097REVIEW
LAST MONTH
ON PS PLUSWe said goodbye to PS3 and PS Vita
titles on PS Plus last month. In March
we said hello to a new era. Part of that
was welcoming a whopping 100GB of
online storage for all your save data on
top of the already included subscriber-
only store discounts, freebies, and
access to online multiplayer.As long as you stay subscribed, you’ll
have access to all the PS3 and PS Vita
titles you’ve redeemed up until this point.
ButgoingforwardthelineupwillbePS4-
focused.Marchboastedtwotitles.
First up was
Call Of Duty:
Modern Warfare
Remastered. Rightly
described as one of the best remasters
around (we enjoyed it back in issue
#130), it was developed as the result
of a fan petition and initially released as
part of a bundle for Call Of Duty: Infinite
Warfare. Thanks to PS Plus you could
enjoy the remaster’s updated visuals
as a standalone package... though with
all-new microtransactions and without
the map pack DLC. The core package
presentedanFPSclassicthatcouldbe
enjoyedin 4KthankstoPS4Prosupport.
The side of chips
with your COD took
the form of The
Witness. This puzzle
game placed you upon a mysterious
island. You’d no idea who you were,
where you were or how you got there.
All you knew was that there was a whole
load of maze and pattern puzzles waiting
for you. A slow-burn compared to the
action-packed Modern Warfare, it was
the perfect palate cleanser.
Due to the nature of print, we’ve yet
to see in what other ways PS Plus will
attempt to compensate for the fewer
games each month. While 100GB of
online storage is nothing to sneeze at,
few members of team OPM had used
up the entirety of the original 10GB
allowance. Honestly, we’re still reeling
from the possibilities presented by ten
times that amount of storage.@KoeniginKatzeTOEJAM & EARL:
BACK IN THE GROOVE
Fromdeepest1991,theDay-Gloduoreturn
L
ook,saywhatyoulike
aboutsystemicopen
worldgameswith
retina-searinggraphics
engines,thoughtfullittle
side-quests,andworldmaps
buriedundericons,but
sometimesthey’rea bitmuch.
Sometimeswhatyoureally
wantistoregressbacktothe
comfort,safety,andloud
graphicdesignethosofyour
childhood.It’sforthese
occasionalmomentsthatthis
Toejam&Earlrebootexists.Changingverylittleaboutthe
1991 MegaDrivegame’score
gameplayloop,BackInThe
Grooveinsteadinvitesyouto
justbaskinallthe’90s-ness
ofit all.There’smoreslap
bassgoingoninherethanan
episodeofSeinfeld,andeach
menuandloadingscreenis
a grinning,gaudyodetothe
MemphisDesignmovement
whichdefinedthatlate’80s/
early’90saesthetic.Ona
purelyaudio-visuallevel,you’d
havetobeina verybadmood
nottotakesomethingjoyous
awayfromthisgame.GOINGUP
Mechanically,BackInThe
Grooveis a realoddball.Picking
fromoneofninehip-hop
aliens,yourjobis tonavigate
a seriesoffloatingworlds
andfindtenspaceshipparts
withinthem,sothatthetitularINFO FORMATPUB HUMANATURE STUDIOS PS4 ETA OUT NOW DEV HUMANATURE STUDIOS
@PhilIwaniukVERDICT
THE GAME’S AFOOT
Toejam and Earl can return
their spaceship to their friend
(who they borrowed it from
before promptly crashing).
Said spaceship parts aren’t
particularly hidden or hard
to get to, and the number
of Earthlings impeding your
progress along the way is pretty
scant. The game is like an
incredibly forgiving roguelike
in that way, spitting you right
back to the first level whenever
you lose a life but never giving
you a particularly hard time in
the first place. Just head to the
elevator in each level, collect
some bobbins, maybe complete
a beat-matching mini-game,
and keep moving up. Presents- power-ups to you and
me – smooth your progress
through the levels, and... well,
that’s really all there is to it.
The addition of online co-op
doesn’t feel like a meaningful
one, either; why sully a bygone
pleasure with newfangled
online folk?
It’s a curious game, and one
without tremendous depth,
but its appeal as both nostalgia
hit and visual feast are strong
enough to reel an (early) ’90s
kid like me in.
Faithful to its roots, perhaps
even to a fault, T&E’s new
adventure is still a welcome
dose of childhood to those of a
certain age. Phil Iwaniuk