Two Great Tron Games That Aren't Really Tron Games: escapeVektor and Light Trax

After all these years, I'm still baffled over Disney's mishandling of the Tron franchise: Given the original film's premise and the popularity of its first arcade game, Disney could have used Tron to break into the video game market through a series of games set inside of a computer world. Instead, Disney's licensing of Tron games has been uneven and largely underwhelming. After the original arcade game in 1982, there was another arcade game in 1983, Discs of Tron, and a handful of Tron titles for the Atari and Intellivision home consoles. That batch of games was followed by ... 20 years of nothing.

The impressive Tron 2.0 came out in 2003 but between lackluster sales and poor support from Disney, that game quickly faded into cult classic status while other game franchises thrived. Since Tron 2.0, Tron characters have appeared from time to time in the Kingdom Hearts video game series, and a selection of tie-in games of varying quality were released under the collective Tron: Evolution title when the Tron: Legacy movie came out in 2010.

I'm sure that more tie-in games will be released for the upcoming Tron 3, but that's part of the problem: They're tie-in games for a movie series, not games that are part of an ongoing, stand-alone video game series. Between that and Disney's prompt cancellation of the incredible yet short-lived Tron: Uprising animated series--a series that could have provided game developers with plenty of fantastic ideas, plots and settings--it appears that Disney has relegated the virtual world of Tron to the silver screen and video game cameos and tie-ins. (I've also been disappointed how Disney let the Epic Mickey video game series go to waste, but I'll save that for another rant.)

Nevertheless, the slick neon-lit style of Tron has influenced the look and game play of many video games throughout the years, and this post highlights two that I've recently found that adhere to both the look and the metaphorical, computer-based logic of the Tron-iverse: escapeVektor by Nnooo and Light Trax by Skip Ltd. Read on for my review of these two games, and why Tron fans should add them to their video game collections.

escapeVektor was released through WiiWare for the Nintendo Wii in 2011 and for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita in 2012. In this game, players guide a character named Vektor, who is trapped inside of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU), through a series of maze-like digital landscapes with the hope of escape. However, the CPU has other plans and dispatches a series of enemies--Patrols, Hunters, and Interceptors--to foil Vektor’s plans. Click here to learn more at the official escapeVektor site, where you can also purchase the game’s chiptune soundtrack.

As a game, escapeVektor is reminiscent of two 80s era arcade classics, Pac-Man and Qix. Yet the look and game play logic of escapeVektor follows the visual style and plot of the original Tron movie so closely that it might as well be a tie-in. Between the neon-lit backgrounds, an electronic music soundtrack, a selection of data-based enemies of varying degrees of intelligence and capability, and a hero who is navigating his way through a labyrinthine world that's ruled by an oppressive master control program, escapeVektor is almost like an abstract, minimalist retelling of Tron.

What's your Vektor, Victor?

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Light Trax is part of a series of games that were released under the collective title Art Style. It is a remake/upgrade of Dotstream, a game that was part of Skid Ltd.'s bit Generations series for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, and it was released through WiiWare for the Nintendo Wii in 2010.

Playing Light Trax is like watching a light cycle race from a great distance: A group of bright pastel lines race against each other and avoid a variety of obstacles on a black-and-neon landscape. Light Trax is ostensibly a racing game but like everything in the Tron-iverse, it has its own peculiar logic. The lines in Light Trax can only accelerate their speed by running parallel to another line, but they will decelerate if they collide with or are cut off by another line. The race courses themselves defy gravity, twisting and turning in all sorts of directions in a seemingly endless expanse of 3D digital space.

In addition to the race courses and race circuit series, the game also provides a selection of "Freeway" levels, where players can guide their line along the freeways that connect the different race circuits to each other. While the same rules of acceleration and deceleration apply to the freeways, players can either race to a specific destination through the freeways within a set period of time or they can choose to just "cruise" the freeways as they glide their way through vertigo-inducing trajectories. Imagine watching Tron, Flynn, Beck or some other Tron-inverse character riding a light bike on a mega-highway that connects different areas of the Grid, and that’s how these levels feel. Click here to listen to a selection of chiptune music from the game’s soundtrack.

A Freeway level from Light Trax (virtual barf bag not included).

Neither escapeVektor nor Light Trax are official Tron games, but they capture the aesthetic of the franchise so well that they should provide many Tron fans with a satisfying game experience. Given how poorly Disney has handled the Tron franchise overall, I’m happy to take what I can get.

Four Tips for Building a Better Alien Video Game

In the many months since of the Aliens: Colonial Marines video game, Gearbox attempted to fix a few of its many errors in the game by releasing a stream of upgrade patches and downloadable content (DLC). The latest DLC, which was released on July 24th, has been titled Stasis Interrupted and it is a complete campaign that depicts how Corporal Dwayne Hicks escaped the grim fate that was depicted for him in Alien 3. Click here to see a post on the AvP Galaxy site that features video clips that cover the entire campaign.

From what I've seen in the video clips provided, Stasis Interrupted really is the kind of story that Alien franchise fans were hoping for when Colonial Marines was first announced. It's not a perfect story, but it's a significant improvement over the original game's plot and mechanics. The cast of characters in Stasis Interrupted are much more interesting than the ones in Colonial Marines, the Aliens behave more like the stealthy, calculating threats that they're supposed to be, and returning Aliens cast members Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen are given much more interesting things to do with their respective roles. Sadly, the fact that Gearbox has treated Stasis Interrupted as an insignificant afterthought by quietly releasing it six months after the release of the main game is just another line item to be added to the extensive list of everything Gearbox did wrong with its contribution to the Alien franchise. Click here to read my original post about the disastrous release of Colonial Marines.

