Henry Hatsworth is an innovative and charming platform/puzzle game that should appeal to all types of gamers.
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS) – I know someone that worked on this game, and he’s been pretty excited about its release this week. He’s so excited that he’s been visiting various Gamestops and retail stores the last couple of days to see how many copies are coming in and who is buying them. Thus, you can understand his dismay when he discovers that most Gamestop employees never heard of it, and instead ask him if he’s interested in buying GTA: Chinatown Wars instead. Of the Gamestops that did get the game in, they only get 1-2 copies. (I guess there’s always Amazon.) It’s unfortunate that it may get lost in the flood of big name titles this month on the DS, but I’ve played through it and it’s a solid game. It’s basically Mega Man + Tetris Attack, but my only real issue with it is that the difficulty *really* ramps up in the latter half of the game. If this is your cup of tea – start looking for it! With a tiny number of copies hitting retail stores around the country, it may prove difficult to find once word gets out. For more on it check out the IGN review, which gave it a 9.0, and how much hardcore gamers are loving it over at NeoGAF.
Street Fighter IV – So begins my downward spiral. I hit 2000 Battle Points last week and was pretty happy with it, but when I tried playing some this week, I must have lost nearly all of my 20 or so matches I played, dropping me all the way back down to 1200 or so. The competition this week has been ridiculously tougher than before, and I’m seeing far less of the “Ken players” that I saw when the game first released. It’s almost like the people that weren’t that good with the game have already moved on, so now it’s only hardcore players left. I’m playing against all sorts of characters I have no idea how to fight against since I didn’t see them before, and I’m also seeing more 4000+ BP players who are just nuts. I fought one Cammy player who would just rush at me and constantly spam light attacks as well as a light jump into the air and Cannon Striking me over and over. Before I knew it, it was already over. “What just happened?!” I asked myself.
Resident Evil 5 – I grabbed this over the weekend at Toys R’ Us since it came with the free $20 gift card, but I honestly can’t figure out how to spend it. Last week they had the “any 2 $20 games for $30”, but the selection was terrible at the Times Square Toys R Us, and now this week they have “$20 off any 2 $40+ titles”. But what the heck is left for me to get considering my huge backlog? There’s some games I kind of want, but not for $10 off their $60 retail price. So yeah, that’s my conundrum over the $20 gift card. They didn’t have 1600 point cards either, but hopefully they stock them at some point since I decided I’d end up just doing that if it came down to it.
Oh as for the game itself? Decent so far. It honestly has gameplay mechanics similar to Resident Evil 4, but for some reason I’m just not that into it. I see that half of my friends list is playing the game, but for some reason I’m just not that excited to play it after having beaten the first few levels. It’s not seeming as short as I thought, but it’s not giving me an “awesome vibe” like I had when playing Resident Evil 4. Consequently, I’ve been spending more of this week playing Halo Wars and Street Fighter IV instead. Expect some impressions on the game from me next week though.
Halo Wars – Picked this up this past weekend and I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought. While it’s simpler than Red Alert 3, I’ve actually grown pretty used to the controls and it’s quite doable with the d-pad jumping between my armies and bases, hitting the R trigger to switch between unit types in my groups, etc. I think I’m at mission 9 or so, and for the most part, Legendary difficulty hasn’t been too tough although I had to restart a few times in missions 6 and 7. I haven’t had a chance to play online yet, but I’ll probably try to get some games in if I can finish up the single player campaign this weekend.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ended up picking the PC version of this game at Best Buy this past weekend since it was $10. Ironically, it was pretty much right after I traded in the 360 version of the game across the street at Gamestop for like $15. I figured the game was pretty enjoyable and patches keep coming out for the PC version so maybe I’ll see what it’s like – plus, it has the new expansion with Ric Flair. I was shocked though to discover how zoomed in the PC version of the game was. I tried to zoom out as much as I could but it’s still probably zoomed in at least twice as much as the 360 version. Crazy stuff.
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March 20, 2009 at 10:46 am
Jason
Hey, I read IGN’s review on Hatsworth. That was really a stellar review! Congratulations to that “someone you know.” Do you know if a sequel is in the works?
March 20, 2009 at 10:59 am
espion4ge
i think it’s too early to say, but from current indications i doubt it just because it’s not really selling. and EA probably already felt burned last year when they had original IPs that didn’t sell too well, so they’ve gone back into defensive mode and decided to just churn out the moneymaking sports titles. but, maybe this is a game that will have legs and continue to sell through word of mouth. i guess we just have to wait and see.
March 20, 2009 at 10:51 am
Jason
Oh and SFIV tip: if you can’t beat something, do it too. Then watch how other ppl beat it and learn from them. So for Cammy’s shenanigans, just play as cammy for awhile doing the same moves that beat you and see how other sagats handle it.
March 20, 2009 at 10:56 am
espion4ge
yeah see i was thinking about that. how to get better at the game since the competition is a lot better now. but the problem is, it requires so much commitment!! here i am getting beat by cammy, balrog, guile, gen, and vega, and for me to get better it means i need to understand how each of those characters plays and what their limitations are. i feel like if i really devoted myself to learning i could get better, but i guess the question for me is do i want to do it? there’s so much depth in learning each character and what their capabilities are, and i dunno if my brain can remember all that plus play the mindgame that comes with adversarial. i think i am really just a casual fighting game fan after all…sad but maybe i am a “ken fighter” hahaha
March 22, 2009 at 4:37 pm
thebvan
Hey I’m really digging your site. I hope a 2nd Henry Hatsworth game is in the making but I have my doubts too.
I’m gonna add your site to the blogroll over at my site. Keep up the good work this is really good stuff
March 23, 2009 at 6:52 am
espion4ge
thanks for the kind words. i checked out your site and i’m liking what you guys are doing there too! even seems similar in certain ways haha
i’ve gladly added your gaming blog to our “just created” blogroll here. if you need anything, just let me know…
March 23, 2009 at 10:03 am
thebvan
thanks!
I also thought our sites were really similar too haha. Same goes for you, if you need anything I’ll try my best to help you out.