Braid

Xbox 360 Live Arcade
Timeless
Time can be a funny thing. Invisible, intangible, it flows like a river with many currents, pulling us along towards our ultimate game of chess. I used to think it didn’t exist until Einstein’s theory of relativity set me right and showed it also travels at different speeds (head up a mountain with an atomic clock if you don’t believe it). Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, understand’s this all too well, too.
Like a melancholic Mario Bros, Braid is a platform game with one big twist and dozens of subtle turns.
Added to the usual running/jumping/bouncing on foes action is the ability to rewind time. With a simple button push you can erase your mistakes and try again. Of course that’s pretty handy when you miss-time a jump but what this really allows for is a distinctly genius game of puzzling in search of pieces of jigsaw and a lost princess.
Each world employs different twists on time – there are objects impervious to your rewinding powers, there’s a ring that if dropped can slow time within its spherical influence and there’s a land where even walking left and right changes the direction of time. And with these variations come differing puzzles of mind-melting magnitudes, continually challenging your concept of the 4th dimension, often dumbfoundingly (that’s impossible!), always satisfyingly (so that’s how you do it!).
The art direction is superb too, repainting the simple landscapes of Mario et al with impressionist brushstrokes, underpinned by the melancholia of a beautiful soundtrack, all continually playing and rewinding at the touch of a button as you continue to piece together the story that holds it all together.
At first the story is a secondary concern (platformers aren’t noted for their narrative merits), but as you progress, a sadness dawns as the tale is revealed. Through completed jigsaws and pages of text, we find that Braid’s time manipulation is merely a metaphor for the protagonist’s journey to unmake mistakes, rewrite memories and somehow get the girl back.
10/10

Geometry Wars 2

Xbox 360 Live Arcade, 800MS Points
Dangerous maths
With the recent revelation of a Jeff Bridges enabled Tron 2 film in the works, it's coincidental timing that Geometry Wars 2 makes its debut on the 360. Featuring a similarly stark black background/acid neon vector combination as Tron's unique style, Geometry Wars 2 is the true sequel to one of the 360's biggest Arcade hits.
Asking for en extra 200 MS Points for the pleasure, Geometry Wars 2 is as a sequel should be – bigger, better and face meltingly badder. Using ideas created in Galaxies and Waves, Geo Wars 2 introduces new hooks to the HD generation, creating an even more chaotic, seat-of-the-pants, oh-gawd-my-eyes-are-burning, twitch-gaming ride.
The initial twist resides within Geoms, tiny green blobs that get left behind by the dead. Collect these blobs and your score multiplies. Simple, yet that means instead of running from danger, you now have the impetus to head straight for it, diving into the eye of the storm in search of greater high scores or foolhardy death.
As well as the standard Evolved and Waves modes, variety exists in new modes like Pacifism, Deadline and Sequence, each with their own tasty neon hook, each with their own addictive pace and style. Pacifism disables your weapons, leaving you to trigger explosions and stay safe. Sequence is a series of levels with set patterns, each as devilishly punishing as the last. Deadline gives you a set time limit, infinite lives and minutes of hell to make your score.
Multiplayer is welcome here too, with up to four players supported for competitive or co-op games. Unfortunately online play is missing but with the speed and accuracy required by the game, a millisecond of lag would be enough to ruin it.
To keep you playing beyond the initial thrill of the eye watering fix, Geo Wars 2 uses online high scores, clearly designed to show how you compare to your friends. That one more go is usually fuelled by a competitive urge to beat them, and of course yourself, until your eyes can take no more of the beautiful, bright neon delights, and you get on your light bike back to reality.
9/10

Soul Calibur IV

Xbox 360, also PS3
Stylish swordplay
Ever since I traded in my Super Nintendo for a Playstation and got my grubby student hands on a copy of Soul Blade, i've been hooked to the stylish sword fighting series. Over the years countless hours have been spent locked in duels with friends, trading parry after parry until a hole is found and my nun-chuk swings one last whisper to victory. 
With Soul Calibur IV actually being the fifth in the series there's been plenty of tweaking, yet much still remains the same – two fighters trade weapon blows in an arena until one is defeated. The series defining 8-way run is still present and plenty of the arenas still retain their trademark wall-less edges, allowing for swift, tactical (or lucky) victories with a boot off the edge.
Plenty of new features can be found too such as the Critical Finish which allows for a devastating finishing move when armour is destroyed, yet thankfully requires such precise timing it doesn't break the game.
While not quite on a par with Virtua Fighter 5's demanding combos or Street Fighter III's tournament status, Soul Calibur IV is still an extremely well built fighter with nary a glitch or imbalanced character (barring Ivy's recently discovered infinite combo) and as always is an absolute blast to play for beginner or pro.
Arcade and story modes are brief affairs, with the real single player meat found in the Tower of Souls, a series of gruelling challenges to test your mettle and custom characters.
Unlocking new armour as you progress through the tower, the emphasis on this mode is character creation where you can design your own fighter, picking the right combination of stat heavy clothes in an RPG-esque strategic first for the genre.
The real draw for character creation though is taking the fruits of your imagination online and battling other self-made heros – beating someone with your gyrating pink pirate is an all new kind of humiliation.
While much has been made of the character creation and online play, most people will have their attention caught by guest characters Yoda and Darth Vader, which alongside the stunning visuals and the fluid, accessible and addictive gameplay, makes for an eye catching brand of fighter indeed.
9/10

