Star Wars: The Old Republic does a lot of things right. While it’s obvious that the team behind The Old Republic are firm adherents to the school of Blizzard, the overarching stories that carry through the game are immense and exactly what you would expect from the people behind Knights of the Old Republic. All that praise aside, there are still some pretty obvious things missing from the game which would really tie the game into the larger Star Wars Universe.

A T-16 Skyhopper “Bullseye the Womp Rats” Mission
One of the best parts of Rogue Squadron II was the mission objective where you actually trained to destroy the Death Star by shooting womp rats on Tattooine. While there are womp rats in SWTOR, the only way to kill them is via mundane attacks.

The Sarlacc and the Ten Thousand Year Experience Grind
A common complaint about MMOs is grinding to gain experience. Not a lot of people realize it, but Boba Fett was the first person to suffer this fate.

Sabacc
Sabacc is the one part of Star Wars lore that hasn’t been reproduced as some sort of licensing monstrosity. While plenty of people have produced open-source or web-based versions, there has never been anything resembling an official release of Sabacc. Sitting firmly somewhere between hold em’ poker and blackjack, it’s a pretty fun gambling game that could add a depth to the world that is missing.

H. Jon Benjamin as a Random Alien
While walking around the world of SWTOR you occasionally hear bits of random conversation. Were some of these conversations being held by H. Jon Benjamin the game would be infinitely better.

Richard Pryor as a Cantina Barkeep
Richard Pryor and drunk aliens. I don’t know what is more awesome than that.

Pizza the Hutt
You deal with a lot of Hutts in The Old Republic and a disturbing number of them wear silly hats. Not one of them is made of delicious, delicious pizza.

Bill Murray’s Lounge Singer
I hate to come back to Cantinas, but they play a pretty huge part in the game. Adding this classic cover of the Star Wars theme would be a huge improvement over the Meco-inspired music that seems to be popular across the Old Republic.

The Tardis
He’s in an MMO now. MMOs are cool.

A Mission to Retroactively Destroy an NPC’s childhood
When it comes to dominant themes in the Star Wars universe, there are few more globally recognized as a failure to leave well enough alone.

A storyline featuring a Seafaring Ancestor of George R. Binks
Tony Millionaire is the sole reason I can tolerate Jar Jar Binks at all. Because this comic short appeared in an official Star Wars comic, the woeful tale of George R. Binks is actually legitimately part of Star Wars canon. The fact that Jar Jar Binks’ stupidity drove his own father to attempt suicide warms the cockles of my heart.

The popular Tropico series is poised to blast into the future with a major DLC update called Modern Times coming in mid-March. The Tropico titles have always done an amazing job of using the city-building genre as a vehicle to highlight the silliness of despotism and regimes built on a cult of personality. Kalypso Media invited us out to take a look at the upcoming add-on and from what I saw, I’m suitably impressed.

As dictators in the real world continued to up the ante with nuclear weapons, religious cults, and ever exuberant lifestyles, the world of Tropico stuck with the tried and true 1950s banana republic theme to great effect. But alas, all good things must come to an end and El Presidente must also step into the future and embrace technology, science, and nukes to maintain his vice-like grip on his picturesque island home.

In Modern Times, many of the classic building styles from the original Tropico 4 have been updated to more modern versions with added features to improve efficiency. Old buildings aren’t automatically upgraded, but instead are replaced in the build interface with the new versions. This allows for variety across the island and is one of the first times I’ve seen generational change on display in a city building game implemented in such a detailed manner. In line with the El Presidente persona, players could leave sections of their islands slums full of potential workers while building sparkling new financial or resort sections of the island to lure in tourists and foreign dignitaries.

Along with the minor visual and functional upgrades to the existing buildings, entire new buildings are now available to fully bring the dictatorship into the 21st century. Telecommunications headquarters and national space programs add new management options to let the player decide just how oppressive their regime will be. You could use your electronics production facility to counterfeit goods, your space program to broadcast your propaganda to a world audience, or your state sponsored church to preach your place as the voice of God on Earth. Conversely, you could choose to help the planet with technological advancements, purchase health care for all your citizens, and educate your entire populace. With thirty new or upgraded buildings available, the type of dictator you are is entirely up to you.

