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IGN Review of Blades of Thunder II
Don't worry if you can't recall ever playing the original Blades of Thunder - that game quietly hit the Game Boy Advance about a year ago with very little fanfare from the small games publisher Summitsoft. Summitsoft seems to be the latest company to embrace the Nintendo handheld mentality of "budget B titles," because in the short list of games from the publisher it has yet to wow us with any significant product. Blades of Thunder II is no exception. The game definitely isn't a "me too" DS title, but its originality can't save the dull action and sloppy gameplay mechanics.
Blades of Thunder II was developed by Interactive Vision, the same studio that developed the Game Boy Advance original. The first game in the series seemed more of a tech demo to push voxels on the hardware than it was to create a fun experience - that game design was a forced, forward-scrolling shooter where players simply moved their helicopter left and right, blowing up ground and air targets until A) the mission ends, or B) the player grows so bored that they simply shut off the system and move onto something, well, fun.
For Blades of Thunder II, the team worked with the Nintendo DS features to produce a more contemporary and versatile action title. Here, players use a D-pad and stylus combination to fly through full 3D environments, blasting enemy craft and structures to complete set missions. It's definitely a much more realized game design than the original GBA Blades of Thunder, but even with that said the game feels just as bland and barebones as the first game did, and it's clear that this DS game is just as "budget" of a project.
The game isn't a helicopter simulator, nor should it be one. It's more along the lines of the Desert Strike design than it is an action sim like Steel Talons. Players are restricted to one hovering altitude with only a slight ability to go up or down depending on how wild the terrain rolls along underneath the craft. The D-pad controls the forward, backward and side-to-side movement of the craft, with the touch screen providing the double duty of ship rotation and weapon aiming. The idea is to complete set missions with the vehicle's firepower: unlimited guns, as well as limited rockets and homing missiles. Since the game tracks score, it's best to blow up as much stuff as you can while reaching the level's specific and required targets. But missions lack creativity, and you'll find instances where you'll simply have to go from Point A to B for no reason other than to activate a trigger in order to move on.
The action takes place on the upper screen with the lower screen providing a map of the area. The problem here is, you constantly have to keep glancing down at the map to see all the navigation points that pop up along the way, but this gets difficult since players have to keep the stylus on the screen almost constantly to control the craft. If the team provided a way to swap the screens - map on the top, action on the bottom - it would have cleared up this problem, and make a whole lot more sense since you're controlling an on-screen cursor anyway.
This is only a minor gripe for the whole of the product. Blades of Thunder II just isn't all that much fun. It's certainly challenging - it'll take a few tries to figure out the right path to go from navigation point to navigation point without getting smoked. Enemies are in set locations, but the developers restrict their appearance by limiting the range of the helicopter's radar - and this brings up that whole "I can't see!" issue with having the map and controls on the bottom screen. And when you can't see, you'll find yourself flying into congested enemy territory without a whole lot of options to defend yourself. Missiles will be flying in from all directions, and with only being able to see them straight ahead there's not a lot of options for defense other than blindly weaving around the area.
The game's 3D engine is competent, but the visuals are pretty bland for current generation handheld stuff - hills are very angular and blocky due to low polygon numbers, and the fog draw-in is an unwelcome throwback to the days of the Nintendo 64 and original PlayStation. The game should be played in the default third person view, because the camerawork takes a complete dive in an unplayable first person perspective. The audio fares a little better, with more sound effects thrown in than musical pieces filling the noise, but the engine can only handle so much explosions blasting away - at least with a good set of headphones you'll be able to hear if an enemy went kablooey to the left or right of your craft.
©2006-04-28, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Blades of Thunder II was developed by Interactive Vision, the same studio that developed the Game Boy Advance original. The first game in the series seemed more of a tech demo to push voxels on the hardware than it was to create a fun experience - that game design was a forced, forward-scrolling shooter where players simply moved their helicopter left and right, blowing up ground and air targets until A) the mission ends, or B) the player grows so bored that they simply shut off the system and move onto something, well, fun.
For Blades of Thunder II, the team worked with the Nintendo DS features to produce a more contemporary and versatile action title. Here, players use a D-pad and stylus combination to fly through full 3D environments, blasting enemy craft and structures to complete set missions. It's definitely a much more realized game design than the original GBA Blades of Thunder, but even with that said the game feels just as bland and barebones as the first game did, and it's clear that this DS game is just as "budget" of a project.
The game isn't a helicopter simulator, nor should it be one. It's more along the lines of the Desert Strike design than it is an action sim like Steel Talons. Players are restricted to one hovering altitude with only a slight ability to go up or down depending on how wild the terrain rolls along underneath the craft. The D-pad controls the forward, backward and side-to-side movement of the craft, with the touch screen providing the double duty of ship rotation and weapon aiming. The idea is to complete set missions with the vehicle's firepower: unlimited guns, as well as limited rockets and homing missiles. Since the game tracks score, it's best to blow up as much stuff as you can while reaching the level's specific and required targets. But missions lack creativity, and you'll find instances where you'll simply have to go from Point A to B for no reason other than to activate a trigger in order to move on.
The action takes place on the upper screen with the lower screen providing a map of the area. The problem here is, you constantly have to keep glancing down at the map to see all the navigation points that pop up along the way, but this gets difficult since players have to keep the stylus on the screen almost constantly to control the craft. If the team provided a way to swap the screens - map on the top, action on the bottom - it would have cleared up this problem, and make a whole lot more sense since you're controlling an on-screen cursor anyway.
This is only a minor gripe for the whole of the product. Blades of Thunder II just isn't all that much fun. It's certainly challenging - it'll take a few tries to figure out the right path to go from navigation point to navigation point without getting smoked. Enemies are in set locations, but the developers restrict their appearance by limiting the range of the helicopter's radar - and this brings up that whole "I can't see!" issue with having the map and controls on the bottom screen. And when you can't see, you'll find yourself flying into congested enemy territory without a whole lot of options to defend yourself. Missiles will be flying in from all directions, and with only being able to see them straight ahead there's not a lot of options for defense other than blindly weaving around the area.
The game's 3D engine is competent, but the visuals are pretty bland for current generation handheld stuff - hills are very angular and blocky due to low polygon numbers, and the fog draw-in is an unwelcome throwback to the days of the Nintendo 64 and original PlayStation. The game should be played in the default third person view, because the camerawork takes a complete dive in an unplayable first person perspective. The audio fares a little better, with more sound effects thrown in than musical pieces filling the noise, but the engine can only handle so much explosions blasting away - at least with a good set of headphones you'll be able to hear if an enemy went kablooey to the left or right of your craft.
©2006-04-28, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved