Review Category: Games

Even a glance at Tiny Metal’s mechanics will likely bring to mind Nintendo’s Wars series, and with good reason. It’s the same format, same style and effectively the same concept but with a few notable tweaks to the formula. Aside from the new 3D sprites, the game features a number of new unit changes, with the likes of Sniper and Spec Ops units giving infantry much more staying power in battles. Furthermore, various army elements now have the capacity to lock onto units in synchronised attacks, which both speeds up games and grants bonuses to effective damage. As such, there’s a greater emphasis placed upon tactical cohesion over rushing an enemy force. More importantly, however, units can gain greater experience and benefit from constant fighting, which makes them more than mere fodder in these games. This should have made for an excellent PC alternative to the classic franchise, but for every step forward there was at least two back.

The key issue with Tiny Metal is it’s clearly a skeleton of what could be a much better game. There’s a competent single vision to the game and the 3D take on the old chibi-army aesthetic is entertaining, but more than a few strategic qualities are missing from the game. This is evident from how the units have been streamlined into merely a few categories, with anti-air and artillery being rolled into a single unit. Furthermore, the lack of naval elements means that you only have a few avenues to approach the enemy from, which is only made all the more notable thanks how to airborne and ground units cannot occupy the same space.

Some of the shortcomings of the units themselves could have been alleviated thanks to more distinctive commanders, but the game doesn’t retain the bold personalities it needs for them. There’s nothing truly distinctive about each CO in terms of their tactics, strengths or how they influence units, which robs the game of some much needed tactical variety. It’s made all the more notable thanks to the total absence of multiplayer, which could have easily helped it overcome a few of its more repetitive qualities.

While Tiny Metal succeeds on presentation and has a competently made core combat system, the lack of so many essential features of this genre ultimately undermines any success. While tactics junkies might get a few hours of fun out of it, once you are done with the short campaign you’re left with little to really enjoy. Fans of Advance Wars and its ilk would do better just to stick to the older games. Or at least until Area 35 can build upon what they have established here.

TINY METAL / DEVELOPER: AREA 35 / PUBLISHER: SONY / PLATFORM: PC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

The scum and villainy faction for the X-Wing game was always going to be a little tricky to get right. With the exception of Boba Fett’s Slave I, most of the ships where going to come from less well-known Star Wars sources and the game was originally written as Rebels vs The Empire. This meant that a new niche needed to be carved out for a new faction.

Games creators Fantasy Flight Games almost got it right first time. Almost. The Jumpmaster, the scum version of the Millennium Falcon, was originally overpowered and a two of the nice-looking Starfighters were woefully underpowered. The StarViper and Kihraxz are fine-looking ships, working as TIE and X-Wing equivalents in the game, but an attempt to give them extra flavour made them extra lame.

That is, until FFG released the Guns for Hire expansion. First off, this is a boxed set with one Starviper and one Khiraxz. They have different paint jobs to the ones we’ve seen before and this makes the StarViper look like the doom butterfly it’s meant to be and Kihraxz looks sleek in its BlackSun paint job (black and white is a good look).

Rules-wise, we get title cards that modify the ships. You get two of each, one for the ship in the box and one for another ship in your collection. The StarViper Mark Two card drops the cost of the ship and makes the ship do a curved barrel roll. This is a better sort of move for the very flexible StarViper, as it lets you make the ship go backwards. You can also slot in another title, so previous StarViper builds still work.  The Kihraxz’s new title is Vaksai, and it lets you spend less points on its upgrades. It lets you equip up to three modification upgrades. Basically, you can kit this baby out with all sorts of toys making it very configurable indeed.  Purists might want to point out that canonically, the Vaksai was a different looking ship to the Kihraxz, but the change is slight.

So far, so good. Two weak ships in the faction ‘fixed’. But we get more. The pilot cards for both ships are a lot of fun. Notably, Thweek, which lets you mimic other pilot skills, is a real game changer.  Viktor Hel also works well as a proper ‘scum ace’ and goes really well with Protectorate Starfighters, to create a list of swift and deadly villains.

Amongst a host of other rather nice cards, the box also introduces Harpoon Missiles. These do damage, then do damage later as well. If it destroys the ship, it does even more damage. If you combo this with Dead man’s Switch (a very scum card), you can potentially sacrifice weaker ships to take out hard to hit craft. A fun tactic if you can pull it off.

Overall, this is an amazing addition to a growing range of highly addictive games.

STAR WARS: X-WING – GUNS FOR HIRE / DESIGNER: JASON LITTLE / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If you play the Empire in Star Wars: X-Wing, then you’re very familiar with all the different shapes of TIEs. Where the Rebels have a whole alphabet soup of Starfighters and the scum of the galaxy seem to be working their way through a variety of geometric shapes, the Empire seems to have a thing for spaceships that look like really angry versions of the letter H.

So angry in fact, that one of the variants is called the Aggressor. The ship isn’t from the movies. It first appeared in a video game called Star Wars Galaxies. Which means it isn’t part of the new canon. However, given that the (canonical) TV show Star Wars Rebels loves all things space combat-related, it’s only a matter of time before we see this most furious of TIEs.

The model itself is a TIE with curved wings, making a more an angry grey bee. The top half of the back of the wings are cut of, and a platform juts out of the back, which is where it houses its turret.  It’s the only TIE with that sort of equipment, which means it can be equipped with all the cool turret based bonuses. The set comes with both a Synced Turret and Twin Laser Turret cards so you can either have rerolls or more chances to hit. The elite card is Intensity, which is a last-ditch manoeuvre card. Useful for close combat fighting.  We also get unguided rockets, which is an excellent way to dump lots of lots of rockets on vulnerable ships.

The manoeuvre dial is more of the same for TIEs – you’re going to be able to keep pace with most other Imperial ships, but not in a remarkable way. Despite the name, the Aggressor is a support ship; a drummer to the lead guitar that Interceptors or TIE Defenders provide. Though not a dull ship, it’s one that will only appear at tournament level in the most interesting of builds. For the rest of us, it’s a fun ship to add to a growing collection of TIEs.

STAR WARS: X-WING – TIE AGGRESSOR / DESIGNER: JASON LITTLE / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

As the X-Wing game expands, the choice of potential ships becomes more and more interesting. The Scurrg is a ship that comes firmly from the secondary media; comic books and video games and as yet, hasn’t appeared in any of the ‘new’ Star Wars canon. Give it time, though, it’ll surely appear in Rebels. Given its obscure origins, it surely has to be something pretty special for Fantasy Flight Games to take a risk in making this obscure bit of Star Wars trivia into a model you can use in the world’s most popular wargame, Star Wars X-Wing.

Well, it is rather pretty. It looks something like a cross between the Cobra MkIII from Elite: Frontier and a Battlestar Galactica Cylon Raider. Or to put it another way, it’s a flat oblong shaped thing with jets at one end, guns at the other and squashed nose cockpit in the middle. It’s mounted on a small base, but it’s a little large for its base. Still, small ship rules apply to it, making it a nippy and intimidating presence on the board. It’s painted in the autumn colours we associate with Scum and Villiany ships, and there’s a reason for that. It’s mostly a ship for X-Wings third faction, Scum.

Mostly, that is. One of the available pilot cards is a chap called Nym, and in the game and comic book that he’s from, he starts out as a pirate and joins the Rebellion. So the ship comes with appropriate Rebel cards and dials for Nym, as well as the rest of the paraphernalia for a normal Scum ship.

Of interest to most players is the Bomblet Generator and Minefield Mapper upgrades. These two cards are hilarious, fun and make you think about the game in the new ways.  The mapper lets you plant bombs during game set up, which means you can cheerfully restrict enemy movement (or just move them into a place where you can drive them into mines). This combo works quite well with tractor-beam equipped ships like the Quad Jumper. The Bomblet Generator lets you drop bombs every time you reveal a manoeuvre. So if the ships still moving, you’re making the field hazardous.  Oh, and it also comes with a Cad Bane crew card, that lets you add more bomb options.

The Scurrg H-6 Bomber is a lot of fun. You may not win tournaments with it (it’s a little weak and it moves clumsily), but boy will you enjoy blowing up TIEs and X-Wings.

STAR WARS: X-WING – SCURRG H-6 BOMBER / DESIGNER: JASON LITTLE / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Everyone loves a Wookiee, right? Famously, the ending of Return of the Jedi was supposed to feature Wookiees instead of Ewoks, but Lucas felt that Wookiees were far too advanced for the planned ending. In the prequels, we saw some of the Wookiees’ wood-like tech, and in Star Wars Rebels we got to see their Anti-Slaver Gunships.