With that in mind, here are a few suggestions that I have for game developers who will be developing whatever Alien games are commissioned in the future. For all of its improvements, Stasis Interrupted still treated the Aliens as nothing more than moving targets that are meant to be shot. Read on for four Alien attributes that game developers can utilize to make a superior video game experience.

1. The Alien is extremely resilient. As the franchise has depicted on many occasions, the Alien is ready and able to survive in even the harshest of environments. Thus, an Alien game could put players in a situation where they have to survive against an Alien onslaught while stuck in a hostile environment (e.g., a toxic atmosphere, frequent incidents of extreme weather, a lighter or heavier gravitational pull, etc.). Here's where developers could learn something from The Thing video game that was released back in 2002: In addition fighting against attacks from the titular Thing monsters, players also had to frequently find shelter from the relentless Arctic cold before they froze to death.

2. The Alien can rapidly evolve to meet changing environmental demands, such as new kinds of hosts and prey. As it was hinted at throughout the franchise and directly addressed in Prometheus, the Alien has a genetic plasticity built into its parasitic reproductive process that allows it to assume new shapes, behaviors and abilities. For example, the deleted cocoon scene in Alien suggested that the Alien could function as a solitary predator, while the hive present in Aliens suggested that the Aliens could organize themselves into a social hierarchy for the purpose of overtaking a large population of hosts/prey in a short amount of time. A future Alien game could take place on worlds with forms of life that produce a very different kind of Alien, or it could introduce a new Engineer artifact that would greatly influence the evolution of the Alien.

Imagine what an Alien video game would be like if it were set in the Avatar universe.

3. The Alien has acid blood. When considering what is known about the Alien, video games that are built around it should provide fully destructible environments that can be damaged by the Alien's acid blood. In most Alien video games, the acid blood that erupts from shooting an Alien at close range may damage the player, but it doesn't eat through floors, walls or other surfaces like it does in the Alien movies; thus, these games emphasize the shooter aspect of game play while ignoring one of the Alien's most distinct characteristics as a movie monster. When fighting a horde of Aliens in an enclosed space, shooting them by the dozens with a machine gun will be the last thing you want to do, since their blood would compromise the structural integrity of the building, space station or space craft that surrounds you. Thus, an Alien game should allow players to use alternate forms of weaponry--weapons that shock, cauterize and incapacitate rather than puncture, shatter and explode--which will put a greater emphasis on strategy and survival than firepower and marksmanship.

4. The Alien is very, very weird. I'll give Colonial Marines credit where credit is due: It expanded upon the designs of Weyland-Yutani technology used by humans, but it did nothing to provide something new and bizarre from the biomechanical world of the Aliens and their Engineer creators. There's much more to Alien and its sequels and prequels than claustrophobic spaces and heavily industrialized environments; at its most disorienting and intimidating, protagonists in each film are confronted by something unmistakably alien. Game designers for future Alien games should spend plenty of time reviewing the grotesque and erotic artwork of H.R. Giger in order to take gamers further into the universe where no one can hear you scream.

My Five Favorite Open World Environments in Video Games

Video games have come a long, long way from when they first appeared for the general public back in the 70s. Not only have they become more complex in terms of graphics and game play, but they also transitioned from a 2D to 3D format with varying degrees of depth. I enjoy many of the classic 2D games from the 80s and games from the 90s onward that have 3D graphics, but I'm particularly fascinated with games that provide open worlds (a.k.a. "sandboxes") that allow players to explore large and unique locations as part of and/or in between game missions. Even if a game is mediocre or doesn't hold my interest, I'm content to be a virtual tourist if it provides me with an engrossing open environment to visit.

Here's a list of five open worlds that kept me entertained for hours with their expansive scope, unique features, and varied opportunities for interaction. These aren't the immersive virtual realities that the sci-fi genre keeps promising us, but they're great examples of what digital entertainment can provide to gamers when game developers are given the support to create incredible worlds of their own. Read on for my list of noteworthy virtual environments.

5. Location: Gotham City
Game: Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (2012)

Traveller's Tales' Lego Batman 2 is the first Lego game that features an open world that players can explore as part of the game's missions. (From what I've heard, Lego City Undercover for the Wii U features an even larger open world, but I haven't played it yet.) Even though it is the first of its kind, this version of Gotham City is an amazing thing to behold

The Lego-ized Gotham City is spread across three islands with connecting bridges and waterways. Players can explore the city by driving through the streets in a motor vehicle; speeding through the waterways in a boat; flying over the skyline in either an aerial vehicle or as a flight-capable character; or entering a subway station to go to another island. Even after I finished playing the game's missions and defeated the various DC super villains who invaded Gotham to wreak havoc, I was still impressed with just looking at the city from various perspectives and visiting its many sites. (Click here to read my complete Lego Batman 2 review.)

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4. Location: Springfield
Game: The Simpsons: Hit and Run (2003)

I haven't watched The Simpsons on a regular basis for well over a decade, but I was a die-hard fan for its initial seasons during the 90s. (True story: In college, I wrote a term paper about The Simpsons that earned me a free trip to an academic conference in New Orleans.) Thus, it only felt natural to pick up a copy of The Simpsons: Hit and Run, a game which allows players to freely roam the Simpsons' home town of Springfield.

