After Burner - Black Falcon

While it might be lacking the imposing and immersive arcade machine most commonly associated with the After Burner name, After Burner: Black Falcon delivers a spiritually faithful arcade action experience on the PlayStation Portable. This is not an ambitious game. The gameplay is stripped-down and single-minded; the single-player mode is short; and the competitive multiplayer is disposable. But what it lacks in high-minded aspiration, it makes up for with a zeal for explosive, high-speed action.

Fly fast, blow stuff up. What's not to like?
The game's story concerns 13 prototype jets that have been stolen by a rogue mercenary group from a secret research facility in Nevada. As a member of the Joint Task Force Scramble Team, it's up to you to stop the mercs and recover or destroy the prototype jets. You'll get to choose from three humorously archetypal pilots; their differences are limited to which opening cinematic sequence you'll see, the types of bonus objectives you'll have on each mission, and the nature of the occasional bonus mission. The missions are short, usually clocking in at about seven minutes, but the action is nonstop and often challenging, even on the normal difficulty level. Though each mission has a specific objective, such as taking down a psychotic enemy pilot or defending a hospital ship filled with fluffy baby bunnies, the action remains consistent throughout the course of the game.
Like the original After Burner, as well as such Sega classics as Space Harrier and Panzer Dragoon, After Burner: Black Falcon is an on-rails shooter. This means that you have no control over your jet's flight path, though you do retain a certain level of mobility within the confines of the screen. There are occasional onscreen obstacles you'll want to dodge, but you'll be focusing on blowing up your plentiful enemies while dodging incoming fire. You'll gain access to 15 different real-world military jets from such aerospace biggies as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin during the course of the game's 24 missions, though beyond the makes and models of the jets, After Burner is fast and loose with the realism. For example, in the first mission, you'll find yourself flying through the molten core of a volcano. There's usually at least one of these ridiculous but cinematic moments in each mission, which helps propel the game right over the top.
Each jet comes with unique and upgradable top speed, maneuverability, and payload ratings that affect how the jets handle, but all of them have the same weapons. These weapons include missiles for ground targets, rockets for air targets, and unlimited machine guns for any close-range targets or for when you simply run out of missiles or rockets, which can happen more often than you'd like. In addition to being able to purchase functional upgrades for your jets, there are some outrageous paint jobs and accessories for sale, which can be combined with ridiculous results.
Missiles and rockets both use lock-on targeting, and the targets are color-coded. The color-coding proves to be a key feature because even early on, the game tends to move really fast, throwing a mix of enemies at you from all directions. Being able to quickly identify whether you need to deploy missiles or rockets is a lifesaver, especially because your defensive capabilities are rather limited. You can hit the air brakes or the afterburner to put yourself in a more favorable position or perform a barrel roll to assure that you'll avoid incoming fire, though the drawback of the barrel roll is that you can't fire any of your weapons while in midmaneuver. Enemy aircraft will often attack in tight formations, and if you can destroy the whole formation, a parachuted crate will launch out of the exploding debris. These crates are vital to your survival because they can fully replenish your jet's health bar, restock your ammunition, earn you extra points or cash, or temporarily slow down time. Missions are also peppered with airstrips and aircraft carriers where you'll automatically land and replenish all of your health and ammo. Additionally, you've got a number of lives with which to complete each mission. It might seem as if the odds are on your side, but even playing After Burner on the normal difficulty level can be a challenge. There's a near-constant barrage of incoming fire, and it doesn't take too many direct hits to turn your fuselage into shreds.
After Burner: Black Falcon is a blast while it lasts, but it would have been nice if it had lasted a bit longer. There are local co-op and competitive multiplayer modes to help keep you hooked for a little while. The co-op works pretty well, letting you jump into any of the single-player missions you've already unlocked. The action also becomes much more chaotic when you have more than one jet involved. The competitive "mad cow" mode isn't nearly as compelling and basically just has players trading punches as they go back and forth between being the hunter and the hunted. Sure, it's amusing that the jet of the player being chased has an udder on the bottom of it, but that's about all there is to the mode's appeal.

