All of the NFL teams are represented fairly, complete with official numbers and names, and even official stadiums, so you feel like you’re on your stomping grounds when you play at home.  The roster contains over 2,500 players, so there’s no doubt your favorites are included here.  What’s more, they perform adequately, so Tom Brady has an amazingly good passing game, similar to what he did earlier this week on Monday Night Football.

However, accuracy can only go so far.  Sometimes you also need to have game options to keep players entertained, and this is where Madden NFL 12 comes up short.  Though there are a number of modes available, including the ability to relive moments from either the Green Bay Packers’ or New Orleans Saints’ seasons as they proceed towards the playoffs, they aren’t nearly as deep as what’s offered in the console versions.

What’s more, the playbook is severely lacking in running plays.  Most of the time you end up passing or tring to do something with the quarterback.  This takes away from the realism of the game, especially if you’re playing as a team that has a high dependency on the running game.  EA could’ve easily mixed this up with more variety.

As for presentation, there are pros and cons, but unfortunately, most of the bad stuff outweighs the good.  Being able to play your customized iPod soundtrack in the background is a nice touch, and a good change of pace from the arena music selected for the game.  Unfortunately, that’s the primary benefit, as the graphics run into a serious amount of problems.  The detail and frame rate aren’t that good, save for some of the background environment settings.  Then there’s the game’s performance, weighed down by a good amount of frame rate issues, crashes, and freeze-ups.  It’s almost like EA released this game before it could be a peak performer.

If all you have is an iPad and you want to get your football fix, we suggest sticking with Madden NFL 11 for the time being, until this version is fixed.  It runs way better and has a much more varied playbook than this game.  For a minute there, we thought that Madden NFL 12 would be as promising as its console brethren.  Instead, it feels like a worn-out quarterback scrambling to find his game.

     
From gamezone.com

Rest assured, PopCap doesn’t.  What we have here is one of the most addictive strategy games available on the App Store today, and for a budgetable price (at the moment) of $2.99.

You know the drill, right?  Your job is to clear orange pegs away from a playfield by dropping a marble onto them.  It bounces off of objects and other pegs, particularly blue ones.  You’ll also need to try and build up a high score by hitting combos, performing long skill shots, hitting score multipliers (pink pegs), and using power-ups, each aligned with a specialty character, such as an animal or an alien.  Each one is different, and you can select between them once you beat the game.

Peggle HD still plays as fantastic as ever.  You can either aim on the playfield with touch screen controls, or use a scrolling wheel on the side for precision.  Both work very well, and will keep you dropping marbles well into the night.  You can also unlock Achievements in Game Center to show off to your friends, though there’s no direct online competition.  Oh, well.

Now, being dubbed HD, you expect Peggle to look PHENOMENAL on the iPad, right?  Well, good news – it does.  The play fields are definitely up to par – in fact, past it – with great peg alignments, interesting object placements (damn fish!), and a cool zoom-in feature, if you want to see where a shot goes.  Also, it’s still nice to have Extreme Fever kick in (with a little “Valkyries” in the background) kick in once you get that last peg.  The music remains the same, but is pleasant background noise as you get through each stage.

No, nothing’s really changed, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it?  PopCap Games has been making unbeatable social games for years, and Peggle maintains the status quo by being so simple, yet so delightful.  The HD version is one of the best versions to date, and one that won’t set you that far back in your wallet.  Drop some cash, then drop some balls.

     
From gamezone.com

Burnout Crash takes the rules that normally apply with the mode – destroy as much stuff as you can within a given time frame – and turns it on its head, with a new gameplay concept and a top-down perspective.  Granted, it’s not the same as causing a ruckus as you would in Burnout 3: Takedown, but considering we haven’t had a strong Crash mode in Burnout games for some time, we’ll take what we can get.

In the game, you guide cars into traffic, then use explosive Crashbreakers to continuously detonate your cars and take out others.  It’s kind of strange how your vehicle can hold up to such damage over several minutes at a time – it’s probably that Progressive insurance plan.  There are various modes that change up the rules a little bit, so you’re not just blowing yourself to bits without getting somewhere.

