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Pinball FX2 Assembles the Avengers- also, Thanos!

HOT DAMN! Here I was thinking I was tired of ZEN Studios cranking out licensed Marvel pinball tables for the Pinball FX2 platform and then they go and put out a new four table suite that includes a freaking Infinity Gauntlet table. Hear that nerds? AN INFINITY GAUNTLET TABLE. Complete with a boasting Thanos, an Adam Warlock figure, and a gigantic rendition of the titular handwear right there on the table. Of course you have to light up the Infinity Gems!

It’s a bright, colorful table that really captures the gaudy, early 1990s style of one of Marvel’s best crossover stories as well as the colorfulness of the company’s “cosmic” storylines and characters. It’s also a really fun table with lots of cool surprises that I don’t dare spoil. Apart from the one where the table is literally flipped upside down, and the one where you go to a sub-table to prove Adam Warlock’s innocence in Soulworld with magnetic flippers. If you don’t know the story, essentially it’s a sweet love story about a mad titan that is trying to impress his mistress, Death, by wiping out most of the life in the universe. And only Marvel’s heroes can stop him.

It’s a playful table definitely not bound to the limits of physical possibility. It’s the kind of playfulness which ZEN has always trucked in, and it is particularly on display in the centerpiece Avengers table. The package is, after all, called “Avengers Chronicles” in a tie-in with the bazillion dollar smash hit motion picture. The Avengers table, which is set inside a miniature version of the SHIELD Helicarrier, is a ramp-heavy affair with a central target array that reminds me somewhat of the old Doctor Who table. But this table’s secret weapon is that you get to choose an Avenger every ball. Not only does this mean that your ball will be decked out in the colors and costuming of your favorite character, it also imparts special scoring for certain targets and even modes exclusive to that ball. This is an awesome, well-implemented idea that actually adds a layer of strategy. If you want the ball save, you pick Cap. If you want to boost the multiplier, go with Iron Man.

One thing I love about the Avengers table- and this is likely totally a Michael Barnes thing- is that even though it’s based on the film they apparently didn’t have the license to use the actors’ likenesses or voices. So there’s some dude trying to sound like Sam Jackson and illustrations that look “kind of” like ScarJo. It gives the table a sense of authenticity, like when you’d play a pin back in the 1980s with artists’ approximation of subject matter rather than actual images.

The other two tables, unfortunately, aren’t as remarkable. One is World War Hulk, which tells the story of Hulk returning to Earth for revenge after being exiled to a gladiator planet by Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and a conclave of concerned heroes. I haven’t read the books. But apparently, one of the things the Hulk does is build an arena. I know this because the table tells you so over and over again in what I assume is supposed to be Ben Grimm’s voice. It’s a shockingly yellow table for being about the Hulk. For those that have read the books, this one may have some good fan service.

Rounding it out is Fear Itself, based on the Matt Fraction crossover from last year that I also haven’t read. There’s a really awesome, dramatic circular loop that crosses behind the flippers and over the dropout hole, but other than the table is strangely boring. The storyline has something to do with an Asgardian serpent showing up and menacing Midgard, and apparently Cap’s shield gets broken at some point. I get a sense that the table may be hiding some sterner challenges than the other three, which all skew to the easy side as has been common with all of the Marvel tables. I just haven’t really cared enough about it to dig deeper.

What I like about all of these tables is that they’re very storyline-driven rather than character driven. I’d like to see more like this. Who wouldn’t want to see a Secret Wars, Mutant Massacre, or Civil War table? Hell, I’m surprised there’s not already a Marvel Zombies one. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.

MMA Time with Bellator

I like fighting games, but I’m terrible at them and the more technical they are, the more terrible I am. I can handle basic things, enough to get started, but once you start talking about canceling out of hyper-combos or picking characters based on how well they can pull off moves in between frames of animation, I’m out. I can certainly appreciate the technical skill needed to master such games, but that doesn’t mean I want said mastery for myself. Hell, even if I did, I’m not sure it’s even possible.

While at E3 I spent half an hour talking to 345 games, the game making arm of Viacom and developers behind Bellator: MMA Onslaught. They also appreciate the technical mastery needed to pull off a deep, fighting game, but they’re also happy giving you a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master with purple chest hair and within five minutes letting you whup up on your friends.

