Pedal Power Supplies Review

Visual Sound 1 Spot Combo pack

Originally named because it takes up just one electrical output spot, the 1 Spot offers a 9V DC output, with 1700mA of current available. It lacks multiple isolated outlets like the rest on test, but this useful wall wart
will power multiple pedals if you daisy chain them.Five-way and eight-way daisy chain connectors are available, as are plug adaptors – the system is probably best bought in the Combo pack version,which pairs the 1 Spot with a selection of cables.The 3m cable on the 1 Spot means you could keep it out of the way, next to your amp,minim ising stage cabling.

Verdict:
A simple, useful and cost effective piece of gear.

ORIGIN: China
TYPE: Universal 9V power adaptor
FEATURES: 1 outlet (1700mAtotal)
OUTLETS: 9VDC 2.1mm connector
SUPPLIED CABLING: Numerous
POWER: Mains, universal (115V–240V automatic sensing)
DIMENSIONS:48(w) x 50 (d) x 85mm (h)

T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior

The Junior is the smallest of the four units in the T-Rex Fuel Tank range, but we’ve chosen to spotlight it, as it seems the perfect no-nonsense choice for a small board of up to five pedals.You get five isolated 9V outputs, each capable of putting out 120 mA, so it will easily power a set of five standard pedals. In addition, you can use two of the outputs to power an 18V pedal via a serial cable (sold separately), or power five
pedals from one output (max 24 mA each)witha daisy chain cable (sold separately).

Verdict:
If you have high-current pedals,maybe look elsewhere, but if you use standard pedals this is an elegant choice.

ORIGIN: China
TYPE: Multiple-outlet power supply
FEATURES: 5 isolated outlets (600mA total)
OUTLETS: Numerous
SUPPLIED CABLING: 5 x 50cm with 2.1mm to 2.1mm connectors
POWER: Mains (proprietary figure-ofeight cable) switchable 115V or 230V
DIMENSIONS: 105 (w) x 78 (d) x 35mm (h)

Cioks DC10

Based in Denmark, Cioks has several power supplies inits own range, and also makes the Power Factor for Eventide. The DC 10 is the sort of supply that would be well suited to a medium-sized pedal board. It has no fewer than 10 outlets in eight isolated sections– outlets seven and eight share the same ground,as do nine and 10.We like the Swiss army knife approach of the DC 10, in that it seems to be designed to take on any pedal (including 15 V Radial Tone bones), and comes with all the cables you need–so it’s ready for action straight out of the box.

Verdict:
An extremely versatile power supply that will suit most pedal boards. If you have a massive ’board, check out the Ciokolate (£324).

ORIGIN: EU
TYPE: Multiple-outlet power supply
FEATURES: 10 outlets configured in 8 isolated sections (1600mAtotal)
OUTLETS: Numerous
SUPPLIED CABLING: Numerous
DIMENSIONS: 158(w) x 98 (d) x 35mm (h)

Pedaltrain Volto

The Volto will give you an uncluttered stage, because it’s a rechargeable unit that doesn’t require a mains power cable. What’s more, it’s not much bigger than some smartphones, so it’s easily portable. Powered
from a lithium-ion battery that can be recharged from a computer’s USB port or the supplied charger, the Volto has two 9 V outlets with a combined power capacity of 2000 mA, which can power as many pedals as they will support via daisy chain cables.How long the power lasts will depend on the number of pedals you’re connecting (36 hours for one to five;9 hours for 11-plus).

Verdict:
You won’t need to sort out mains power for the front of the stage, but you will have to remember to charge it.

ORIGIN: China
TYPE: Rechargeable pedal power supply
FEATURES: 2 outlets (2000mA total), 3-bar LED to show amount of charge, on/off switch
OUTLETS: 9VDC x2
SUPPLIED CABLING: Numerous
POWER: USB (supplied charger or 5V bus power), 6 hours recharge time from zero
DIMENSIONS: 120 (w) x 85 (d) x 18mm (h)

Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus

Voodoo Lab was the first mainstream company to provide high-quality isolated power supplies for pedals, and the PedalPower 2 has become the go-to device. The latest version, the Pedal Power2Plus, has plenty of juice for a medium-sized pedal board, and some useful features not found elsewhere – such as a ‘sag’knob on two of the outlets, for turning down the juice to simulate alow battery–useful for transistor based fuzz circuits. There’s also an IEC output socket for adding another unit or a mains-powered pedal.

Verdict:
A solid choice, unless you have lots of high-current pedals. Ifso, try the Pedal Power 4x4.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Multiple outlet power supply
FEATURES: 8 isolated outlets (1100 mAtotal)
OUTLETS: Numerous
POWER: Mains (IEC cable) 240V
DIMENSIONS: 152 (w) x 86 (d) x 44mm (h)

TheGigRig Generator

Known for pedals and switching,TheGigRig also offers its Modular Power Supply system,with the Power Path Diagram service, where it will design a system for your specific pedals.For a challenge,we put together an 11-pedal array,with some singular requirements (18V,Boss ACA, high-current, battery connector only, reverse polarity)–and the company built a complete solution.At its heart is the Generator,which supplies 5 amp sofpower–you then add Distributors, Isolators and Adaptors, and you can trim cables to length.

Verdict:
Costsmount as you expand, but this is a perfectly tailored and future-proofed option.

ORIGIN: UK
TYPE: Custommodular power supply
FEATURES: Multiple outlets (5000mA total)
POWER: Mains (IEC cable), universal (110V to 250V automatic sensing)
DIMENSIONS: 105 (w) x 60 (d) x 30mm (h)

Moog Minifooger Pedals Review

Moog Minifooger Drive

The MFDrive employs a Moog Ladder Filter,FETamplifiers, and classicOTAs to create its dirt.You have a choice oftwo levels of range for the gain, to match the pedal’s input to what’s plugged into it.Again knob dials in the amount of dirt, delivering a wide range of sounds, from overdrivenamp through to fuzz tone, while an output knob offers enough extra clout to use the pedal as a booster. Theactual tone of the distortion is dialled in with interaction between the filter and tone knobs. There’s loads of bottom-end here – guitarists will not findmuchthat’s useful on the lower settings of the filter, but they’re just right for bolstering a bass.For guitar, there’s plenty of tonal variation, particularly in the upper mids and top, which can be accentuated with the peak switch, which adds a +15dB boost at the filter cut-off.

Verdict:
Anoverdrive distortion pedal with huge variability and a unique dirtywahif you ‘play’ the filter with an expression pedal.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Distortion pedal
FEATURES:True bypass
CONTROLS: Gain, output, tone, filter, drive switch, peak switch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal socket
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 83 (W) x 144 (D) x58mm(H)

Moog Minifooger Trem

The MFTrem is no simple tremolo pedal. While most tremolos will let youdial in the effect you want with speed and depth knobs, those knobs are not so straight forward here there’s a lot of interaction between them and the othertwo knobs.The depth knob, for example, increases depth for most of its travel, but doubles the trem speed when at its max position. A shape knob alters thewaveform for amore lopsided throb, while the tone knob rolls back the treble content. The overall effect is that this pedal is capable of many more sounds than a standard tremolo pedal, or an amp’s built-in trem.You can get those classic optical tremolo sounds, but also harder ‘gated’ on/off percussive trem.The expression pedal is assigned to speed, so you can get rotary speaker-like ramps and, with the speed knob set to full, even ringmod-style effects.

Verdict:
If youare looking for a diverse range of tremolo sounds, this maybe for you.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE:Tremolo pedal
FEATURES:True bypass
CONTROLS: Shape, tone, speed, depth
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal socket
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 83 (w) x 144 (d) x58mm(h)

Moog Minifooger Boost

This pedal offerstwo boost paths. Youcan choose between up to 6dBof clean boost through aVCA (Voltage-Controlled Amplifier) signal path, or 12dB through a clipped OTA (Operational Transconductance Amplifier) path formore dirt.Anextra 6dBis available for both paths if you use an expression pedal. The VCA path offers quite a subtle boost, that won’t give a massive jumpin volume, but offers a nice tonal shift that enhances the sound and feel.The OTA path is nearer to a standard boost pedal, offering a touch of extra midrange and apparentcompression.Anexpression pedal can undertake various tasks, depending onwhere you set the gain knob: froma full-range volume pedal, throughswelling boost in and out in a musical fashion, or just hammering down for extra gain to drive your amp.

Verdict
Thoughtful rather than bombastic, with a nice tone knob. It cansweeten your signal chain and kick thingsupa gear.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Boost pedal
FEATURES:True bypass
CONTROLS: Gain, level, tone, boost switch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal socket
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 83 (w) x 144 (d) x58mm(h)

Moog Minifooger Delay

Atrue analogue delay, like the MoogerfoogerMF-104 variants, theMFDelay features four BBD chips, allowing delay times of up to 700ms.Howdifferent manufacturers setupthe sound of the repeats varies greatly in this type of pedal, and Moog hascomeupwith repeats that are definitely analogue in theway they decay, but are not massively different fromthe dry sound; the result is a natural sound that blends smoothly in. We get delay time and feedback controls, a 100 per cent dry to 100 per centwetmixknob, plus a drive control with 22dBavailable forsomeboost or tonal colouring.You can connect an expression pedal assigned to control time or feedback, the former offering somestrange effects, the latter adding repeats as youneedthemor controlling the take-off into self-oscillation.

Verdict:
There aremany analogue delays, but the expression-pedal input and drive knob make theMFone of the most versatile.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Analogue delay pedal
FEATURES:True bypass, 35ms-700ms delay time
CONTROLS: Time, feedback, drive, mix
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal socket
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 83 (w) x 144 (d) x58mm(h)

Moog Minifooger Ring

Ring modulation, the ‘black sheep’ of the stompbox family, gets an airing here: theMFRing is based on theMoogerfoogerMF-102 (allegedly theworld’s best-selling ring-modpedal). Juxtaposition of the freq and tone knobs yields a wide range of buzzy, chiming and metallic tones that can be tuned to be musical with a certain scale, but dissonant on notes outside it. At the lowestmix-knob settings, you are getting subliminal ear candy— metallic resonance, for example—in the backgroundbehind your dry tone; but as youturn themixup, you gradually lose that dry sound to a full-on aural assault. What really appeals about theMFRing is the fact youcan use an expression pedal to control the freq parameter for sonic sweeps, or to switch betweentwo keys.

Verdict:
If you want to addsome(very) leftfield sounds to your rig, this is theway to go, butmake sure you buy an expression pedal with it if youreallywant to freak out with the freq.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Ring modulator pedal
FEATURES:True bypass
CONTROLS:Tone, mix, frequency
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output, expression pedal socket
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 83 (w) x 144 (d) x58mm(h)

Moog EP-3 Expression Pedal

Okay, it’s not a Minifooger, but the EP-3 is an essential add-on if you want to get the most out of any of these pedals, and apretty useful thing for any stompbox aficionado to own, as it’s a universal expression pedal that can be used with any musical equipment that supports the use of one. TheEP-3 comes with an attachedtwometre cable terminated in a jack plug that youplug into the expression pedal input on your pedal. Pressing downon the treadle sends a range of values from heel downto toe down– a knob on the side sets the control range so the pedal gives youeither the full range of parameter adjustment, or aproportion of it for, say, a tuned pitch change, or to switch betweentwo delay times.Mainly plastic, it’s robust enough for onstage use, and has a smooth treadle action.

Verdict:
Asolid choice for foot control of pedal parameters onstage and off – and the perfect, virtually essential, companion for any Minifooger.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Expression pedal
FEATURES:Adjustable range of parameter control
CONTROLS:Output knob
CONNECTIONS: Lead with jack plug
POWER: None
DIMENSIONS: 90 (w) x 240 (d) x80mm(h)

HBE Pedals Review

Homebrew UFO

The UFO (UltimateFuzz Octave) is an octave fuzz pedal in the vintage style, but the octave effect has its ownfootswitch so youcan choose if you want to add it to the fuzz, which comes intwo flavours – vintage andmodern – selected with a toggle switch.Vintage is thick and creamy 60s-style fuzz, but with a nice rawedge, delivered via a tone knob that can dial insomethroaty upper-end presence to cut through the mix. Switched to modern, youinstantly get a fatter bottom-end andmore output, whichmakes the pedalmore willing to take off into harmonic feedback.The upper-octave effect is a real treat. It’smixed proportionally to be fairly prominent, but youcan tame it a touch with the tone knob if desired, and it works just fine all over the neck – no matter which pickup youare on – just flick it in to add extra interest to your solos and riffs.

Verdict:
Avery versatile fuzz box formodernand vintage sounds, that livesupto itsname.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Octave fuzz pedal
FEATURES:True-bypass, octave footswitch
CONTROLS: Fuzz, level, tone, vintage/modern switch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x50mm(h)

Homebrew Detox EQ

The Detox, aPaul Gilbert signature pedal, has a party piece in that it can turn a distorted rock sound into a clean sound.Thekey is inusing the pedal’s level knob at a lowlevel – the effect is different fromsimply turning your guitar volume knob down(which canmake the sound a little muffled), as youhave the treble, bass andmidknobs to compensate for anyEQchanges. Without anyEQboosts, unity gain seems to be near the full travel of the level knob, so dialling it back will take the edge off a dirtampand really clean it upwhenyouare back to about 10 o’clock (Paul Gilbert’s preferred setting).The Detox isno one-trickpony, though; with the level knobup, those cut and boost tone controls can reallytweak youramp to your taste, adding a bit of sparkle, bottom-endwhompor whatever – especially useful if youhave anampwith minimal tone control.

Verdict:
Clever design offers practical tone tweaking with extra benefits.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: EQ pedal
FEATURES:True-bypass
CONTROLS:Treble, bass, mid, level
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS:70(w) x 120 (d) x 57mm(h)

Homebrew ParaDrive

The ParaDrive offerstwo related functions – overdrive and boost – independently in one box, each with its ownfootswitch.Theoverdrive is based on theHBEPower Screamer, itself derived fromaTube ScreamerstyleJRC4558Dcircuit, and has a three-way ‘diode select’ switch for tonal options, plus a ‘fat drive’ switch for extra low-end gain.Theboost section offers a gain increase, dialled in with a single knob.Oneposition of the diode switch offers classicTStone, although the ParaDrive hasmoreupits sleeve than a standardTube Screamer in terms of output level.Theothertwo offer variations withmore low-end, gain and dirt – useful choices to better match youramp.Theboost takes the overdrive to another level, but it’s great on its own – just kicking yourampupa notch.

Verdict:
Oneof the most versatile and practical overdrive pedalswe’ve seen lately. It’s like adding three extra channels, giving you four level/dirt options.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Overdrive/boost pedal
FEATURES:True-bypass, independent boost and drive footswitches
CONTROLS: Gain, level, tone, boost,D.Sel switch, FD switch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x50mm(h)

Homebrew Germania

The Germania isHomebrew’s take on the classic Rangemaster treble booster fromthe 1960s, and offers upto20dBof gain to drive youramp. In its ‘hi-fi’ setting, you get a full range boost, but a ‘lo-fi’ setting offers amore focused boost in one of three frequency ranges controlled with the3Qswitch. Boost in hi-fimodeis bright, withsome germanium-driven grit to it, and as you turn the knob clockwise there’s a massiveamountavailable. In lo-fi mode, the three settings offer cut in the bottom but different midrange emphasis. This pedalworks best with an ampthat’s already overdriven, and especially one that’s dark-sounding – kick it in to take itupanother level and squeeze outsomeharmonics – it did a fine job with our oldnontop-boost AC30. It’s also great with a dirt pedal.

Verdict:
TheGermania can deliver a rawand aggressive boost, but that tonal shift won’t necessarily suit allampsettings, so try it out with your own.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE:Treble boost pedal
FEATURES:True-bypass
CONTROLS: Gain, hi-fi/lo-fi switch,3Q switch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor (+9V rather than the more standard -9V needed)
DIMENSIONS:70(w) x 120 (d) x 57mm(h)

Homebrew CPR

HBE says that the CPR (ComPressorRetro) is modelled after a vintagecompressor circuit… but it’s  not saying which one. Controls are fairly standard, with a sustain knob turningupthe compression and the level knob setting the appropriate output, with enough on tap for a neat boost function – with or without the sustain knob turnedup.The attack knob setshowquickly the compressor kicks in on your signal, allowing youto shape the front-end of your note envelope to suit the musical context – that Nashville snap being there if youwant it.We find the CPR does all the things you’dexpect froma good compressor – keeping the sound tight and focused, adding definition and helping squeeze out the sustain.

Verdict:
There are plenty of good pedal compressors, and the CPR joins the ranks; it might not appeal to those wanting to conserve space on their ’board, but it’ll certainly look good on it.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Compressor pedal
FEATURES:True-bypass
CONTROLS: Sustain, level, attack
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x50mm(h)

Homebrew Cremolo

With all-analogue FET-based circuitry, the Cremolo is designed to mimic vintage valve tremolos. Intensity and speed knobs are standardonany tremolo pedal, but the Cremolo also has a level knob that can not only compensate for any perceived volume dropwhenthe effect kicks in, but also has extra output to drive anampor match it to the chain. Two ranges of speed are available via a slow/fast switch, while another switch turns off the flashing speed indication LEDif youfind it irritating. There’s awarmth to the Cremolo that screams vintage, or rather whispers it softly into your ear – it’s a nicely rounded tremolo that really does sound as if itcamefrom a vintageamp.You get only one sound,
but it’s a good one with plenty of subtle shadings available via the intensity knob.

Verdict :
TheCremolo is all about vintage tone, ather than offering a range of tremolo types, so if you are looking for old-school amptremit might be just what youneed.

ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Analogue tremolo pedal
FEATURES:True-bypass, flashing speed indication LED
CONTROLS: Intensity, level, speed, speed indication LED, off/on switch, slow/fast switch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
POWER: 9Vbattery or 9V DC adaptor
DIMENSIONS: 125 (w) x 95 (d) x50mm(h)

Tomodachi Life 3Ds Game Review

Tomodachi Life 3Ds Game Review. If Animal Crossing gives players a chance to join a community, Tomodachi Life is Nintendo's way of letting them create one from scratch. Unlike Nintendo's other life sim, you don't have Tom Nook to tell you what to do or provide any sense of structure. You're free to inhabit the world with characters of your design and set your own goals.