The biggest problem with After Burner: Black Falcon is that there isn't more of it.
The game's singular focus on moving fast and blowing stuff up comes across in the presentation. The jets you'll be flying look nicely detailed, the sense of speed is tangible, and there's a good variety of environments. However, the environments are usually narrow, and the types of enemies you'll encounter are limited. Too many enemies and too many explosions, if there really is such a thing, can cause the graphics to hitch a little. The short draw distance, while not detrimental to the gameplay, is also noticeable throughout. The sounds of roaring jet engines, blasting rockets, and exploding military hardware are punchy and backed up by a driving soundtrack that finds an agreeable balance between military marches and squealing rock guitars.
After Burner: Black Falcon stays true to its namesake by delivering a simple exercise in straightforward, arcade-style fun. The action is immediate and unrelenting, yet despite a general lack of complexity, it can be a real challenge. There are some valid faults against it, such as the length and mission variety of the single-player campaign, but if you're looking for some quick, off-the-cuff shooter action, After Burner: Black Falcon is right up your alley.
By Ryan Davis, GameSpot
Posted Mar 22, 2007 6:24 pm PT

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Aces Of War - Eu

Currently available in the UK/EU only) Flight on a perfectly recreated World War II aircraft. Revive the most exciting air battles like Pearl Harbour directly from your cabin. A deep history setting and realistic briefing sessions make this game a true simulation. Choose to fly in simulation or arcade mode. Play the free flight mode if you want to experience both the flying simulation and combat mode. Bring your skills to the edge to unlock a full range of secret airplanes.

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Ace Combat X - Skies Of Deception

Plot
Aurelia is a peaceful nation located on the southern edge of the Osean Continent. A mild climate and vast underground resources have kept Aurelia out of war and conflicts for many decades.
In 2020, however, the neighboring country of Leasath, under the command of Diego Gaspar Navarro, launched an invasion on Aurelia, using advanced technology such as the Gleipnir flying fortress. The Leasath attack was in retaliation for Aurelia's supposed involvement in promoting civil war in Leasath by aiding their enemies and providing supplies. However, it is eventually discovered that Leasath had an alternate motive for attacking Aurelia. Reduced to a single operating airbase, the remnants of the decimated Aurelian military banded together to strike back at the Leasath forces occupying Aurelia. At the forefront of this crusade is Gryphus Squadron, one of the last remaining Aurelian squadrons. The responsibility falls on Gryphus One, a secret Aurelian air force pilot whose call sign is The Southern Cross", to liberate Aurelia and restore peace to the land.

[edit] Gameplay
The player plays the role of the flight lead in Gryphus Squadron, of the Aurelian Air Force. Ace Combat X also includes a multiplayer mode, using wireless Ad Hoc for up to four players. There are two modes: Cooperative Mode, versus 2-6 A.I. controlled fighters, and a versus mode. The versus modes include Dogfight-Survival, Dog Fight-Shoot Out, Base Attack (attack/defend), Air Superiority (King of the Hill), Beacon Battle (Capture the Flag) and Escort Mission. The wingman command system is no longer available because of the limited number of buttons on PSP. It is one of the easiest games on PSP to pick up the controls but there are advanced controls for masters of the game and those who like a challenge on a game. After meeting certain game conditions, the player can choose 4 different paint schemes for each unlockable aircraft. Certain planes may be "tuned" for improved performance by unlocking and purchasing parts in Campaign Mode, examples of which include thrust-vectoring nozzles, advanced canards and higher-powered engines. The HUD is almost the same as the other Ace Combat games, except the player is allowed a visual of the target on the upper-left of the screen, and a Multi-Purpose Gauge on the upper-right. Medals are awarded by completing various objectives in Campaign Mode and Multiplayer.
Players gain money by destroying enemies, points being converted directly into credits. Once the mission objectives are complete, the player is awarded bonus money for performing above and beyond the requirements of the mission objectives. With missions that require landing or refueling in mid-air, bonus money can be earned by completing said tasks quickly.
The game is only semi-realistic in the sense that the abilities of the airplanes are greatly exaggerated. Some of the most noticeable characteristics are:
Some airplanes can carry up to 98 missiles
The afterburner has no limit in usage
The entire series often includes "super aircraft.", generally superior to their contemporaries.
On one of these Super Aircraft (the ADF-01 Falken) a weapon known as the Tactical Laser System is employed as the special weapon.
The pilot does not seem to be affected by high-G maneuvers, even in non-COFFIN aircraft.
The game also bears other deviations from reality; for instance, planes and surrounding terrain/buildings are not to scale (under the game's scale, fighter planes sometimes appear 5 to 10 times as large as their real-life counterparts when compared to buildings and terrain). AI fighters can also fly through buildings or even underground, where the player would normally crash upon contact.
There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, and the unlockable Ace level. The difficulty mode affects how many enemies are in a stage, how smart/accurate the enemies are, how much damage the enemies can take, and how much damage the player's airplane can take. On the Ace difficulty level, a single missile from the enemy will deal approximately 95% damage to a standard-defense fighter (if not take it out immediately), whereas on the easiest level it would deal about 20%.
Like other Ace Combat games, the player can choose their own route through the campaign, which affects how the game progresses. There are 3 points where missions branch out into multiple paths, marking segments of the game; the longest campaign a player can undertake requires the completion of all 17 available missions, while the shortest amounts to a count of 10 (medals are awarded accordingly for meeting both of these conditions).
Most of the missions in the game are laid out as simply "search-and-destroy", where the player must engage a target and destroy it within a time limit; the only variations to this layout depend on whether the targets are air-to-air or air-to-ground. The variety of mission-altering factors include but are not limited to:
Escort (where the player must protect an ally from destruction by enemy craft)
Air Restrictive (where the player must remain below a certain altitude/speed)
Jamming (where the player's radar and lock-on will be hindered or disabled)
Assault on Base (where the player must attack/destroy an enemy stronghold)
Two or more of these factors may be combined during certain missions.

