September, which usually marks the start of the releases of the big and most anticipated titles on PSN and XBLA for the rest of the year, has just come to an end, but very little big-budget and highly anticipated titles saw releases in the month. This, however, does not mean that no great games were released in the month — on the contrary, many great titles made their home on the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation 3’s PlayStation Network platforms.
Here are the two best Xbox Live Arcade games and one of the best PSN games in September that stood out from the rest of the crowd and made a place in gaming history.
BloodRayne Betrayal (XBLA, PSN)
The BloodRayne franchise is not exactly synonymous with the words good or excellent, but WayForward is out to change that with BloodRayne Betrayal by transforming the characters and settings into something different and changing the presentation to hand-drawn cartoonish visuals. The game itself is a brawler with the focus on combos and heavy difficulty and a platforming and exploration style that sort of resembles Castlevania.
Rayne, the protagonist, is transported to an underground castle, with the quest of destroying her father, and from there on you get to fight hordes of vampires, demons, electric frogs, bugs, mummies and other creatures of evil. You get a variety of combat moves focusing on crowd control – attacks from enemies must be interrupted by moves including slashing, kicking, shooting and combining those moves with a dash allows Rayne to juggle multiple enemies. You also have the ability to bite an enemy and then set it to explode, which allows you to deal with multiple enemies.
Just moving the character around the screen can be really enjoyable due to the tight controls and mechanics of the game, but the enjoyment is sometimes overshadowed by difficulty, but thankfully does not take away from the enjoyment as a whole and actually makes the game better. The game is not long, but completionists will want to hunt down the red skull items, five of which can be used to upgrade ammo or health capacity.
All in all, Bloodrayne Betrayal is stylish, does not suffer from lack of substance like previous BloodRayne titles and has some of the best combat available in XBLA or PSN games – the perfect choice for any gamer out there and truly is one of the best games on PSN and XBLA.
BloodRayne Betrayal is available on Xbox Live for 1,200 points and on PSN for $15.
Radiant Silvergun (XBLA)
My take on the best Xbox Live Arcade game in September is Radiant Silvergun. It’s essentially like a big brother to the shoot ‘em up video game Ikaruga, and even though it did not enjoy the immense popularity of Ikaruga and was never released in the U.S., it has become a cult classic after being released in 1998 on the Sega Saturn. Now, a remake of the game for Xbox Live exposes everyone to this bullet-hell masterpiece, which still remains relevant as one of the best shoot ‘em up bullet hell games.
The core gameplay formula of the game remains the same as in 1998, but the remake has introduced some sparing, minor changes in order to keep the game appealing to the 2D shmup enthusiasts. The changes include a graphical overhaul with upscaled texture resolutions and replacing the older mesh sprites with true transparency effects.
But the upgrades can be disabled at any time to reveal the retro jagged and pixelated graphics of yesteryear. The new graphics are flashy and definitely well done, but switching to the retro mode will allow more pixel precision and thus a better rate of survival for your ship. Multiplayer support for Xbox Live has also been added along with leaderboards, but the games remains the same as it was 13 years ago – a pure experience of coordinated mayhem and frantic fun!
Even after so many years, the game remains just as challenging and inviting as ever. The multiplier and weapon upgrade systems keep the learning curve nice and high, and like every bullet-hell game it is hard as hell – but in a good way.
Radiant Silvergun is available only on Xbox Live for 1,200 Microsoft points.
Conclusion
Both games are an excellent choice for all gamers and Radiant Silvergun is definitely a good buy, but BloodRayne takes the cake due to its superior graphics, entertaining and interesting characters and replayability. However, cheap as they are, I think both games deserve some space on your consoles.
Which do you think were the best XBLA and PSN games in September?