Instead of being part of the town, you're equal parts god and surveillance camera, listening to the pleas of your islanders and peering into their windows (and occasionally, their minds). They ask for dating advice. If they're hungry, you're the first to know. You help them sneeze. You don't control their bizarre little lives; it's more of an aquarium filled with people, and you are an observer with occasional input.

It all starts with character creation, where you design your Miis. In addition to futzing with noses, favorite colors, and all the usual stuff, you also get to tweak personality attributes on sliders, showing how fast or slow they are, if they lean toward being polite or direct, and a few other qualities. After that, you select their strangeyet-endearing robotic voices. When you're done, they move into an empty apartment and start living their lives.

I created more than a dozen Miis, and after a few days of playing, a nexus of drama emerged – an elderly woman named Marge. She was aloof, boring, and not traditionally attractive. She also seemed to mesmerize nearly every male on the island. Within hours of joining my village, for example, one of my colleague Kim Wallace's Mii creations was head over heels in love with Marge. After getting some tips from me, he professed his love by singing a romantic song to her on the beach. A bit disturbingly, the Mii based on my five-year-old son (age and all) interrupted the proceedings, saying he wanted her heart, too. Alas, she chose neither. I consoled one of the heartbroken characters by giving him olives, then pushing him on a swing.

I enjoyed checking in several times a day and seeing what people were up to. It's a great pop-in game, since you do spend the majority of your time watching as opposed to rotating chairs and shaking trees. That comes at a cost. After playing for about a week, I've started seeing events repeat themselves, which definitely reduces the overall novelty. Similarly, I lost enthusiasm for my Miis' eagerness to play games once I realized there were a handful of these WarioWarequality diversions.

If you thought Animal Crossing was too sparse on the gameplay front, Tomodachi Life's superficial interactions may stretch your definition of the word “game.” In spite of the repetition, this island is a pleasant place to visit, even if I'm not ready to take up a permanent residence.

3DS
Style: 1-Player Simulation
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release: June 6
Rating: E

Concept: Help your Miis live out their dreams, days, and drama on a tropical island
Graphics: Nintendo's simple avatars do the heavy lifting, so it's pleasant – but not a visual tour de force
Sound: Character voices sound like belching synthesizers. That doesn't take much away from the hilarious musical numbers
Playability: The WarioWare-style microgames control well enough, but you spend more time watching the action than you do participating
Entertainment: Laid-back pacing and general silliness won't click with everyone
Replay Value: Moderately High

Pushmo World Game Review

Pushmo World Game Review. The original 2011 Pushmo on 3DS stood out for its unique puzzle mechanics. Little red blob Mallo pushed and pulled blocks like dresser drawers to create platforms that he could use to make his way to the top to rescue a trapped kid. A year later, Crashmo freshened things up by allowing Mallo to move blocks in four directions instead of only two. This changed everything, forcing players to plan out how blocks would fall and beneficially fit together when slid around. The new Pushmo World remains a quality puzzle game, but its lack of innovation disappoints.

Instead of another Crashmo-style leap forward, Pushmo World regresses back to the first game in most ways. Mallo is back to simple drawer-pulling, ladder-teleporting, and switch-hopping in the 120 core Pushmo Park stages. You still have plenty of clever, brain-busting puzzle fun along the way, but it all feels too familiar – even though I haven't played the original for years.

All of the new, experimental elements are sequestered over in the Mysterious Pushmo zone, accessed separately instead of being integrated into the main campaign. These stages are where I had the most fun. Linked blocks of the same color all move at the same time when you yank on them. Yin-yang blocks work just the opposite; when you push in white blocks, black ones pop out. Timed blocks slide back into the wall once the timer runs out, changing the pace from slow and contemplative to urgent and breakneck. The 50 unique puzzles here are a great time, and should have been a larger focus.

Puzzle creation works smoothly (I created one shaped like a little bomb guy), and it's easy to upload your work to the World Pushmo Fair. This user-sharing area provides created levels under the “Newest” and “Popular” tabs. As before, most users focus more on making pixel art versions of licensed characters than crafting technically impressive puzzles. Strangely, there isn't a way to search for puzzles using text. You just open these feeds and hope something you like shows up. Like previous games, puzzles can be tagged with a QR code so you can at least search out content people have posted on the Internet. Almost all 3DS QR puzzles from past games can be imported to the Wii U and vice versa, so you have access to years of creations already out there.

Overall, if you've never touched a Pushmo in your life and don't have a 3DS, this is a good place to jump in. Unfortunately, by reverting to older mechanics, Nintendo offers little for longtime fans to get excited about.

Platform: Wii U
Style: 1-Player Puzzle
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Release: June 19
Rating: E

Concept: Bring Nintendo's 3DS puzzle series to the Wii U
Graphics: Mallo and the plain grassy backgrounds look nice in HD
Sound: The music is quality as always, but extremely repetitive
Playability: Pulling, pushing, and jumping works well. And if you mess up, the handy rewind button repairs the damage
Entertainment: Wii U owners unfamiliar with the 3DS entries are in for a treat, but fans of the franchise won't find much new
Replay Value: Moderate

Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon CPU Review

Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon CPU Review. Intel's brisk production schedule should see the new 14nrn Broadwell architecture arrive by Christmas, but that doesn't mean Haswell is out of tricks. To tide us over until the next generation arrives, Intel has released a new spin on the Haswell design, codenamed Devil's Canyon, that squeezes more performance from the hardware.

This has been achieved not through complex re-engineering, but by simply switching to a new thermal interface material - that is, the stuff inside the chip that conducts heat away from the transistors and up to the heatsink. Thanks to the use of "next-generation" thermal material, the chips enjoy better heat dissipation than the original Haswell models, so they can run faster without overheating.

What this means in practice depends on whether you go for a Core LS or i7 processor. Intel has set the base clock of the Core i5-4690K at 3.5GHz, only 100MHz higher than that of its predecessor, the Core i5-4670K.

With the Core i7-4790K, however, the company has pulled out all the stops. Previously, the fastest Intel CPU on the market was the Core i7-4770K, which has a base speed of 3.5GHz; the i7-4790K takes the same design, but cranks it up to 4GHz. When it comes to single-core operations, Turbo Boost accelerates things further still, to an eyebrow-raising 4.4GHz.

