Developer: Disney
Publisher: Disney
Platforms: Cinema
Release Date: Out Now in the US. Releases February 15th 2013 in the UK.

Wreck-it-Ralph is Disney’s latest 3D animated movie, following on from the excellent Tangled, with the company this time addressing the subject of video games with the movie hoping somewhat to do the same to video games as Toy Story did to toys.  Does Wreck-it-Ralph get KO’d?  Or does it hadoken its way to success?

I’m gonna wreck it!

Wreck-it-Ralph takes place in an arcade where loads of game arcades cabinets, new and old, sit waiting to be played by excited gamers.  Of course what these players don’t realise is that the characters inside these game worlds are living beings, just like you and me.

One of these arcade machines is Wreck-it-Ralph, an 8-bit game inspired by the classic Donkey Kong.

Each arcade cabinet is a different game/world with all of the cabinets being connected up to Game Central, which is a hub where all of the characters from the various games can meet up, socialise and travel to other worlds/arcade games.

One of these arcade machines is Wreck-it-Ralph, an 8-bit game inspired by the classic Donkey Kong which has Ralph destroying a building and Felix fixing the building and saving the citizens inside the building.  Ralph is your stereotypical looking bad guy, large and menacing; something which has gradually gotten to him over the years as he is treated poorly by his peers in the game world because of his job and looks.  The lack of recognition as a good person, and someone who is good at his job, eventually forces Ralph to go to another world and try to win a medal in order to prove that he is a “somebody”.  The journey is not an easy one however, as if you die inside another game world, then you’ll die for good.

Wreck-it-Ralph is a journey about self discovery, a topic which is often explored in Disney films, and one which is given plenty of attention in this particular movie.  What’s interesting is the exploration of Ralph’s desire to have recognition for a job, which is something that should resonate with adults in the age of large cooperation’s and people getting lost in the crowd.

With the movie looking at other concepts such as death and family, Wreck-it-Ralph is full of themes and looks at them appropriately.  Perhaps it’s interesting then that video games existence as an artistic medium, and the mediums perceived villainy, isn’t one such thing that is examined.  Rather video games are treated with respect throughout the movie and are just accepted as something normal and artist.

The characters are incredibly lovable.

What might be surprising is the lack of human interaction Ralph and his friends have with the human world.  The process of a player getting attached to the characters in a game isn’t something which is explored which is surprising given how much of a connection video games can create with their players.

With a few cameos from Sonic and some Street Fighter characters, gamers may feel like there could have been more video game references and one wouldn’t blame them for thinking so given the amount of video game characters used in the movie’s marketing.

At the end of the day, this is a Disney movie first and foremost and it is not in their interest, neither their intention, to make this movie strictly for fans of the art.  Rather they have clearly aimed to make the movie for everyone, and introduce a whole new group of movie goes to the concept of video games and make those who don’t understand them feel more comfortable with the medium.  This is something Disney does well, and does in a way that only such a great company could.

The characters which the movie centres around, Ralph and co, are all well fleshed out and are more than likeable.  They will definitely grow on you, and are more than interesting enough to hold your attention throughout the movie.

Rather they have clearly aimed to make the movie for everyone, and introduce a whole new group of movie goes to the concept of video games and make those who don’t understand them.

Having said that the movie does lose pacing three quarters into the film, slowing to a crawl as the characters stay in one location for too long, but thankfully the movie quickly gets back on track, with the ending being particularly exciting and full of plot twists.

Overall, you can expect a fun and humorous Disney movie.  Whilst it may not be bundled with references to the medium, what it does have is a heart and soul which it wears proudly on its vest.  Regardless of your disposition towards Disney this is one film you ought to see, especially if you’re even remotely interested in video games, as it’ll definitely take you somewhere special for a few hours.

As I was sitting in a cinema mixed with both children and adults then I can safely tell you: If you are lucky enough to be a parent then know this, the movie will most definitely keep your kids quiet for a while.

Should I see this movie?

YES!

Developer: Robert Entertainment
Publisher: Robert Entertainment
Platforms: PC [Reviewed], iOS
Release Date: Out Now.
Price: £3.99

Ported from the iOS to the PC, Hero Academy is a strange little thing. Developed by Robot Entertainment, the creators of Orcs Must Die, this prestigious developer has a lot going for them as they pump out one great game after another. It would seem slightly odd then that the developer would make a mobile game, seeing as they have an ability to procure hoards of fans to give up their cash for PC and Console games. Does this port ruin their spree? Or is Robot Software just getting started?