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7 Wonders - US

Success breeds imitation, and in the world of video games this is no more apparent than in the realm of puzzle games. Casual game company PopCap struck gold with Bejeweled, a simple and addictive grid-based gem-matching game, and it wasn't long before competing casual game company iWin conjured up its own, Mayan-themed Bejeweled knockoff called Jewel Quest. Now MumboJumbo is getting in on the action with 7 Wonders of the Ancient World for the PlayStation Portable, which cribs more directly from Jewel Quest than Bejeweled, effectively making 7 Wonders a knockoff of a knockoff.

Ironically, one of the seven wonders isn't, "I wonder why they made this game."
As a Bejeweled knockoff, 7 Wonders plays about how you'd expect. Each level consists of a grid of different-colored runes that you can shuffle around to create rows or columns of three or more like-colored runes in order to make those runes disappear. In 7 Wonders, each level is themed after one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which include the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Maussollos, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
The game operates under the premise that you're actually building the seven wonders by completing these puzzles. You have to clear runes on every space of the grid at least once, and you have to move a special building block from the top of the grid all the way to the bottom, all while working against the clock. The shape of the grid changes from level to level, and clearing out runes in some of the corners can get tricky, though special row-clearing runes that appear when you create rows of four or five runes make short work of those hard-to-reach spaces, ultimately killing much of the difficulty in 7 Wonders. And, as grand as the ancient-wonder-building premise might sound, all it really means is that you get a slightly different wallpaper and background music every few levels. Even then, the art is uninspired, relying heavily on drab earth tones, and the music is generic.
You'll likely grow tired of the story mode before you work your way through all seven wonders, which leaves you with the predictable free play mode as well as the rune quest mode, which changes things up by challenging you to clear a number of specific types of runes before you're allowed to advance. The rune quest mode is one of the few interesting bits in 7 Wonders. There are no multiplayer modes to liven things up--it's just you and the wonders--though as a semiconsolation you can read short descriptions of each of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in the game.
With more inventive Bejeweled-inspired games like Puzzle Quest available for the PSP, there's no reason to settle for something like 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. There's nothing wrong with the content of 7 Wonders; it just feels like a photocopy of a more inspired game that we've already played.
By Ryan Davis, GameSpot
Posted May 8, 2007 5:50 pm PT

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50 Cent - Bullet Proof

You've got to give the developers of 50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition a little bit of credit. It would have been easy for them to simply port 50 Cent's lousy vanity piece of an action game verbatim to the PlayStation Portable; but instead, they've gone and redone the core game design into something that can best be described as hip-hop Gauntlet. Unfortunately, though G Unit Edition properly emulates the top-down perspective and corridor-crawling nature of such a game, there's no character progression to speak of, nor is there anything to the combat beyond a festival of irritating button mashing. Toss in the lack of a decent world map, grainy visuals, a lousy use of the 50 Cent and G Unit licenses, and a completely perfunctory multiplayer, and what you've got is a game that, while marginally better than last year's console game, is a brand of unpleasant all its own.