Modern Times is also set to add twelve scenario missions and ten new edicts. Scenarios like combating the threat of a global shadow government will test your ability to govern the future of Tropico while maintaining your vice-like grip on the populace. Edicts will allow you to control your citizens via Internet censorship, the establishment of a police state, or by lulling them into complacency by declaring a “Festival of Love.”

Overall the updates, contained within the Modern Times add-on, do more than add a fresh coat of paint to the tropical scenery. Upgrades and new content add play time and refresh the game in a way that is uncommon in the world of downloadable content. It is easy to think of Modern Times as Tropico 4.5 rather than just a standard DLC. Though the Cold War has ended, the rule of El Presidente marches on!

This is amazing. I love the new dragon and all the little details.

Love Miyamoto’s drawings of Mario and his awesome signature.

My life is full of background ambiance. A night of drawing requires queuing up a few much loved movies for moments of distractions. Cooking requires background tunes to fit the meal of choice (Motown is great for pasta by the way). Background chatter at a bar or restaurant sets the mood for the whole night. But background gaming? Up until this point I hadn’t even considered the thought of using the highly interactive medium to bring a little hands-off atmosphere to my life.

It may sound damning to a game, but Pugs Luv Beats is a great piece of background gaming. The rhythm and beats based game features adorable little pugs that run around the landscape activating little happy heart radishes. Each step the pugs take and each heart radish they collect make a different sound. But this isn’t Elite Beats Agents or Groove Coaster with their extreme reliance on rythmn and timing to advance through the game. Instead, Pugs Luv Beats is more of a simplified Real Time Strategy game that happens to have some great beats to it.

With Pugs Luv Beats I found myself plotting the path of my pugs and then setting my iphone down and just letting the little guys stockpile their happy radish points while I went about other business. I brushed my teeth while pugs with little hats made zig zag patterns. I got dressed in time to cute pugs with unlockable rock skin exploring the landscape. I walked to work while the pugs in my pocket made my stride a little bouncier.

And when I came back to the game I would derive extreme joy from making two master pugs sing up and down the music scale with a drag of my finger. Gaming can be many many things, from thrilling to relaxing, all absorbing to anger inducing. Now I can happily add atmosphere filling perfunctory background gaming to the mix.

Pugs Luv Beats Official Site
Pugs Luv Beats iOS page
The Making of Pugs Luv Beats

Gamesugar checks out the latest hopeful aiming to sweeten the 3DS eShop this week.

The Nintendo Network was announced at an investors meeting. Multiple user accounts on Wii U, DLC, and NFC tech for the Wii Tablet are step 1

As a huge fan of Last Starfighter, seeing an 8 year old project touted as something new sends me on an emotional roller coaster.

40 LEVELS – 5 WORLDS – 3 POWER-UPS – 1 AWESOME GRANNIE – AND MORE…

Mutant Mudds is an exciting new platform game for the Nintendo 3DS from award-winning developer, Renegade Kid. This marks the company’s first self-published title, available exclusively on the Nintendo eShop in 2012.

Our hero may be a 2D character, but he can take advantage of the third dimension by jetting between the background and the foreground playfields in this unique dimensionally-woven platform adventure (the stereo 3D effect looks amazing on the 3DS).

Armed with a heavy-duty water cannon and H20-powered jet pack, Max steps out onto the porch of his (Grannie’s) home; determined to thwart the filthy plans of the Mutant Mudd army by blasting and hovering his way across the soiled landscape.

With the intro information (AND the trailer out of the way), let’s start with the review!

Mutant Mudds is a game that started as a 3D platformer intended for DSiware. Renegade Kid was trying to get a publisher to sign on for the release, and thus, they worked on a video to show what the game would be about and how the gameplay would be handled.