In Rush Hour, you’ve got 90 seconds to destroy everything that you can, whether it’s traffic coming your way or rebounding cars into buildings to send them crashing down to the ground.  They take a bit of damage, but you’ve got no shortage of vehicles to launch into them.  Along the way, you’ll need to perform certain duties, like bringing down an industrial-strength bulldozer, clearing the way for an ambulance to score extra health (you’ve got five misses in a round, marking the cars that got away), and a pizza truck.  This truck in particular is important; you spin a Wheel of Pizza to see what kind of power-up you can achieve during your run, whether it’s a sinkhole that earns you bonus points for each car it sucks up, or a restart from your regular position, having to redo the crash all over again.  Beware, there are positive and negative rewards.

Pile Up requires you to do damage to vehicles without exploding.  Then, it activates an Inferno mode where the pyromaniac in you gets to destroy everything.  Road Trip offers a more mission-based set-up, where you go as long as you can without missing cars.  You’ll earn assorted goodies along the way, including traffic-seeking missiles, cop cars that block an intersection, and a natural disaster – such as a tornado – that cleans up the mess afterward and earns you extra bank.

What’s cool about these modes is that they all tie in to the AutoLog.  Like the other games that use the service, it keeps track of your best times and compares them to others that are playing against you.  It’s good fun competing against others, and the further you go, the more stuff you’ll unlock, including additional stages (there are quite a few here) and more cars.  Just wait till you get behind one of those monster trucks, baby.

The gameplay isn’t as in-depth as most driving games, as you spend most of your time pinballing around and strategizing your next move.  It’s not bad, and you can really rack up some major dollar value – in the $50 million range or higher – if you’re good enough.

Honestly, though, Criterion should’ve skipped out on the Kinect support.  It’s clearly one-note, requiring you to step in a direction and jump to direct your car.  It’s lame and gets old quick.  What’s more, you can’t play the game’s multiplayer party mode unless you’re using it.  Good if you’re a bit buzzed on alcohol, I suppose.

The visuals aren’t amazing by any means, as the same top-down perspective is used and all the cars and buildings are micro-sized from a distance.  Still, it’s nice to see everything that’s happening here, and the frame rate never slows down enough that it frustrates you as you’re using your Crashbreakers.  It could’ve been worse.

As for the audio, the music is an inspired mix of some great 80’s tunes and entertaining party picks.  The sound effects are on the money as well, with lots of booms and cool little entrance themes.  The announcers, though, do get a little obnoxious.  The main guy just needs to shut the hell up, and you might groan a little bit the first time you hear a redneck speak.  Yes, a redneck.

Even though we could’ve done without the audio annoyances and the Kinect support, Burnout Crash is hardly a wreck.  We were startled at how well Criterion was able to manipulate the gameplay into a fun strategic format, while maintaining the kind of spirit that Burnout has become known for.  Until we get a real Burnout game again with a Crash mode re-installed into it, this will certainly do.

     
From gamezone.com

What’s better is that now every single Bit.Trip game is available on a single 3DS cart, that you can take with you and play anywhere. That’s quite a combination for success. I’ll go over each game and how it holds up on the 3DS, and then give my take on the overall package.

Bit.Trip Beat

The Bit.Trip that started it all has you controlling a paddle on the left side of the screen (see Pong) repelling back squares as they fly towards you in patterns that get harder and harder the further you progress, which also play tunes that complete each song that plays during each level. The better you do, the better the quality of the music becomes (which goes for all the games). The game controls great, if not better with the stylus than it did with the Wii Remote. The 3D effect works and doesn’t distract from the gameplay, though I honestly found myself having it mostly turned off, only because the framerate is slightly better when it’s not used.

Bit.Trip Core

Core, once again, relies on rhythm-based gameplay that places your core in the middle of the screen, having the player fire beams in one of four directions (up, down, left and right) to destroy patterns of blocks. These blocks start off easy enough but quickly get much harder—to the point where level memorization almost becomes crucial. If you find yourself getting too overwhelmed, you do have a few bombs that clear the screen. Out of all the Bit.Trip games, Core was definitely my least favorite. Again, the 3D effect wasn’t needed; it did nothing to make the experience any better.

Bit.Trip Void

Void was the first of the series to allow full 8-direction movement. Players would take control of a black circle that grew in size as you collected black pellets and tried to avoid oncoming white pellets. The game is controlled with the circle pad which sometimes makes for awkward and slow movements, and would have controlled much better with the use of the stylus and touchscreen. A lack of any explanation of the game could confuse some players at first, since you’re not told whether there is any sort of score bonus while being big in size, before pressing a button and deflating. This was one of the hardest games to play on the 3DS due to the small screen. Unless you’re playing in a dimly lit area so you can see the screen well, the black pellets you’re supposed to collect will disappear into the background. So assuming you’re in good lighting conditions, the 3D effect is actually beneficial since you can easily tell the pellets from the background.

Bit.Trip Runner

Easily the best of all the Bit.Trip games, and definitely one of the meatiest. I can see myself justifying getting this collection for Runner alone. Commander Video is on the run, to the right to be exact. This is by far the most rhythm based of all the games, as every jump, slide and kick is a note that accompanies the song of the current level. This is one hell of a challenge, and expect to retry a lot. Thankfully Runner will just simply take you back to the beginning of the level, rather than relying lives and continues and making you start over from the very beginning. Make it through each level with all the pick-ups and you’ll be rewarded with bonus level that harks back to Atari’s Pitfall. A boss encounter awaits in the last stage of each world that once again will throw everything you’ve learned and conquered in the previous levels. The 3D effect looked great but I found myself once again turning it off because that smoother framerate made it that much better to play.

Bit.Trip Fate

The shooter (or shmup) of the Bit.Trip series, Fate is yet another oddity that manages to be extremely challenging yet absolutely rewarding. Commander Video is on a set path that the player navigates back and forth. All the while you’re trying to dodge incoming projectiles from enemies and taking these enemies down with some firepower of your own. The main difference between this and other shmups is that you’re constantly attached to a winding rail, meaning you have to be smart when dodging projectiles since you can’t move anywhere you want. The control scheme also works great as the circle pad moves Video along the rail, and the stylus aims where he shoots. Other indie game characters join as temporary powerups, such as Super Meat Boy and Mr. Robotube.

Bit.Trip Flux

The series comes full circle as Flux goes mostly back to its roots. This time the paddle rests on the right side and players must repel and absorb certain pellets, while avoiding others. The difficulty is ramped up fairly early, and Flux will truly put your skills to the test. Since it shares many similarities with Beat, the gameplay feels very familiar and therefore a bit disappointing for those that were expecting a completely new experience, but the challenge (and the music) makes it totally worth playing through.

The Entire Package

The interface that holds all six games together is just as minimalistic as the games themselves. Not really offering much help on how each game is played, some players are bound to scratch their heads a bit, but let’s be honest, people that are considering this package are most likely acquainted with Commander Video and just want his adventures on the go. The 3D effect in each game isn’t overly necessary, and you can just as well play each game without the need to turn them on. Bit.Trip Saga is an awesome collection of Commander Video’s adventures, though extremely light on extra content (even the Wii version of Bit.Trip Complete had the soundtrack CD included), the package is well worth for both fans, and players wanting to get familiar with the lo-fi hero.

     
From gamezone.com

The game puts you in control of four members of a special operations team, who are flown in to an island nation to shut down a madman general and his army who believes that chaos is the order of the day.  Of course, the only way to stop him is to meet him with an equal amount of chaos.  You’ll choose from four different members of the team, including big, bulky dudes and smart, sassy girls, who then take command of a vehicle that’s dispatched by a rough-and-tumble team leader.  Your mission is simple – follow the primary and secondary objectives at hand, and destroy the living crap out of everything.

Your basic weapon is a machine gun with unlimited firepower, which is fired from the back of your vehicle.  Luckily, it’s set up remotely, so all you need to worry about is using the left analog stick to drive around, and the right analog stick to direct your fire.  As you proceed over the course of the mission, you’ll gain enhancements to your machine gun and also be able to use a special ability assigned to each driver.  One has a shield that protects from massive damage, while another can call in an air strike should things really get nasty.  (And they will.)  On top of that, other weapons are accessible, including a flame thrower, a rail gun, and a rocket launcher.

The game spreads over the course of nine huge mission maps, which will take you a few hours to get through, but the journey is far greater than the destination, thanks to Avalanche Studios’ complete devotion to destruction.  This is the same team that did such wondrous work with the open-world action game Just Cause 2 last year, and you can see that degree of destruction here, even in downloadable form.  Everything blows up smoothly, whether you’re driving through a building and watching it crumble, or tearing apart a tank with a few well-concentrated shots from your rocket launcher.  Watching it go “WA-BOOM” is part of the fun, and it’s great to see that these guys didn’t scale down on the way everything goes up – even if it does go borderline on the 2 GB download size.

The environments don’t really differ that much over the course of the game, but Avalanche did a superb job with them, particularly with the lighting.  It’s cool to see the sun peek around corners and shine down on your vehicle, even with just a hint of shadowing.  The vehicles look great too, and the frame rate remains steady – in single player anyway – as you blow everything apart.  The audio is also marvelous, with plenty of spirited voicework (that evil general is a hoot – he almost sounds like Dr. Evil at certain points) and thunderous battle music, the likes of which you might hear in any Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

However, it’s the gameplay that’s the real draw.  Renegade Ops is incredibly addictive, and the sheer joy of obliterating an army with tons of firepower never gets old.  Even after you beat the game on the first run-through, there’s so much more to come back for, including the secondary objectives to earn Achievements/Trophies, and the happy-go-lucky chaos you bring in.  You can also call on friends to join in the fun, either with local split-screen support or online, up to four people.  Things do tend to slow down severely when you bring in more folks, but that’s the price you pay for going all A-Team on the bad guy’s army.

With wonton explosions, plenty of exciting gameplay and a presentation that really holds its own on the downloadable front, Renegade Ops is worth every cent of the $14.99 price tag.  The single player missions are exciting (wait till you start outrunning a nuclear explosion – whoa, baby), and the multiplayer has its moments too, even if it’s a little too much with the lag and all.  This is one twin stick shooter well worth your time – and your thumbs.

     
From gamezone.com

But you’re wrong.  Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon is another primary example of a game that’s all license and no substance.  As a result, it wears out its welcome with everyone – even fans of the show will be appalled at how mind-numbingly repetitive this game gets.  And with no redeeming factor in sight – no replay value, no awesome weapons that last longer than five seconds, no unlockable goodies – it’s not worth even touching at all.

The game has you choose from the four main characters of the show – Callie, Leonard, Mike or Grimes, each of whom play about the same – and set out to prevent Apocalypsegeddon, I suppose, by facing waves of enemies that pretty much stay the same over the course of the entire level.  One moment you’re facing zombies that complain even more than when they eat brains, and the other is packed with bird men that are so obnoxious, you wonder how they don’t end up killing each other.  Your job is to shoot everything on sight, since the game is a twin stick shooter by basic nature.

And boy, do we mean basic.  There’s really nothing new that Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon brings to the gaming scene.  While the characters are amusing at first, they wear out their welcome too quickly, especially after they quip the same thing the second or third time you change a weapon.  The developers didn’t even go for variety here.  The enemies also repeat the same thing way too often, to the point that you try to maneuver the controls to turn the gun on yourself.  (Sadly, no such luck.)

There is some decent gameplay buried beneath all this rubbish, as it’s fairly easy to aim at targets and take them down before they attack you.  However, it’s all an avoidance thing, since you don’t have massive melee techniques, and the weapons are lackluster at best.  Some fire too slow for their own good.  Your best bet is to just snag the baseball cannon and hope for the best.  (Kind of a shame when the default weapon can get you through the entire game, without letting you tinker too much with variety.)

The in-game graphics aren’t horrid, but you can tell that some corners were cut in order to get publishing done.  The crude animation probably won’t win over any fans (even if it slightly mimics the same style of the show), and the backgrounds aren’t very inspired to say the least.  As for the sound, well, the voice samples approach nausea levels, while the music is bland and forgettable.

The game can be beaten in about an hour or so, and if you feel like torturing friends, you can invite them along to kill useless enemies with you.  Fans of the show who are on some sort of drug buzz may find amusement out of this, but reality will eventually settle in, and the fact you’re out $10 after buying this game will indeed make you feel Ugly.

Seriously, what went wrong here?  The game’s developer, Backbone Entertainment, has worked on far better games than this one.  And the fact that Comedy Central learned NOTHING from the South Park days is just unacceptable.  Avoid Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon like the plague, unless you have a yearning to kill bird men that are on the same intelligence level as you.

     
From gamezone.com

John Tanner once again returns to active driving duty, bringing his skills to a city that needs it, as the mayor of New York has called upon him to help clean up the streets by taking down local thugs and keeping things from getting too out of hand.  But along the way, something happens.  Your driving becomes so haphazard that you yourself become the threat, though you’d never really be able to tell because things get dull and repetitive in a hurry.

The game contains a series of missions to complete, but there’s only about 20 in all, and you’ll wipe them out within about two to three hours time.  There are additional races to take part in, including time trial events and elimination races, but by then you’ll have probably lost interest, due to the fact that you’re never doing the same kind of mind-blowing events that you could be doing in San Francisco.  It’s as if you’ve chosen to ride around in a crappy Prius rather than living the good life in a sports car.

Driver: Renegade’s controls actually aren’t bad.  Your vehicles handle with the kind of aplomb of a good street-driving machine.  However, their stability is heavily questioned.  If you hit any sort of object in the game, be it street signs, other cars, buildings – hell, at this rate, even thin air – you begin building damage on a bar.  Do too much and your car explodes, forcing you to try again.  Or not, depending on your tolerance level.

Even worse, the game’s AI isn’t well balanced.  In fact, it’s way too easy to put enemy vehicles in their place, due to the fact they can’t drive worth a damn.  In fact, during some pursuits, it was simply too easy to box them in and finish them off with a few bumps, rather than endure the thrill of the chase.  Boring.  And you can’t even take on others in multiplayer.  The only connectivity you have with your friends is through leaderboards.  And despite three trips around the city, no one registered.  Not one fellow driver.

The visuals look okay, though New York seems to be barren of any given street life.  There are literally no pedestrians in this game, and every once in a while, you do see a fellow driver on the street, but their behavior is so plain that it’s hard not to think that a robot is behind the wheel.  Worse yet, the 3D effect in this game doesn’t really do anything for it.  You’re better off just driving in 2D and saving yourself the eyestrain of looking at crap in the third dimension.

Thankfully the music is at least easy to listen to.  Though it’s lacking the kind of diversity you’d find in San Francisco, it’s suitable for a 3DS game.  It’s just a shame we can’t say the same for the voicework.  Tanner comes off like a complete pompous jerk rather than a man of the law, constantly yelling at folks with the same taunts over and over again.  It gets to the point you want to ram him off the road just to silence him.  The sound effects are average, nothing exceptional but not bad either.  But really, shut Tanner up.

Driver: Renegade is a game that had the potential to sit alongside San Francisco as a mean machine, but instead winds up being a lemon due to its shoddy production values, bad collision detection and lack of replay value.  Leave this sucker sitting in the lot.

     
From gamezone.com

Star Fox 64 3D, is a port from the last Nintendo cartridge based console. Back then, it was an instant hit pushing the first 3D graphics to the extreme. Considered one of the greatest rail shooters of the time and now makes its way to a new audience with the 3DS.

For players familiar with Star Fox 64, not much has changed. The same story mode is available to play along with a few more options. Along with story mode, there are two more modes to play, battle and score attack. In battle mode, you can choose to play by yourself with three other computer air pilot extraordinaires or you can play via download play with three other local players.

Continuing on with battle mode, there are three types of “battles” to choose from, Survival, Point and Time battle. Survival is essentially a last man standing mode, where your goal is to be the only guy still flying while taking your opponents out first. The next mode is Point Battle Mode, which sets a goal of a certain amount of points to receive with players getting those points by shooting down their opponents. And the last battle type is Time Battle, which is extremely similar to point battle except the player with the most points as the time runs out wins the game.

As for story mode, it hasn’t changed and that’s definitely a good thing. It contains the same classic gameplay and story back from its N64 glory. If you’re unfamiliar with it however,  you take control of star ace Fox McCloud as you and your crew of Peppy, Slippy and Falco take the air as fighter pilots ready to shoot down supporters of the evil Andross who has taken over the galaxy.

Star Fox 64 was way ahead of its time back in the day and it shows as the gameplay still holds up perfectly today, fourteen years after its original release. Players won’t be disappointed by the sheer fun and exciting action that Fox and friends bring to the table in this game.

Although Star Fox 64 hasn’t aged a bit (it in fact looks even better now) Nintendo decided to reinvigorate the game by adding a new control scheme to the mix. Players can now choose between the standard controls, or to use the 3DS’ built in gyroscope for tilt controls. Although gyro controls are a cool feature to use, you’ll find almost immediately that it feels a lot more natural to play with the original controls as using the gyro hurts the 3D experience. If you’re inclined to use the gyro controls however, it’s recommended to turn the 3D effect off completely as the often fast moving motions that will occur while steering will throw the 3D visuals off almost immediately after you start playing around with it.

Though we’re glad to see the return of the classic four-player multiplayer modes, Nintendo really dropped the ball with the omission of any true online multiplayer. This makes even less sense when you factor in that you’re able to stream your reactions real time using the built-in camera. I can easily see my friends if I’m sitting right next to them, whereas it would be much cooler to see their reactions online when playing someone 5000 miles away. When will Nintendo realize that having online functionality is important to us gamers, especially gamers that wanted to rekindle their fond memories of saving the galaxy from Andross.

Also an upgrade from four players to eight players would have been welcome. This is the next generation of handhelds, and there should be an option to play with many other people. An eight player match would make sense if players had the choice to play as both the Star Fox team and the Star Wolf team.

Star Fox 64 3D is a nostalgia kick to the face that leaves you wanting more. Players can get excited to see Fox McCloud back in action in his true glory and not a part of a lame adventure game for Gamecube or as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. With the upgraded visuals and enhanced controls, you’ll gladly jump into the cockpit once again and take flight with your crew (even you Slippy…) and relive those cherished memories blowing into that old Star Fox 64 cartridge back in the day. And as for you newcomers, what better way to get acquainted with the coolest fox in space, than with the best game of the series.

     
From gamezone.com

The story isn’t too big on details, but it basically has your band of destined characters fighting against an evil sorceress who’s looking for rebirth.  Her re-entry into the world would cause it to fall back into chaos, so a wizard, a mercenary and an assassin form an unlikely alliance (one with Crimson, we guess) in order to stop the plan from coming into fruition.  As you go deeper into the caverns, more complex enemies arise, including big ones with self-generating shields and mighty warriors who throw spears and other weapons at you.

Crimson Alliance has a peculiar purchase cycle.  You can either purchase the game with just one class for $9.99, or buy the whole thing, with the three separate classes, for five bucks more.  We recommend going the second route, because being able to level up and perfect each of these characters (you can create multiple ones at once and play any level you’ve completed over again with them) will definitely keep you busy.

Over the course of your journey, you’ll earn points for enemies you kill and loot you collect, and once you finish each stage, a total will add up, rewarding you extra loot for completing them speedily or spilling a whole lot of demon blood.  You can turn this around in stores by buying new items or earning special abilities to power up your character.  You’ll actually see them get stronger as you fight the good fight, unleashing the kind of abilities that you thought only Gandalf was capable of.  You can also change the cosmetic appearance on your character, should you feel like going for something of a different color.  Purple, perhaps.

Each of the characters bring something to the table, which is why we recommend the full purchase.  The wizard can let loose with some bad-ass spells; the assassin is good both at close range and at a distance; and the mercenary is excellent when it comes to slamming enemies in front of you.  What’s more, each one unlocks certain rooms on a map that can only be accessed by them, including extra items and loot that otherwise can’t be touched.

The item switch-out system that Certain Affinity has put together here is marvelous.  You can switch between weapons and other abilities on the fly, without the need to pause the game, so your friends can keep playing while you power up accordingly.  It’s also quite user friendly, thanks to the menus that switch with simple bumper button presses and the easy to access inventory system.

For a downloadable title, Crimson Alliance has a sharp appearance.  These dungeons look great as you run through them, with intricate lighting details, beautiful animation and other little things that fit right in to this fantasy world.  It also uses a cool isometric perspective, similar to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and it works in the game’s favor.  The music is a little softer than we would’ve preferred, and the voicework mostly on the average side, but it’s certainly not on the level of, say, the Dungeons and Dragons films.  Or the XBLA game, for that matter.  (Yuck.)

The game rewards those who go at each journey alone, but Crimson Alliance definitely cheers on cooperative play.  You can join others either locally or through Xbox Live, and the more members you have in your party, the more rewards you can unlock.  It’s great tagging along with others on a goblin-killing spree, though you might want to be careful for those that wander off on you to find secrets.  Maybe it’s best if you’re all on the same page before you begin your journey.

Until Gauntlet re-emerges and retakes the action/RPG crown, Crimson Alliance definitely fits the bill.  Certain Affinity has done wondrous work here making the formula their own, with characters that hold their ground, solid gameplay that anyone can pick up, and excellent co-op options that make it a pleasure to go on a looting spree with your friends.  Sure, getting all three classes is a little more expensive, but the worth is definitely there.  You’ll thank us when you’ve got three uber-powered characters in your collection.  You really will.

     
From gamezone.com

The game features a number of cars and circuits to race across, including new tracks in Abu Dhabi, the Black Forest and the water fronts of Rio as you try to shoot for first place victories.  In some cases, that’s easier said than done, as the AI is quite competitive this time around.  Practice really does make perfect here.

Like the original Shift, Unleashed utilizes a solid, problem-free control system that lets you tilt the iPad in order to steer your vehicle.  (Touch steering is available as well, if you prefer that set-up.)  You’ll have no problem making turns, bypassing cars (sometimes hastily, if necessary) and getting in a few drifts as you maintain speed.  And you’ll have several customized rides to do it with, allowing you to adjust everything from tires to suspension, which will not only alter the handling of each car, but also improve your overall performance.

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t support online multiplayer.  You are able to log in to Origin and compare your best leaderboard times to others, but when it comes to racing against your buddies, you’ll have to do it locally.  And even then, it’s not the smoothest ride, as you’ll have to contend with occasional game crashes.  They aren’t enough to hinder the experience entirely, but you can consider them bumps in the road.

When the game does hold up most of the time, it does so with great visuals.  EA has paid way more attention to the backdrops this time around, and they look outstanding as you squeal your way through them, moving at a rapid pace.  The cars look decent, though they occasionally tread into “blocky” territory with minor glitches.  This could use a little patching up, EA.

As for the audio, there are some nice sound effects, backed by decent racing music.  It’s not as good as an experience as, say, Real Racing 2 HD, but now that EA owns that developer (Firemint), maybe they can learn a new trick or two.  Or hey, have them work on a Need For Speed game..

Despite the fact that this territory has been covered before by other racers (including the first Shift), Unleashed is still worth checking out, and won’t leave much of a pit stop on your wallet, as it goes for a meager $4.99.  If you’re an on-the-go racing enthusiast, gear up for Shift.

     
From gamezone.com