Hit and Run is mostly a racing game, and each level is self-contained in a way that a race track is self-contained; in other words, players can drive anywhere within a level while they are in it, but they can never drive outside of the level and into a new location. Regardless, each level is designed after a particular Springfield neighborhood (the suburbs, the town square, the business district, and the harbor area) and each neighborhood features popular locations from the TV show (Kwik-E-Mart, Moe's Tavern, Springfield City Hall, Springfield Elementary School, etc.). The arrangement of Springfield into three-dimensional environments--a pretty sweet accomplishment for a 2D cartoon--was a treat for Simpsons fans, even for those who don't enjoy racing games (like me, for instance). Never before or since has a game made the experience of driving a pink Plymouth sedan to the local convenience store and back feel so rewarding.

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3. Location: Miami
Game: Scarface: The World is Yours (2006)

I'm not a fan of gangster-based entertainment but when I heard that the cast and crew from the 1983 Scarface movie were involved in the creation of the official video game--including Al Pacino's selection of a sound-alike voice actor to assume the role Tony Montana--I knew I had to play Scarface: The World is Yours at least once. I'm glad I did, because the Scarface game put together a fantastic recreation of an early-80s Miami.

An open environment is essential to the largely non-linear structure of Scarface. Since the game tasks players with rebuilding Montana's drug empire, the Miami that was created for the game had to allow players to do things that a notorious drug lord would do to make money and build influence (e.g., sell cocaine, buy real estate, launder money, bribe cops, massacre rival gangs, etc.). Nevertheless, speeding around the computer-generated Miami of Scarface, either in a car or a motorboat, proves a lot of fun by itself. There are many locations to visit, the weather patterns change, and the sun rises and sets as you play through the game. It's a virtual gangster's paradise.

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2. Location: Bullworth Township
Game: Bully: Scholarship Edition (2008)

Bully: Scholarship Edition has plenty going for it--a witty script, a large cast of characters, and engaging game play--but it wouldn't be half as interesting without the interactive environment of Bullworth, the township in which the game takes place. As players progress through the game, different neighborhoods within Bullworth are unlocked and each has its own features, personality, and missions. Players can move through the town in various ways (by foot, bicycle, skateboard or bus), and the setting alternates between day and night according to the game's own system of time.

As with Scarface: The World is Yours, an open world environment serves the non-linear game play style of Bully. Yet because players assume the perspective of an adolescent while playing the game, the gradual exploration of Bullworth and its neighborhoods will remind older gamers of what it was like to be a kid and to visit new places for the first time as a part of growing up. Sure, Bully allows players to indulge in all sorts of hilarious juvenile hijinks, but the opportunity to ride a bike through the streets of a small town at dusk brought back a lot of childhood memories for yours truly. (Click here to read my complete Bully: Scholarship Edition review.)

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1. Location: Kawawii Island
Game: Go Vacation! (2011)

The way I see it, Namco Bandai's Go Vacation! is Wii's other premier resort game, with the original being Wii Sports Resort. Wii Sports Resort was designed to demonstrate the enhanced capabilities of the Wii's MotionPlus feature and it did so against the backdrop of a tropical resort called "Wuhu Island". For as impressive as its MotionPlus sports games were, Wii Sports Resort didn't allow players to freely meander around Wuhu Island on their own. Even when Wuhu Island appeared again in Wii Fit Plus, players could only see different areas of the island by playing a fitness game (e.g., jogging, biking, etc.) that used the island as a background setting.

In contrast, Kawawii Island in Go Vacation! features four different resorts on a single island: a beach resort, a ski resort, a mountain resort, and a city resort. Each resort has its own selection of sports games of varying levels of quality; however, the real stars of the game are the resorts themselves. Each resort is well designed and allows players to freely move through them to find hidden secrets, explore different attractions, and enjoy the scenery. As with any real resort, each Kawawii Island resort even has a visitor center--complete with Muzak playing over the center's loudspeakers--where you can "talk" to staff about extra resort features. As virtual tourism efforts go, you can't do much better than Go Vacation!.

Human Sacrifice, Spirit Photography and a Cursed Village Haunt Nintendo Wii's Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly

Two people who are lost in the woods find themselves in a strange village that vanished a long time ago under mysterious circumstances. No, it's not Brigadoon--it's the Nintendo Wii edition of Tecmo's Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly (a.k.a. Fatal Frame 2).

Project Zero 2 was one of the last major releases for the Wii, but it was only sold in Europe and Japan in June 2012. I was able to purchase a copy of the European version at a reasonable price through eBay, and then I played it on my Wii console through the region-free Gecko OS application that I downloaded for free from the Homebrew Channel. This might sound like a lot of effort just to play a video game, but I'm glad I did it. Even though it arrived late in the Wii's release schedule, Project Zero 2 is one of the best horror games available for that console. Read on for my complete review.

The Wii edition of Project Zero 2 is a remake of Fatal Frame 2, which was originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003 and the Xbox in 2004. While the game has been changed to fit Wii's motion control system, its plot remains the same: Twins Mio and Mayu Amakura are hiking through the woods of Japan to return to a place they liked to visit in their childhood. Mio follows Mayu into a detour that takes them much deeper into the forest, where they find an ancient village that appears to be abandoned. As they explore the village, they learn that a human sacrifice ritual involving twins that was regularly performed by the villagers had gone horribly wrong, which then opened a portal to the underworld that plunged the village into a state of murky limbo. Yet many angry ghosts still walk the streets of the village, and they are determined to use Mio and Mayu to perform the ritual correctly to end the curse that imprisoned them in everlasting darkness.

Project Zero 2 is one of the creepiest horror games I've played on the Wii. Between its detailed environments, gruesome story and impressive selection of ghastly spirits, this game will make your skin crawl for hours on end. Players will encounter ghosts of previous sacrifice victims, as well as those of visitors who found the village and became trapped by its curse. Two of the most disturbing spooks among the cast of phantoms are the woman with the broken neck (she walks around with her lifeless head eerily flopping from side to side) and the woman who committed suicide by throwing herself down a stairwell (watching how this ghost moves herself along the floor will make you squirm). As the game progresses, players learn more about the specifics of the sacrifice ritual, the people who lived in the village, and what went wrong that caused the village to vanish.

The game utilizes the Wiimote and nunchuk controllers to enhance players' immersion into its gloomy world. Players use the Wiimote to aim either a flashlight or the Camera Obscura, the only weapon Mio and Mayu have to fight against the ghosts. Defeating ghosts gives players points, which can then be used to buy upgrades for the Camera Obscura. I've never played any of the Project Zero/Fatal Frame games before this one but I found the Wii-specific controls to be very intuitive and responsive, so much so that I’m astonished that Nintendo didn't adapt the entire series for the Wii console. (Actually, Nintendo did release Project Zero 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse for the Wii back in 2008, but that release was exclusive to Japan and it currently costs around $80 or more to buy on eBay. Dammit.)

Unique to the Wii's version of Project Zero 2 is a Haunted House mode, where players tour different haunted locations. This is a fun addition to the game that "measures" your fear by how much you shake the Wiimote during your haunted visit; this mode also allows a second player to participate by triggering random scares to surprise the other player. The selection of haunted environments and two-player game play format is very similar to another Wii title, the Ju-On: The Grudge Haunted House Simulator. However, Project Zero 2 is the better purchase simply because it's better made and has so much more to offer than the Ju-On game.

Project Zero 2 does have its shortcomings, but not enough to ruin the overall gaming experience. Most of the missions involve looking through old village buildings to find various objects; this becomes repetitive and a somewhat annoying from time to time. Furthermore, because of the game's strong focus on narrative, players will often have to find a certain object or perform a particular task in order for the game to progress. If players cannot figure out what the object or task is--and sometimes it is not as obvious as it should be--then the game essentially comes to a halt. For example, I was in a level that required me to look through a hole in a wall in order for a necessary cut scene to play. Yet because this kind of action wasn't required anywhere else in the game to make it continue, it didn't occur to me to do it until I watched a Project Zero 2 walkthrough video on YouTube.

If you enjoyed other Wii horror games such as Calling, Cursed Mountain and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, then you will want to add Project Zero 2 to your library. It may be hard to get for some Wii gamers, but the effort is worth it.

Nerd Rant: Is it the Beginning of the End for Home Video Game Consoles?

While I consider myself to be a gamer, I only play video games that fit within my disposable income budget, a budget that has been quite modest as of late. Thus, I have only been gaming within my financial means, playing discount or used games on a Nintendo Wii console that I bought a few years ago and playing older games on my PC. I've tried to play newer PC games, but my computer has an integrated graphics card that causes newer games to stutter; thus, I can’t play new PC titles until I can afford a new PC, and that won’t be for a while.

With my current financial limitations, I can only watch what’s currently happening in the video game industry from the sidelines. Nintendo’s latest system, the Wii U, isn't selling nearly as well as its predecessor, and the upcoming next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft are causing concern among the gaming community due to their new restrictive features. For example, Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox One will require an Internet connection and a user account to play games--even single player games--which will limit the opportunities for gamers to share titles with their friends.

Another tidbit I've read is that the development costs for high-end titles for the game consoles are skyrocketing, while development costs for video games that are available for cell phones and tablets are cheaper and in turn are earning more revenue. In fact, the reason I've heard as to why the Wii U offered so few launch titles is that Nintendo management underestimated the cost and resources involved to make games for its new system and thus had to focus what it had available on the production of a handful of titles just to meet the scheduled launch date. The general consensus among many writers who cover the game industry is that the newer consoles are aiming to offer more than just games (e.g., Blu-ray disc playback capabilities and high-def TV viewing features) in order to convince consumers to buy them; in other words, in order to keep up with the new digital entertainment landscape, gaming consoles have to be more than just gaming consoles.

Being a gamer whose first home console was an Atari 2600, this has been fascinating to watch. In previous console wars, competing console companies only had to worry about each other because no other devices could do what their consoles could. Now, consoles have competition coming from the Internet, cell phones and digital tablets, mediums that can provide entertaining and addictive games at a fraction of the cost for a home console game. If this trend continues, home consoles could disappear altogether and high-end video games that are based on expansive virtual worlds and complicated game play mechanics could become limited to PCs and PC-based gaming services such as Steam. This reminds me of what happened to home video rental businesses such as Blockbuster in recent years: What used to be brick-and-mortar businesses have been replaced by online services and vending machines, venues that are cheaper to provide and sustain.

