The Ship: Full Steam Ahead!

Thursday saw Edinburgh based studio Blazing Griffin kick off their Kickstarter for the long-awaited sequel to PC classic The Ship: Murder Party. After picking up the IP from defunct developer Outerlight in 2010, BG were finally able to reveal their plans for the franchise. Dubbed "Full Steam Ahead", the project was given its official reveal at a press event attended by the development team, who were keen to chat about what we can expect to see from the title.

Perhaps most interesting of all was a radical change in setting. Gone are the 1920s period trimmings of the first, jettisoned in favour of a move into steampunk territory. Lead concept artist Paul Canavan explained the potential the change allows them, saying: "The steamnpunk aesthetic has been well explored in various media but it's an environment that isn't often seen in the games space. It's dabbled with, but generally on quite a small scale whereas what we're trying to present here is really the sort of grand vision, of the sort of futuristic V|ictorian setting. Rather than keeping it on the low end and keeping it simple we're really pushing the scale of this concept, which is exciting."

It was clear from some of the lovely concept art adorning the walls, some of which you can see here, that it certainly will be a grand venture.The striking designs hint at some interesting potential. But we can still expect to enjoy the backstabbing gameplay that made the original such a success, as Media Manager Phil Harris was quick to point out. "People are still playing The Ship because they like that gameplay. To mess with that would be a fool's errand, and we're no fools."

Of course it's all just potential at this point. They have the kickstarter fund to get through first. Launching on October 31st, the same day that Kickstarter's U.K site goes live, it will run right through to the end of December. Hitting the initial target of £128k will see the team release the game as a multiplayer title, but anything higher would give them the freedom to take other ideas on board. Phil explained "If we hit the target of 128k we get a minimum viable product. If we double that then we'll be able to look at doing lots of other things. If we hit $1m then we can make The Ship free to play, which would be great because we want lots of people to be able to play it while they wait for the sequel."

If the fund raising is successful, development should begin in the new year. And we can expect a lot of community involvement along the way, with Blazing Griffin keen to take on board what fans want to see. Lead designer Stephen Hewitt told me: "It's always interesting doing a sequel, because obviously you've got a lot of people that are already aware of the game. You're trying to make something different that hopefully the original audience will appreciate and like, but without breaking what they liked about it. The whole project will be done open development so everyone will be able to look at what we're doing and comment. We want to involve our audience."

 It paints a picture of a studio that really cares about its audience, a sentiment that Phil endorsed. "Blazing Griffin's guiding principle is to involve the community. We don't feel there's a point in creating any game that fans don't want to see." Given the popularity of the first game, as well as the passionate steampunk community out there, you can safely assume that a lot of people will look forward to seeing Full Steam Ahead released.

Also on display was some of the art from upcoming strategy title Distant Star. Ostensibly a re-imagining of the Blazing Griffin's first title, a self-coded iOS hit from studio co-founder Trevor Fountain, it promises a sprawling sci-fi universe for players to enjoy. The art is packed with detail and imagination, bringing to mind childhood memories of building Lego spaceships and playing out epic space battles.

With both Distant Star and The Ship the team also have high hopes of expanding the universes into other media. From films to fan fiction, there's apparently a lot of potential for new stories if the franchises prove popular. And as they're quietly confident at the success of their kickstarter fund, it seems that the future could be bright for Blazing Griffin.

Hotline Miami Review: Dial M for Murder

It's 1989. You wake in a dingy bathroom. The lights are out, flies hover lazily around the broken furniture. A guitar wails over plodding bass strums. Staggering into the living room, you find three masked men sitting, waiting. They seem to know you. They speak in riddles, their animal faces betraying no humanity. You've apparently done terrible things. Do you remember? Time flashes back. You receive a coded phonecall, it tells you where to go. The drive takes no time at all. You pull on a chicken mask. Why? There you'll slam a door into a gangster's face, knocking him senseless before spreading his pal's brains with a stolen baseball bat. Techno thuds away, adding a pleasing rhythm to the bloody action. This is Hotline Miami, and you won't have played anything quite like it before.

