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Review: Gyromancer (Xbox 360)

Jennifer Allen

Published: March 5, 2010

Puzzle Quest was a brilliantly fun cross between an RPG and Bejeweled 2. It was as addictive as Bejeweled 2 but this time round, there was a purpose: to level up and complete the game by saving…well, I can’t remember the story but I know I wanted to keep playing. So it’s not very surprising that we now see RPG heavyweight Square Enix jump into the affair and, alongside casual games supremo PopCap, produce their own Puzzle Quest-esque game in the form of Gyromancer.

Gyromancer is more of a cross between an RPG and Bejeweled Twist, because rather than rotating one gem at a time, players rotate four gems in a square at each click of the button. This means that different strategies are required rather than simply having to consider moving one gem independently. The RPG element comes in the form of how you progress through the game. Gyromancer is a dungeon crawler at its heart, with each of its 12 stages being rather long and involving plenty of battles. The battles are conducted via the Bejeweled-esque screen and you’ll get used to seeing this very quickly as there are certainly plenty of fights ahead.

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Review: Space Pirates From Tomorrow (Xbox 360)

Jennifer Allen

Published: March 5, 2010

Review: Space Pirates From Tomorrow (Xbox 360)

It started so well for Space Pirates From Tomorrow. Starting with a loading screen akin to a Commodore 64’s was an inspired touch. One that instantly made me want to feel great fondness for the game. Throw in the fact that everything I’d read about the game suggested it was trying to be Elite, and I was really rather keen to give it a shot. So it’s unfortunate that it turns out that Space Pirates From Tomorrow is really rather poor.

It continues to demonstrate promise at first. The tutorial, although a little daunting, displays the wonderful promise that Space Pirates From Tomorrow has. It suggests a huge world of exploration where almost anything can be done. Just what Elite fans want really. To be fair to the game this is possible, assuming you manage to survive the atrocious flight controls that is. It just doesn’t feel intuitive at all, add the fact that there’s no sense of speed when travelling and it just feels downright shoddy.

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Review: 0 Day Attack On Earth (Xbox 360)

Derek McEwan

Published: March 5, 2010

Review: 0 Day Attack On Earth (Xbox 360)

Dear, oh dear, Square Enix, why did you stoop so low? I mean, a company that bases itself on quality gaming should never have a problem releasing games that the masses want to play, but this? This has to be one of the worst examples of the twin stick shooter genre out there at the moment and yes, I’m even including I Heart Shift in this.

The concept is an easy one; Aliens take over the earth and you and your team of 4 aircraft have to destroy them all within a strict time limit. Yep, that’s right, you have a time limit for destroying aliens, which would be fair enough in an arcade cabinet where they need to make up their losses by people pummelling in money to play. Oh, and about the so called team, the other aircraft do nothing but follow you around unless you are very lucky and play one of the very rare multiplayer sessions which are few and far between.

The bullets stop within a few feet of your ship meaning you have to get up close and personal with the alien ships which basically just sit there waiting to be destroyed while whipping out linear missiles and tentacle attacks which become very easy to predict after 10 minutes of game play. But to be honest, I couldn’t bring myself to get very far.

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