It should also be noted that many of the video games that are being offered in the alternate venues of the Internet, cell phones and tablets are following the design aesthetic of video games that used to populate the video game arcades of the 80s: simple, colorful and addictive instead of complex, detailed and immersive. I remember a time when arcade video games provided the quality standard that the home consoles aimed to emulate; now, the home consoles are being beaten by games that would have fit perfectly in an 80s-era arcade.

While video games will never go away as long as digital entertainment remains a profitable industry, I am disappointed to see the gaming consoles disappear. I am very satisfied with the gaming experiences I've had with the Wii and its motion-based controls such as the Wiimote and the Balance Board. Sure, many Wii games failed to creatively utilize the console's unique controls and instead only provided the notoriously irritating “Wii waggle” as a control system, and Nintendo itself provided limited support for its upgraded MotionPlus feature. Nevertheless, when Wii titles did something genuinely innovative with the hardware provided--titles such as Wii Sports Resort and Red Steel 2--the experience was rewarding and memorable. The Wii’s unique control system breathed new life into older games such as Bully, Resident Evil 4 and Okami, and it provided opportunities for video gaming to enter the realm of physical fitness with titles such as Wii Fit.

I’m convinced that devising new and creative ways to play games are just as vital to the video gaming experience as the production of quality titles, and I don’t see how anything other than a dedicated game console can provide new systems of play. Likewise, I’m hoping that Nintendo can turn things around with the Wii U and turn it into something other than a larger version of its handheld 3DS system. Yet while I would hate to see console-based attempts to make video gaming something more than just sitting in front of a screen with a controller go by the wayside, I don’t know how this can be avoided until game production and sales costs go down.

Protect Gotham City from Evil Minifigs in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

In my opinion, Traveller's Tales' Lego video games are works of evil addictive genius. Unlike other licensed video games, Lego video games combine the logic of game play, toy play and toy collection into a single interactive experience. Since the first Lego Star Wars game was released back in 2005, each subsequent Lego game has added new features to this format but the original combination remains intact. In a Lego video game, players control characters to guide them through game-like scenarios, interact with objects and environments as if they were brick-assembled toys, and acquire new characters and vehicles to complete a virtual, in-game toy collection. These games also feature a two-player cooperative option, so you and a friend can play with the toys each game has to offer.

One of the latest Lego games is Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which was released in 2012 for each of the major consoles. Lego Batman 2 is not only a sequel to the previous Lego Batman game; it also takes everything that's great about Lego video games and makes them even better, resulting in a title that's great for both video gamers and superhero fans alike. Read on for my complete review.

Lego Batman 2 finds Batman and Robin investigating a mass breakout of super villains from Gotham City's Arkham Asylum, a breakout that happens just after they foil one of the Joker's latest schemes. The Dynamic Duo's search for clues leads them to the real culprit behind the prison break: Lex Luthor, who plans to use Joker and his laughing gas to help his presidential campaign win the upcoming election. Realizing that they might need more help than usual in defeating this sinister partnership, Batman and Robin call on Superman to aid them in their fight to stop Luthor, capture the Joker and save Gotham City.

The title Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is not entirely accurate; most of the game's main campaign plays like a World's Finest team up between Batman and Superman, with other DC heroes appearing in the campaign's epic final chapters. Nevertheless, Lego Batman 2 provides all sorts of DC-inspired fun. This marks the first time that characters in a Lego game actually speak instead of communicating with each other in grunts, gibberish and gestures; as such, Clancy Brown reprises his popular voice role as Lex Luthor for the game. The game's levels are challenging and well designed, and its original story is consistently entertaining and witty. The script mines plenty of humor out of Batman's chronic refusal to ask for help when he needs it, as well as his annoyance at Superman's inexhaustibly sunny attitude. There's even a playful jab at Arkham City, a recent non-Lego Batman video game.

The main campaign is only part of the game's appeal; the rest belongs to its representation of Gotham City. In previous Lego games, missions were connected to each other through "hub worlds", environments where players could select new characters, access new levels or access previously completed levels in free play mode. The hub worlds became progressively bigger with each successive Lego game, but the hub world of Gotham City dwarfs all of its predecessors. It's an enormous open environment, spreading across three islands that are connected by bridges, waterways and metro systems. The architectural design of the game's Gotham is pulled straight from Tim Burton's Batman movies (albeit with some Lego-specific changes), and the city is brimming with many locations to visit, villains to defeat, citizens to save, and collectibles to find and purchase using the Lego studs you accumulate during the game.

For me, the main campaign was a fun gaming experience, but it was the open world of Gotham that turned Lego Batman 2 into an obsessive-compulsive fixation. Being a child of the 80s, having the chance to get my own collection of DC hero and villain minifigs gave me flashbacks to Kenner's Super Powers action figure line from that same decade so I found myself planning in between game sessions how I was going to amass this collection as quickly as possible. (Fun trivia fact: Both the Super Powers line and the minifig collection in Lego Batman 2 include Cyborg, a superhero who is frequently associated with the Teen Titans, as a collectible character.)

Even if you aren't as collection-obsessive as I am, virtual Gotham City is still fun to experience. You can drive through it using the selection of vehicles provided, sail around it, or fly over it either in a plane, helicopter, or as a flight-capable character. The cityscape is quite breathtaking to behold, even for something that was built to the scale of Lego minifigs.

