Despite the proliferation of smart phones and tablets, traditional handheld gaming was alive and well in 2014, giving players such popular titles as FinalFantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for Sony’s
Here
are 10 more quality titles for the modern gamer on the go:
Borderlands 2
PlayStation
Vita
Publisher:
Sony
ESRB
Rating: Mature
For
the PlayStation Vita version of Borderlands
2, developmental duties were transferred from Dallas-based Gearbox Software
to Iron Galaxy Studios. And, despite certain concessions to the more limited
format (slower frame rate during combat and the lack of a four-player coop mode,
for example), the company did a fantastic job. The sprawling, first-person
shooter action is largely intact, as are the role-playing elements.
Wielding
a huge variety of guns, grenades and other weapons, players traipse across planet
Pandora, accumulating cash while blowing away robots, giant insects, flamethrower-wielding
troops and other enemies. If you own the PlayStation 3 version, you can
cross-save your file, meaning you can transfer your game-in-progress to the
Vita (and vice versa).
Bravely Default
Nintendo
3DS
Publisher:
Square Enix
ESRB
Rating: Teen
Billed
as a “spiritual successor” to Final
Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, Bravely
Default puts players in control of Tiz Arrior and his three companions as
they wander the landscape and explore the dungeons of the fantasy world of Luxendarc,
engaging in turn-based battles along the way. When you encounter an enemy, you
can select: Default, which helps shield your character and builds up your Brave
Points; or Brave, which spends Brave Points on performing multiple attacks at
once.
As
in many RPGs, characters earn new skills and level-up their abilities by
winning battles. Animated cutscenes, watercolor backgrounds, 24 job classes
(thief, pirate, mage, etc.) and the ability to recruit citizens (online) to
rebuild Tiz’s destroyed village add to the fun.
Color Zen
Nintendo
3DS
Publisher:
Cypronia
ESRB
Rating: Everyone
Circles, squares, triangles and other geometric shapes fill the screen in Color Zen, a challenging, yet relaxing puzzler. The objective of each of the game’s 100+ levels is to connect objects of the same color to make the entire screen turn a specific color. To complicate matters, there are white shapes that can turn any color, black shapes that eliminate other colors and dotted lines that shield shapes from turning another color.
The
hypnotic action is backed by a new age electronica soundtrack that the creators
of the game refer to as “16 ‘reverby downtempo’ headphone jams suitable for
meditation.”
Disney Magical World
Nintendo
3DS
Publisher:
Nintendo
ESRB
Rating: Everyone
A
charming game the whole family can enjoy, Disney
Magical World is essentially Animal Crossing for Disney devotees. After creating and customizing
your avatar, you’ll begin a journey in which you’ll interact with more than 60
Disney characters (including Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy) while exploring
four worlds: Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Aladdin and Winnie the Pooh.
The
activities are virtually endless, from piecing together outfits to building
furniture for the café you manage to battling ghosts in dungeons to planting
and harvesting crops. By collecting Happy Stickers, you can access new areas,
including Chip and Dale's Workshop. This game will keep you busy for weeks.
God of War Collection
PlayStation
Vita
Publisher:
Sony
ESRB
Rating: Mature
God of War Collection
brings the PlayStation 2 classics, God of
War and God of War II, to the
PlayStation Vita. Gamers guide a musclebound, tattooed, ashen-white anti-hero
named Kratos as he slays his way through a Greek mythology-type world. Wielding
such weapons as Apollo’s flame, a barbarian hammer, the blade of Olympus and
various magical attacks, Kratos battles Medusas, cyclopean beasts, minotaurs and
other tough enemies, including the God of War himself, Ares. There are puzzles
to solve as well.
The
running, jumping, hack-and-slash action is third-person 3D action at its
finest, but the game is a brutally intense bloodbath, featuring over-the-top
violence, a protagonist with ambiguous morals and gore and nudity to spare.
Clearly, this one’s not for the kids.
The LEGO Movie Videogame
Nintendo
3DS, PlayStation Vita
Publisher:
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
ESRB
Rating: Everyone 10+
When
The LEGO Movie hit theaters in
February, critics and mass audiences alike were pleasantly surprised that the
film was much more than a simple toy tie-in—it actually had heart and soul.
Less surprising was The LEGO Movie
Videogame, which plays a lot like LEGO
Marvel Superheroes released last year.
Despite
(or because of) the familiarity, Kids (and many of their parents) will enjoy
the game, in which players control Emmet, an average Joe who was mistaken for
The Special, a Master Builder who must save the world. While journeying through
15 levels, plus various side-missions, Emmet battles villains, collects LEGO
studs, builds helpful items and encounters such playable pop culture heroes as
Batman and Gandalf.
MLB 14: The Show
PlayStation
Vita
Publisher:
Sony
ESRB
Rating: Everyone
If
the basement-dwelling Texas Rangers are too depressing to watch, start your own
baseball season with MLB 14: The Show,
the ninth game in the popular series. In addition to updated rosters, the game
features a new Online Franchise mode, in-game currency (for purchasing training
points and the like) and year-to-year saves, the latter of which lets you carry
your progress over to future versions of MLB
The Show.
In
the revamped Road to the Show mode, players can create a player and advance
from the minors to the majors. For those who find the sport of baseball a tad
on the slow side, you can enable Quick Counts, in which each at-bat begins deep
into the count.
OlliOlli
PlayStation
Vita
Publisher:
Roll7
ESRB
Rating: Everyone
Downloadable
via: store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com
Dating
back to 720° (1986) in the arcades, Skate or Die (1988) for the NES and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999) for the
original PlayStation, skateboarding video games have a rich and enjoyable
history. One of the more recent entries in the genre is OlliOlli, a fun side-scroller with retro visuals and fast gameplay.
Controls are simple (if nuanced) as the X button handles speed, the analog
stick lets you pull off more than 120 tricks (flips, spins, grinds, etc.) and
the shoulder buttons alter said tricks with various twists and turns.
A
special Daily Grind mode gives you worldwide access to the same level each day for
24 hours, challenging you to top the online leaderboard.
Shovel Knight
Nintendo
3DS
Publisher:
Yacht Club Games
ESRB
Rating: Everyone
If you have a lot of Facebook
friends who are heavily into gaming, you’ve likely seen praise for Shovel Knight, a retro-style, side-scrolling
platformer that borrows from such classic Nintendo NES titles as Castlevania, DuckTales, Mega Man and Zelda II. Funded through a Kickstarter
campaign, the game puts the player, as the title suggests, in control of a
shovel-wielding knight, battling enemies and digging up treasure.
Shove Knight, a high-jumping hero, works
his way through an impressive variety of colorful areas, including plains, a
village, a stranded ship and a clockwork tower. Spot-on controls, tough (but
fair) challenges, charming old-school graphics and a certain sense of
familiarity combined with various new gameplay elements make this one a winner.
Tomodachi Life
Nintendo
3DS
Publisher:
Nintendo
ESRB
Rating: Everyone
If
you enjoy such open-ended life-development simulations as Animal Crossing and The Sims,
you should get a kick out of Tomodachi
Life, a game that is as quirky as its Japanese title. Players create a
bunch of Mii characters—family, friends, teachers, celebrities or anyone
else—and watch and interact with them as they eat, go shopping, argue, play
music and games, try on different outfits, develop friendships, fall in love
and much more.
As
you facilitate the action and problem-solve, Miis often behave in humorous and
surprising ways. Earning experience points lets you add more items and
characters, increasing the whimsical, unpredictable nature of the game.
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