controls, which sound good and fun on paper, but as with most things that follow that phrase, is executed poorly. There’s a color coded icon underneath the ballhandler that let’s you know the timing of how to combo tricks together. But, since the responsiveness of the controls is downright horrible, the icon doesn’t help a bit. It’ll get to the point that you’ll just randomly move the analog sticks in directions hoping that the moves will chain together. And the anklebreaker meter, which is what third tier tricks are dependent on, has one huge shortcoming – it’s based on proximity. So say you’re guarding someone who is building the meter fast. All you have to do to avoid being blown by is to simply walk away from him and voila, the meter is drained and cannot be filled again until you come near the handler. The computer can also do the same to you when you’re trying to fill it up.

With that in mind, you’d think that playing soft would be the way to go and to start using jump shots to win games. Well, that strategy doesn’t work either because it seems like everyone in the game has horrible range. What this means is that games all boil down to one-on-one matchups trying to build up as many mics as possible then spending them all in quick succession as three-to-five point buckets to gain a huge lead.

Defense isn’t worth playing at all seeing as the collision detection isn’t spot on. You’ll have more luck blindly running around the defensive half-court while wailing on the steal button than actually trying to guard someone. That’s why you’ll want to save those breakdowns to score points in chunks because the computer WILL score and score often.

In the game modes department, And1 doesn’t offer too much, but there is a good variety in match types. One-on-one, half-court three-on-three, and full-court three-on-three to five-on-fives; perfect options for those who play gym and street ball. Then there’s a story mode that uses all of those match types as well as throwing other “side games” your way.

In story mode, you take a created character on tour with the rest of the Mixtape crew. Your prospect starts out in New Jersey and as you win games and meet other goals to  stay on the tour, you’ll eventually reach such locales as the ATL aka Atlanta, the ILLadelph aka Philadelphia, and even Paris. At each stop, you’ll play games with varied team numbers. There are also side missions in which you’ll go one-on-one with a Mixtape superstar that lets you gain new moves or improve your created baller’s skill if you happen to win. Unfortunately, in almost all story instances, winning isn’t the only thing you need to do to move on. There are extra goals that need to be met like break an opponent’s ankle three times or pull off two breakdowns. For those of you who played NBA 07: The Life, you know exactly what this means – frustration when you work so hard to win against a tough team only to really lose because you failed to achieve the side goals. Story mode repeats itself very quickly. The only reason why I see anyone going deep into this is to build up the created character, but even then it’s so repetitive that doing that is a boring mind-numbing process.

Visually, And1 Streetball isn’t all that pretty to look at either. The character models look really good and the resemblance to their real-life counterparts is almost spot-on. Animations, however, look stilted. With so many tricks to pull-off, there is bound to be a transition between two that looks unnatural or in some cases completely missing. Another thing is that the players look like they’re skating across the court. Basketball games earlier in this generation had that problem, so to see it here is disheartening.

On the sound front, some of the And1 stars lend their voices to the game, but they only show up in small sound bites during the short story mode cutscenes. At least they sound natural. The announcer DJ, however, is annoying, but that could be a personal preference. The soundtrack is flooded with hip-hop. It’s not so bad, but I hated the fact that during menus, the tracks aren’t randomized so that every time you come into a new menu, the same song is repeated. Because of this, I think I only heard about a quarter of the soundtrack which is sad really. I read the music credits in the manual and there are some tracks on there I’d like to hear more often, but because it always starts at same song, I got shafted.

Based on how much the license has to offer, And1 Streetball could have offered a new twist on an old formula by introducing a bit of original gameplay with its I-Ball controls. But, because those I-Ball controls are unresponsive and some certain broken mechanics like the anklebreaker meter, and a boring story mode, what And1 fans were given is a complete stinker. It all seems good on paper, but the execution is sorely lacking. Those looking for an And1 fix would be better served buying one of their DVDs or catching a replay on ESPN.

Innovative I-Ball Controls, but severe shortcomings in other places leaves much to be desired.

Nice character models; horrible transition animations.

Authentic voices from Mixtape crew and good soundtrack. Randomized playlist would be nice.

I-Ball and Story mode are fun initially, but that joy dies quickly.

Other than completing story mode to build up a character, nothing much to come back to.

]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:59:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/and_1_streetball_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/and_1_streetball_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/and_1_streetball_announced#

“AND 1 Streetball will prove to be an impressive entry for Ubisoft into the sports video game market,” said Tony Kee, vice president of marketing for Ubisoft North America. “Working very closely with the AND 1 Mix Tape Tour players, we captured the essence of authentic street basketball and will bring a completely new and innovative approach to the basketball game genre.” Build your own character and create your own signature moves using AND 1’s revolutionary Create-a-Move editor, loaded with custom showboating, scoring, and celebration moves.