You will unlock half of the superhero characters during the main campaign: first Batman and Robin, later Superman, and then finally Cyborg, Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. The rest of the heroes and villains are only unlockable after you purchase them with Lego studs. The exact number of heroes and villains you can collect varies, depending on which console you have (I was playing the Wii version of this game). To get the most fun out of the heroes and villains minifig collection, I made sure to get as many of them as I could before going back to the main campaign in free play mode. After all, what's the point of collecting so many figures if you can't play with them to see what they can do?

Of course, Lego Batman 2 does have some peculiar quirks. Flying takes some effort to master, particularly when you have to navigate a flying character into a small, tight location. A few of the hero and villain minifigs are vastly under-powered in comparison to their comic book counterparts. For example, the Green Lantern minifig can only use his power ring to fly and assemble of green brick structures--that's it. Sinestro does even less than that, since there are no yellow brick structures for him to assemble with his power ring.

The selective reduction of powers is probably due to the Lego video game format's inability to translate certain characters' abilities into something the players can control. If that is the case, I would have preferred if Traveller's Tales selected different DC hero and villain characters that would work better with what the game's programmers could accomplish. Regardless, the game's problems are insignificant in comparison to everything else it does so well.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is the best Lego video game to date, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Legos, superheroes, and video games. There's also a feature-length straight-to-video Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite that's scheduled for release in May and is based on the game's plot and cut scenes. Check out the preview clip below.

Enter the ENCOM Grid in the Tron 2.0 Video Game

With the recent cancellation of Tron: Uprising on Disney XD, I found myself going into intense Tron withdrawal. So, I did the only thing that I could think of to do: I went on eBay and picked up a copy of Tron 2.0, a 2003 first-person adventure game that was developed by Monolith Productions and released by Buena Vista Interactive. Tron 2.0 was the first sequel to the original Tron movie--that is, until Tron: Legacy arrived in theaters in 2010 and thus reclassified the game as non-canon. In spite of its displacement from official Tron franchise continuity, Tron 2.0 is still a fun game that both fans and video gamers in general should enjoy. Read on for my complete review and for thoughts about how Tron 2.0 stacks up against Legacy.

Tron 2.0 focuses on Jethro "Jet" Bradley (voiced by Jason Cottle), son of Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner, reprising his role from Tron). It has been over 20 years since the events of Tron and Jet works with his father at ENCOM, which is in the middle of a business struggle with a rival computer company called Future Control Industries (fCon). In the game's opening scene, Alan is kidnapped by fCon thugs while talking on the phone with Jet; the kidnapping sets into motion a series of events that result in Jet being digitized into ENCOM's computer grid, where he has to find a way to free his father and discover the true motives behind fCon's hostile takeover of ENCOM.

Even though Tron: Legacy replaced Tron 2.0 as the official sequel to Tron, Legacy took many key themes and plot points from Tron 2.0. Both depict a rebellious, wayward son who enters a computer grid to free his captive father. Both include an attractive female program that aids the hero and willingly puts herself in harm's way in order to save the hero in a moment of unexpected danger. Both feature a pivotal fight scene that takes place in a digital version of a night club that is frequented by anthropomorphic computer programs, as well as a climactic battle that takes place both within and around a floating structure that looks like a giant, high-tech airship. Even the name "Tron Legacy" is mentioned in Tron 2.0, although what this name means in the game is much different than what it means in the 2010 movie sequel.

According to what I've read, Tron 2.0 under-performed in sales and was plagued with technical problems during its initial release, so I can see why Disney would want to re-launch the Tron franchise again with a different sequel in a different medium; thus, I'm not entirely surprised that Tron: Legacy is essentially a reboot of Tron 2.0. I think that Legacy features a stronger story than Tron 2.0: Legacy uses artificial intelligence as its source of conflict, which in turn allows the story to explore deeper emotional themes, such as the complex relationship between technology creator and creation and how it parallels the relationship between biological parent and offspring in strange, eerie and unpredictable ways. In contrast, the digitization beam that allows people to enter and exit the computer world is the target of corporate espionage in Tron 2.0, a plot point that shapes the game's story into a simpler good-versus-evil melodrama. Yet a less satisfying story doesn't ruin Tron 2.0 as a gaming experience; in fact, where it differs from Legacy is where Tron 2.0 keeps its entertainment value even though it is no longer Tron canon.

The computer grid created by Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) in Legacy is a stand-alone grid that has no contact with other computers or users for the purpose of Flynn's personal artificial intelligence research. Flynn deliberately designed his gird's environments so that they would imitate those found in the human world; thus, the programs Flynn's grid behave more like human beings than the user-controlled programs in the ENCOM grid in the original Tron. In contrast, Tron 2.0 takes place within the ENCOM grid and the networks connected to that grid, so the programs in Tron 2.0 behave in a manner similar to those in Tron. For as human as they look and sound, the programs' actions and beliefs conform to the commands given to them by their users, which in turn provide Jet with challenging situations and problems to resolve as he races around the computer world to save his father from fCon. (Although I know it will never happen, I'd love to see a Tron story of what happens when an ENCOM grid program is put into Flynn's grid, and/or vice versa.)

Because the digital world of Tron 2.0 is larger than that of Legacy, the game consists of many elaborate environments that are based upon actual computing: players explore the internal digital worlds of personal computers, the Internet, firewalls and so on as part of the game. Each environment is amazing to behold (so much so that I would recommend Tron 2.0 just for those alone) and the game's developers get plenty of creative mileage out of the parallel relationship between the real world and the IT world. Many of Jet's missions involve traveling to parts of the IT world that have physical representations in the real ENCOM world but because he has been digitized, none of the other human characters can actually see him anywhere. In one memorable scene, Jet enters ENCOM's electronic security system to free Alan. While Jet walks through a digital representation of ENCOM to unlock doors and watch a digital representation of Alan move through ENCOM, Jet still cannot occupy the same space as his father. There's a brief but poignant feeling of helplessness present in this moment, with Jet realizing how limited he is to help his father no matter how much technology he has at his disposal in his digitized state; he's stuck looking at ENCOM from the outside with no way to enter.

