Squarez now available for 3.xx and 4.xx cfw

Akadewboy has done a little modification to allow the classic Squarez game to play on the most recent cfw's. Here is my review and download for 1.5 firmware but now thanks to akadewboy everyone can play this great homebrew game. Well done.

Phoenix Game Engine (LUA) 0.01 Released

This has to be one of the most comprehensive and impressive engines I seen. InsertWittyName and MK2k (among others) have really put in a lot of work on PGE. It looks to be a LUA coder's best friend. Here is their homepage for PGE and here is a video demoing all of its many features:



Check out their site for documentation, tutorials, FAQs, and downloads.

I have been working for some time on a homebrew game (only so many hours in the day) and I'm only about half done. I am seriously considering rewriting it to take advantage of PGE.

New Version of Polygunwars

Ahrimanes has released version 0.6 of Polygunwars (Geometry Wars clone) for the Neoflash Summer Coding Competition. The new version has many changes/updates (from Neoflash entry page):

*PSP dialogs integrated(message,net,save/load dialogs)
*save load game based on profile, gamertag as 360 one
*upload highscores/profile suport
*view highscores leader boards from psp suport
*language suport. there is a folder polygunwars/res/lng and there are some files.lng that any body can edit on a simple text editor and translate it.. the game will take the language from the sistem configuration so, if sistem is set to english it will use text from english.lng if sistem is spanish it will use text from spanish.lng
by now just english and spanish are translated, for all other languaje they have to be translated and here is where i need your help. if you wish to translate it do so and please PM me or email me with your translated file.
*now you have to be more carefull with the black holes as they will suck you too.
*new enemy has arrive.. say welcome to the snakes..
*alot of fixes in game time.. seems that i finaly fix the lags and the crash issues.
*now it includes some credits and spesial thanks under options..
*hint how to play under options. //need to fix that \n not working..
*you can check online highscores from your pc at:
http://www.ahrimanescore.luaplayer.org/
*archivements can be suported now.

I'll be giving this one a try real soon. I suggest you do the same. Previous releases of Polygunwars have been impressive and I expect no less from this one. Check out my previous coverage of this homebrew game here.

NeoFlash Competition Results

Here is the outcome of the NeoFlash Spring Coding Competition for 2008:

The PSP APP division of NEO SPRING COMPO 2008

1 [PSP APP] Dow! 0.2 - Develop on the go bumuckl
2 [PSP APP] LightMP3 Version 2.0.0 BETA 1 sakya
3 [PSP APP] CTorrentPSP - Torrent client for PSP danzel
4 [PSP APP] Academic Aid Scholastic Suite 6 R769 - Education Mr305
5 [PSP APP] PSP-Maps royale

The PSP GAME division of NEO SPRING COMPO 2008

1 [PSP GAME] Bugz InsertWittyName
2 [PSP GAME] POLYGUNWARS v0.5 ahrimanes
3 [PSP GAME] BlowUp! - 1.0 RELEASED! gambiting
4 [PSP GAME] Orbid V2 Slasher
5 [PSP GAME] Dororo's Adventure b0rk
6 [PSP GAME] Tetriabetes 1.43 dragula96
7 [PSP GAME] Kitten Cannon sg57
8 [PSP GAME] Scogger 0.2 scognito
9 [PSP GAME] Sushi Rubik version 1.2 teamsushi
10 [PSP GAME] Motion Pong 0.2 bumuckl

I am a little surprised with the Apps results but the Games results are right on.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed versions for all consoles including PSP

Here is a video showing all the different versions of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The video is approximately 7 minutes and you'll find the PSP version shown at about 4 minutes in. Looks like it might be good.

Orbid v2 Review

Orbid is yet another entry into the NeoFlash Competition. Orbid, developed by Slasher, is similar to flOw. Fly your orb around eating orange orbs and avoid being eaten by other types of orbs/enemies. There are 5 game modes to choose from: normal, survival, time, mine, and dodge. There is a multiplayer option but it requires you to set up a server.