After having trouble securing a deal, and with the 3DS having a set launch date, Renegade Kid shifted gears, made a 180°, and performed any other actions that symbolize a change in their approach to this project. Gone were the 3D graphics and DSiware release. Now, Max was the pixel-filled protagonist of an interesting 2D platforming game. The main theme of the game – Mudds have invaded and you must wash away all of them with your trusty water hose – and some of the gameplay mechanics were all that remained. Come to think of it, Mutant Mudds could even be considered a demake of the DSiware prototype! How meta is that?

As is always the case, 2D gaming is awesome, just from the fact that it’s in 2D. Mutant Mudds is no exception. When you start up the game, you’ll realize that everything looks great in 2D. The foreground, the background, and whatever the part that is even closer to us that the foreground is called (Foreground plus? Foreground Alpha?) – they all look sharp and colorful… and once you move the 3D switch to the max, everything truly comes to life! Everything is more colorful and shiny, and the 3D effect definitely makes Max, the enemies, the collectibles, and the levels pop-out in style.

The controls for the game are easy to understand. You can move with either the D-pad or the analog nub, jump with B or A, and shoot with X or Y. You also have a hover pack to… hover after jumping. Trigger it by pressing either jump button right after your initial jump. You’ll get the hang of all of this on the first level since the game is kind enough to teach it to you. The most important thing to remember is that the hover pack has a limited used since, once you activate it, the hover bar is drained FAST. Be careful or you’ll fall into a pit!

And now, it’s time to meet our cast (or meet them again, since you’ve already seen the trailer)!

MAX (THE HERO)
Max is the hero, set on defeating the Mutant Mudds. Being somewhat of a whiz kid, Max created his own heavy-duty water cannon and H20-powered jetpack to thwart the evil Mutant Mudd army.

GRANNIE
Max’s Grannie is a smart cookie. She taught much of what she knows to her grandson. Grannie has created a few upgrades to Max’s equipment that can be “earned” with Golden Diamonds in Grannie’s dusty attic.

The trailer set the spotlight on top of some of the Mudds that we’ll encounter in our adventure, so it’s only fair that we also mention some of them:

SACKY SIT-SIT
The Sacky Sit-Sit is considered the laziest Mutant Mudd in the army. Their routine mainly consists of sitting. Don’t be fooled by their cool demeanor, though; their touch is still harmful, and they tend to perch themselves in tricky places.

SKEYES
Skeyes are fine examples of the mutations the Mutant Mudd army is capable of. A brown eye in the sky; Skeyes are tough cookies that patrol in search of foes.

ROYAL MUDD
Convinced they are part of the royal guard, Royal Mudds come bearing arms in the form of a shield and a sword. Approach these firecrackers with caution.

The 3D effect in Max is put to great use when you realize that you can actually go anywhere you want as long as you can find the proper jump pad to transport Max into a new parallax dimension. You might start a level walking in this layer. All is normal, all is well – not too different from how 2D platformers handle their action/adventure/jumping/collectible runs/adventures/journeys/quests, right? You move from left to right. You collect everything you can get your hands on. You can even backtrack in case you missed one of the Golden Diamonds or if you want to find the secret level that is hidden on each one of the regular 20 levels that Mutant Mudds has to offer.

But then, you could find a way to get all upfront and personal with the screen. Look how big Max is in that image! When he’s in this layer, the 3D effect allows the other layers to continue to look good, and things never seem over-pixelated at all, but the focus is now completely placed on our hero in order to make it easier for us to carry on with our hero-ing duties. This is all possible thanks to the “retro style game on a modern console/portable” mechanics and principles at work. Be glad of that since, back in the day, we used to get pixel flicker when two characters dared to be at the same line height on screen.. and we liked it!

But maybe, just maybe, you’ll be good enough to make it aaaaall the way back there. Oh noes, Max is so tiny! Controlling Max in the background is not a problem since all actions work as they should, but you do have to be extra careful with your jumps and with the Mudds since, sometimes, elements in the first layer usually hide them on purpose.

It is because of all of this that Mutant Mudds works so well in 3D. As soon as you focus on the screen, you forget you’ve turned the 3D since everything just clicks.

