It’s not unusual for a retro feel to take over a week of new releases, but nostalgia for yesteryear is in overdrive this week. Not only do we have Axiom Verge–the creation of a one-man game studio that calls back to the magic of Super Metroid–there’s also Ultra Street Fighter IV, the latest iteration of a now 7-year-old fighter.
Those in the mood for something new should check out the new offering from Nintendo, of all places. Splatoon is a reimagining of the first-person shooter genre, which has players running around blasting each other with ink rather than bullets.
Axiom Verge
(PS4, $20, Teen)
Buy Axiom Verge on Amazon here
Like Retro City Rampage, Axiom Verge is an indie one-man show driven by a single, obsessed developer bent on paying tribute to the past while putting his own spin on well-worn material. For Tom Happ, Axiom Verge is a recreation of the spirit of side-scrolling Metroid games. You play as Trace, a resourceful scientist stranded in a violent, high-tech dystopia. You start with nothing and pick up gradual weapon and ability upgrades as you go, unlocking previously unreachable spots on the map. To play the game is to step back into the 1980s or 90s and jump into Metroid or Super Metroid blind for the first time, with frustration, study and repetition leading to eureka moments that vault you forward to the next breakthrough.
Countless attempts to capture the spirit of Metroid and Metroidvania games have come before, but few have nailed the spirit of the original as thoroughly as Axiom Verge. A finely-calibrated, endlessly challenging spree, Axiom Verge never loses any steam, allows a dip in creativity or slows up the pacing. Oozing charm in visuals and sound, the game is filled with clever references that old-timers will appreciate. The only disappointment that comes along is that knowledge that, since Hepp is a one-man studio, it will likely be years until we see his follow-up.
Splatoon
(Wii U, $60, Everyone 10+)
Nintendo is so fond of repackaging and tweaking its go-to properties that it’s almost shocking to see the publisher launch something completely fresh. Splatoon is even rarer for Nintendo in that it’s an online-heavy first-person shooter, a genre that’s all but absent on the company’s platforms. What’s less of a surprise is that Splatoon, in which players run around and blast each other with ink, is one of the best of its kind to come around in a while. Creative and cleverly formulated, gameplay takes you beyond the stalk, stop and pop mechanics of most shooters to let you dive into pools and splotches of ink to sneak up on enemies and climb walls.
The online infrastructure is solid, well-populated and lag-free, but the gimped communication methods badly degrade what could have been a more exciting and involved experience. Since voice chat was intentionally left out of the game — presumably due to Nintendo’s fears of its kid-filled audience being exploited — players are forced to swap prepackaged messages that say almost nothing about what they’re doing or thinking. Since communication is key to helping teammates take down opponents, only those who use some other communication service will be able to get an edge to keep them on top. Splatoon takes an excellent concept and brings it just short of excellence, thanks to online soft-pedaling.
Ultra Street Fighter IV
(PS4, $25, Teen)
First released in Japanese arcades in 2008, one of history’s greatest fighters has been remade, relaunched, enhanced and added to at least once a year since then. You’d think its current-gen launch would be the best version yet, but you’d be mistaken. Launch bugs, including slowdown in menus, character moves failing to work and visual bugs crowding the screen, have thrown the latest version of the game for a loop. A recent patch has been released, claiming to fix many of the issues.
It remains to be seen whether Ultra Street Fighter IV can overcome its problematic start to hang with Mortal Kombat X as the fighter of choice on the PS4, but the potential is there. The resolution has been upped to 1080p at 60 frames per second, all previously-released DLC has been packed in, and visual upgrades abound. Many hardcore gamers have retreated back to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions due to the ugly start, but once the patch has been vetted and the netcode has proven to stand up to the abuse from regular players slugging it out around the clock, they’ll likely congregate here, forcing obsessives to pick up the game once again to play the best version.