Orbid has a very pixelated look to it. It doesn't look bad just different. The controls are hard to get used to. Your orb maneuvers like a 18 wheeler: starts slow and turns slow. Turning sharp cuts your speed considerably. The A.I. for the orange orbs is o.k. but they are easily caught. The A.I. for some of the enemies is better and they can be somewhat difficult to avoid. I enjoyed the game for little while. It becomes monotonous after extended periods of time. The speed of your orb is the biggest problem. You are always wanting to go faster and turn sharper.

I think that Orbid is a game that everyone should try but expect a slow, laid-back, leisurely type of game play.

Bumper Harvest v1.1 Review

Bumper Harvest is Kagato's entry into the NeoFlash Spring Coding Competition. Think of Bumper Harvest as a game of bumper pool but your "cue ball" is always shot from the same starting point. The primary object of the game is to bounce the ball off of the red bumpers to remove them from the playing field and advance to the next level. Bounce the ball off of the blue bumpers to increase your score; green bumpers to gain targeting guides; and yellow bumpers to gain extra balls (with enough points). There are also larger "red star" active bumpers and grey fixed bumpers which can help or hinder your progress. After you have gained the targeting guides, pressing the right shoulder button will give you a line along which the ball will travel. The ball will bounce its way to the bottom. If you are good (or just lucky) the ball will be caught by a moving grey object and saved, otherwise it will explode into flames and you have one less ball.

Over the past several days I have played this game more than any other. Controls are simple and intuitive. The ball bounces and moves the way you would expect. Game play is addictive and fun. Trying to get extra balls and targeting guides is a challenge but entertaining. The graphics are clean and nice. Sound effects go along with the game well and don't seem to get annoying. I do have a couple of problems with Bumper Harvest. The ball moves way too slow. After you shoot the ball, it seems to take a long time for the session to complete. I really hope that Kagato speeds things up in the next version. A second issue I have with the game is the graphic for the targeting guide. The green line which shows your trajectory isn't as clean as the rest of the visuals. It seems out of place since everything else looks polished.

Definitely give this game a try. It may be a little slow but it is fun. Well done, Kagato.

Nikwi Deluxe Review

Nikwi Deluxe is a platformer game in which you are a boy collecting candy. You jump around grabbing candy avoiding the enemies. The enemies vary but for the most part don't let the birds poop on you.

This may be the first game that Deniska has ported that I don't like. Deniska entered this port into the NeoFlash Competition. The controls aren't very good. I would press the directional pad left or right and often the boy wouldn't move. This is a problem in later levels when there are numerous birds dropping poop on your head (what is that about?). The audio and graphics aren't bad but nothing special.

Basically the game isn't that much fun. I wish Deniska had found a solution to the memory problem in Metal Blob Solid. That game would have easily won the contest, imho.

Bugz Review

Bugz is a homebrew game, developed by InsertWittyName (IWN) and entered into the NeoFlash Spring Competition. The object of the game is to "pop" bugs. Move your cursor to a point on the screen and press X. This will create a circle which will pop the bugs which come into contact with it. Those bugs pop creating more circles and popping more bugs. Create chain reactions of popping bugs until you reach the necessary number of dead bugs so you can move to the next level.

IWN has come up with a very professional looking game with Bugz. It is addictive and includes some nice features like game share, online highscore board, play your own MP3s while playing, autosave, and it uses the official load and save features of the PSP. Here is a video of the game in action:



I have two small issues with Bugz. First, you must disable all plugins before playing. The game locked-up on me several times while I was trying to get screen captures for this post. This isn't a major issue, just a minor annoyance which IWN informs you of in the readme file. Second, the game automatically plays MP3s from your MUSIC folder. I would rather have an option. Let me choose to play my music or in game music. I really like the banjo music IWN has created for the game. Give me the option to listen to it.

Definitely give Bugz a try. It is very high quality homebrew.

