TMCnet News
The New Review: Critics: Radio & Games: Sportsfriends PS3/PS4, Die Gute Fabrik, cert: n/a(Observer (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Long feted at game shows, indie title Sportsfriends' four-pack of electronic sports is a delightful, eclectic selection. This true multiplayer experience, which combines a retro visual style and simple game mechanics, requires two to four players in the same room. Friends can play BaraBariBall, where teams attempt to sink a ball in the opposition's water using small characters with limited jumps and time critical attacks, or Super Pole Riders, which offers intentionally counterintuitive bendy vaulting poles as the only means to slide a ball along a wire and score. Completing the set are Hokra - collect and move a tiny square ball to a goal - and the marvellous JS Joust, which ignores the screen entirely. Each player must keep a motion controller still while attempting to move their opponent's, all to a soundtrack of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. Resolutely peculiar, Sportsfriends does require perseverance and dedication but rewards it with joyfully competitive fun much closer to childhood playground games than video games have been for years. (c) 2014 Guardian Newspapers Limited. |