It's no surprise that the new chip tears through benchmarks. Tested in Windows 8, with 8GB of RAM and a Samsung 840 Evo SSD, the Core i7-4790K achieved an Overall score of 1.27 - a huge 13% improvement on the i7-4770K, representing the highest score we've seen from any desktop chip. The single-threaded Media section of the test was particularly strong: here the Core i7-4790K scored 1.35.

Incredibly, the i7-4790K had yet more to give, since, like all K-class processors, Devil's Canyon chips come with unlocked Turbo multipliers. We configured our Core i7-4790K to clock itself up to 4.7GHz for single- and double-threaded tasks, and 4.6GHz for more demanding scenarios. At these speeds, it achieved an Overall score of 1.31 with a standard, low-profile Intel cooler.

However, there's a price to pay. Like the Core i7-4770K, the i7-4790K is expensive at £259, and unless you do a lot of heavy-duty, multithreaded computing, it's of questionable value. Also, it's worth noting that running at such speeds takes a lot of power. Flip over a Devil's Canyon chip and you'll see an extra crop of capacitors that regular Haswell processors lack. To keep these fed, the new chips have a thermal design power of 88W - slightly higher than their predecessors.

But so what? Devil's Canyon isn't aimed at the low-cost, low-power market; it's for enthusiasts and can't-get-enough workstation jockeys. For them, it delivers better performance than Intel's previous flagship. If you're looking for exceptional desktop performance, there's only one reason to consider holding off: with Intel wringing such speed from its 22nm architecture, who knows what may be possible with its forthcoming 14nm parts?

Features
New! 4.0 GHz base frequency
4 Cores, 8 Threads
Fully unlocked for performance tuning
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel® HD Graphics 4600 (1250 MHz)
Supports LGA 1150 socket
8 MB Intel® Smart Cache
2 channel DDR3-1600 memory support
16 PCI Express* 3.0 lanes

view details

Murdered: Soul Suspect Game Review

Murdered: Soul Suspect Game Review. A good murder mystery keeps its audience engaged, on edge, and guessing incorrectly until the killer is revealed. As the puzzle pieces come together and the list of suspects narrows, our vested interest in the mystery almost always turns into a competition of trying to be one step ahead of the detectives in the story, or the first friend in a group to say “I know who the killer is!” Our sleuthing skills determine whether we wear the proverbial deerstalker well or look foolish in it – that's part of the fun.

Airtight Games' Murdered: Soul Suspect delivers a hell of a mystery for armchair detectives to crack, starting and ending with the surreal concept of tracking down your own killer. The opening sequence shows protagonist Ronan O'Connor gunned down by the Bell Killer, a serial killer who has brought fear and death to the dreary streets of Salem, Massachusetts.

Ronan's death isn't told in a flash-forward sequence, a dream, or an event that can be undone. You play as his spirit, trapped in a purgatorial plane of existence. Before Ronan can move on to heaven, he must take care of an unresolved issue that is haunting him.

Ronan believes that his ticket to the cloud kingdom can be obtained if he brings the Bell Killer to justice. With Salem's body bags piling up, and the police finding no leads, he must use his newly gifted ghost powers to uncover clues living eyes could never see.

Many of the murder-mystery genre's classictropes are used as a narrative backbone for this tale, but Ronan's story is anything but rote. Paranormal concepts are woven in to establish a unique arc that clings to dark themes and unexpected developments. Airtight's scribes penned an engaging story that bounces between detective pulp and ghost story – a strange mishmash that ends up working well, and is carried by a great cast of characters and a plot that ramps up and gets creepier as it unravels.

The thrills tied to the plot points almost always fizzle out when you are asked to become an active participant in them. Although Ronan is technically a detective, the gameplay Airtight delivers assumes that the player has the deductive skills and intelligence of a toddler.

All of the murder investigations are designed in a way to give Ronan freedom to study the crime scene how he sees fit. His goal is to uncover clues that will hopefully create some kind of lead pointing to the whereabouts or identity of the Bell Killer.

Once all of the required elements of a murder are studied and catalogued, Ronan is tasked to select the pieces that matter most and point to some kind of answer. You hear him say things along the lines of “Where did I see that stake again?” When that question is proposed, a dozen different images flash onto the screen. One of these images leads to an answer. Here's the kicker: The stake is only displayed on one image. How could you not pick it? These clues are as easy to piece together as a children's puzzle. And no, the difficulty tied to them never elevates over the course of the entire game.

Since Ronan is a ghost, he cannot interact with most objects in his environment. He can run directly through cars, lampposts, and walls, but cannot pass through any item that has been consecrated, a rule that Airtight uses well to establish gameplay boundaries and progression paths.

The most physical interaction Ronan is allowed is the ability to possess small electronics. Turning on a fan can blow paperwork off a desk, revealing a series of photographs and a hidden clue. Possessing an object like a television set may draw someone's attention – a light puzzle element that is tapped effectively in a variety of ways.

Ronan can also leap into the body of a living being. He cannot force his host to move, but he can listen to their thoughts, and force them to focus on a specific topic that he may need an answer for. These gameplay interactions are fun and used sparingly enough that they remain fresh throughout the entire experience. Unfortunately, they all lead down the same path: to more horribly executed investigations.

Ronan doesn't engage in any forms of gunplay or melee combat, but is still pushed to dispatch enemies from time to time. Demons roam the spectral plane, looking for ghosts to feed on. These terrifying beasts move slowly, and can only be taken down by sneaking up behind them and performing an execution move. The demon encounters bring an odd element of stealth to the mix, and add a little intensity to exploration, but they never deliver a serious threat. The demons can be dispatched with little effort, and you only have to deal with a few of them at any given time.

When Murdered: Soul Suspect is at its best, the player has no hand in it. Its biggest strength is the seed planted within the first few seconds of play: the quest to track down the Bell Killer. That narrative thread gets better as it goes, thanks in large part to the budding relationship between Ronan and a living teenage girl named Joy, who we learn is a medium – a person who can interact with both the living and dead. Ronan and Joy have secrets to tell, and end up being just as interesting of narrative focal points as the Bell Killer.