Sure, there is a palpable difference in quality between this G Unit Edition and the decidedly lousier 50 Cent: Bulletproof console game...
G Unit Edition tells the same hackneyed crime tale that the console game did, involving 50 Cent's hunt to find out who killed his homie K-Dog and why government agents are trying to frame him for murder. It's an incoherent storyline filled more with shots of 50 Cent mugging for the camera, swearing up a storm, or sitting around his pad with ladies crawling all over him than any measure of actual storytelling. The game goes so far as to use the exact same cutscenes from the console game for this version, but there's a big, honking disconnect between what these cutscenes look like and what the actual game looks like. As lame as the story is, the cutscenes at least feature some sharp-looking character models and decent camera angles. However, once you jump into the action, you'll get nothing more of this sort.
G Unit Edition shirks the third-person perspective of the console games for a top-down, isometric viewpoint. Every level is set up with various rooms, corridors, and streets for you to wander around and plenty of enemies to occupy each area. When you get within range of them, those enemies will start shooting, swinging, or launching explosives at you. To combat this, 50 has a variety of guns, blunt objects, and explosives of his own he can toss right back at them. All you have to do is press down on the right trigger to lock onto an enemy, and then hold down or repeatedly tap the X button to kill away. And that right there describes 80 percent of what you'll be doing in this version of Bulletproof. There are no tactics, no strategy, and not much challenge beyond the swarms of bad guys. The artificial intelligence of the enemies doesn't extend beyond the concept of walking back and forth while firing away with guns, so all you have to do is match their movements, and you'll have zero trouble murdering anyone in your path. Bosses are equally mundane--they use practically the same tactics, but they have bigger health bars. The one theoretically interesting mechanic to the combat is the ability to pull off one-button kill moves while standing near an opponent. Doing this cuts to a quick cutscene where 50 stabs a guy with his knife or pulls some kind of leg-sweep move to force a bad guy to the ground, before eventually stomping on his skull, or something similar. There are a decent variety of these moves but not enough to prevent you from seeing a lot of the same ones over and over again.
Most of the remaining 20 percent of the game involves you aimlessly wandering around dank, bland-looking environments on the hunt for where you're supposed to go next. The game has no real world map to speak of, instead settling for a little minimap that sits in the upper corner of the screen. This map is good at telling you what's several feet outside your visual range, but that's it. If the icon you're trying to find is outside that range, you'll have to meander about ugly rooms and corridors until you eventually find it. Fortunately, the levels are mostly quite linear, but it's easy to get turned around and inadvertently backtrack when you go behind a piece of scenery that forces the camera to reposition itself.
The single-player campaign is short, repetitive, and no fun beyond the first few minutes of play. Not even the unlockable music, videos, and G Unit-brand clothing make it worth playing through, especially considering how grainy the videos look and how mundane the loops for the 50 Cent tracks are. One feature this version of Bulletproof offers that the last one didn't is multiplayer, but apart from being new, there's not much good to say about it. The game includes modes based on basic deathmatch, capture the flag, and similar multiplayer concepts, but the key problem here is that multiplayer suffers from the same lame, repetitive action that the single-player game does. Adding friends to the mix via ad hoc to suffer through the same mediocre combat doesn't make the combat any less mediocre.