Hero Academy – Take turns kicking butt!

Hero Academy is a turn-based, cartoon-styled, strategy game which has players taking turns during which they place units and then send them to attack the enemy team. The aim is simple, to eliminate all of the enemy’s units, or to destroy all of the team’s crystals. The simplistic nature of the gameplay may make it sound like a limiting experience, however this is not the case as the game has plenty of depth, most of which comes from the restriction of moves you can do during each turn. Each player only has five movement points, with placing a unit, moving units, as well as making them attack, each taking up one of these points. The strategy and fun comes from making full use of your units and movement points.

The strategy and fun comes from making full use of your units and movement points.

After each turn you’ll have to wait for the enemy player to make his move, which can take hours depending on the player. Unfortunately there is no single player to occupy pie you otherwise, however Hero Academy makes up for it by allowing you have multiple games going all at once. This enables you to start a ton of matches, come back a day later, do your turn against the enemy and then go away again.

If you buy the game off Steam you can use the Team Fortress 2 army.

This makes Hero Academy perhaps one of the worst games for someone who loves to procrastinate. You’ll be doing some work and then the game will show you a little message from your toolbar telling you it’s your turn in a match, and then bam you’ll be sucked in and want to play more. In fact I’ve done that five times whilst writing this article! Five times!

The game will show you a little message from your toolbar telling you it’s your turn in a match, and then bam you’ll be sucked in and want to play more. In fact I’ve done that five times whilst writing this article! Five times!

Graphically the game adopts a nice clean, cartoon look which suits the game and allows you to easily make decisions relating to the gameplay as all information is clearly presented. There isn’t a lot of music or sound but what there is gets the job done.
The pricing of Hero Academy is what might put some players off. The Steam version is significantly more expensive than its iOS counterpart (considering the iOS version is free), and yet still requires you to buy other armies for the large price of £4 per army, which is way too steep especially when you consider how many different armies there are and what other games you can get for £4 from Steam. Thankfully the other armies aren’t over powered when compared to the default army you get.

Hero Academy – Prepare to pay for the slightly sweeter things.

Considering the price of additional content, it’s slightly odd that Hero Academy isn’t a Free-to-Play. Adopting that payment style would have definitely made the game more attractive.

Overall Hero Academy is a fun, if not excellent, distraction. Having said that it’s high price, and that of the downloadable content, doesn’t feel like its value for money and a potential customer should be weary of the various things you may feel prompted to throw money at.

75%

The town of Fisherman’s Horizon is beautiful both in name and imagery, with the area admitting a peaceful aura of calm and thoughtfulness. That is until the Galbadians come a knocking, upon which it’s up to Squall and his gang to save the day once again.

This amazing orchestra version of the backing music for the area really highlights Nobuo Uematsu ability to create incredible pieces of music which tug on the players heartstrings.

Developer: Kukouri
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Platforms: PC [Reviewed], iOS
Release Date: Out Now.
Price: £7.99

A copy of Tiny Troopers was provided to Candlelight-Studios.com.

Tiny Troopers is a top-down military shooter ported from the iOS where it was successful in attracting a dedicated audience.  Not content with dominating just one platform, Kukouri Mobile Entertainment have ported the title to the PC.  This begs the question, does this port have enough bullets to conquer another platform, or has it run out of ammo?

Get ready to kill a lot of things!

Whilst the story modes do allow for soldier/weapon customisation and encourage several playthroughs, it’s really a case of liking the single player mode, or not liking the game at all.

With the limited choice of playing through either the story mode, Tiny Troopers doesn’t exactly come packed with weaponry.  Whilst the story modes do allow for soldier/weapon customisation and encourage several playthroughs, it’s really a case of liking the single player mode, or not liking the game at all.  A lack of multiplayer modes is definitely missed, but then again considering Tiny Troopers control scheme, it might not be.