This is one of those games that I find myself raving about one second, and dragging through the mud the next. Is it worth your time? I think so. Despite its numerous shortcomings, I was entertained to the point of not wanting to put it down. It's a satisfying murder mystery and a sub-par game all rolled in one. The story won out in the end for me. If you can tolerate the shoddy investigation gameplay, there's plenty of fun (and wrong guessing) to be had.

Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360, PC
Style: 1-Player Adventure
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Airtight Games
Release: June 3
Rating: M

Concept: Solve your own murder from the afterlife and bring a serial killer to justice
Graphics: Nicely animated cinematic sequences are in great abundance. The demons are terrifying – almost more so
than Ronan's horrible, overaccessorized character model
Sound: There isn't much in terms of music. Instead, haunting sounds like the shriek of a demon are used to build
tension and set the stage for a dreary Salem. The voice work is excellent
Playability: Murdered's gameplay plays second fiddle to the story
Entertainment: Figuring out the identity of the Bell Killer is a mission well worth taking, even when the gameplay is trying to pull the experience down into hell
Replay Value: Low

Bluff It With Windows Server 2012 R2

I'm frequently amazed by the sheer number of people who don't bother to update their systems when a new server operating system version arrives. Amazingly, there are many systems administrators and part-time network people who seem to think that merely having a strong opinion about what Microsoft has done or looks like doing in future somehow qualifies them for a seat at the software-design table.

This being the case, here's my top-five list of tips to help those of you who aspire to stay on top of all things network to continue to pull it off.

1. Forget the GUI
Things such as creating a folder; sharing and other basics may be okay using the mouse, but all the heavy lifting is done inside PowerShell nowadays.

This is one of those Windows add-ons that had a distinctly rough initial reception, and it has retained a bad reputation among those who looked at v1, found a reason to hate it and never returned (think of these folk as early rejecters rather than early adopters).

Irrespective of the opinion of this marketplace of curmudgeons, Microsoft has now developed PowerShell into an extensible, if somewhat prolix, management tool. For almost everything you actually end up needing to do — and I make a distinction from the baby-step things the graphical user interface (GUI) is designed to facilitate — you'll want to use PowerShell.

2. Learn to love the ISE
This is the simple, straightforward graphical editor for PowerShell. It may look as though it's designed specifically for the editing of batch files and complicated things, but consider this: every Microsoft presenter on my last Redmond visit would show me their demo by grabbing a chunk of PowerShell code, dropping it into the integrated scripting environment (ISE) and then selecting each line or sub-unit of code by swiping with the mouse and running it with a swift stab of the FS key (yes, I know F.5 used to mean Refresh, but you have to adapt to survive).

The Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) is undoubtedly more than merely an editor; it's similar to an interactive execution console such as interpreted BASIC or Lisp. There are plenty of useful guides to using the ISE start at "Using the Windows PowerShell ISE" (date: 2013), which is definitely much better than starting at "Using Windows PowerShell ISE" (date: 2009).

3. Keep Bing open
The ISE, and even the humble help file, will carry you a reasonably long way, but when it comes to Microsoft-specific search results, Bing gives you a shorter and better-targeted list than the other search engines.

Besides, it's an enormous advantage to be using a command-line environment linked to a 21st-century search engine when you need to narrow down the possible cause of a problem or find the fix for it. Indeed, it's significantly easier than trying to figure out what a particular graphical element within a specific mouse-friendly utility may have been called by its designer, the supporter, the presenter of a fault or the owner of its fix.

I'm aware there are a number of free Windows Store apps that purport to help with this task, but I'm not yet sufficiently avant-garde to start mixing Store apps with a number of open command windows on the same screen.

4. Don't get too macho
Note that in my previous recommendations I've discussed using PowerShell as a way to function on top of a fully graphics-driven operating system, with all its GUI-based tools functioning. Just because Microsoft has offered a command-line-only version of Windows Server doesn't mean you have to try to squeeze yourself into such a puritan, fragile and dangerous straitjacket simply because using the command line is good for your soul.

Of course, if typing in 64-character, hexadecimal, numerical, globally unique identifiers from memory turns you on, don't let me stand in your way — but I've witnessed far more problems arise from poorly chosen Server Core deployments than I have from the kind of poor decision-making that's supposedly encouraged by GUI-based server installations.

5. Keep your eye on System Center
Microsoft's primary motivation for developing this enormous chunk of system software was the observation that, at the far distant end of getting comfortable with script-based systems management, there are people who have written tens of thousands of lines of code and now find themselves stuck in a rat's nest of ad hoc solutions, entrenched methods, weird fixes and painful emergent behaviours. The scale - expressed both as the number of servers managed and the complexity of each server — at which this becomes a problem is absolutely huge, and it's very likely that most administrators will never hit these buffers in everyday business.

But when you sit down and think, "Why am I trying to pull all these bits together with 20 lines of code?", the answer is that the prebuilt, beautified version of the handy administrative overview you used to use is no longer a standalone application; instead, it appears as a tiny dialog or pop-up inside the enormity that is System Center.

It isn't that common to see smaller businesses go after a System Center licence, but it's a good idea to look around to see how System Center does things — not least because a lot of the dispatched instructions for far-flung servers, generated by a System Center wizard, either are PowerShell scripts or can be exported as PowerShell scripts. These can be employed as a handy source of information for your own processes.

arp -d *
Yes, that cryptic little string is both a snappy headline and something you can type into the command line. In fact, it's a bit of a fix-all, and it relates to a most unexpected collection of problems that I've run into myself or to which I've been alerted by readers. In particular, Rob Anderson has been in touch about a protracted and rather stop-start debugging of his internet connection that he was attempting to perform by making use of Netgear's helpline. In the same month, I encountered a couple of Swiss residents (one current client, one former) with the same issue, both doing battle with Swisscom.

In all three cases, the people involved woke up one day to find that their internet connections were suddenly misbehaving. For his part, Rob ran some tests and concluded that some of the settings on his Netgear weren't achieving the effects he was expecting from their description, so he got in touch with the company.

At the same time, I was sitting in the semi-darkness of a closed-for-the-summer ski chalet in Switzerland, watching the status display of an old, but ultimately reliable, Motorola Netopia DSL router. I'd intended to move a lot of data around that evening and make a stab at an inter-shop VPN configuration, but after my first try failed — the connection's external DNS server address seemed to change every few minutes — I called up the router's diagnostic page and watched, in a quasi-hypnotic state, as the link rotated through about five permutations of speed, DNS server, gateway and IP configuration.

