Mad Max
(Xbox One, PS4, PC, Warner Bros, cert 18, out now)
★★★
From Fury Road to the middle of the road: this adaptation does nothing wrong but equally, nothing to stand out, which is a disappointment given its source material.
Across a parched sea bed roars a battered muscle car, driven by the Road Warrior himself. Armed with shotgun and harpoon, Max fights his way through the apocalyptic landscape of mutants and madmen in a game that wants to do a lot of things – third-person brawling, sandbox exploration, car combat – and does them functionally, inoffensively. Everything under the hood hums along, but it all just lacks horsepower. It’s strange to feel bored by fist fights and car chases.
So this version of the future feels curiously like a box-ticking exercise from the present: “Popular games have RPG-style upgrade systems and an open world, so we’ll do that.” While the bleached vistas of the nuclear wasteland have a stark beauty and there are some fun voice-acting moments, the appeal fades amid repetitive and shallow gameplay while driving through those same vistas over and over. PH
3D Gunstar Heroes
(3DS, Sega, cert: 7, out now)
★★★★★
Treasure’s bold 1993 debut served as a manifesto for its game-design philosophy – layered mechanics, relentless action, astonishing set-piece boss rushes and beautifully stylised art direction. Now more than two decades on, Gunstar Heroes shines as brilliantly as ever. On release it blew Mega Drive gamers away with creative 3D special effects that made the hardware sing, and all of which fit the 3DS perfectly.
To those unfamiliar with its legacy, Gunstar Heroes is an intense run-and-gun action game in the vein of Konami’s Contra (the developer from which many of Treasure’s staff migrated).
The simple jump/shoot/weapon control scheme governs a huge array of attack options, including jump-in attacks, slides, tackles, throws and of course, the diverse arsenal of 14 weapon combinations. The seven levels are bursting with ideas (everything from a shmup stage to a boss-riddled dice-rolling board game) and the action never lets up. This is a perfect remastering of an essential, landmark title. RH
Forza Motorsport 6
(Xbox One, Microsoft, cert: 3, out now)
★★★★
Not wanting to be in any danger of a stall on the grid, Forza 6 has the hammer down, in numbers, from the off. There are more than 250 more cars and 12 more tracks than Forza 5 offered, while the blistering, high-definition 60 frames per second visuals have been retained, as has motorsport-loving developer Turn 10’s huge attention to detail throughout.
Showcase events offer high-end cars and novel challenges to spice up the career progression while race mods add more subtle fine-tuning for specific events. Variable assists ensure that the game is both accessible for newcomers and rewarding for experts.
Most crucially the driving delivers a realistic and enjoyable challenge. Still impressive is the tactile feedback of rubber and road through the Xbox One controller’s rumble triggers. Wet and night races (new to this franchise) increase the race variety with extraordinarily realistic water pooling in puddles, triggering panicked hydroplaning if not avoided. The AI still has some kinks, not consistently delivering human-like opponents, but it is a minor niggle for a title that absolutely shines in the increasingly crowded field of great racing games. AR