A top-down sort of shooter with a very retro sense of style, bringing to mind a more innocent era of videogame violence, Hotline Miami is a little tricky to describe. Not the look so much: imagine the bloody 80s haze of Vice City built in the original GTA engine and you're close. Nor the action, which mixes the twitchiness of a bullet hell shooter with Hitman's brutal improvised violence, and Canon Fodder's simple “kill everything” objectives. The punishing difficulty brings to mind Dark Souls as well, another game where frequent death is as inevitable as it is rewarding.

And Hotline Miami is a game built on death. Missions have you hitting up a building full of thugs on the strength of an answerphone message. The identity of the caller is a narrative mystery, but the objective is always the same: Everyone in this building must die. There are many more of them, they're better equipped than you, but you'll still have to kill them all. Of course, just as it would be if you attempted to take down scores of armed gangsters by yourself, rushing in isn't always the best approach. More often than not it'll result in a swift and messy death at the wrong end of a crowbar. A playthrough can be over in a flash of blood and noise. This isn't quite your standard shooter, you have to take the time to plan things out.

Being aware of where enemies are, and taking them on in manageable numbers, is key. Stealth, melee kills, and patience will serve you much better than an itchy trigger finger. You can spend a long time planning out every move before you make it; Outside a room with two gun totting baddies. Boot in the door to knock down the first guy, quickly throw your knife at his pal with the shotgun, before sprinting over to grab it and blasting the first now getting to his feet. The noisy shot will attract others, so you'll stand behind the door and calmly blow away everyone that runs in. Of course, while you're standing thinking this out a dog will sprint up from behind and tear your throat out. Fuck. Hit R to retry. 

Because of this, each level is as much a puzzle as it is an action set-piece waiting to happen. Take in your immediate surroundings and patterns begin to form. Tread carefully and you'll be clearing rooms as cleanly and efficiently as a SWAT team. Well, I say cleanly. As you'll be able to tell, Hotline Miami is an almost unprecedentedly violent game. Blood sprays the walls as you split skulls to pieces, limbs vapourise with a single shotgun blast. The violence is brief, bloody, and brutal, almost sickening despite the retro visuals. Half dead villains will desperately try and crawl away, some end of level characters will beg for their lives before you gouge out their eyes. But there is no mercy, everyone has to die. And when all the floors are finally cleared the action halts abruptly, the music swirls into an ambient fuzz as you stagger back to your car, past all the pools of blood and guts and staring eyes. It's the closest you'll come to regret.

But that's quickly forgotten when the action is so damn satisfying. Few titles will ever make you feel as slick as Hotline Miami when things go right. Whether it's as a carefully laid plan comes together, efficiently smashing your way through enemies faces with absolute precision, or when you frantically improvise your way through a series of blundering kills, you're in the zone for the duration. Neon combo messages flash up as you speedily empty a room, the technicolour visuals pulse and warp with the pounding music. Every death you suffer, and there will be many, just makes it all the more satisfying when you eventually triumph; bloodily battering that bastard with the pipe that's killed you ten times in a row to beat the level. And as your car drives off, and your kills are tallied up and scored, you can enjoy a satisfied smile. It may grow wider with the unlockable treats, including various named animal masks, each of which gives you a different quirk. This might be starting with a weapon, lethal door slams, or longer combo chains. They add some extra strategy to the open-ended action, and give completionists an excuse to chase some high scores.

All the atmosphere on offer owes a great deal to the soundtrack, which in many ways is the true masterpiece here. Oozing with retro cool, from the slightly sinister, off-key ambience of the menu melody to the brutal electronic beats during your assaults, you realise that Hotline Miami wouldn't be half as brilliant without those tunes. The action takes on a measured rhythm as you start to match hits with beats, lacing together with the cocaine fuelled 80s style perfectly. A decent set of headphones can add a whole new layer to a playthrough, and with the repetition of the action and the sounds looping again and again and again you mind might start to melt alongside your character's.