NeoFlash Spring Competition 2008 submissions are in

The NeoFlash Spring Coding Competition has stopped taking submissions. The judging begins now. If you would like to be a judge then try out the apps and games and submit your reviews here. There are great prizes for judging as well as for coding. You can find the PSP apps here and the PSP games here. The competition has really got some talent and the homebrew has never looked better. I suggest you give some of them a try. I'll be reviewing a few of the entries that I find interesting.

Metal Blob Solid v1.04 Review (Port by Deniska)

Metal Blob Solid (Blob Wars: Episode 1) is a new port from Deniska. This game puts you in charge of Bob. Think of Bob as the Rambo of smilies. Metal blob is a platformer where you kill a lot, and I mean A LOT of other blobs. These enemy blobs are aliens out for world domination. Will you help save blob-kind?

MBS has many types of weapons to choose from: grenades, laser cannons, machine guns, etc. These weapons are dropped by the enemies you kill, along with cherries (health power-ups) and small red and yellow orbs which give you points. There are many kinds of terrains as well: land, water,ice, lava, green toxic waste, etc. which you will have to navigate to save the MIAs and collect keys and cards which unlock different areas. Be careful while around lava and the green toxic waste because one slip and it is instant death. The water is also dangerous because you have a limited supply of air which is displayed at the top of the screen between your health and current weapon.

MBS is an excellent and very deep game. There are over 25 missions. The levels are quite large and have many areas and objectives. The high number of MIAs and optional objectives means that you may want to replay each level to save/achieve each and every one. The graphics are quite good, as is the music, and sound effects. The particle effects for blood splatter and explosions are excellent. This game may look cute until you see the first spray of blood. The controls work well and the physics feel right. The only time the physics defy belief is when you are crawling across the ceiling or climbing walls; yes, Bob can do these things.

As always Deniska has done an expert job of porting this game over to the PSP. There is one problem that must be mentioned though: Deniska warns of an "Out of Memory" error in his release post. He tells me that this flaw is due to a memory leak in the PSP-SDL implementation and will take some time to sort out. I have gotten the OoM error many times. I had to replay the third level four times to get past it due to this error. Deniska is a pro and I have faith that he will resolve this issue. I have found no other problems with this port and continue to play it. I only play one level at a time and then let it auto-save and exit the game. I then restart the game to clear the memory for the next level.

If you enjoy platformers then this is the game for you. Just be aware that it is not completely bug free and you may have to play a level more than once due to errors. Can't wait for the next version.

Here is an online manual for the game and here is the wiki.

Here are a bunch of screen shots:

World Map:


Level Map:


Mission Cleared:


Blood and guts:


MIAs:


MIA escape:


More blood and guts:


Under water:


Lava and explosions:


Green toxic waste:

Ironman The Game Trailer

Could this be the first game made from a movie, made from a comic, that doesn't suck? The trailer looks pretty cool. I'll wait and see what the game is actually like.

Tetriabetes v1.43 Review

Tetriabetes is a Tetris clone. If you don't know what Tetris is then I'll explain what it is but you also need to crawl out from under that rock you've been under for the past 10 years. Tetris is a puzzle game in which you try to position differently shaped blocks, which fall from the top of the screen, to create rows. These rows then disappear and you continue to place the blocks until your stack reaches the top and you lose.

Tetriabetes v1.43 is far and beyond the best Tetris clone I have played on the PSP. Dragula96 has done a fine job of recreating the Tetris experience with accurate controls and block movements. An added feature is a "ghost" block which shows you where you are going to place the real block. Dragula96 had some help from littlevish in creating very nice graphics. The game music is a little hardcore but I like metal and it seems to go along with the game quite well. The only suggestion I have would be to make the "ghost" block more transparent because when things get frantic sometimes I get focused on the "ghost" and don't realize that it isn't the real block and misplace the real block. Maybe that's just my own problem, but it would be easier to distinguish between the two if the "ghost" looked less like the real block. If you enjoy Tetris then you'll be very happy with Tetriabetes. Well done Dragula96.

