Review Slice: Halo Reach's Forge Mode

He looks guilty to me.

Halo: Reach sure delivers the goods. A robust story mode (as extolled by my homey Scott Kieffer over at That Gaming Site); an outrageously fun multiplayer offering; and to top it all off, an extensive level editor.

In the above mentioned level editor, known as Forge Mode, you embody the Guilty Spark of Halo 3 fame (whom I erroneously thought was named Silent Cartographer which was odd as he was not at all silent) and make your way around an enormous series of islands, building pretty much anything your heart desires. You are given a huge portion of the pre-built assets from the game proper, so all you have to worry about is where to put the sand bags instead of having to actually make/texture/map/code weight etc.

The suite also has smaller elements for a more customized space if that's what you really want, though the pieces come in standardized sizes and figuring out how to change that is a real pain.

Where Forge Mode really shines though is the allowance of co-op. That's right, you can build stuff with a friend. Let him jump off your ramp and see if he dies. Have him fill the room with guns while you go build another bunker. One would never really think about it, but it's far easier and more fun to be creative when you have someone to help you.

If all of these positive aspects seem too good to be true, that may be because they sort of are. A major caveat to the mode is also Halo's biggest feature. The Xbox 360 controller, as shooter-friendly as it is, is just awful for the type of precision something like Forge Mode requires. The limited amount of buttons means that all of the assets and options have to be accessed through menus and since nearly every button is already in use, some useful commands simply aren't available. Most notable is the inability to create objects inside a structure. Since your cursor has to be pointing at the sky in order to enable the context sensitive creation menu, everything you want to be in a room had better be there before you put a roof on the place. It's a gripe about something I'm sure was insurmountable from a design perspective, but it would have been nice to be able to use a mouse and keyboard.

Overall, Forge Mode is an excellent addition to what is almost surely an excellent game. Alone it may not be worth $60, but if you already have the game, you should try it out with a friend. If you're on the fence, get off the fence and hop on Forge Mode. Upload your horrible map and let people play it. Or just make fun of other people's maps that are all just penises.

Metroid: Other M: Review

When it was revealed that the guys who made Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive (including all of the Beach Volleyball iterations) would be making a Metroid game, the gamersphere erupted, and rightly so. What a worrying proposition right? Samus with breast physics? Ridley spraying blood all around the room? Thankfully none of this happens in Metroid: Other M. What we have instead is classic Metroid with a twist (read: a bunch of twists).

Metroid: Other M stands as one of two rare attempts (including Metroid: Zero Mission) to inject some semblance of story into the Metroid universe. The story has typically been pretty simplistic. Metroids kill things, space pirates want the Metroids to do pirate things (presumably with eye-patches), Samus has a gun on her arm. Other M endows Samus with tons of character development, something we haven't seen in her before. Apparently with good reason. Other M tells the story of why Samus, being a solitary bounty hunter (who to date has collected apparently no bounties) is always so keen on helping the Galactic Federation. In the process she comes off as highly feminine (to the extent of wearing high-heels in the Zero Suit for some reason). It's totally different than I (and thus, by proxy, you) expected Samus to be, but honestly it's kind of cool to see a heroine who is also a girl. Unfortunately, this leads her to periodically stopping to tell you about how sad things make her. It's humanizing, but it's annoying. The rest of the story is ham fisted and decidedly Japanese which, depending how you feel about anime, is either silly or good. Using Super Metroid as a jump-off is a good decision though as it leads to some truly harrowing cinematics.

Above: Samus is totally sad.

The cgi movies on the other hand are beautiful and action packed. If all that humanizing left you wondering if Samus was a powderpuff, her cg antics flipping around and killing everything will leave little doubt. Samus is hardcore. If you still need convincing, the in-game action will sell you. The control is a bit strange with you holding the Wii Remote sideways (like New Super Mario Bros.) and controlling Samus in 3-D space with the D-pad. It takes a while to get used to, but eventually it feels like second nature. Missiles and free-look are handled by pointing the Wii Remote at the screen. The missiles/free-look mechanic sounds like it would be awesome, but the Wii Remote it far too imprecise and slow moving to do what it is really supposed to. Thankfully, the generous auto-aim in the regular side-scroll mode enables you to shoot the crap out of everything effectively, stunning bigger enemies for the missile coup-de-grace.

The game is actually a pretty good mix of side-scroll, first-person action (although you are stationary in first-person, which is annoying), and even some over-the-shoulder stuff. Not all of this works that well, but none of it is game ruiningly bad. Being such a mix allows for many long absent suit-upgrades make a welcome return. Bafflingly though, Samus the independent bounty hunter agrees not to use much of the suit until her ex-boss/father-figure says so. For some things it makes sense (power-bombs may kill survivors so, duh), but for some things it makes no sense. Hey Adam, I'm standing in lava and dying, do you mind if I turn on my heat-resistant suit? Pfft. People keep saying this makes more sense than Samus finding these upgrades each time, but it clearly doesn't.

Altogether though, Other M is a welcome addition to the Metroid timeline (occurring after Super Metroid which was the final game in the timeline). Team Ninja (despite Samus having comically huge breasts, high-heels, and the voice of a fifteen year old girl) added some awesome flavor to the series and took risks that mostly paid off.

This is a Metroid. It wants to kill you.

If you're on the fence about Other M, get off the fence (and clean off those shoe prints) and go buy it. It's $50. It'll be 10-15 hours well spent. And if you get stuck, look up, it's not bad game design, you're just being stupid.