Using the mouse to both control where your squad of crazy characters moves to as well as where to shoot, Tiny Troopers employs a very unique control scheme, with the keyboard being merely used for selecting special weapons such as explosives.  With most missions requiring you to move through the level and shoot things, it may seem as though the simplistic controls suit the simple and easy-to-understand game, however this is not the case as Tiny Troopers just ends up feeling clunky.

Missions are short, with some taking less than a minute to complete.  The missions which aren’t short are repetitive and dull, requiring you to blow stuff up and shoot things whilst roaming through empty and boring environments.  Nothing highlights Tiny Troopers iPhone centric design than its super bite sized chapter based gameplay, which just don’t fit in on the PC.

From a presentation perspective Tiny Troopers excels.  Whilst it’s music and audio are somewhat lacking, feeling bland and inspirational, there is a nice art direction which somewhat resembles South Park.  With the whole game dressed in a cartoonish style, it’s definitely not an eye-sore to look at.

Tiny Troopers definitely brings the guns when it comes to presentation.

The game doesn’t take the opportunity to make use of its setting and art style to offer some sort of commentary, in any form, of the situations going on in the region.

It’s somewhat unfortunate then that despite Tiny Troopers desert setting, alluding to the wars in the Middle East, that the game doesn’t take the opportunity to make use of its setting and art style to offer some sort of commentary, in any form, of the situations going on in the region.

At the end of the day that’s what Tiny Troopers feels like, a big missed opportunity with the whole game feeling like a rushed port.  It’s not that Tiny Troopers is a bad game, it’s just considering its price on Steam, and the competition available on the platform, you’d have to really squeeze this orange in order to get out its unripe juices.

65%

With Guild Wars 2 primed and ready to launch in a few hours, we thought there would be nothing better than to celebrate the latest game from ArenaNet with a barrage of beautiful ballads.  Sit back, turn up your speakers, and enjoy some of the finest music to come from a video game.

Epic Struggle

Epic Struggle is one of my favourite pieces of music from a video game.   Used at the beginning of the Guild Wars 2 Gamescom 2011 trailer, this piano piece is wonderfully mesmerizing.  Unfortunately the original piece is rather short, but thankfully the music above has been looped for your listening enjoyment.

Guild Wars 2 Gamescom 2011 Trailer

Times of Hope and Sorrow

Times of Hope and Sorrow is a magical piece of music and one that contains much solace.

Rural Theme

This music reminds me a lot of a Studio Ghibli movie.  The piece’s ups and downs and beautiful orchestra score flow so brilliantly.  You can almost imagine some little animated creature bobbing up and down as they walk, and this theme accompanying them on their travels.

Main Theme

This is the last piece of music we’re featuring from Guild Wars 2.  This theme is powered with passion and can easily make anything epic.

That’s all folks!   I hope you enjoy your Guild Wars 2 weekend and it’s full to the rim with awesome Guild Wars 2 gameplay!

It’s a beautiful sunny day outside. Well, as sunny as it can be in England. It’s one of those relaxing days when nothing is going on and there’s a sense of peace in the air. I’ve just arrived at the beautiful, snowy Shiverpeaks in Guild Wars 2 (GW2). There is calm. Having just trekked up a mountain pathway, I had been greeted with a sight of utter awe. Below me was a valley filled to the rim with trees, with a building sitting in the vast distance. I can see other tall peaks in the far expanse as clouds slowly move over the world of Tyria. This is bliss, this is amazing, this is Guild Wars 2.

Created by US developer ArenaNet, Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the original Guild Wars which was released in April 2005 and has since sold more than 6.3 million copies, making it one of the bestselling games on PC. ArenaNet’s latest game hopes to be bigger, bolder and change the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) genre for the better.

I can see other, tall, peaks in the far expanse as clouds slowly move over the world of Tyria.

Like traditional MMORPGs Guild Wars 2 takes place on a persistent, online server. Long gone are the days of venturing out into the world by yourself or with a few friends as experienced in the instance-based Guild Wars. In this sequel there are vast lands begging to be explored with thousands of other players.

From caves leading into mountain bases, to hidden passageways up a mountainside, to jumping on rocks over a beautiful and flowing sea, the world of Tyria has been carefully crafted. Whilst the graphics only run on DirectX 9, the art style carries the game’s presentation by providing a world which combines stylistic design with a realistic art style. This in conjunction with a soundtrack that can switch with ease between providing tension or calm, and you’ve got a world which feels truly alive.
No other part of Guild Wars 2 highlights the liveliness of Tyria than its capital cities. These large areas are filled to the rim with citizens moving and interacting with one another, as well as grand architecture that is enough to make even the most cynical person’s mouth drop. You can, and will, spend hours searching and exploring these vast real-estates. Characters will comment on your successes or failures as you move around the city from each unique area to the next, adding a touch of personalisation.

Indeed Guild Wars 2 provides a lot of atmosphere. Be it sitting on a mountainside cliff, or fighting off a hoard of enemies, the sound will pierce your speakers providing incredible emotion. In fact one of my favourite moments in the game was sitting beside a river which trickled down a hillside into a nearby lake. It was a wonderful moment hearing the water move softly down against the rocks. After all I had spent the previous twenty minutes fighting off a hoard of monsters from attacking a nearby shrine, so a break is always nice.

When I played in the first beta I found combat to be disappointing and underwhelming, as I didn’t understand all of its intricacies. You attack using hot keys, with the 1 key being used for basic attacks. There are no auto attacks and the passive play that comes along with such a game mechanic. Rather, combat is energetic and lively. You can dodge in and out of enemy attacks, and positioning is incredibly important. This is where most of the strategy and depth comes from, as well as the fun combo system. Put down a wall of fire and have archers fire through to burn their enemies with their arrows.

Players only have the choice of ten abilities at once and these can’t be changed on the fly, only when out of combat. With the first five of your abilities being taken up by your weapon moves, and the sixth slot being replaced with a required healing spell, this leaves you with four utility spells which you can customise as you wish. Changing weapons will change the skills of the first five abilities in the skill slots adding another layer of customisation.  You are very much so allowed to play the game your way and find a play style that suits you.

A combat system that once appeared linear and disappointing is now full of customisation and you will soon love darting around, using your abilities to combo your enemies to their inevitable death. Once you understand it, you’ll never want to stop fighting in Guild Wars 2.

Player versus Environment (PvE) content is much like other MMORPGs however with a much larger emphasis on exploration. You’ll be rewarded with a nice chunk of experience, and loot, for looking inside that cave and exploring its depths as opposed to just moving onto the next quest. The much talked about dynamic events, events in the game world which are triggered by other players’ actions in Guild Wars 2, appear to be just a marketing point at first with not much happening to the world depending on your failure or success. Dig a little deeper, leave the newbie area, and you’ll find that they do indeed have an impact. One such event had me raiding a nearby enemy base, protecting a sculptor so that he could put up a statue of one of Tyria’s gods inside their base. After completing the event, and the ones after it, the enemies turned passive and stopped attacking other players.

You’ll be rushing with your team mates to secure large forts, building rams to batter down the doors so that you can claim the well protected castles for your own.

One can only imagine how much of an impact your actions will have on the game world at a higher level.

The best thing about these events is that they scale with the amount of players which means even if there aren’t a lot of players participating in the event, completing the events is certainly doable.

Player versus Player content is perhaps where Guild Wars 2 really shines. World versus World versus World (WvWvW) takes place on the Mists, offering vast battlefields for servers to fight over. With three servers fighting at a time across four different maps, this aspect of the game is truly fascinating. You’ll be rushing with your team mates to secure large forts, building rams to batter down the doors so that you can claim the well protected castles for your own. The more areas you capture the more benefits you get for your server, which means there is always a reason to fight in the Mists.
There is so much depth in WvWvW that you can play it for a very long time and not get bored. I should know because that is what I’ve been doing.

Unfortunately that’s where I have to end this preview, the reason being I have merely scratched the surface of Guild Wars 2 and if I continued on any longer both you and me would be here all day.

Heck, I haven’t even talked about the crafting, helping out enemies in WvWvW so that they battle alongside you, the various jump puzzles, hidden dungeons in the most peculiar places or the storyline which is both engaging and exciting. There is so much to discover in ArenaNet’s latest game that I really don’t want to stop playing.

The internet has gone crazy about this game, perhaps because the game offers a lot of content with customers only being required to buy a copy of the game to experience it all. Maybe it’s because its world is so inspiring and unique.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s because Guild Wars 2 is something which definitely deserves people’s attention.