Yes that’s right, Wookiees have gunships. And being Wookiees, the whole thing (apparently) has a wooden plush interior. The Auzituck Gunship is an expansion for the X-Wing miniatures game; it’s a little spaceship with loads of cards to back up your X-Wings and other Rebel ships in play.

It’s a small-base model, which means it’s on the same footing (and rules) as TIE fighters and X-Wing. The model itself is a bizarre mix of 1920’s rocket-ship, attack helicopter and very fat eagle. It’s distinctive and unique, and thus looks rather eye-catching on the board. The cream and goldish-brown design suit the organic look of the model, even though it does make the whole thing look like a Wookie Camper Van of Doom.

Rules-wise, it has 3 attack, 1 agility, 6 hull and 3 shields. Which means it can take a lot of damage but it’s not going to dodge a lot of attacks. Its dial in unlikely to stress out the crew (Wookiees are chill like that) but it is going to lumber gracelessly around the board unless you know what you’re doing. It’s also the only small ship in the game to have the reinforce. This action lets it take less damage in a certain area.

One of the ship’s potential upgrades is selflessness, which is a bodyguard style action. The result is that we a rather ungainly bodyguard of a ship, tough enough to get in the way of big enemy craft and protect lighter, more vulnerable craft from damage. Such as a bomber. You can also fill it full of Wookiee Commandos, which make it easier to avoid some damage or a breach specialist who makes critical hits less painful.

On the table, this works perfectly as designed. It’s a tough little ship with a solid design behind it, and it’s very well balanced. It’s also one of those ships that slot into the game and begs you to work out a way to make work better in the game. Expect to see a tournament-winning combo with this ship on the gaming table sometime soon.

STAR WARS: X-WING – AUZITUCK GUNSHIP / DESIGNER: JASON LITTLE / PUBLISHER: FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Fans of Fantasy Flight’s capital ship combat game Star Wars: Armada are well aware of the flaws of playing the Imperial side. Just like the movies, the bad guys have the most eye-catching ships, and also the most terrifying weapons. The Imperial Light Carrier expansion for Armada contains one Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier.

For those of you who didn’t get your Star Wars ships spotting badge, that’s the very triangular looking grey ship with the hangar that poops out TIE Fighters. So far it’s only been seen in Star Wars Rebels, but it’s almost certainly going to turn up in the movies at some point. It’s a giant floating hangar which looks visually striking. Most Imperial ships look amazing on the table but this giant grey Trivial Pursuit wedge just begs to be modified with lights and the like. It’s a lovely piece.

Rules-wise, it’s a mid-range ship specialising in squadron support. For a carrier, it’s pretty nippy and you have to be utterly rubbish at Armada to accidentally fly it off the table. Like all of the Armada models, it’s statted with two modes. One if slightly more defensive, focusing on hitting things at long range, and the other is marginally better as closer ranges. Both modes underline the fact that this isn’t a frontline fighter, but a support ship. We get three title cards that make it more interesting.  Pursuant means you always have the option of controlling TIEs and other small craft, regardless of whatever manoeuvre you planned. Stronghold turns your ship into a defendable point on the board, surrounded by TIE fighters that swarm and confound key Rebel tactics.

Alternately, the Squall configuration turns your TIEs into fast, cohesive hunter killers. This will leave your ship vulnerable and it doesn’t really have the hull to go toe-to-toe with the bigger Rebel ships, but played right and this is potentially an X-Wing squadron killer and a lovely way to take out the likes of Luke Skywalker in a swarm of TIE fighters. Combined with the Grand Inquisitor as a commander and you can be really mean with this tough little ship, as the creepy Inquisitor lets you trade speed for survivability.

The expansion also comes with boarding options, which is fun and fits the theme of a big ship that shoots out smaller ships. It’s potentially tactic changing for Armada, and a lovely looking thing. You’re still going to get more ‘bang’ with the bigger ships in the game though. Fun, but at the moment, not essential.

STAR WARS: ARMADA – IMPERIAL LIGHT CARRIER / DESIGNER JAMES KNIFFEN, CHRISTIAN T. PETERSEN / PUBLISHER FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The most memorable ship in Star Wars: Rogue One is easily the Hammerhead Corvettes. These are the big longships with the, well, hammer-shaped front that play a critical role in the Rogue One movie and look iconic and eye-catching. Collectors of merchandise and fans of Fantasy Flight’s famous Star Wars: Armada game both wanted their own versions as soon as they appeared on the screen.