During one of the short time windows when this rotating config would actually permit internet traffic, I received an email into my mailbox (not the client's) from a former client, now resident in Lausanne. He was at his wit's end, because his Swisscom connection was going up and down, fast and slow. He had no idea how to keep his document sync systems running, and he wasn't getting help from his router maker.

Switzerland is a strange mixture of similarities to the UK (there's a healthy market in third-party router hardware) and differences (Swisscom won't talk to you, and the tiny population means there's an even tinier technical skill pool to call upon). Nevertheless, the problems faced in the UK by Rob and overseas by me and Distraught of Lausanne were exactly the same — if you go to a helpline with a problem that you assume lies with the piece of equipment in front of you, you'll get into conversations with people who have very simple-minded remits and lack specific information to work from. When it comes to debugging internet connections, this unfortunate confluence of deficiencies will sink any chance you had of resolving the problem.

DSL lines aren't just a pair of wires that come out of the wall: these wires are merely the tail-end of a huge collection of varied equipment types and configuration choices. And ISPs and phone companies feel entitled to fiddle with the internal setup of the kit to which you connect.

This may take years to become noticeable to you. But when it does finally become noticeable, its effects can be drastic. This is often for reasons that are remarkably dull and untechnical, including the new kit at the far end of the line being incompatible with yours and the installation engineers not having the right configuration information to correctly match your wires to your internet service contract details. But the most obvious and unpleasant reason is that there's no communication between the people who do this work and the people who are using the connections they're fiddling with. In fact, if you think about the number of users connected to a typical telephone and internet exchange, there's never going to be a good time to perform an upgrade — someone, somewhere will always have a drop-dead reason why it should happen next week, or tomorrow or yesterday — any time but today.

For that reason, infrastructure maintenance teams all over the world adopt a working philosophy of "just pile in", thus leaving the debugging process to the hapless customers. In the UK, where your ISP may well have sold you the router as an extra-cost item, there's no liability upon that ISP to guarantee perpetual compatibility, either. You might buy their recommended device six weeks before some infrastructure-driven connection update to the exchange blows you off the net, never to return, at least not with the equipment you were using.

I expect that almost everyone who hasn't worked inside some part of the ISP or telco business will be boggling at this point. Surely broadband is a standard thing, right? It's practically just an algorithm, a method of packaging data and sending it down those long, thin wires very quickly, no?

If this were true, then whenever you encountered a problem it would have to be with your local equipment, and therefore your recourse would be with the manufacturer of said equipment. Unfortunately, this is far from being the only possible option.

Another less far-flung incident during the past few weeks involved a remarkably unhelpful UK ISP who had just been through an exchange-side equipment upgrade to a customer connection that was limited -- contractually - to a very low connection speed. In fact, the speed was so slow that it fell below the range of speeds permitted by the updated exchange equipment. I sat in throughout the support-call process on this one (with the ISP, not the router maker), which became stuck in an endless loop: the support guys didn't want to consider that the business hung onto the end of their line might be perfectly prepared to renegotiate their contract if only the support desk could arrive at some way of helping them prove the line was still usable. I seldom find it necessary to play the pompous, "Don't you know who I am?" card with people whom I consider to be my peers, fellow IT professionals, but this was one of those rare moments when I slapped it down.

So, for the benefit of Mr Anderson, my Swiss friend, and that client, here's the low-down. Yes, your exchange-side internet connection can be subjected to "improvements" without anyone contacting you, and there'll be no hand-holding, nor web resources, nor handy workarounds that you can type into little-visited pages of your router's firmware-management interface. All you can really do is pick a very modern replacement router, try not to waste too much time on the phone to support and put the incident as far behind you as possible.

Actually, there's one last tiny bit of escalation I've had to advise a couple of clients to follow in this situation: order up a new phone line and another connection and pretend that the old, bad one that gave you so much stress simply never existed. If you're called by the phone company, deny any history or any knowledge of it. Generally these businesses are set up to smoothly deliver new business, and then to utterly ignore the regular paying customers thereafter. That's why their support lines deliver such a low-satisfaction experience.

Celestial arp
And that arp -d * thing? Ah, yes. Many small businesses run their entire networks unchanged for years at a time, and I mean years. The reliability and consistency of operation lead them to consider their network as permanent as the roof over their heads. Or, at least, that's the way it feels when someone like me arrives who's intent on taking everything to bits and tidying it up. Tempers can become short, and patience with disconnection from the internet severely limited. This means you'll need a bit of a workaround to put in place on the day you turn up with their replacement, go-faster router device that will cure all their woes.

The problem I'm trying to fix here concerns the way devices in a LAN figure out how to find one another. Most people think about machines as having names, while a smaller group are able to think about their IP addresses, the numbers beneath those names. However, very few people think about MAC addresses, those hardware addresses that may have one, or many, IP addresses to share with the rest of the network.

That's mostly because it's quite unusual to need to think about these relationships at the very bottom of the seven-layer OSI networking model: software and settings conspire to keep this level well out of sight.

Until you want to swap out your internet router, that is, when all of a sudden those machines left running for months or years can no longer connect to the replacement device, no matter what you do to it. That's because the IP address you've used for your router - the IP address that's typed in all over your LAN on your printers, Wi-Fi access points, servers, PCs and tablets - is still held in their network stack as belonging to a different MAC hardware address. It's as though your old router has kidnapped its own IP address and dragged it with it into the dustbin

You could fix this problem by rebooting everything, or by setting up the new router with a new address and then changing the configurations of just about everything in your building to point to it. Alternatively, you could work a little bit of command-line magic by typing in "arp -d *".

The address resolution protocol utility (ARP) manages the cache of numeric IPs and MAC addresses held by your machine. If you've managed to fool it by substituting one router for another then you can flush it out by using the -d switch - this deletes all the cached records and makes the ARP reach back out to the LAN to re-enquire from scratch.