Puzzle Challenge v2.0 Review

Puzzle Challenge v2.0 is a puzzle game similar to Tetris Attack. The object of the game is to move the blocks into columns or rows of 3 or more (let's call these "bars"). When you create a "bar", by interchanging the blocks inside the brackets, those blocks are removed from the screen. Creating multiple "bars" at the same time will place additional blocks on your opponents screen. If a "bar" of 4 or more blocks is created this will also add additional blocks to your opponents screen. The blocks that are added to your opponents screen can be seen in the screen shots below as chains and ice(?). These blocks will transform into the smaller colored blocks when a "bar" is created which is touching the chains/ice. The Pixelated Poo (developer) has included two opponent modes: play against the PSP or play against another human via adhoc. I didn't test the adhoc mode but the PSP mode seems solid.

Puzzle Challenge is quite addictive. The game play is fun and seems bug free. The graphics are o.k. but the music is not. The music is the only major flaw I could find with the game. I wonder if The Pixelated Poo wanted the music to make you feel anxious. This is the only reason I can find to include background music that is this annoying. With that said, I have played this game more than any other homebrew game for the past several weeks. This is such a good puzzle game it more than makes up for the bad music. You should definitely give this one a try. I was addicted after only a few plays.

I would consider putting this on my "Best Homebrew" list if there were better graphics and much better music.

Breakthrough: An Inventors Tale Review

Breakthrough: An Inventors Tale is an award winning breakout clone which has been out for a long time but if you are new to the homebrew scene you may not have heard about it. Bounce the ball off of your paddle to break all the blocks and advance to the next level. Sounds easy right?











Breakthrough is by far the best breakout clone I have played. The art is excellent. Graphics, sound, and controls are very good as well. KleptoOne has even created a story to go along with the game. This game is unique to other breakout games in that you can control the ball in flight. The left and right shoulder buttons move the ball left and right which allows you to curve around corners or break that one block that is hard to get to. There are many walls and obstacles in the game which make it quite challenging. KleptoOne has also included some levels where you aren't breaking blocks but are gunning for "the bad guy", Reynoldo. There are also a couple of mini-games included.



The only complaint I have is that the level difficulty doesn't seem to progress quite how you would expect so get used to seeing the screen shot above. Playing through the game as a whole the difficulty increases but from one level to the next the difficulty fluctuates. For me level 2 was much harder than level 3. If you like breakout games then this is one you have to play. This is going on my "Best Homebrew" list.

Awaker Review

Awaker is a racing game where you play as a square, racing against another square, over hills and valleys. The object of the game is to beat the other square to the finish line while stopping along the way when the "static field" goes active.

There are poles positioned along the route which will produce a "field" that will send you back to the starting line if you are moving while the "field" is active. The AI for your opponent is not very impressive in the early stages but gets smarter as you progress through the levels. The number of "static field" poles increases with the levels. The graphics are quite impressive (see screen shot below) and the controls work well.



I enjoyed this game but I was surprised that there weren't more levels. I was left wanting more, which I guess is a good thing. This is a final release so I guess I can't expect more levels in future releases.

Lots of New Videos of Crisis Core

There has been an onslaught of Crisis Core video released in the past few days. Bahamut strutting his stuff is the most recent:



PSPFanboy.com has four videos from GDC which are worth checking out also. I can't wait for this game. Is it March 25th yet?!

Space Invaders Extreme Demo Released

Sony has released a demo for the upcoming Space Invaders Extreme. I didn't expect much in an updated version of Space Invaders but I was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded it and played it. I spent at least two hours playing the single level provided and there seems to be some depth to it. Many power-ups, bonus levels, etc. are included. The graphics are good, as are the controls, There also seems to be a little bit of "on the fly" music creation. What I mean is that when you destroy the Invaders the sounds produced compliment the background music in a way that makes you feel as though you are adding "notes" to the music... sort of. Here are some screen shots.





Powered-up weapons:


Invaders can turn sideways as though they were flat:


Boss battles:


Bonus levels:






Detailed score system:


Give it a try, you'll have fun.