Top 100 of 2012 Recap: 45-41 – Metro, Layton and Snake Eater

Pah, who says the 3DS doesn’t have any games?! In today’s instalment of the Top 100 recap we’ve got three of them, along with a Cross Buy-equipped PS3 and Vita title, and a good old fashioned multiplatform release from the still-alive THQ. Read on, and if you need to catch up with yesterday’s entries, you can find them here.

45 Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney

Originally announced way back in 2010, and charting at a most respectable number 45 in this year’s list, is the brilliant sounding crossover between Professor Layton and Ace Attorney. The two characters (and their assistants) find themselves transported to a parallel universe, and to the mysterious Labyrinth City (no, probably not that Labyrinth). The game revolves around sinister occurrences, witch trials, and the villainous Story Teller, combining gameplay from both of the headline series.

Despite being unveiled a fair way back, we still don’t know anything about a release date for the game, whether in Japan or in the west. However, English-language promotional materials from Capcom, retailer listings and the prior success of the two title franchises in Europe and the US suggest that a release outside of Japan is likely, and Level 5 have been teasing more about the game to be revealed at this year’s Tokyo Game Show n a couple of weeks.

44 Metro: Last Light

The Metro franchise may have survived the “new THQ” revolution that saw the company jettison a significant number of projects (like the Red Faction franchise and their whole family and licensed division) in favour of a focus on the core, but that doesn’t mean that poor reception or sales of the upcoming Last Light couldn’t change that. With that in mind, it was announced earlier the year that the game would be missing its projected summer 2012 release and heading for a launch in early 2013 (a tactic that probably seemed a lot smarter before Crysis 3, BioShock Infinite and a whole bunch of other titles headed for the same period). But enough of business, here’s what we had to say about Last Light in the original Top 100 post:

The game sees 4A continue their relationship with Dmitry Glukhovsky (the author of the original Metro 2033 novel), although Last Light takes things in a different direction rather than following the sequel book, Metro 2034. Last Light picks up after the original’s “dark” ending, with the cities of the metro now fighting for control, and sees main character Artyom on the search for “The Prisoner”, a legend who might just be the only hope left.

With just that ‘early 2013’ window to go by, it looks like we’ve still got a fair while to wait until our next fix of Metro, and a look at the latest and greatest gameplay footage just makes that wait even harder.

43 Kid Icarus: Uprising

Before Uprising, there hadn’t been a Kid Icarus game in over twenty years, and as a result the new game sees some significant changes to what you might know of the series. Rather than the largely-platform-centric gameplay of the classic titles, Uprising is more action-heavy and sees you regularly switching between airborne and ground combat. The only game to be developed by Nintendo’s Project Sora subsidiary before it closed earlier this year, the game is one of the first to support Nintendo’s new Network hub for online functionality – in the case of Icarus, this comes in the form of a simplistic but fun 3vs3 multiplayer mode.

In Dan’s 8/10 review of the game, he praised the style and presentation of the game, as well as the airborne combat that forms the first stage of every level, while criticising the ground-based combat – or rather the dodgy camera during those sections. While the game does support the Circle Pad Pro, we didn’t get a chance to use it, so can’t really say whether those issues are helped at all by the peripheral.

When Kid Icarus: Uprising is good, it’s really good, with Pit swooping over clashing armies before taking on screen-filling bosses. It’s a shame that the ground combat controls don’t really click at first, and may put people off. Persevere, though, and you’ll find an extremely rewarding title with a wealth of content.

Released in March, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a strong successor to the series, and a good choice if you’re looking for a fun and refreshing action game for your 3DS.

42 Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D

Metal Gear is having a bit of a blowout this year, what with it being the 25th anniversary and all, with the 3DS MGS3 remake being just a part of that. However, whilst the PS3/360/Vita Collection release is to all intents just a repackaging of the original game in shiny high-definition-ovision, February’s Snake Eater 3DS is a more substantial remastering, bringing with it various adjustments to compensate for its new home.

In reviews, the game’s support for Nintendo’s Circle Pad Pro peripheral was often praised: adding in a second stick and two extra shoulder buttons makes aiming and firing significantly better than with the base 3DS unit, which on its own causes control issues for the game, as described by NZGamer:

Without the Circle Pad Pro, it’s a bit of a bumpier ride – albeit a more portable one. The four face buttons now control the camera, which is vastly inferior, and makes a lot of difference. Seriously, Nintendo can’t come out with revised 3DS hardware soon enough.

In fact, it seems that many of the remake’s niggles come from where it landed – frame rate hiccups, low resolution artwork, and a general feel that it doesn’t fit the system don’t make up for the nice 3D effects. While we didn’t review it ourselves, its Metacritic rating of 78 suggests that if you’ve not played the game before now and don’t have a system that plays the HD Collection, Snake Eater 3D does a good enough job, but as Destructoid neatly sums up, its “a game with 9.5/10 ideas delivered in a 6/10 package”.

41 Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

One of the many slips to 2013 on this list, at least Sly doesn’t appear to be delayed because of its progress – after the change was stealth-announced at the end of the game’s Gamescom trailer, developers Sanzaru confirmed it was solely a strategic decision on Sony’s part. Certainly reassuring, and what we’ve seen of the game lately is more promising than ever.

Now coming to Vita as well as PS3, the game will support Sony’s Cross Buy scheme, meaning that a purchase of the PS3 version nets you a free download of the Vita version too. On top of that, the Vita can be used for some nifty cross-platform features like an augmented reality camera that shows up collectibles on the Vita screen when pointed at the PS3 game running on a TV. Here’s what Teflon had to say after getting his hands on the game last month:

It’s strange to be talking about it these days, but the PS3′s power means that each level and the game as a whole is going to be absolutely huge. More power to push the draw distance a long way beyond what the PS2 was able to do, alongside a hub-and-spoke world layout that is vast in comparison to previous entries. It’s so big that apparently one of the fastest run-throughs by a play tester was in the region of 12 hours, so there is a lot of content in this package.

If the wait is getting too much for you, you can catch up with the PS2 Sly trilogy in the HD Collection now (and super-sneaky Plussers got the first game free earlier in the year). However, if you need the latest entry in the series, you’ll have to wait till February for Thieves in Time.

Join us again tomorrow for games 40 and up!