Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/09/12/game_theory_rayman_legends_diablo_3_lost_planet_3/

Everybody Loves Rayman: Legends dethrones Mario

Plus: Diablo III’s console conversion, and Lost Planet 3 goes icy, slicey

By Mike Plant

Posted in Personal Tech, 12th September 2013 08:02 GMT

Game Theory Heading this week’s games was meant to be Total War: Rome II, but a PC malfunction means I’m having to postpone marching off up the Appian Way until next time. No matter, however, as a feast of games still awaits – including the year’s best platformer...

Rayman Legends

Wii U owners are a hardy bunch, capable of taking abuse on the chin. Even when their choice of gaming machine is regularly stomped upon by other gamers, journos and Nintendo’s dreadful sales figures, they stand unmoved.

Rayman Legends

Briiight eyyyeess, burnin’ like fiiiire

Despite all that, when Ubisoft declared earlier this year that Rayman Legends was to be delayed so it could convert the game to all the other formats, the usually placid Nintendo fans were understandably and aggressively unimpressed. In protest, some even vowed to give the game a wide berth upon its eventual release.

Well, I’m here to tell you that would be a bad move. Legends is such a fine game that to miss it would be akin to cutting off your Mario-style moustache to spite your face.

In fact, the rise and rise of Rayman only serves to highlight the lack of imagination currently being injected into Mr Mario’s 2D platforming adventures. There’s a vividness to Rayman’s worlds, a spark of fun in every stage and a compulsiveness that used to be reserved for the Mushroom Kingdom alone.

Rayman Legends

“If his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it”
You get a better class of caption with El Reg...

More practical thought has gone into Legends than seen in recent Mario adventures too. Take the four-player multiplayer element - five players in the Wii U version - that actively encourages interaction. A far cry from the hostile New Super Mario Bros. where poor implementation of collision detection leaves players rebounding off each other to their deaths.

That Legends looks like a cartoon come to life is another plus. The character animations and backdrops are all beautifully realised. Even the soundtrack steals the stage at times, particularly during Guitar Hero-inspired stages that have you running, leaping and punching to the beat.

I could go on and talk about numerous unlockable characters and collectibles, as well as the 40-odd extra stages imported from Rayman Origins. There’s the interactive scenery too - which admittedly works best on the Wii U’s GamePad - and the satisfaction you’ll feel upon working out how to max out the more fiendish levels.

Rayman Legends

Put up your dukes

The thing is, I don’t need to. All that really needs to be said is that Rayman Legends a platformer that leaves Mario watching his 2D back.

Game Score 5

Diablo 3

Blizzard has steered clear of the console arena for some time now, repeatedly denying claims that the likes of Warcraft and StarCraft might one day jump across from the PC. Whether Diablo 3’s conversion marks a change of heart remains to be seen, but it'’s certainly a step that console-owning Blizzard fans should be happy to see.

Diablo 3 for consoles rings in the changes too, crucially introducing a new control system to best utilise your control pad. Movement and enemy targeting, driven by the mouse on PC, here relies on the analogue sticks, a trick that actually owes much to God of War. The left stick is used for movement and aiming, and the right for evasive manoeuvres.

Diablo III

Slay me down to sleep

It’s a system that can’t rival the PC for precision, however, and fans of ranged classes, such as the Wizard and Demon Hunter, will struggle to target specific beasts within hordes. A lock-on system helps after a fashion, but even then latching on to a boss, for example, can prove tricky in the heat of battle.

Elsewhere, keyboard hotkeys are replaced by your pad’s front and shoulder buttons. It’s a compromise of course, and one that can’t possibly allow access to your character’s full repertoire of moves instantly. But, when used in combination with the control pad-friendly skill selection menu, it’s a reasonable solution.

Console-ation prize

Other changes see an end to the Diablo 3 marketplace that controversially became a black market for legendary equipment dealing in very real cash. Instead Blizzard has simply increased the likelihood of legendary items dropping as loot, though some would argue these artifacts are now too easy to get hold of.

Otherwise Diablo 3 on consoles is much the same as the PC release. The included classes, the number of monsters you’ll splatter and the number of barrels you’ll splinter are all identical. Combat is so hectic that it proves compelling, despite its repetitive nature, and the looting factor means you’ll trawl every inch of the game’s dungeons.

Diablo III

Stats quo

Multiplayer too makes an appearance, and it’s handled well, with drop-in, drop-out play supported for up to four players. A sliding difficulty scale – that ups the ante when allies appear – works as you’d hope, with the only niggle provided by intermittent pauses as your fellow heroes equip themselves with items.

All in all, Diablo 3 on consoles, despite changes to its controls and looting system, is every inch the game it was on PC. Quite whether you consider that a positive outcome depends on how much you enjoy obliterating the minions of hell while laughing inwardly at the hammy story.

Game Score 4

Lost Planet 3

Much like its lead, Jim Peyton, Lost Planet 3 is rough around the edges but with a heart of rugged charm beating at its centre. Unlike the previous two outings, which emphasised giant bug hunts over narrative, Spark Unlimited’s take on the series splits priorities between story and combat, and is much the better as a result.

Lost Planet 3

Mech an’ iced

How Spark accomplishes that makes for a refreshing change too. Rather than delivering into our hands a gnarled soldier, they present us with Jim Peyton, an everyman who finds himself on the hostile ice planet of EDN III not to play hero, but simply to provide for his family back on Earth.

Jim’s personal narrative is fleshed out through impressively poignant video diaries to his wife that actually have you caring about him. An atmosphere of impending doom is soon instilled so you’ll even begin to fear for his crewmates as you explore the NEVEC Company base he calls home.

So far so good then, and Lost Planet 3’s icy setting is a further plus. The shivering winds and freezing temperatures come across authentically, as snow crunches under foot and icicles form in Peyton’s auburn beard. That EDN III is also home to a fairly diverse range of Avatar-inspired fauna doesn’t harm the feeling of danger either.

Lost Planet 3

Maw the merrier

Lucky for Peyton then that he doesn’t have to navigate its surface entirely on foot. Instead he can take to his rig – a giant bipedal mech that comes equipped with both claw hand and drill arm – thus turning the tide on all but the most monstrous of indigenous nasties.

After such praise you can almost feel the ‘but’ coming. In the case of Lost Planet 3 it arrives when the guns start firing. For all the deftness displayed in the crafting of narrative and environment, it seems a solution to the stale formula of ‘shoot the aliens in their glowing bits’ still couldn’t be reached.

From the merely big to the ridiculously enormous, the enemy Akrid all sport red shiny bits that must be targeted with extreme prejudice in order to progress. Adding to this formulaic aspect is a regulation cover system and noticeably unresponsive controls. Then there’s a repeating sub-game of sorts, where your rig freezes over forcing you to blast the ice off while under attack – an endless source of ‘meh’.

Lost Planet 3

Like, eerie

None of this criticism breaks the game, but these issues detract from Lost Planet 3’s good points. I started to wish that Spark had gone back to the drawing board and devised a more nerve-jangling combat element, along the lines of The Last of Us, say.

Instead we’re left with a surprise: the story. I don’t think anyone expected a Lost Planet game to be commended for its script. It’s just a shame that the game’s scope is curtailed by its tired action segments pace the giant mech. ®

Game Score 3