Return of the Classics
Live Arcade product manager Jeremy Wacksman was our guide to the HD-ed up Rez, as well as the new version of Lode Runner. We got hands-on time with Rez HD, and were pleased to see none of the issues that HD versions of older titles often end up with. The game's frame rate stayed solid, the change to 16:9 looks great, and the 5.1 sounds wonderful.
After a few minutes, we wished out loud that we could play in the original ratio, since covering the entire width of a widescreen seemed to be slowing us down enough that we were taking a lot of hits. Yes, we blame the widescreen. But that was no problem, since Rez HD ships with the original version of Rez as well. We can't overstate how much we appreciate remakes shipping with the originals, particularly on digital download titles where it costs almost nothing to include both. Great remakes are fine, but sometimes we crave the original.
Lode Runner doesn't ship with the original game, but the core gameplay (called Journey Mode) is wonderfully familiar. In 16 stages split into four to five levels per stage, you control Lode Runner and try to escape. Enemies pursue you but you can speedily avoid them, climbing and dropping to stay ahead of them in the 2D gameplay area. You can also blast out squares of the floor, sending enemies plummeting into the gaps. In short, it's a very faithful version of the original game. It's also beautiful, with super-sharp art and colors that snap.
In addition to single-player Journey Mode, Lode Runner will ship with a survival mode (called "Hang-on") and a puzzle mode. Multiplayer will include co-op Journey, co-op puzzle mode (with different map sets to accommodate multiple players), and four-player head-to-head play in a form of high-speed tag. Although we didn't get to see multiplayer, we came away from this version of Lode Runner pleased as punch. Now, if only it included the original...
I'm Your Huckleberry
Surprisingly entertaining was Poker Smash, a puzzle game in which poker cards scroll up a table and you eliminate them by making poker hands. Bombs can be used to blow up cards to create better hands, you can raise the stack of cards faster, and you can slow down time. So, it's not quite poker, but it's an interesting use of the poker rules to create a nice twist on the "create a set" puzzle game.
The background of Poker Smash is all "Tombstone" in style, with heavy wood and piles of chips that grow as you succeed. It's a strange mash-up to see lightning dance across the board as you score, but it's an interesting way to try to take advantage of the current poker craze and the success of simple puzzle games with some depth on Live.