A release date is not yet certain.

The first five games Activision will distribute under the terms of the agreement are games based on Mattel Entertainment's upcoming movies, including "The Barbie Diaries" for the PC and Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and "Barbie In The 12 Dancing Princesses" for the Sony PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, PC and Nintendo Game Boy Advance. Activision will also distribute titles based on some of Mattel's best-selling videogames from past years, including "Barbie Fashion Show," "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus" and "Barbie Beauty Boutique."

“We joined forces with the most renowned animated TV show talents to create the original ‘.hack’ series,” said Naruo Uchida, Vice President of Bandai Games Inc. “We’re proud to announce that Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the character designer of ‘Evangelion,’ and Kazunori Ito, the writer of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Patlabor,’ are both returning for the new game.”

The new .hack title will be released in Japan and North America sometime in 2006.

187: Ride or Die can be described as part Mario Kart, part Twisted Metal, and part Grand Theft Auto all rolled into one giant game. You would think that borrowing heavily from those three great franchises would result in a good game, but unfortunately, there are other things that keep it from being just that.

I mentioned that 187: Ride or Die has a dash of Mario Kart in it. When you first pick it up and race, that’s exactly what it will feel like, just with a paint of “gangsta” applied. You’ll race around tracks, driving over weapon and health power ups as you shoot at your rivals. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Instead of karts you have cars (or in this case, whips); instead of tracks like Bowser’s Castle, you have ghetto concrete jungles; and instead of a tag team of Mario characters, you have a sexy driver and a thug responsible for the drive-by shootings.

The type of gameplay described above is known as a whip race. There are two other types of modes that you’ll come across in 187 – deathmatch and mine field. Deathmatch plays exactly like Twisted Metal, where the goal is to completely destroy all your adversaries. In deathmatch, however, you have two lifebars. The first of which is for your gunner. When he loses his entire lifebar, the armor on your car begins to dwindle. When both lifebars are drained, the team is destroyed. You can pick up health power ups littered throughout the stages, but keep in mind that to restore the car’s armor, you’ll need to have completely refilled your gunner’s bar.

Mine field plays like a whip race, but all weapons have been changed to mines. It makes traversing the tracks even more perilous. Even though mines are given a red glow to help you see where they are placed, it is still very difficult to avoid them sometimes. I will say that in 187, there is nothing greater than the satisfaction of knowing that someone behind you just ate it on one of your mines.

During the game’s story mode, there are other types of races like elimination, where the last person on each lap gets taken out, but for the most part, the gameplay will stick to one of the three mentioned above.

The best part of all this is the multiplayer. Whether it’s online or offline, the multiplayer action is darn fun. Offline, you can play the other modes in split screen fashion against a friend, or choose to co-op. And if split screen isn’t your thing, it does support system link for 2-4 players. In co-op, one player will be responsible for driving while the other acts as the gunner. The sweetest feature is that the gunner has the ability to shoot in all directions, instead of just straight ahead or behind as it is set up in single-player. The gunner also controls the boosts, which makes no sense to me. Maybe the developers wanted to give the gunner more fun. I say shooting at other drivers is all the fun you need as a gunner.

Online multiplayer is a straight-forward affair, offering the same types of gameplay as offline multiplayer modes sans the split-screen stuff. However, not giving the gunner an independent “look back” when playing online co-op is a horrendous oversight, considering that the driver and gunner on more than likely miles apart on separate televisions.

Lastly, the soundtrack is supplied by Guerilla Black, who also voices the character Dupree in 187: Ride or Die. I thought that the soundtrack is pretty good, so fans of his or of hip-hop in general may want to let the game sit for a while just to give the tunes a listen. Here’s hoping for a separate soundtrack release.

The game is fun for a little while, but there are spots here and there that drag down the game. The first is the variety of modes and tracks. The three I listed – whip race, deathmatch, and mine field – are all you get. There are a few “don’t get caught by the po-pos” stages to break up some of the monotony, but those stages don’t do enough to add more flavor. Then there are the track designs which are boring and uninspired. Hell, most of them look the same, with their bland grey buildings, a light post or two in some places. The game itself sports a sort of washed-out look to it as well.