Bellator Fighting Championship’s hook, aside from letting you watch men beat the snot out of each other, is that shots at the title are earned, not given. Tournaments are held across eight different weight classes and the only rule for moving forward is that you have to win. Each “season” starts with eight fighters per class, with the entrants winnowed down across the tournament rounds until one fighter is crowned champion for their weight class. Since debuting in 2009 the league has steadily gained broadcasting partners, growing from the initial broadcasts on ESPN Deportes to MTV2 and soon, Spike TV.

In making the companion fighting game, 345 has chosen accessibility and ease of use over overly technical fighting system. That’s not to say that you can wade into Onslaught and claim your prize, but the focus is definitely on making it easy to create stable of different fighters and getting you headed down the road to Broken Noseville. Character creation allows for four customized fighters per user profile and a generous selection of build, facial appearance and hair options. Fighters can be either featherweight or lightweight class and can specialize in Jiu Jitsu, wrestling or kickboxing. Jiu Jitus fighters have an advantage on the ground, wrestlers excel at throws and kickboxers are good at kicking in your teeth.

Once in one of the six different arenas, health and stamina are equally important to surviving to fight another day. Health allows you to stay on your feet, but stamina allows you to keep punching. Grabbing a dude, throwing him to the ground and pounding on his head may seem like a savvy strategy, but if you spend all of your stamina, your opponent can easily throw you off of him and then close in for a quick KO. Managing attacking and defending becomes very important, as does mixing up punches to whittle down health and stamina in equal measure.

As this is an arcade fighter, the controls are pretty easy to pick up. There are different buttons for high and low punches as well as high and low kicks. The right thumbstick is used for grabs and throws as well as counter-grabs and for getting the other guy off of you should you get taken to the ground. I spent about 20 minutes watching the developers play while listening to them talk, before picking up the controller myself and within no time I was in the ring and fighting. I even won a time or two, but that may have been more due to developer pity than technical skill.

As you win bouts, you earn experience to put towards new moves, but in the interest of balance, no fighter will ever be able to be fully maxed out. As a nice bonus, if you download a trial of the game and make a fighter that you can’t bear to be without, you can keep him when you unlock the main game. Once you’ve spent time honing your craft in the single player, you can go online for ranked matches. Get on the leaderboards and you may see your name displayed during a real life Bellator match. You may want to rethink that K1ttyL0v3r gamertag there, bub.

345 told me that they’re committed to keeping MMA Onslaught up to date with new features based on fan reaction and with the full support of Bellator and Viacom, it looks like they’re in a position to do just that. I got the feeling that they were genuinely interested in making a game that was less of a one time tie-in and more of a companion to the real life league, and a way for fans to connect with the league as times goes on.

Bellator: MMA Onslaught will be available for download on PSN and XBLA on 7/4 for roughly $15. Prepare your gamertag accordingly.

Jumping the Shark Podcast #130

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After the tragic loss of the original Jumping the Shark #129 and the subsequent (and awesome) Cackowski-Schnell One-Man Jam that replaced it, the gang gets back on track this week by reminiscing about the week that was at E3. We talk games. We talk fashion. We talk fine dining. And we talk who would win in a battle royale between dinosaurs and plankton. (At least two of these things are true.) As this posts I’ll literally be on a plane bound for Vegas, so I leave you in the steady hands of the writers here who actually -you know- write stuff. Have a wonderful week everyone. Hopefully I make it home without being destitute and hooked on crack. No promises.

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Handheld Fun with Sony

One of the problems of being at E3 is that you don’t always know what the general perspective of E3 is. I’m not sure if that’s an actual problem or just a blissful result of being in your own self absorbed world of giant, transforming robots and physical embodiments of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

So, when I read Michael’s excellent Gravity Rush piece, I wondered why he thought that Sony had given up on the Vita. After all, I spent a good hour going from one Vita title to another at the Sony booth at E3, surrounded by other folks similarly interested in Sony’s little handheld powerhouse.

As it turned, out, Michael was talking about the lack of Vita coverage at the Sony presser, which gave the impression that Sony was over the Vita. It’s perfectly understandable and yet another reason to avoid those vapid PR spectacles and instead seek out information on individual games.

The game that I spent the most time with at the Sony booth was the upcoming Sly Cooper game, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. I was first drawn to it on the PS3 but once I saw it on running on the Vita, I knew it had to be mine.

