Scarygirl, whose story unfolds through quick bits of text between levels, gets a primer in combat from a strange, mystical ninja rabbit, who guides players through the intricacies of combat using Scarygirl’s strange tentacle arm and other invaluable abilities, such as blocking oncoming attacks and a “rage” mode that allows her to plow through enemies like a hot knife through butter. After mastering the misfit monster girl’s basic repertoire, it’s simple to string together your newly-learned abilities to explore. Some abilities, such as grabbing and tossing enemies in a direction specified by aiming an analog stick, can be touchy, and hardly improve with practice, but aren’t used often enough to present any real annoyance. Controls feel tight and natural — not Mario standards, but acceptable nevertheless.

You’ll be presented with ample opportunities to put your newfound abilities to good use as Scarygirl traverses the land (mountaintops, underground caverns, and standard platformer fare) encountering neon hedgehogs, malevolent weeds, angry Yeti cubs, and a menagerie of other creatures with their sights set on keeping you from your goal. Luckily those who enjoy combo-based brawling should feel right at home here, carving through the sometimes ridiculous onslaught of enemies with finesse, a button masher’s dream.

Upgrades purchased through the painstaking collection of the alluring gems littered throughout each area make uprooting weird weeds and slowing down stubborn rams a breeze. Giving Scarygirl an anchor attachment, for example, allows her to inflict more damage. A feather upgrade will give her more air time when gliding through the air for those particularly nasty jumps. If packing gems into your inventory doesn’t scratch that collector’s itch, vinyl stickers can be sought after for each enemy type and aspect of the wild landscape, and some can be obtained via swapping gems. Upgrades and vinyls can be costly additions to your inventory, but the satisfying chimes that accompany your gem-hunting are hugely satisfying, and one of the most memorable parts of the game. In fact, Scarygirl’s smallest nuances, such as dodging massive swarms of spiders, the strange “surveillance” cameras that aid as checkpoints, and other oddities make it stand out much more in contrast to other platformers currently available via Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network.

Co-op play allows you to trot through Scarygirl’s astute campaign mode even more quickly than one player could, which makes the platformer a quick weekend play. But its out-there decor, out-there heroine, and overall quirk factor enhance this already strong platformer, making it an adventure you’d do well to take. Especially if tentacle-armed girls are your thing.

That being said, it appears that Blizzcon 2012 will not come to be (official statement). Claiming that they feel, as a company, they wouldn’t have time to truly give its fans the convention they deserve. Reasons are connected to the games slated for release this year. All focus has been turned to these in an attempt to make them something Blizzard would declare “release-worthy”. Despite my issues with Blizzard that still persist I am looking forward to Diablo III and hope that this hiatus from face time with the fans will actually help with the upcoming game releases being a little smoother.

The companies that were used to secure Battlefield 3′s multiplayer are Even Balance and GGC-Stream. Even Balance, being the creators of Punkbuster, have been pointing their fingers at GGC. This is because GGC exists as a volunteer group of admins which can at times leave a company open to bad elements. A wrong volunteer choice and your systems are wide open. GGC of course had to retaliate by pointing the finger at Even Balance claiming their software is buggy and easy to misguide. They are even claiming that they’ve had to deal with it before (GGC statement).

In the end, as in all flame wars, the only true winners are those who aren’t involved at all yet get a great view of the battle from the outside. I’ve brought my comfy chair and some cold beverage. This should be fun.

WHAM!

The trade of The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde is slated for release February 22nd. That and there is a little more news tacked on.

“We developed the take for the script for almost a year, based on my outline for the comic book. First came the comic book outline, see, then the film outline based on that. Subsequently, I wrote the comic script off the film outline, which is backwards I know, but the process revealed all sorts of new details and character work I hadn’t anticipated. Almost immediately, I wrote the screenplay, or the film script, based on the comic script this time. Not the film outline. I know, weird. I was so happy with how the screenplay turned out, I went back and revised the comic script based on what I learned in this next step in the process. That’s how the comic became the comic and the film became the film.” – Cole Haddon (Newsarama)

My vote is for Robert Downey Jr. as Jeckyl.

Fuck it.

When it comes to strategy RPG games I’m all about the balance of grand and small scale. Grand on the RPG small on the strat or the other way around.  Grand on a few aspects of character building and combat, small on amount of chaotic events that occur and depth of story. This is all hugely personal preference. From the several hours of the prologue chapter alone in King Arthur II, I am not finding the balance. Everything seems cranked to the epic setting on the dial. This usually puts me off of a RTS-centric game, but in this case I think I’ve found myself on the other end of the interest-ravine. I never even knew there was something fun over here. Like the first time I took part in a 500 vs 500 deciding battle in Mount & Blade. Something indescribably refreshing about it. The grandeur blended with the depth and breadth of possibilities. Its electric.

The story being read and voiced like an epic novel. The world being as grim as the very subject contained within. The grand beauty of commanding the waltz of battle. I enjoyed all of this in the first iteration, but this has my jaw on the floor for how much effort was put in to making this IP into the game it truly deserved to be. Leaps and bounds, not just a skip and a jump like most titles ending with a numeric sequence attached. I find myself torn. I’m coming to a stage in my life where just hardcore burning any game is something I can’t just do. I have games I play with friends. I have the webcomic to write/draw/maintain. King Arthur II is begging me to forget all of that and explore its splendor. A promise of things I couldn’t even imagine.

Basically, I’m saying people should check this out. I will say this, it can be a challenge at times. I, and most everyone here at HH, are from an era where games kicked the shit out of you. You’d power your system on and let it take the boots to you, medium style. And you loved every second of it. King Arthur II feels like I could love getting my ass kicked by it, so its almost nostalgic, but with a pretty enough face that you know what year it is. If you think you’re up for the challenge, then dawn your armor and lead your legion to victory.

Because Andyb0y says we should give it a try…

8 out of Box Of Puppies

Links to stuff – King Arthur II

Finally we do a Skype call for a change on this episode of HeroCast. With Andy being intoxicated, Kimerex and Harlock have to endure the slow speech and blabbering to talk about SOPA/PIPA and the media blackout day, Resident Evil Revelations 3DS demo limit, Resident Evil 6 announced and a good amount of random for you to enjoy.

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Closing music – Martyrial Girl$ by Gym Class Heroes

KITTAH’S IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Seriously, that’s all you need to know…well that and it comes out sometime in the Spring. No other info is available right now but keep an eye on their Facebook and Twitter page as well as the official page for updates.

With most of the issues I disliked about Final Fantasy XIII fixed in XIII-2, adding time travel to it all makes me excited to play FF XIII-2 on January 31st. Now if only I can travel back in time to actually finish the last part of FF XIII…

Since nothing lately has been appealing on my Nintendo 3DS and all I have to occupy my time is playing SwapNote with the rest of the guys here on the site, I am looking forward to Heroes of Ruin from n-Space and Square-Enix. From the looks of this new video, I am ready for an RPG to fully take up all my attention and Heroes of Ruin might do just that.

Some lengthy topics on today’s episode. Kimerex discusses his “Forever Alone” movement in gaming, Harlock talks Dark Souls on PC and explains how he got sucked into and enjoyed playing Kawata Shoujo while Andy sidetracks everyone with random talk.

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Feedback can be emailed to Heroes@HandheldHeroes.net or by leaving a comment below.
Don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes!

Closing music – Evacuate by Robotobots