That's where the story comes in. A surrealist trance of nameless characters and warping reality, perfectly charting the steadily decaying mind of a killer. The normality between missions clashes with the violent rampages. You'll visit video rental stores and pizza places, happily chatting with the bearded worker who calls you his friend. A love interest rescued early on hangs around your apartment, saying nothing. But cracks soon start to appear. The consequences of the violence catch up with you, human elements in your life fade away. There's a lot to be said for a a surrealist narrative, one that makes you want to keep playing in the hope of having your questions answered. It's part of what made Mikami and Suda's Killer 7 so compelling, despite the fact that you so rarely had any idea what was going on.

In fact, you could be forgiven if you mistook Hotline Miami for a Suda title. It shares his surreal sense of style; from the brutal, almost comic violence and collectables of No More Heroes, with similar hack and slash rhythmic combat of Lollipop Chainsaw, to the twisted narrative and macabre atmosphere of Killer 7. Swedish developers Dennaton have done a great job throwing together something so compelling from such a simple engine.

It ain't perfect. Simple WASD controls come across as shockingly fiddly at first, though you'll quickly adjust to the twitchiness. Enemy AI will see your foes fail to spot you lopping their friend's head off mere feet away, or loudly busting in on them while they're taking a piss. Glitches abound as well, with disappearing weapons and flickering walls often the order of the day. These are forgiveable. Less so is the occasionally unfair level design, with perfect playthroughs often spoiled by the same unseen enemies again and again; or the wickedly unbalanced boss fights, which leap out of nowhere and offer screen-breaking moments of frustration. It's short too: I blasted through it in about four hours. Maybe too short for some, though the replay value is there. If not for the high scores, then at least for the fun of it.

But you won't be thinking about the flaws. You'll be too focussed on the sickeningly addictive violence, the satisfying savagery of the kills. You'll be taken in by the beautiful 8-bit portrayal of an 80s underworld, all seedy clubs and drug fuelled pulses of colour. You'll be attempting to make sense of the twisted narrative, a feverish nightmare of masked killers and revenge. Your ears will be busy with the brilliance of the soundtrack, as it flows over the action and builds an atmosphere of absolute cool. In a year that's seen so few quality releases Hotline Miami stands out as something special. A delightedly demented orgy of ultraviolence and retro style. It's the modern-day videogame-nasty: cheap, brutal, and fun as hell.

Out now for PC.

SKSP Hour 24: Eden Reached

As we hit noon I'm delighted to realise that I've now completed my 24 hours of solid gaming. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation, or the remnants of the wine sloshing around my system, or it might even be the aftereffects of playing Child of Eden for the last hour, but I feel kind of floaty. In a good way! Er, I think.

Big thank you to everyone who supported me during this, especially everyone who was kind enough to sponsor me to the point of more than doubling my target amount. I've seriously been blown away by the generosity of you guys. Good luck to everyone that's embarking on their own marathon as mine draws to a close. I hope you all have as much fun as I did. Thank you and goodnight!

listen to ‘SKSP: Heavenly Stars’ on Audioboo

SKSP Hour 22: On the Edge

With a couple of hours to go I ran into yet another Playstation related mishap, as my PS3 decided it didn't really fancy playing Yakuza 3 for me, preferring instead to spend half an hour installing it before crashing. Ah well, lucky I was able to lean on Mirror's Edge as a backup. I'm glad I did as well, since it's proving to be pretty fun, even if it is a glorified suicide simulator (in my hands). Have already lost count of the number of times I've thrown energetic heroine Faith to her grisly death. maybe I'm just thinking too much about falling from a great height.

Nearly done! Will round things off with Child of Eden, that divisive spiritual sequel to Rez. I need the upbeat boost before bed, to be honest.

listen to ‘SKSP: final stretch’ on Audioboo

SKSP Hour 20: Rezurrection

Just after my last update I suddenly realised I was in real danger of crashing. Kept lapsing into those micro-sleep moments, where your eyes shut of their own accord and you feel yourself gently drifting off... then catching it before it happens and jolting back into consciousness. Well with six hours of this marathon to go that wouldn't do, I knew I had to wake myself up. Being slightly the worse for wear, what better way to do that than by turning off all the lights, plugging in my headphones, and blasting through the first level on Rez?