After this month's fun and games, I can say with some assurance that knowing this simple trick can confer on any humble network troubleshooter an almost god-like aura of omnipotence.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War Game Review

Valiant Hearts: The Great War Game Review. In video games about war, we typically assume the roles of gun-toting soldiers who singlehandedly save the day. It's more fun to be the hero who succeeds against the odds than a prisoner of war or an AWOL soldier, but those sadder stories are still poignant. Through phenomenal visuals and audio, Valiant Hearts: The Great War highlights the horrors faced by normal people in extraordinary circumstances – but it's a better history lesson than a game.

Set during World War I, Valiant Hearts focuses on the crossing paths of four people and one dog. Developer Ubisoft Montpelier establishes the horrifying conditions the characters endure through beautiful 2D art and an evocative soundtrack. The animations and character designs are instantly impressive, and the bittersweet music sets an appropriate, reflective mood.

You control each of the humans at different points throughout the conflict, but you aren't shooting up enemy soldiers. It's more of a puzzle game where you overcome obstacles with your wits instead of overwhelming force; you pick items up, stay hidden from guards, and command the dog to interact with objects.

The problem is that Valiant Hearts doesn't grow as you progress; you learn most of your puzzle-solving vocabulary early, meaning that you're often going through the motions to reach an already-obvious solution. Distractible guards, cranks with missing levers, and barricades in need of some dynamite are all common hurdles. A puzzle game doesn't necessarily need deep ability evolution, but the obstacles should at least require some thought. Figuring out what you need to do is usually trivial – the work comes from pushing, pulling, or otherwise getting items where they need to be.

Actual letters from WWI soldiers inspired the events, making the whole game a tribute to those men and women who fought for their countries. Though the message behind Valiant Hearts is noble, the storytelling is thin. Mumbles, gibberish, and pictures in word bubbles comprise most of the characters' interactions. It's endearing at first, but diary entries and sparse narration aren't effectives way to tell a nuanced tale of love and sacrifice.

Even if the starring characters don't completely come into focus, Valiant Hearts still succeeds at conveying a human story. It may not be challenging or action-packed, but it provides some thoughtful and sobering looks at what life was like on the front.

Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, 360, PC
Concept: Everyday stories from World War I as seen through the eyes of four heroes and a dog
Graphics: Fantastic, stylized visuals make the atrocities of war memorable, but less grisly
Sound: Minimal voice work lets you focus on the somber music
Playability: Controls are straightforward and functional. You are mainly walking around, picking items up, and then using those items
Entertainment: While the puzzles and story aren't especially rewarding, the overall tone is still interesting and successful
Replay Value: Moderately Low
Style: 1-Player Puzzle/Adventure
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montpelier
Release: June 25
Rating: T

Shovel Knight Game Review

Shovel Knight Game Review. The downloadable market is flush with pixelated throwbacks harkening back to the NES era. So many exist that developers can't get by on 8-bit visuals and chiptunes alone; a game has to be polished and infuse something fresh and exciting into our rosy memories. Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight not only looks and feels like a lost gem from gaming's past, it hybridizes classic gameplay mechanics from Capcom hits while injecting a modern risk/reward system. The polished core is topped off with a familiar yet authentic visual style that drives the whole experience home.

At a glance, Shovel Knight looks like someone swapped out Mega Man's cartoonish futuristic look with medieval castles and armored warriors. This appraisal isn't too far from the truth, but there's more to it than that. Shovel Knight fuses together DuckTales' pogojumping combat and Mega Man's screenscrolling level design. You can slash at enemies with a chargeable shovel, gleefully bounce on enemies' heads with your weapon, and explore an overworld map reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3. Conquered levels can also be revisited to score extra cash, and optional side bosses prowl the map like Hammer Bros. Players have a surprising amount of fun things to do beyond beating the eight knight bosses and facing off against the evil Enchantress.

Fattening your wallet by returning to beaten levels and fighting optional bosses is important for upgrading your armored digger. Towns are filled with NPCs ready to upgrade your health, increase your magic (for using side-weapons like a fire wand and limited invulnerability), and shovel/armor enhancements that offer new abilities like digging up treasure piles faster. Shovel Knight eschews the traditional livesbased penalty system of the games it's inspired by in favor of something more engaging. Players drop floating bags of cash with every death and have one chance to reclaim them after respawning at the generously placed checkpoints. Shovel Knight ups the ante by allowing players to sacrifice checkpoints for extra cash. It's a unique and interesting way to soften the difficulty, though the risk/reward system loses impact near the endgame after you've purchased everything.

Scouring the kingdom for loot is just part of the appeal – the diverse environments and boss knights had me excited for each new level. Green goo drips from the ceiling of a treacherous fire world, turning hot lava into bouncy platforms. Piles of corpses in a graveyard sink if too many enemies cluster on them, forcing you to thin the crowd or die trying. The Tinker Knight battle begins with an imbalanced duel against the diminutive boss before the ground gives way and you face off against his huge jousting-tank contraption. Shovel Knight is a bright, cheery grab bag of good times.

It looks like a simple, straightforward trip down memory lane, but I was surprised by the subtle, emotional story Yacht Club Games delivered. After some boss fights, Shovel Knight rests and dreams of his lost partner, Shield Knight. In his dreams she falls from the sky as he fights waves of enemies in an attempt to catch her. These recurring segments are capped off with a satisfying and memorable payoff that raises the experience to a new level.

Indie throwbacks to video games of the early ‘80s are a dime a dozen, but Yacht Club Games successfully rises to the top. The triedand- true game design principles and elegant checkpoint system make Shovel Knight worth a try no matter which era of gaming you prefer.

Platform:
Wii U, 3DS, PC

Concept:
Design a polished adventure that borrows the best elements from NES classics while taking a page from Dark Souls

Graphics
A bright, cheerful display of exotic settings and adorable sprites with lovingly crafted animations

Sound
Catchy tunes that evoke memories of Capcom's greatest with a generous slice of Middle Ages compositional flair

Playability
The generous checkpoints and upgradeable health soften the difficulty old games are infamous for. The controls feel pitch perfect

Entertainment
A captivating, breezy journey that saves the most punishing levels for last. New Game Plus boosts the replayability factor

Replay Value
Moderately High

Style : 1-Player Action
Publisher: Yacht Club Games
Developer: Yacht Club Games
Release: June 26
Rating: E