Homebrew

Nintendo DS
Home made treats
With my 360 currently en route to Microsoft's great fixing factory in the sky, the solution to Summer's gaming drought has been snatched from beneath my blue tacked arcade stick. Soul Calibur IV received a right bashing at the weekend but it was that and the fizzy Geometry Wars 2 that hammered the nails in my Xbox's coffin. In light of such disaster i'm turning to the plucky DS and it's rich homebrew scene for inspiration. Also, Paul's on holiday so i'm double stuck.
As mentioned in last week's review of the Korg DS-10, there are few publishers who have tapped into the DS' real potential, with most content to serve up tweeny shovelware until the landfills are over brimming and we all live on the moon.
To run homebrew on your DS you need a special card that fits into the game slot. The R4 is one such device, and coupled with a memory stick, allows you to run home-made software downloaded legally from the internet (as well as turn it into a multimedia device for movie and music playback).
Obviously, the DS is a gaming device first and foremost and the homebrew scene has offered up its fair share of delights. Compared to big budget games though, there's an obvious difference in quality and size. However, titles such as AmplituDS, Tetra Master and Still Alive all shine in their own way.
AmplituDS is a clone of the PS1 game Amplitude (that eventually spawned Guitar Hero), which mixes psychedelic graphics with music based rhythm gaming. For a home coded game it's impressive, with the bonus being that you can create your own levels and use your own music.
Tetra Master is inspired by the card game found in Final Fantasy IX (another PS1 game) and faithfully recreates the addictive card battling gameplay with more suitable touch screen controls.
Still Alive is by far my favourite though. Based on the awesome game Portal, it's a 2D interpretation of a thoroughly 3D game, that requires you to solve puzzles by using space (and mind) bending technology. The transition to 2D works surprisingly well and even though controls can be a little fiddly, it retains all the cake filled charm of its step brother.
As well as games there are plenty of applications out there too. Filling the gaps in the DS' software library are a multitude of organiser, music and painting programmes. Colours! is another favourite of mine, which turns the DS into a canvas with unrivalled effect. The touch screen allows for a decent degree of pressure sensitivity and coupled with an assortment of brushes and transparencies, allows for a surprising degree of flexibility. The fact that you can transfer your paintings to a computer over WiFi is very nice indeed.
Music is where the DS is really benefitting from the homebrew scene though. From toy keyboards to fully fledged sequencers, coders have run riot, excited by the DS' touch screen, microphone and WiFi capabilities.
DSMIDI is a good first stop. It's PC/Mac software which allows the DS to communicate with your computer over WiFi. With that fundamental cog in place you can start to have fun. Using Kaos DS, you can turn your DS' touchscreen into a MIDI controller, playing with effects in software such as Ableton Live. Protein [DS] is fun little app that allows you to 'scratch' samples as if you were a vinyl genius. Mic recording and MIDI support open up more possibilities too.
Nitro Tracker is a more serious affair, allowing you to sequence, edit and record samples. It's a decent song making tool and for those into loop based music it hits the sweet spot. The touchscreen makes things quick and easy to use too, with drawable envelopes and the now standard MIDI present.
For me though, the real treat is Glitch DS. Turning pixels into partially randomised music may not sound particularly thrilling but when you base a sequencer around cellular automation (also known as the Game of Life), amazing things can happen. Sounding not too dissimilar to awkward electronica boffins Autechre, Glitch DS sequences up to six samples at once, asking you to draw a 'seed' on the touch screen, which then mutates, triggering your sounds semi-randomly. With various parameters to control, save states and MIDI syncing, Glitch quickly becomes a very powerful tool, suitable for live improvisation where every performance is different to the last. If you ever see someone making a racket with a DS, you'll know how, but not why.
Right, back to 'proper' games next week, I promise.

Korg DS-10

Nintendo DS
Electro commuting
There are plenty of home-made audio applications on the DS at the moment (more on them next week) but strangely it's taken some time for a proper company to get round to unlocking the DS' unique sonic capabilities (barring short sighted attempts in Jam Sessions and Gunpei DS). Thankfully it's the mighty Korg who've finally done so.
Korg's DS-10 is based on the tasty MS-10 analogue synthesiser, a patchable beast from the late seventies, favoured in modern times by bands such as Autechre and the Chemical Brothers. Squeezing it onto the DS in virtual form, Korg have managed to retain most of its functions, adding some modern touches to proceedings.
Featuring two patchable dual oscillator synths (replete with virtual cables), a four part patchable drum machine, a six track/16 step sequencer, real time touch screen sound control, WiFi capabilities and a bunch of effects, the DS-10 is a concise yet powerful tool.
The sound quality is impressive too, considering the DS' nature, and the initial worry that 2 synths wouldn't be enough for serious composition is helped by the sheer amount of flexibility generated by the Kaos Pad style manipulation of sounds and the analogue knob tweaking. The fact that you can sync up to 4 DS' together over WiFi (and swap sounds) means plenty more can actually be at your disposal for lone composing or jamming with friends.
After using portable sequencers such as LSDJ and Nanoloop 2, the DS's touchscreen interface is a breath of fresh air, as is the intuitive software. Anyone with basic knowledge of synths and sequencers will feel at home right away, with beginners sure to grasp the basic logic behind everything quickly, and quick to make some good noise.
Unfortunately the limit of 16 patterns can quickly fill up (tough luck prog rockers) and the fact that it doesn't support midi syncing with computers is expected but disappointing (no doubt the plucky homebrew scene will sort that anyway).
For any budding electronic musicians out there, this is an excellent way to get started and will astound even the pros with it's surprising capabilities and lovely acid squibbles.