Of course once I finished Buggie Running Beeps I just had to do Protocol Rain. And then I couldn't miss out on Creation the State of Art. And so on, until I found myself watching the end credits roll and wondering where the last couple of hours had gone. Rez is one of those games that I always turn to when I'm at my lowest ebb. Something about the pounding visuals and intense beat of the soundtrack puts me in a zone of absolute concentration, a perfect trance-filled bubble. Ideal for that point in the night. But now I'm in the home stretch, I can practically see the finish line.

It's 8AM, Yakuza 3 is in the Playstation, and I've finally finished my red wine. Four hours and counting...

listen to ‘SKSP Hour 20’ on Audioboo

SKSP Witching hour

Seven Hours on from my last update, and I've been doing two things: Playing Resident Evil 4, and drinking too much red wine. The former was a blast, a finely ground blend of survival horror and action movie cliches. The latter was more of a mellow warping of inhibitions and bad vibes. Truth be told I'm not one for scary games. At the best of times I'm about as brave as a five year old child, and as such I don't tend to make much progress in the more terrifying titles. Christ, I don't think I even reached the first enemy in Silent Hill 2 before giving up.

But that's where being an adult helps; because getting a drink in me can certainly help build up a sense of bravado, that makes it easier to face the scary moments I do my best to avoid. It's funny, this year my brother suggested I run through the first four Silent Hill games for this marathon. I turned him down on the basis that standing in a corner weeping for 24 hours wasn't exactly what my sponsors were after. Now it's time for a wee blast of Rex/Child of Eden before I hit Yakuza 3. Stay strong...

listen to ‘SKSP hour I don't even know’ on Audioboo

SKSP hour 10: Prophetic Pro-evo

Approaching 10PM, and I've just gotten done with my full length Scotland V Wales game on Pro Evo. It was a crushing, dispiriting, and truly boring experience throughout, so pretty much exactly like a Scotland game. Wales scraped a 2-1 win, but the majority of the 90 minutes involved players randomly running into each other and booting the ball as far as they could at every opportunity. So pretty much exac- *ahem*

Perhaps more interesting was the fact that I wasn't following the actual game at all. So imagine my surprise at switching over after the final whistle, only to find that Scotland had somehow managed to lose 2-1 in the real world too. Well, I say "surprise"... I don't really expect much of Levein's Scotland team at all to be honest. Still, I'm evidently a wizard, so that's nice. Resi 4 is up next, and I'm cracking open the wine.

listen to ‘SKSP: Scotland Shenanigans’ on Audioboo

SKSP Hour 7: Sonic Terror

I had to give up on Half Life 2 due to severe boredom, and after 7 hours I was in severe danger of falling asleep if I had to run through another sewer pipe. Was searching for something to wake myself up a wee bit and stumbled upon the Gamecube's Sonic Mega Collection. Technically I've never really played Sonic 3, so I stuck that on for a bit to punch some sense back into me. I bit off more than I could chew though, the speed has done my screen-addled brain and eyes no favours at all. Four game overs later and I'm almost looking forward to the sedate change of pace the Pro-Evo 2011 session will bring me. Let's go Scotland!

listen to ‘SKSP Hour 7’ on Audioboo

SKSP Hour 6: Wake up and smell the ashes...

Current mood: frustrated

I've just hit the six hour mark in this gaming marathon, and come to the crushing realisation that I'm only a quarter of the way through. My head's already going a bit funny. Need a slap in the face to wake myself up. Might be on account of the monotony of crawling through Half Life 2's sewers for the last couple of hours. I've no idea if it's a game that uses any kind of mission structure, but if it does I guess that means I'm still stuck on THE FIRST LEVEL. I knew I should've plumped for Portal instead. Been having fun with it, great atmosphere and everything looks lovely, but the skittery handling isn't helping my headache much. I keep sprinting off pipes and missing simple jumps because it's

Coming up is my football bonus though. Playing through the entre Scotland Wales fixture. But since my copy of FIFA seems to have gone missing, I'll be playing it on Pro Evo 2011. In which the Scotland squad still features international superstars Paul Hartley, Chris Iwelumo, and David Weir. Good stuff. The bottle of red wine in my cupboard is looking more tempting by the minute, and that's a bad sign...