It’s easy to see why; who doesn’t want a spaceship designed for ramming. Especially when it comes to Star Wars: Armada, a game in which the Rebels tend to have weaker (but faster) ships than the giant grey wedges that the Empire can bring to bear.

You get two in the set, and they come in two modes – a scout model and a better-armed torpedo boat version with extra firepower where it counts. So far so standard, and the stats aren’t that special. What you need is to add the Task Force Antilles or Task Force Organa upgrades. These let you block damage or re-roll damage to all friendly ships within range.

Given that Corvettes are traditionally fighter escorts (and have the manoeuvrability to back it up) this a real boon. Add to this upgrades that let you do lots of damage at close range or boarding engineers that allows you to turn an enemy’s regular damage into something more critical. Of course, there’s an upgrade for ramming damage as well. Note that the Hammerhead is still a Corvette; using it to ram a Star Destroyer is going to hurt it, but with the right upgrade cards added to it, then you’ll end up doing very serious injury to the ship. Add a boarding party and some

Y-Wings and your opponent’s capital ship is going to explode. Hopefully.

These are very pretty models that will look lovely on your desktop (or shelf), but really they’re for playing Star Wars: Armada with. They add punch to a game that is sometimes a little toothless as far as the Rebels are concerned, and are a great addition to your fleet.

HAMMERHEAD CORVETTE – STAR WARS: ARMADA / DESIGNER JAMES KNIFFEN, CHRISTIAN T. PETERSEN / ARTIST BEN ZWEIFEL / PUBLISHER FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

We are big fans of Imperial Assault over at STARBURST Towers. For the uninitiated, it’s an adventure ‘dungeon’ crawling board game set in the Star Wars universe. Think ‘Hero Quest’ or ‘Descent’ with plucky rebels fighting Stormtroopers and you’ve pretty much got the gist. The core game is a lavish box filled with models, tiles (that detail all parts of the Star Wars Universe) and lots of counters. The expansions add new heroes to play, some twiddly new rules and extra baddies.  Heart of the Empire takes us to a whole new place; Coruscant, capital of the galaxy.

Before we get into the campaign, let’s quickly talk about the box of toys that Heart of the Empire is. For a start, it comes with an AT-DP model. That’s the two-legged Imperial walker with the big gun and the pods on the side that we see chasing the heroes in Star Wars: Rebels. You also the chunky Imperial Sentry droids (which are from Rebels and also Star Wars Battlefront), some Stormtroopers with riot shields, and the Clawdite assassin, last seen in The Clone Wars movie. This is a nice roster of villains, which fits the ‘Urban pacification’ theme of this particular set. You, of course, get models for the new heroes, more on those in a moment. As always, the pieces are lovingly sculpted bits of plastic that paint up nicely (not that you will) and look very Star Wars. 16 models in total and one of them is a scout walker

The heroes include a Wookie who likes to blow things up, a quartermaster who is predictably a master of getting you all the weapons and gadgets you need to complete the mission and a human hero who seems to be able to get lets of droids to do cool stuff for him.

A lovely booklet filled with missions comes in the box. They all have an appropriately ‘sneaky’ feel to them, and the talents of the new heroes that come in this box are very suited to this set of adventures. The quarter master’s ability to maximise loot is especially good. There are some nice touches here, including some fun narratives about Rebels trying to get one up on both the Emperor and Darth Maul. The storyline here feels more like Star Wars: Rebels the cartoon series than the movies. Counters for Maul, The Emperor and Not-Quite-A-Jedi Ashoka Tano are included. You can buy the models separately, of course. It’s a comprehensive campaign, the best so far, but we are loathed to hand out spoilers. It’s surprisingly fair and balanced, which is nice.

Imperial Assault also has a skirmish mode and rules for 4-player skirmish games. The Imperial Sentry droids are a lot of fun in this mode, but then killer robots have to. If you’re only getting one expansion for Imperial Assault, then get this one.

