The Search for Tobin Frost is the official movie tie-in to Safe House, the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds intelligence thriller written by directed by Daniel Espinoza. The goal is to track down rogue CIA agent Tobin Frost, who has apparently betrayed his country and spilled secrets to various organizations and nations that want to do not-so-nice things to America.
We live in a politically correct society where we’re all created equal, inclusiveness is the new cool, and we all bleed the same red blood–but it wasn’t always that way. Turning back the hands of time in both the real and gaming worlds reveal universes filled with ideas that aren’t exactly the most P.C. and sometimes outright offensive. From misogyny to outright racist imagery, video games have walked the dark side when portraying certain groups. Here are a few of the more memorable politically incorrect moments in 2D games.
The King of Fighters ’96 is stuck in the past with its old look and laggy online capabilities. SNK has always taken care of its fans and of its franchises but thankfully this is a re-release instead of the latest installment. If you aren’t a diehard KOF fan then this may be one to stay away from.
Overall, Metal Slug 2 is a decent shooting game that can be an enjoyable history lesson. However nostalgia alone isn’t enough to make me erase its flaws. The brutal difficulty is only magnified by the horrible slow down, and makes this a tough purchase to recommend. At $9.00 it’s truly a hard pill to swallow, but if you’re a purist I doubt any of this matters.
Jeffrey L. Wilson is working on the King of Fighters XIII review right now, but until he delivers that, taste this: An unwrapping of the 4-disc King of Soundtracks.
The levels are so good, so imaginative at times — especially later modern levels like City Escape and Crisis City — I have to wonder why SEGA doesn’t do entire games like this. They obviously still got it in them! And the controls, a point of contention in Sonic 4, are spot-on this time. There are no gravity issues, no weird jumping caveats, or problems with control response or anything. This is the Sonic we remember from the Genesis days rendered in glorious, wide high-definition.
There are lots of quests, side-quests and knick-knacks to collect like photos and music, and various other things throughout the world to find. None of that matters though if there isn’t a compelling central game to anchor it all. There isn’t one here. Button-mashing the same ability over again and trudging through page after page of repetitive dialogue isn’t how I like to spend my time gaming on the Nintendo DS or any other platform, and I can’t imagine anyone else would either despite the beautiful and nostalgic artstyle Solatorobo uses. In that regard, the game’s aesthetic is like a Siren call. Get lured in by the pretty surface, get disappointed by the shallow insides. If there’s any audience for Solatorobo it’s the very young, very inexperienced or very forgiving. But even then, for all the playing there is to do in Solatorobo it’s more akin to a Let’s Play video than a substantial video game.
Fans felt a bit betrayed by Capcom when it seemingly abandoned one of the most anticipated games in fighting game history, but Capcom has come to show that fan service is something it definitely excels at and it does it well. For a title that came out only a few months after the original, Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 is not just assorted DLC. With all the new features and new characters included on the disc, this game is a definite steal.
NBA Jam: OFE features the classic 2 vs. 2 nearly-anything-goes arcade action featured in the recent NBA Jam reboot. There aren’t any fouls, three seconds violations, double dribbles, or other momentum-stopping calls; shot clock violations and goaltending are the only observed rules. That’s old, but here’s what new: You can finally switch between teammates on the fly (previously, if you played a one-player game, you were locked in as one baller). It might not seem like a big deal, but this added mechanic gives you more control and opens up a huge amount of strategic possibilities.
The War of the Worlds is challenging, but not incredibly difficult if you use patience to study the environment for clues toward your next action. But until you do that, the repeated deaths may prove frustrating–especially since the game doesn’t deliver enough payoff for overcome the obstacles. Fans of trial-and-error gameplay and unique art styles will find a lot to like here.