SKSP: Hour 4, disaster strikes!

Quick update as I enter my fourth hour of the SKSP marathon. My list of shame idea had to get booted out the window thanks to my brand new PS@ deciding it couldn't really be arsed anymore. It kicked the bucket just as I was about to start playing Ico, which has fisted my plan to death. I just knew buying it for £15 off that dodgy guy at the car boot sale was too good to be true... A quick recalculation has me now playing through PC classic Half Life 2 on my PS3, and struggling manfully with the wonky controls on offer. I'm just not an FPS guy, so this should be fun...

listen to ‘SKSP Update’ on Audioboo

SKSP: 12-3pm

So after whiling away an hour on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and having my coalition defeated in our attempts to "liberate" a city for the third time in a row, good old Regmcfly popped over midway through his own marathon to absolutely school me at Tekken 5 for an hour. I thought I had the skills to handle someone that had never played it before, but I guess I need to train a little harder. After rinsing through every single character in the game, we turned our attentions to Blaz Blue: Calamity Trigger. A typically mental Jap fighter from the team behind Guilty Gear, it became clear after the first round that neither of us had the faintest idea what was going on. Between the flashy visuals, laughable use of Engrish ("Da Wheer Of Fate Ish Turnig. REBEL 1"), and an assortment of characters from my worst anime nightmares, we were stumped.

Then it was onto a true classic: Soul Calibur II on the Gamecube (the best version, natch). I can't tell you how much time I lost playing this as a teenager. I used to go onto the practice mode, whack the opponent difficulty up to maximum, and just practice combos for hours on end. This, Tekken 5, and Smash Bros Melee were my go-to games back then. An agreement that the first to four victories would be the true champ led to some tense bouts, culminating in a tense finale between Mitsurugi (Reg) V Talim (Me) at 3-3. I triumphed in the end, of course, proving that I'M THE BEST. And I did it with my favourite controller.

A thing of beauty

Before he left, Reg insisted on trying the PS3's savanah snoozefest Afrika, at my recommendation. Imagine N64 classic Pokemon Snap, with all the charm, character, and fun stripped away and you'll get an idea of what it's like. In the end his intrepid photojournalist (a slinky young French babe called Vince) was mauled by a rabid hippo. Truly a noble death. Jambo!

The true boss of Afrika

Now with Reg gone I'm going to kick on with SKSP properly, getting my teeth into Ico for the first time ever. I'll end up weeping tears thinking about how I'll probably never get to play The Last Guardian. As a bonus, I grabbed a quick interview with Reg before he boosted off. Enjoy!

listen to ‘Regmcfly interview’ on Audioboo

SKSP- Begin!

After an auspicious start to the day, where my alarm failed to go off and it turned out I didn't have any milk for my tea, I'm about to kick off my SKSP marathon. Some pounding techno courtesy of Paul Chambers is giving me the kick up the arse I need to wake up. Makes me feel like I've got the industrial plant from the end of Terminator inside my skull. Er, in the best possible way of course.

I'm kicking off with a cheeky go on Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII, while I wait for Reg to show up so I can boss him at Tekken 5 for a bit. RotTK is what I'm pinning the blame for my laughable sleeping pattern on. After picking up a cheap PS2 last weekend I've had a hard time tearing myself away from it again, and 4AM finishes have been the norm for a good few days. Just entered an alliance to take down the warlord Yuan Shao, and a series of disastrous pitched battles have followed. I'll never conquer China at this rate...

For more of this nonsense follow me on Twitter!

SKSP- Getting Prepared

So this time tomorrow I'll have started my 24 hour gaming marathon for Sick Kids Save Point, raising money for Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Sick Children. The last time I did any kind of sponsored charity thing was back in Primary 3, at the tender age of eight. I vaguely recall it being something utterly daft like trampolining or somersaults, and that I managed a pitiful sub-20 count before bowing out in tears. I might well be in a similar state by the time this is over, but at least I feel I'm a bit more prepared for the challenge. My sleeping pattern is suitably skewed, my eyes have developed a resistance to screen-burn, and I'm fully stocked on sugary snacks and the blackest coffee money can buy. Would probably still break down if you asked me to give you 20 somersaults, mind.

After being handed this 24 hour time slot, one of the trickiest things was deciding what to do with it. Some other participants were dead creative with their ideas (I'm especially looking forward to following Scott Murdoch attempt to survive for 24 hours in Day Z), which made me feel that I should do something interesting with it myself. I thought of digging out creaky PS2 RTS Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII, and attempting to conquer all of China within the day. Trickier than you might imagine, and as a real favourite of mine it's one I'd be happy to pour the time into. But then I realised that, unlike me, normal people have next to no interest in reading about the obscure fictional exploits of long-dead Chinese generals. Let alone for 24 hours. And since I'm liveblogging this thing, having people understand and stay interested in what I'm writing is key. Gutted, eh?

So back to the drawing board. I don't have a working PC, else I'd be on some timesink MMORPG for the duration. No 360, which means no hours wasted chatting with fellow sufferers on Live. I'd thought of booting up a game of Football Manager, maybe see if how far up the career ladder I could climb. Sadly, my laptop would melt under the strain of running anything for 24 hours solid, so that was out. Dark Souls had crossed my mind, but the memory of being stuck at the Taurus Demon for six hours is still too painful. Back to the drawing board!

Long story short, I've returned to my original idea of tackling my list of shame. I've far too many games that were bought but never played, but that sadly includes modern classics like Resi 4, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Ico. So I'll be throwing at least five hours into each of those, with the aim of finally seeing what I've missed out on. First though, I get to kick the day off with some fighting action courtesy of my pal Martin, who'll be stopping by on the way home to his own marathon.  I also noticed that I'll have to miss watching the Scotland Wales game in the evening, which is distressing. So to numb the pain, I'm going to play the fixture myself, in full, on FIFA. Should be a riot. Plus, if I get a better result than the real team, I might be in with a shout of Craig Levein's job. Bonus!

There's still time to donate as well. Thanks to everyone's kind efforts I've smashed through my target of £100, but every penny helps, so if you haven't already please consider donating through my JustGiving page. You'll be able to follow my progress on this blog, where I'm aiming to post at least once every hour, and on my Twitter, where you can enjoy my inevitable meltdown in bite sized chunks. By using the #sksp hashtag you'll be able to keep up with all the weekend action as well, as a legion of gamers across the country kick off their own marathons.

See you on the other side!

Tokyo Jungle- Review

A few minutes into Tokyo Jungle you'll have used a pomeranian dog to take down and eat a few rabbits, marked your territory before catching fleas from a potential mate, and wandered the deserted metropolis before dying from starvation, toxic poisoning, or at the hands (paws?) of a bigger and fiercer predator. All in a day's work for one of the most original games to hit the Playstation Network in, well... ever.

Tokyo Jungle tells the story of Japan's capital post-apocalypse. For whatever reason the humans aren't kicking about anymore, which has left the streets free to be claimed by the various animals that now run free from the shackles of ownership and captivity. And as you'd imagine, it's a fairly chaotic scene. Packs of hyenas roam the sewers, battling wandering bears or hunting flocks of chickens. Wild Gazelle flock to watering spots alongside herds of rabbits, before being chased off by a particularly vicious alley cat. This isn't quite your standard arcade survival game.

You've got two game modes to choose from: Survival, which is where you'll spend most of your time, and Story, the name of which implies more than it delivers. Initially, the story isn't something you're allowed to pursue, so you're instead thrust into the Survival mode's urban jungle to fend for yourself in one of two guises; pomeranian dog, or sika deer. While the difference between predator and herbivore is theoretically the essence of the game's variety, most of the gameplay remains the same regardless of your choice.

