This is an exciting moment for WPDownUnder. It’s not everyday we get guest contributors here. And it is certainly not everyday we get the sort of quality and calibre of these next 3 guest posters. Raised proudly by a gamer (much to Mrs WPDownUnder’s eternal despair) to be true gamers  - “The Mob” as WPDownUnder affectionately calls them are debuting online with their first ever game reviews. That’s right – with kind thanks to Microsoft and the XboxAustralia team, the WPDownUnder home-office has had the opportunity to road test two of the latest XBL titles; ”The Splatters” and “Fez”.

So read on, and welcome WPDownUnder’s “Mob” to the interweb for their first ever gaming review!

We’ll kick it off with the new Microsoft Studios title - “The Splatters”.

Firstly however, some background. Mob1 – L-Mob, is an 11-year-old in his last year of primary school who says such titles as Minecraft, Halo and Super Mario are amongst his favourite games of all time. He’s a great helper to his two younger brothers (when they aren’t beating him anyway LOL) and a true cross-platformer gamer enthusiast!

MS-Mob is a 9-year-old who loves to exercise his creative side in Minecraft. Super Mario Galaxy I+II, Super Smash Bros Brawl, ALL the Lego titles - and the odd bit of racing (Burnout Paradise, NFS Hot Pursuit) are all his favourites!

Last, but not least, is 7-year old MJ-Mob. He is a Minecraft guru – loving all things pixellated and 8-bit in that game! As well as this, he has been known to enjoy Pokemon games like his brothers, DragonQuest, Pain and too many others to list here

Onto the games. Part 1: The Splatters.

“The Splatters are acrobatic masters with a unique death wish – to blow themselves up with style!

In this award-winning action-puzzler, you will unlock and master a variety of stunts and perform spectacular moves to clear out each stage in the most show-stopping way possible.

With its fast-paced, splattery liquid physics engine you’ll never play the same way twice. And using Splatter TV, an in-game feature for sharing game clips, you’ll pick up a ton of new moves as you watch the world’s top players perform their jaw-dropping combos.

It’s a messy, vibrant show of skill and splattery destruction.

Life’s short. DIE WITH STYLE.”   SpikySnailGames

Trailer:

The Mob: Good.

• MJ-Mob and MS-Mob really liked the sound effects, thinking they were pretty funny matched to the on-screen action.
• MJ-Mob reckons that the upgrades were pretty good, with skills such as slow-time, rocket boost and more were fun – and encouraged you to keep playing and advancing.
• All three thought there were heaps of XBL achievements – with some “easy points” based on the in-game stunts carried out. They were quite annoyed that they were scoring them for WPDownUnder’s account!
• L-Mob liked the level design – and MS-Mob enjoyed the fact that there were different ways to complete each level.
• When testing out the Splatter TV feature – where you can download clips of levels being completed for maximum scores by top leaderboard players, MS-Mob said whoever the best was, his clips were awesome and he wanted to meet him.
• Controls are well set out and easy to start with, however L-Mob said there are a lot of combo’s to remember and timing (a key to this game) is tricky.

The Mob: Bad.

• The Mob felt that the downloadable content option was a little lean, with no extra levels or content available now (not that they are even close to finishing the game now!). There was however a Theme, picture pack and some videos etc.
• A lack of multiplayer / challenge modes in the game.

Overall the mob thought this was a pretty fun and engaging XBOX Live Arcade Game, with some good physics, challenging game-play and some cheery and enjoyable graphics. Whilst it starts off easy, levels do become harder - especially to master like some of the clips in the Splatter TV leaderboard – which all the of the Mob liked watching!

Ratings (out of 10 Minecraft Diamonds)

L-Mob

 

MS-Mob

 

MJ-Mob

 

Total          7.5 / 10 Mob Diamonds!

 

 

“The Mob” with the occasional help of Sheeds, the Mob spawner

Thanks also to @bajopants & @hexsteph – the two hosts of the awesome Good Game TV & Good Game Spawn-point TV Shows on ABC2 & ABC3. The “Mob’s” favourite shows – and inspiration for their wanting to pester their Mob-spawner to do this review!

<Part 2 will be on Fez once the Mob have done with School this week!>