LBX: Little Battlers eXperience
(3DS, Nintendo, cert: 7)
Following the popular anime series and toy line LBX: Little Battlers eXperience is a miniature robot-building and fighting game, with a focus on exploration and customisation that offers 130 basic robots with over 4,000 parts that can be fitted. In 2046, 13-year-old Van Yamano battles to protect his robot, Achilles, through a campaign that is supplemented with arena battles in 20 locations. Yamano can also take part in team battles via local multiplayer three-on-three rounds – provided each battler has a 3DS and copy of the game.
Central to this engrossing title, of course, are the encounters that take place in an open city, desert or volcano. Here, developing strategies to suit the chosen robot’s fighting style and special attacks creates entertaining knife-edge showdowns. Familiarity with the wider Little Battlers eXperience brand is not essential to the enjoyment of this great title, where attention to detail both in the aesthetics and intricate robot customisation creates a compelling game. AR
Zombi
(PS4, Xbox One, PC, Ubisoft, cert: 18)
The Wii U’s first survival horror title shambles on to new platforms looking, frankly, a little pale even for the undead. Zombi puts the player in the shoes of a string of survivors in a zombie-filled London. Guided by a paranoid survivalist, they have to fend off the horde with little more than a cricket bat and whatever can be scrounged from the environment. One bite is fatal and death is “permanent”, forcing you, now playing Survivor Two, to go out and grab gear from the zombified Survivor One.
The original Zombi U demonstrated what the Wii U’s quirky hardware was capable of. However, much of what made the original interesting – especially the use of the gamepad as a real-time inventory – have been folded into conventional gameplay. What’s left is a low-budget Dead Island. Zombi looks like a last-generation game, and overall its translation has been awkward, with frequent audio and graphical bugs which can trigger crashes. There’s not much to recommend here, as it lacks the charm of the original and does not stand out on current-gen.
PH
Picross e6
(3DS, Jupiter Corporation, cert: 3)
Unlikely as it may seem, there is a point where sudoku and painting by numbers intersects. Emerging first in print in Japan in the late 1980s, nonograms are logic puzzles that have images hidden in empty grids. A basic numeric code, when broken, maps out simple blocky pictures revealed through mathematic deduction.
Nonograms are also known as picross puzzles, and lend that name to a long-running Nintendo handheld series. The latest release under that banner is Picross e6, which offers more than 300 grids to tackle, and a smattering of extra modes, which rework the basic nonogram concept.
The game is an understated package, where form follows function absolutely. As such Picross e6 has a certain mechanical elegance, although it lacks flair and variety. The puzzles are certainly compelling – addictive even – and should give anybody beguiled by sudoku many happy hours with their brow furrowed. But if you’re looking for dazzling innovation in logic-puzzle design, this may underwhelm. WF
Star ratings (out of five):
LBX ★★★★
Zombi ★★★
Picross e6 ★★★
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