Simply put, they’re the same game. And when I mean it’s the same game, I mean that between the visual style of the game and the power present in the Vita, the two games look identical. It reminds me of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 on the Vita. Add to the visuals the fact that the Vita has two thumbsticks, like a PS3 controller, and gryoscopic doo-dads, like a PS3 controller, and you have a handheld game that plays almost identical to its larger console counterpart.

I say “almost” because, as nice as the Vita’s screen is, sometimes a larger screen is nice for seeing hidden objects, alternate routes, etc, but even so, the fact that the Vita version of Sly Cooper plays the same as the PS3 version means that I’ll gladly play nothing but the Vita version. For the record, the two games being identical isn’t some marketing speak. I specifically chose to play the same level on both systems in order to compare and contrast. What can I say, you can take the man out of QA but you can’t take the QA out of the man.

Despite being developed by a different studio than the previous three games, this is definitely a Sly Cooper game, with all that entails. The slow, somewhat stilted dialog that starts each mission is still there, as is Sly’s set of acrobatic moves. With this version, Sly can change costumes and gain extra abilities as a result of the quick change. The level I played had Sly dressed up as his Robin Hood-esque ancestor and using a bow and arrow to sling ropes across the circus tent he was climbing up. If you’ve played and enjoyed Sly Cooper games in the past, I think this will scratch that itch for 3D platforming and thievery.

If you feel like dropping the cash on both versions of the game, you can do the whole cross platform play and swap your saves across hardware for a completely uninterrupted Sly Cooper gaming experience. I have no desire to do that, but I can understand the appeal, especially if you were playing a ton of Sly and then embarking on vacation. I’m not sure any game is worth almost $120 for a contiguous play experience, but I bet Bill would pay that much to be able to play Dark Souls at every waking moment. Me, I’ll stick with the Vita version. It’s cheaper, it looks just as good and I can bring it with me to work for lunchtime play.

After that it was off to try some Jet Set Radio. I never played the original game and I know that it is much loved by the Dreamcast fans. Maybe I’m just terrible at it, but I didn’t get it. I’m hoping that they release a demo that I can try under better conditions, because if my performance with it at E3 is any indication, I’ll just be wasting my money. It did look nice, for whatever that’s worth.

After the shame of Jet Set Radio, I moved down a couple of units and picked up a game from Xseed called Orgarhythm. Usually when I play a game I prefer to be allowed to do my thing in silence while I figure everything out, but the woman standing at the Orgarhythm section and playing the game was so enthusiastic about it that I didn’t mind her giving me the ins and outs.

The game is a combination rhythm-RTS in which you control a host of armies as your main character, a deity of some sort, casually strolls across the countryside. As he walks, music plays and your job is to queue up his armies and their attacks based on the beat of the music. The game is played with nothing but the touchscreen and while it did take me a few minutes to figure out what I was doing, soon I was bopping my head along and ordering waves of attacks.

The better you are at tapping out the army selection, unit selection and then drawing a line for your armies to follow, the more units you get at your command. In addition to the rhythmic aspect, there’s an elemental aspect to your armies and the attacking enemies meaning you have to make sure you’re deploying the right armies based on the enemies that are attacking.

Once the game gets going and you’re fending off attacks and adding units to your ranks, special bonuses and power-ups become available. Being rewarded with a larger army and more powerful attacks was a great incentive to keep tapping out the right rhythm as was the fact that your deity doesn’t stop walking for anything. Knowing that you have to be constantly on guard lest your character die is incredibly motivating.

Finally, while I didn’t get my hands on the Vita version, I did manage to play the PS3 version of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. It’s not a bad take on Smash Bros., with all of the chaos that brings with it. I’m not too keen on having to completely drain your opponents’ health bars before you can kill them as one of the things that brings such depth to Smash Bros. is how different characters can knock you off of the stage more easily than others. Still, if you’ve always wanted to play Smash Bros. but are somehow wedded to Sony products, I can see this holding appeal.

It’s a shame that Sony didn’t mention the Vita more in their press conference as this system needs all of the public praising it can get. At least they did have games, and pretty good ones at that, for people to play. At the Nintendo booth, the only way to get your hands on a 3DS was to flag down a booth lady and ask to play the unit tethered to her waist. Gee, thanks Nintendo, I think I’ll pass.