In keeping with the game's IT logic, players modify themselves as they download more data and upgrades while traveling in and around the ENCOM grid. Downloadable upgrades and messages are represented as glowing cubes within transparent data bins; each upgrade is some kind of tool you can use (body armor, a weapon, or a new ability), while the messages consist of e-mails that provide additional information about the conflict between ENCOM and fCon, the strained relationship between Jet and Alan, and the events that took place between Tron and Tron 2.0. Permission codes are also found in the data bins, which you need download to gain access to certain areas, upgrades and information.

Since this is a Tron game, game play inevitably involves light disc combat and light cycle races. You begin the game with a light disc as your primary weapon, and the upgrades give you disc modifications and alternate kinds of weapons. The light cycle races are almost identical to the races seen in the original Tron, where the cycles could only make 90 degree turns. The races in Tron 2.0 include an advanced light cycle model that was created by industrial designer Syd Mead exclusively for the game. Light Tanks and Recognizers also appear in Tron 2.0, but only as part of the background scenery. Multiplayer scenarios are offered in the game in both campaign and light cycle modes, although I didn't try either of those options.

The only complaint that I have about Tron 2.0 as a game are the moving and disappearing platforms that appear throughout the levels. I absolutely despise platform jumping from a first-person perspective, because I can never accurately gauge how near or far I need to be to the platform in order to reach it, so I usually wind up falling to my death multiple times. Thankfully, there's an ample selection of Tron 2.0 cheat codes that can be easily entered into the game that allow you to get past areas of extreme difficulty.

I highly recommend Tron 2.0 for Tron fans and anyone who is intrigued with the idea of exploring the digital landscapes of computerized worlds. Even though it's no longer part of official Tron continuity, it's still fun to play and offers interesting variations on the concepts that were originally presented in Tron back in the 80s. Check out the Tron Wiki for more information about Tron 2.0 and be sure to pick up Tron 2.0: Killer App for the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, the only other video game that takes place in Tron 2.0 continuity.

The Tron 2.0 action figures by NECA.

Nerd Rant: Is the Alien Franchise's Game Over in Aliens: Colonial Marines?

The long-awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines video game has arrived this week for Xbox 360, PS3 and PCs, and it looks like the wait was a bust. According to review totals calculated by Metacritic, Colonial Marines has gotten abysmal reviews from all over the Internet. From what I can tell, the game's main weaknesses are bad AI, subpar graphics, repetitive and oversimplified game play, poor plot and scripting, a complete absence of suspense and terror, and a wide assortment of technical glitches. The more generous reviews describe the game as an average shooter that might have been impressive ... had it been released a few years ago.

One of my favorite review quotes is from the one by Ben Kuchera on the Penny Arcade site: "The aliens, or xenomorphs as they’ve become known, are supposed to be one of the most brutal and vicious opponents in modern science fiction. Here they run around like clumsy men in suits, and they often swipe at you and then take a step back to either make sure you’re okay, or to give you time to shoot them. ... The combat itself is like being inside a haunted house and not playing along with the actors. What are they going to do, hit you? The aliens don’t seem to know what to do if you don’t kill them all the second you see them. They like to run around each other, only attacking human characters on occasion. You’ll sometimes find them just kind of hanging out with their heads butted up against walls."

I haven't purchased a copy of the game (thankfully) so I can't comment on it myself. Nevertheless, I'm disappointed to read just how bad this game is after everything that was done to hype it as a canonical installment in the Alien universe. Gearbox, the company behind Colonial Marines, has heavily promoted this game as a "true" sequel to Aliens that explains some of the narrative gaps between Aliens and Alien 3. It also released many articles and videos that emphasize their developers' love of Aliens, their in-depth knowledge of Aliens trivia, and personal meetings with key figures from the Alien franchise such as Ridley Scott, Ron Cobb and Michael Biehn.

So, with the critical and technical failure of this latest entry in the Alien franchise's long list of video games, I can only ask one question: Just how much longer can video game developers rely on the franchise's Colonial Marine characters and weapons to create new games? Read on for my complete face-hugging, chest-busting, acid-bleeding rant.

The major selling point for Colonial Marines is that it's a first-person shooter that allows players to explore familiar Alien saga environments (e.g., LV-426, the U.S.S. Sulaco, the derelict space jockey ship, etc.) and kill hordes of Aliens by using Colonial Marine weapons and technology (e.g., pulse rifles, motion trackers, flame throwers, Power Loaders, etc.). The problem with this selling point is that there have already been eight Alien video games that featured this same selling point since the 90s, when first-person shooters appeared on the video game scene. Here's a list of arcade, PC and home console games that are similar to the game play style of Colonial Marines:

* Alien 3: The Gun (arcade, 1993)
* Aliens vs. Predator (home consoles, 1994)
* The Alien Trilogy (home consoles and PC, 1996)
* Aliens vs. Predator (PC, 1999)
* Alien Resurrection (home consoles, 2000)
* Aliens vs. Predator 2 (PC, 2001)
* Aliens: Extermination (arcade, 2006)
* Aliens vs. Predator (home consoles and PC, 2010)

More recently, there was Aliens: Infestation, which was released in 2011 for the Nintendo DS and was also developed by Gearbox. Infestation is similar to Colonial Marines--same locations, same weapons, mostly the same plot--but it's a 2D side-scrolling shooter, not a first-person shooter.