There’s also this annoying little scene that occurs every time you blow up another car. The game goes into this slow-motion Matrix effect that shows the car blowing up. While this is occurring, your car is still moving, but of course the game just has to show you the car blowing up, so it doesn’t matter that you may be driving towards a wall while all of this is happening. It totally breaks the flow of the race and is a wholly unnecessary feature. A text message saying that someone was taken out would have been just as effective, instead of overplaying the fact.

Playing the same three races over and over again in the seemingly same five environments gets old after first handful of races, and unfortunately, playing through those races in the story mode is the only way to unlock more cars and gunners. And the story is atrocious, only made worse by the horrid script and lazy voice work.

The weak story involves Dupree, who looks like Biggie Smalls Lite. He is involved in a gang war with Cortez and calls on his boy, Buck (voiced by Larenz Tate), to wreak havoc on Cortez’ gang. How this is achieved through racing in neighborhoods whilst shooting at one another is beyond me. Nothing can save this paper-thin story, but the really bad script further ruins it.

The script tries way too hard to be “cool”, or “ghetto” if you will. Liberal use of the phrases “fo’ shizzle”, “bust a cap in his ass”, and words like “gangsta” and “whip” makes everyone sound stupid rather than hard and tough. In fact, the script is pretty damn funny because of it. The text doesn’t even match whatever a character is saying at times. So add those mistakes on top of a script that sounds like it was written by a bunch of middle-aged guys in suits trying to find their inner thug, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a laugher. I feel kind of bad for Guerilla Black and Larenz Tate for having to actually say some of this crap, and by the way they delivered their lines it sounds like they couldn’t believe it either and were there just for the paycheck.

The saving grace of the story mode is that it can be completed in co-op mode, so at least you can share the laughs with a friend.

187: Ride or Die has all the markings of a quick cash-in, following in the wake of the GTA series, most notably, San Andreas with its mid-90s ‘hood theme. Its low production values – limited variety of gameplay modes, cookie cutter story, and bad scripting – really kill any potential this game had. Single-player is fun for an hour or so, and the multiplayer and online modes will add some more time you spend with the game, but not much else. You’re better off playing Mario Kart, Twisted Metal, and Grand Theft Auto separately than playing this.

Graphics look a little washed out and all the tracks look the same.

The GTA infused-Mario Kart gameplay is actually fun – for a little while at least.

Soundtrack's nice, but the bad writing stacked with lazy voice acting ruins everything else.

Multiplayer stuff really spices up an otherwise dull game.

Online matches will extend the amount of time you spend with 187. It’ll collect dust after that

]]> Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:54:00 -0500 Tim Grube http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_187_ride_or_die_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_187_ride_or_die_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_187_ride_or_die_xbox1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Recently called, Notorious: Die to Drive at last years E3, Ubisoft has renamed and announced that their urban-themed combat racing title will now be, 187: Ride or Die. The company has released more information surrounding the title and more notably the celebrity actors that will have voice acting roles. Actors include Larenz Tate (Menace II Society, Ray), Noel Gugliemi (Training Day, The Fast and the Furious), and Guerilla Black. Others have not yet been announced.

187: Ride of Die’s story surrounds a young man named Buck (Larenz Tate), who is living a thug’s life enraged with money, fast cars and beautiful women. The game is set in the criminal world of Los Angeles and Buck’s duty is to defend the territory of his guide Dupree (Guerilla Black) from a threatening vengeance and his gang of thug roughriders, led by Cortez (Noel Gugliemi). Their goal is to rule the streets while you’re trying to stop them.

A killer soundtrack is supposedly going to be added into the game featuring several hip-hop artists and all the songs will be exclusive to the game. I’m sure you can expect tracks from Guerilla Black himself. The camera in the game will work like Burnout—you will be able to set it in slow-motion and replay while featuring blur and motion effects.

To top off the games single player, Ubisoft plans to allow gamers to jump online and play with their friends. You will be able to play online with the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. A release date is scheduled for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on June 1st and GameCube and PC on August 30.

Expect further information to be released around E3 time this may. In the meantime, check out the first set of screenshots on the gamepage.

From the looks of the screenshots, I’m really curious how the game will turn out. It has aspects from Burnout and it involves combat. Ubisoft hasn’t let me down in quite a while, so hopefully at the upcoming E3 Expo, I’ll have a chance to go hands-on with it and see for myself. Plus, Director Ali Kojori (Def Jam Vandetta, NBA Street, Fight Night, Need for Speed) and Creative Director Matty Rich (Straight Out of Brooklyn, The Inkwell) will be behind the title. This is already sounding like it’ll be a kick-ass game.
]]> Tue, 29 Mar 2005 15:53:00 -0600