...but it's like comparing the difference between merely being smothered to sleep with a chloroform-soaked rag and being beaten into unconsciousness with a metal pipe, with jagged edges...that's on fire.
Apart from the in-game visuals looking nothing like the cutscenes, the basic look of the game is painfully bland. Character models are small and grainy, and when the camera zooms in on them for the quick-kill moves, the ugliness really shows. Environments repeat a lot of the same key themes over and over again, which is to say they are dirty, poorly lit, and kind of unpleasant. Whether you're in a meth lab, a ghetto, or a mansion, you always feel like you're running through the same lame corridors and rooms, looking at the same recycled set pieces. The frame rate and animation are decent, though you'll run into more than a few issues with characters clipping through one another during combat. Most of the audio seems recycled from the console games, so it's unsurprising that it suffers in most of the same ways as those versions. The voice acting is mostly competent, if woefully overplayed, but again, the soundtrack consists of cheap loops of 50 and G Unit beats that get old exceedingly quickly. Most of the gun effects are also underwhelming.
Admirable as the shift in game design is, 50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition still fails to create a compelling action game. The complete and utter lack of depth makes the combat almost criminally boring, the levels are a chore to sift through, and everything else feels recycled from the last game. While you can argue that G Unit Edition is better than the original Bulletproof, all you're talking about is a lighter shade of lousy. The PSP has plenty of quality action games to its name, so feel free to skip right over this one.
By Alex Navarro, GameSpot
Posted Aug 30, 2006 5:25 pm PT

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300 - March To Glory

Lead the glorious army of 300 Spartans in an action game base on Frank Miller's graphic novel series and the major motion picture by Zack Snyder. Players take on the role of King Leonidas, who leads the brave 300 Spartans against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. As Leonidas, uses sword, spear and shield and the power of the soldiers in a battle to determine the very fate of Western civilization. 300: March to Glory is a visceral experience focused on action and combat, allowing the player to fight both solo and in a phalanx alongside his fellow Spartans. The game follows the film's highly stylized production design for a unique look and an intense visual experience to charge along with the frantic action.



December 21, 2006 - One of the hottest trailers floating around the Internet right now is for 300, the film based on Frank Miller's take on the Spartan's war against Persia. The trailer is extremely stylish, both beautiful and brutal at the same time. It's the kind of trailer that men in the audience freeze upon and stare at the screen without blinking for two minutes.Warner Bros. Interactive is bringing a tie-in game to the PSP, the release of which will coincide with the movie in March of 2007. Titled 300: March to Glory, the game doesn't follow the exact footsteps of the movie but rather quickly collapses the story and puts you right into the battle. It's a beat-'em-up to be sure, a throwback to the days of old arcade gaming where enough quarters would win you the day. Indeed, puzzle solving, exposition and all that has taken a distant backseat to the action, which looks to come aplenty.



You take control of King Leonidas and are placed almost immediately onto the battlefield to hack away at enemy soldiers. Instead of relying on story or drastic scenery progression, the game moves forward by offering you new moves, weapons and such to purchase. The Spartan warriors took a lot of pride in their kills, and it's this honor (dubbed Kleos in the game) that you'll spend to buy new attack combos, weapons and armor.Once you have access to multiple weapon types, you're able to outfit yourself in whatever means you want. If you'd like to dual swords rather than a spear and shield, you can do so. You're also able to have multiple weapons at the ready, and a quick press of the Triangle button will swap between them. This is because some weapons will work much better against some enemies, while another might be ideal in other situations.There are a few unique twists to using the weapons. You can use the shield offensively, for example, to toss back a large crowd that has surrounded you. You're also able to actually throw your spear and cause a massive amount of damage, but you won't necessarily get it back, so you need to save it for the most opportune times.At certain points in the game you'll be able to control a phalanx, a "wall" of soldiers all equipped with spears. It looks as though you simply move forward or back while controlling the phalanx, and the entire wall will attack or guard at once upon your command. The short demo we saw of this scenario ended with an attack upon an elephant that didn't end very well. Let's just say that were it wearing shoes, it would have a bit of scraping to do.


One semi-cool twist to the gameplay is that enemy commanders will sometimes order volleys of arrows to be rained down upon your area. When this happens you'll hear a warning horn and must immediately move into a crouched position with your shield above your head to protect yourself.We only had a chance to see one stage of 300: March to Glory, so we're not quite sure how much longevity is built into the title. We should be seeing more soon given its reasonably close release date. In the meantime, head over to the media page and take a look at the first screenshots.

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