I have played the Aliens vs. Predator PC game from 1999 that I listed above, and I think that it's one of the better franchise games. It doesn't have much of a plot to it, and it takes place in between Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. It also utilizes quite a few ideas from Dark Horse's Aliens comics; this felt appropriate, since Dark Horse was the company that originally came up with the Alien/Predator crossover idea, and the extra details add some richness to the game's overall content. Much of the game's appeal stems from how many of its levels are modeled after locations from the movies: one level takes place on a cargo ship similar to the Nostromo from Alien, while another level takes place in the Fiorina 161 prison colony from Alien 3. Yet because the game's human campaign casts players as a Colonial Marine, most of those levels are modeled after locations similar to those in Aliens. A few levels take place in a military ship similar to the Sulaco, while a few other levels put players back on LV-426 over 50 years after the events of Aliens in a colony similar to Hadley's Hope--a Weyland-Yutani research colony built around the derelict space jockey ship. Aliens vs. Predator is a fun game to play, but I'm dismayed that here we are 14 years later and game developers are essentially making the same game all over again and with so many glitches to boot.

I love Aliens. It's a great movie, it's a great sequel to Alien, and it shows how talented Jim Cameron is as a director. But the franchise as a whole has so much more to offer than just Aliens. If video game developers can't--or won't--take advantage of the wider range of possibilities that the Alien saga provides, then I think that the franchise's valuable contributions to video game entertainment have come to an end.

A Look Back at Namco's Xevious

One of the fun things about being a devoted geek is looking back at the stuff you loved as a kid (TV shows, comic books, novels, movies and so forth) and discovering new things about them. In this case, I'm talking about Xevious, a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game that Namco released in 1982. Xevious is credited as one of the earliest vertical scrolling shooters, a subgenre of video gaming that would become quite popular among both arcade and home console gamers alike.

Although I don't remember when I first played Xevious, I became quite fond of it for years--I even bought the Atari 7800 system back in the late 80s because it was the first console to feature Xevious as part of its library. For a long time, I thought that the game was a one-hit wonder, because I didn't see any other games bearing the Xevious title and I didn't know many other gamers at the time who loved the game as much as I did. Little did I know that my assumption was somewhat incorrect: While Xevious somewhat successful in the U.S., it became a cult hit in Japan and its popularity led to a few sequels and a spin-off that were only released in Japan. Read on for a look back at this early arcade shooter and the phenomenon it became in Japan.

In Xevious, players pilot a combat aircraft called a ‘Solvalou’ to fight against alien attack forces from the planet Xevious. I don't remember exactly what drew me to Xevious, other than that it didn't look or sound like anything else in the arcades at that time. It was one of the first that allowed you to shoot down enemies in the sky and bomb targets on the ground, all while a hypnotic theme would play repeatedly in the background. Throughout the levels, you would fly the Solvalou over the forests, fields and rivers that surrounded Xevi bases. A giant flying fortress called the ‘Andor Genesis’ would appear every few levels for you to shoot down--this was one of the first examples of a ‘level boss’ to appear in arcade history. There was also an interesting selection of enemies to shoot at, although each of them looked similar enough to each other that you could see how they would be part of the same fighting force. Sure, Xevious lacked the ammunition power-ups that were commonplace in subsequent vertical scrolling shooters, but that didn't make the game any less enjoyable to play.

So with Xevious only having one title in the U.S., what did Japan get? Among other things, two different 3D Xevious titles: Solvalou (1991) and Xevious 3D/G (1995). Both of these games retain the look and feel of the original game, but they added new features and 3D polygon graphics to give players a new gaming experience. Both 3D Xevious sequels are amazing to watch, but Solvalou is very unique in that it plays like the original Xevious except that it allows the player to see everything from the pilot's point of view, essentially turning the original game into a first-person rail shooter. I've never seen a classic 2D arcade game get this kind of a makeover, either before or since. See the video clip below for an example of Solvalou game play.

The other arcade sequels included Super Xevious (1984) and Xevious Arrangement (1995). Xevious Arrangement was not released as a stand-alone game; it was instead included with the Namco Classics Collection Volume 1 compilation, which also included Galaga (1981) and Mappy (1983) and their respective 'arrangements'. There was one arcade spin-off, Grobda (1984), which was based on one of the Xevious enemies.

There were four Xevious titles for the home consoles: Super Xevious: GAMP no Nazo (1986), Xevious: Fardraut Saga (1988), Xevious: Fardraut Densetsu (1990) and Xevious Resurrection (2009). The contributions that the home titles made to the Xevious series were to add new enemy vehicles and two new kinds of fighter ships for gamers to pilot in addition to the Solvalou: the Solgrado and the Zeodalley. Each of the three combat ships could be combined into a single ship, the Gampmission.

Three Xevious 30th Anniversary model kits, by R.C. Berg ...

... their combination into one ship, the Gampmission ...

... and a Grobda tank model kit.

Check out Hardcore Gaming 101 and Arcade History for more information about the Xevious series of games.