Games 2/13/08: Devil May Cry 4, Poker Smash
Devil May Cry 4
For: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
From: Capcom
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood, language, sexual themes, violence)
With “Devil May Cry 4,” there’s good news, bad news, and little else in between. Few games can perpetrate the kind of party fouls this one commits and get away with it like “DMC4″ barely, barely does.
That’s because, as “DMC” fans already rightly assume, the game looks, moves and feels spectacular. Precious few third-person action games can tackle sword and fisticuffs combat with the same flair as “DMC,” and that’s to say nothing of the awesome gunplay and combo system it drops on top.
Things have only improved with the transition to better hardware. “DMC4″ is gorgeous on every level, and the ever-expanding arsenal of moves you can execute as both Dante and newcomer Nero leads to some breathtakingly acrobatic battles.
Capcom would, of course, agree completely. In fact, it’s so enamored with its work, it insists on giving you numerous opportunities to experience it.
To call “DMC4″ repetitive is some kind of understatement. If you wish to see the game’s ending, you must first (a) face every boss character at least twice and often three times, (b) trek through the same environments over multiple missions and (c) spend most of the second half backtracking through every level you saw during the first. You’re not exactly playing the game twice, because the context changes, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t often feel like you are.
Compounding the problem: some serious enemy non-variety. Bosses aside, you can count the number of different enemy types you’ll face on two hands and have fingers to spare. Numerous methods of attack exist, but once you calculate the best means of conquering each type, things quickly become rote.
None of this is to suggest “DMC4″ would be perfect had it been leaner and more diverse. In fact, the game’s biggest problem might be its level design, which ranges from acceptably uninspired to obscenely convoluted. A few missions in particular give you zero guidance, leaving you to guess which exit to take and hope for some indication that you’re moving forward.
Still, every time things approach the breaking point, something proprietarily wonderful happens to keep the finger off the eject button. And as long as “DMC” keeps doing things other games don’t, it’s a little easier than it should be to overlook the numerous violations it commits that no other game could. Buyer (or better yet, renter) beware, though: You’ve been warned.
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Poker Smash
For: Xbox 360 Live Arcade
From: Void Star/Microsoft
ESRB Rating: Everyone (mild language)
The best thing anyone who expresses interest in “Poker Smash” can do is give the game the time it needs to reveal its full potential. It’s not immediately clear at the onset, even if the hook is.
“Smash” essentially apes the same match-three-colored blocks formula that Nintendo has successfully employed for years in such games as “Planet Puzzle League” and “Tetris Attack.” The difference here is that in addition to being able to match three or more blocks of a similar color, you also can match five or more by suit (club, diamond, heart, spade) and any other combination that would constitute a legitimate poker hand.
At first, the gimmick appears to lack legs. The way “Smash” both limits the blocks to high (10 through Ace) cards and then separates the card values by coloring them makes it easy to fall into the trap of playing the game the old-fashioned way. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that, but the low point totals you’ll amass by doing so won’t exactly thrill you.
With time, though, strategies for assembling higher-scoring hands slowly come to light, and methods for amassing combos and strings follow soon after. In a surprisingly inspired move, “Smash” briefly lets you slow down the action by holding down the right trigger, which in turn allows you time to set up whatever domino effect the board allows at any given moment. The game also regularly challenges you to complete a specific hand, rewarding you an extremely handsome scoring bonus if you complete its request before time expires.
That last part provides some of “Smash’s” most satisfying moments, but it also exacerbates the lone sticking point: the scoring system. In a word, it’s unbalanced, rewarding too few points for chains and big hands when compared to the windfall it provides for completing a challenge. That would make sense if the challenges weren’t at least partly reliant on luck, but they often depend on you having the right pieces at the right time in addition to some measure of skill.
Beyond that, though, “Smash” is pretty well perfect. It looks great, plays great, and features a ton of value (local/online multiplayer, multifaceted leaderboards, a 55-level puzzle mode and the usual marathon/score attack modes) for its $10 price tag. Xbox Live Arcade games continue to raise the bang-for-buck bar for downloadable games, and “Smash” is as good an example of that as they come.