The touchscreen is used to show you the total of Golden Diamonds you’ve collected, the level you’re currently playing, and the time left to complete it. The timer on the touchscreen is not there for decoration. If time does indeed run out, it’s the end! You’ll then have to start over and try to not make the same mistake again.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are Secret levels are available on all levels (one secret level per regular level… level). They’re harder than the main ones and, by the time you get to the last 3 secret levels, you better know how the game works or you’ll be replaying them over and over and over again. Be on the lookout for the special doors. An extra Water Sprite awaits at the end! And these secret levels bring with them a special surprise: they’re based on how the “display and sound technology” behind two of Nintendo’s handhelds from christmas past! If you find a G-land door, you’re magically transported to a Game Boy inspired level, with Game Boy style colors, graphics and sounds to round up the experience. Should you find a V-land door, you’ll be taken down memory lane to simpler times, when the Virtual Boy was born, providing us with visuals that make us realized that Nintendo better give us all of the Virtual Boy games ever released as content for the still young 3DS Virtual Console service.

Your main goal is to try and make it to the end of the level so you can collect the Water Sprite it holds, all in an effort to unlock new levels. Once you have enough Water Sprites to unlock a couple of them, you can actually play them in any order you want. You could be in a level from the first set one moment, and then jump into a lava filled level a couple of minutes later. Or maybe you’re really want to finish all ice themed levels before going back to the rest? Well, you can do it!

I want to take a moment to remind you about an ever-present element in the best 2D games. I am, of course, talking about spikes. Spikes are always bad news. The ones in fun-fun games have the ability to insta-kill you (as it should be). You’re basically dead as soon as you look at them funny. This is true for such amazing games as Mega Man, and Mutant Mudds is now part of this beautiful tradition.

The game provides us with an even better experience thanks to the awesome soundtrack that plays as you jump, shoot, hover, eradicate, collect, sit perfectly still, and shuffle. You can actually get the soundtrack over at this bandcamp link, so be sure to pay for it. The Chiptunes demand you to do so!

The Golden Diamonds that you find on each level are used at Grannie’s Attic (which you can access from the main hub) to buy power-ups for your water gun, your hover pack and your jumping skills. You need said power ups in order to access every single secret level, as well as to make it easier to finish each main level. Purchases are made by a “cross the threshold” system. You only need to collect 1,600 in total to unlock all 3 power ups, and since there are 100 Golden Diamonds per level, and 20 levels in all, 2,000 possible Golden Diamonds await, allowing you to miss a few here and there. Also, you need to know that you can only equip one power up at a time. If you’re finding that a level is particularly hard, switching power ups might make it easier!

Before wrapping this up, I do have only two small complaints about the game. Nothing too bad, and definitely not a deal breaker, but I do like to nitpick now and then:

a) The “flash of invincibility” after being hit is crazy short, and if you don’t move, or if you’ve been hit by a huge enemy, you run the risk of getting hit a second time right after.

b) Not having all power-ups available at all times after you “purchase” them with golden diamonds means you have to go back to grannie’s to change gear. Having them mapped to the L and R triggers would have cut down 20-30 minutes of back and forth.

Mutant Mudds is a 12 bit game (not quite 8 bit, but not quite 16 bit) for the 21st century, packed with nostalgia and flair, with a side of old school sound effects, and a chiptune soundtrack that kicks all kinds of derriere, which are a very nice combo. All 3DS owners need to add this to their collection RIGHT NOW, especially since I want a sequel to be approved ASAP so I can be playing it before the year is over.

REVIEW NOTES

A copy of this game was provided by Renegade Kid for this review.

Game was completed and all Golden Diamonds and Water Sprites were collected before writing this review.

Total amount of time played: 5 hours (EXACTLY 5 hours, according to my 3DS)

Want to win a free copy of Mutant Mudds? Leave a comment here and include your twitter handle!

Deviant Artist LWiis64 put together this massive compilation of every Nintendo character ever. I wish there were “Where’s Birdo” books.