So after being walked through the mechanics in a charming tutorial, you're plumped in the middle of Tokyo and left to fend for yourself. Three bars up top represent your health, hunger, and stamina. To keep the first from dropping down to eventual death, you'll have to keep the hunger at bay. For predators, this means hunting and devouring other creatures. Rudimentary stealth mechanics allow you to hide in patches of tall grass, sneaking up on prey before delivering a killing blow with gratifying aplomb (the "Clean Kill" banner that flashes by sure does help). Munch the body until it's nothing but a pile of bones, and hunger is staved off for, ooh about 10 seconds. The constant need to eat adds a real urgency to the challenge of survival; find yourself starving to death in an underpopulated area, and you'll be frantically searching for any tasty looking green dots on your radar, be they cat or crocodile.

For veggie animals the goal remains the same, seek out food before you painfully starve to death. Only now you're after plants to chow down on, and they're usually surrounded by an assortment of predators that want to tear chunks out of your skin. So stealth becomes the order of the day, hiding in tall grass and learning an animal's patrol pattern until you can sneak by, Metal Gear-style. But there's more to living than just eating. Since your animal has, at best, 15 game years of life in them, you'll need to find a mate. This is done by marking territory to "claim" an area. Do that, and interested females will start to show up. Impress her enough to let you breed, and you'll take control of the litter of offspring to continue your journey. Prime females produce more babies, and having a pack at your back is handy in a fight or flight situation.

The game certainly does its best to keep you on your toes. Random events will hit the city's various districts every so often. It might be a toxic cloud poisoning the food and water sources, or legendary animals making an appearance somewhere on the map. Either way you'll need to stay on the move constantly, which is also the case with the sets of challenges that roll around every in-game decade. These are usually of the "kill this many animals, reach this area" variety, but completion is often rewarded with a new bit of stat-boosting kit for your critter to wear. There's nothing quite like dressing your beagle up in kitten boots and a baseball cap to raise a smile.

Also dotted around the town are archives, files that explain the story of mankind's vanishing act bit by bit. They're also key to unlocking chapters in the Story mode, which is really a set of standalone narrative driven missions. These range from the heartwarming to the hilarious, and are a nice change of pace from the vicious battles of Survival mode.

But that's where you'll spend most of your time in Tokyo Jungle. As with most other roguelikes, death is inevitable but also a learning experience. You start each new game a little stronger, a little more aware of what you're doing, and as such you'll get a little further each time. Unlocking stronger animals gives you more of an incentive to try again, and the initially brutal difficulty curve starts to make sense the longer you play. It's not a forgiving game, far from it. And unlike, say, Dark Souls, you will sometimes feel that its difficulty is unfair, with your deaths coming more often from random factors than your own mistakes. But the rewards are there if you're willing to work for them.

It helps that the decaying ruins of Tokyo are a pleasure to explore, with a ton of secret nooks and crannies there to be discovered. It's what you'll find in them that stays with you though. From herds of wild horses running across the rooftops to meandering hippos double-jumping away from packs of wolves, you'll have a hard time predicting what might show up next. These random encounters are at the heart of Tokyo Jungle's humour and charm. Really, where else are you going to be able to kick a rabble of dogs to death with a kangaroo?

There are some real flaws. An all-too-close fixed camera means you'll find yourself dying in the jaws of unseen enemies far too frequently. That green dot on the radar could be a tasty chicken, or it could be a hungry bear. You often won't know until it's too late. The map is fairly useless in its un-zoomable state, and while you've got over 50 animals to unlock, aside from the herbivore/carnivore split it's a repetitive experience. Killing with a pomeranian is much the same as killing with a tiger, it seems, while a giraffe munches the same plants as a chicken, and can seemingly jump just as high. You'll scream out for something different once in a while.

But that's unfair, because really Tokyo Jungle is about as different as they come. There's nothing else quite like it (though it shares more than a little DNA with the Gamecube's oft-forgotten mutate-em-up Cubivore/Animal Leader). It's also the kind of game you can only really imagine happening on the Playstation, thanks to the whatever they're putting in the water over at Sony's Japan Studios. Wickedly addictive, wildly entertaining, and completely bonkers in equal measure, Tokyo Jungle is a game that needs to be tried once. And at just under a tenner, it's well worth a shot.