 

STAR WARS: IMPERIAL ASSAULT – HEART OF THE EMPIRE / DESIGNER TONY FANCHI, TODD MICHLITSCH, PAUL WINCHESTER / PUBLISHER FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Star Wars: Rebellion is a near-perfect expression of the original Star Wars trilogy in board-game form. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Star Wars: Rebellion is an asymmetric two-player game in which one of you plays the Rebels, the other the Empire. The Rebels have to get enough support to kick off a full Rebellion, and do this by blowing up Death Stars, raising the support of worlds and beating up bad guys. All the Empire has to do is find the Rebel base and destroy it. And the Empire has all the best toys, loads of troops and the ability to make Death Stars. It’s a fun game and a really good way of expressing the original trilogy in table top format.

However, since it came out, the movie Rogue One added some additional elements to the storyline. Which is a perfect excuse for Fantasy Flight Games to produce an expansion and add extra elements to an already amazing gaming experience. Stars Wars: Rebellion – Rise of the Empire is adds characters from Rogue One to the game, as well as streamlining the games conflict mechanics, adding new units and mostly just adding more to the game.

It fills in some of the gaps that the core game has. This expansion not only adds Jyn and Cassian from Rogue One, we also get the likes of Jabba to play with. It adds new units as well, ones that, games wise are mostly weaker but cheaper to field, or have more punch but are more vulnerable. Do you as the Rebels field a U-Wing instead of X-Wing? It’s weaker, but it might let you move just the right number of troops out of doomed Hoth in time to fight the Empire elsewhere? Or do you stick to the old reliable tactics? The expansion adds an additional dice-type to reflect this flexibility. Unit combat is more streamlined and cinematic. Combat was never a major element of Rebellion, but with Rise of the Empire, it becomes more fun.

Rise of the Empire also changes the various tactics either side can deploy. With the vanguard units, Rebels can pack more punch, whereas the Empire now has dirty tricks available to it similar to the Rebels. These are balanced, however; the Rebels feel like Rebels (they just fight a bit more dirty) and the Empire can be sneaky and evil bullies at the same time now.

Rise of the Empire is worth it for the improvements in the games combat mechanics, but to be honest, like most good expansions, you’re expected to select the various optional rules to suit your tastes. A solid expansion for a solid board game, but we do hope that expansions won’t be too common for Rebellion; this one adds just enough change to make it worth your while.

STAR WARS: REBELLION – RISE OF THE EMPIRE / DESIGNER COREY KONIECZKA / PUBLISHER FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

To sum up Okami for those who have yet to play it: It’s Zelda with a Japanese wolf deity who can bring the world to life with a paintbrush. There’s an evil threat to the world, and it’s your task to stop them. The fifteen minute opening cutscene goes into more detail than this review ever could.

While Zelda-like and Zelda-lite labels have been growing ever more popular since Darksiders, Okami is one of the few truly worthy of that comparison. It wears its influences openly and from the puzzles to the bosses you can see many obvious influences, yet that does not interfere with its own identity. Dungeon crawling and unlocking new areas will ultimately feel very familiar, but the way in which you approach each proves to be vastly different.

Rather than a wide arsenal of gadgets you utilise a variety of painting techniques to unlock doors and overcome enemies. As such it’s less about spamming a certain new item than it is using a new technique with a previous weapon. This significantly streamlines the experience and leaves you dealing with fewer menus selecting and deselecting items, one after the next. As a result, it proves to be a much faster paced and responsive experience. This carries over to all aspects of the game, from combat which is less Dark Souls than it is Metal Gear Rising at times.

The world itself is as colourful as you would imagine from a cel-shaded creation, but it is worked directly into the lore and core mechanics. It blends a careful kinship between art and gameplay, as you pick out key details or changes to overcome puzzles. You even gradually restoring the world about you by repainting various areas, transforming them from dying grey places into vibrant environments.

The game’s benefits as an HD port to PC are clear. Unlike the original release, you can skip cutscenes right from the very first line which significantly speeds up replays. With full mouse and keyboard support you can complete puzzles without the issues presented by a controller. Better yet, the HD improvements are evident even in the heavily cel-shaded stylings of the game with smoother textures. The animation quality thankfully hasn’t suffered as a result of this reworking either, and the world remains as engaging and wondrous as it did during its first outing.

Okami HD remains as beautiful as the original release, and it captures the wonder the game first inspired. With full controller support, an excellently mapped keyboard interface and near perfect optimisation, even a lock to thirty frames per second hardly hurts it. If you missed this gem during its initial release, you owe it to yourself to play Okami HD today.

OKAMI HD / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: CAPCOM / PLATFORM: PC, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW