The funny thing is that movie games have a pretty terrible reputation in the gaming world. Most are quickly put together knock-offs of what could be considered a full game that depend upon riding on the fame of the established franchise. But back in 2004, Spider-Man 2 based off the Sami Rami take on the franchise changed all that.

Without reliance upon the movie, Spider-Man 2 as a game was just good. It was a great movie game, a great super hero game and most importantly a great Spider-Man game (considered the best of the character up to this point). But ten years later, the game and movie franchises have both gotten a reboot and that’s not always a good thing.

The Long…

First let’s talk about the story of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. While I applaud the writers trying to separate themselves from the movie slightly be adding in a whole new subplot connecting the scenes between the movie as previous games often do, the beats in this one just feel off. The early beat that introduces the game’s main antagonist also directly messes with the whole Uncle Ben story and what happens to Ben’s killer. It feels about as accurate to the character as Superman killing in Man of Steel.

After a small hiatus, the Monday Freeview is back bringing you the best and worst of free entertainment in all shapes, forms and sizes. Today we look at the mobile app, Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign. First off, thanks for staying timely Marvel.

Dark Reign as a status quo happened between 2008 to 2009. But since it has been plastered in every Marvel book over the past month, I figured it was worth a shot and gave it a download. As you might have guessed from the name, the Marvel universe is put into the gem matching world of Puzzle Quest though there are some dramatic differences due to the game’s free to play nature.

Puzzle Quest focuses on playing out combat scenarios using the Bejeweled method of lining up three, four or five gems of the same color in a row. In Puzzle Quest, these combinations deal damage according to the player’s choice in character. The gems also tally up and can be cashed in by the player for various attacks, again determined by who the characters on the board are. Each side can have up to three characters and wins when the other side is knocked out. After a match, experience in the form of ISO’s is distributed and various unlockables can be won as well, encouraging a player to repeat the same battle multiple times.

One billion dollars in merchandise shipped to retailers on day one. Quite the ambitious feat and though Grand Theft Auto V set the record for the fastest entertainment property to hit a billion dollars in actual sales in three days, Call of Duty: Ghosts is in a unique position in how they will reach it. This is the first Call of Duty since Call of Duty 2 to be released on a crossover year with a new console launch.

Not all gamers who are planning on purchasing the PlayStation 4 later this week or the XBox One next week are going to be able to afford a double purchase and considering what we’ve seen with the next gen graphics, it is certainly splitting the sales. And considering it is also a yearly franchise, there isn’t that same gigantic level of hype for a new Call of Duty the way there is for a new Grand Theft Auto. That said, Call of Duty: Ghosts is a game you are going to want to play.

The Long

Call of Duty: Ghosts is the first entry into the Call of Duty franchise from Infinity Ward since the conclusion of the Modern Warfare trilogy two years ago. They not only needed to introduce an entirely new set of characters but a new status quo as well. Set in a world similar to that of Modern Warfare and Black Ops, this version has a group of allied forces fending off an attack from the Federation.

After the long wait since first seeing glimpses at San Diego Comic-Con last Summer, Injustice: Gods Among Us arrived last week. After all the hype behind it with its roster of heroes and villains facing off against each other in a Mortal Kombat style fighting engine, “What could go wrong?” we pondered. Famous last words right? Well, luckily the team behind Injustice: Gods Among Us at NetherRealm Studios pulled through and gave the best DC fighting experience to date that could possibly rival that of the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

The Long

On the surface, there is a huge appeal to seeing who could win in a fight between Batman and Superman. Comic fans won’t deny that but to create a successful fighter, NetherRealm couldn’t play by traditional comic book rules. While Superman and Batman may be on a level playing field in a comic setting where brain matters as much as brawn, no one is ever going to believe that the Green Arrow can beat up Superman or Doomsday… like ever (sorry Arrow fans). So while the appeal of the game is the premise, it is the nuts and bolts under the hood of Injustice: Gods Among Us that make it a solid fighter.

So I did it. I finally gave in. After months of avoiding Facebook invites from friends, family and total strangers, it was only after the recommendation of our own Matt Raub when he talked about how addictive it was that I decided to give Candy Crush Saga a chance. And now I see what the hype is about.

On the surface, one could attempt to say that Candy Crush Saga is a ripoff of the classic “Match 3” formula that made titles like Bejeweled so successful. But it takes bits and pieces from various other “Match 3” games into an incredibly simple but addictive formula. Early levels involve hitting a certain amount of points within a specific number of moves.

Quickly the gears get clogged up when levels change shape and it isn’t just the perfect square that they are used to. And then comes the jelly which players must not only hit a minimum score on but also make matches over specific squares to clear them. And once you think you’ve mastered that, then you have “ingredients” which are pieces that you must work down to the bottom of the screen by eliminating the blocks below them.

Epic franchises have been doing crossovers for years. It was only a matter of time before the team behind The Lord of the Rings movie franchise took notice of the success of other film blockbusters like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Indiana Jones and how well they all did when they met the LEGO world. Not only did the toys sell, but their video games were all certified hits. LEGO The Lord of the Rings promised to again do something never before done in a LEGO crossover.

The Long

Unlike LEGO Batman and its sequel which were original stories, LEGO The Lord of the Rings took the path of Star Wars and put the entire film trilogy and its most epic encounters into LEGO form. Unlike Star Wars though, LEGO The Lord of the Rings included actual voiceover taken directly from the film. That means the most iconic scenes, though given LEGO twists and humor in many cases, have the authentic audio from the movies. Hearing LEGO Gandalf utter, “You shall not pass” to the Balrog is unexpectedly still incredibly powerful even though, for all intensive purposes, it’s a toy saying it.

It’s been five years since Master Chief finished the fight and saved the earth in the events of Halo 3. Since, there have been an expansion turned spin-off, RTS, prequel and an HD remake of the original, but no proper sequel. As hyped as Black Ops II may be, no game’s fanbase may be clamoring more for a sequel than those of the XBox 360 exclusive Halo 4.

This is the first new proper Halo title made by 343 Industries and the start of a new trilogy for Master Chief called the Reclaimer trilogy. With the lofty task put on this new studio, the results so far have been amazing.

The Long

The biggest fear of Halo 4 was if the game was actually going to still feel like Halo. After all, it has been five years and a new studio working on the game. At the same time, the first person shooter genre has evolved by leaps and bounds since Halo broke open the floodgates of FPS shooting to consoles. Luckily, 343 Industries was able to take both into effect and comes up with a compromise that feels modern while not just trying to be another Call of Duty clone.

Halo 4 retains most of Halo’s signature control elements. Zooming in with a weapon comes from pressing down on the right stick. Melee comes from the right bumper. And the grenade toss happens from the left trigger. If you haven’t played a Halo since Reach, it will only take a few minutes to reacclimate yourself with the controls. There is a reason they have worked so well for the series in the past and continue to hold true to this version of the game as well.

If you have a young male gamer in your family anywhere between the ages of 6 to 36, you have most likely heard of Skylanders. What seems like a simple adventure game takes on the addictive nature of Pokemon style in-game collection alongside real life figurines (a staple of any geek lifestyle). Skylanders Giants comes as the second iteration of what will likely become a yearly franchise for at least the foreseeable future from Activision and developer Toys for Bob that adds some new gameplay dynamics and, more importantly, a slew of new figures for gamers to collect.

The Long

Skylanders Giants kicks things off following the events of the original Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. There is a little bit of meta going on with the story as the antagonist Kaos finds himself in our real world and sees the Skylanders trapped in toy form. After transporting himself back to Skylands, Kaos finds out about a mystical artifact that will allow him to control a robotic army and take over Skylands.

Meanwhile, the player finds out that the ancient Giants, who were the first Skylanders, have been found and they can be awakened to stop Kaos and the robotic army. Yes, it does sound like a Saturday morning cartoon but that is a part of the charm of Skylanders Giants.

Just as the story has a whimsical youthful feel to it, so does the character design. All of the Skylanders from the original game return along with eight new Skylanders and eight Giants. The designs stay in line with the different elements of the game like Life (trees), Death (skeletons), Tech (mechanical) and others while keeping the designs of the new characters original as well. The Giants are unique both in their size on-screen and in their design as well. They have a larger than life feel with the way they interact with other characters and objects on-screen.

If you have a Kinect, chances are that it isn’t the most used accessory of your XBox 360. Though tons have been sold, there hasn’t been great support of good games for it. In fact, many have been downright disappointing like Star Wars Kinect. The shining light for Kinect has been the Dance Central series.

With the first two titles, Dance Central has proven to be one of the best applications of the Kinect technology in terms of accurate recording of the player’s movements and giving a fun experience that actually utilizes the Kinect technology in a fun way. Now, for the third year in a row, the team at Harmonix brings back its dance craze inspired game with incredible results in the form of Dance Central 3.

The Long

If you’ve never played a Dance Central title before, the premise of the game is very simple. Players stand in front of the Kinect controller and mirror the movements they see of the characters on screen. The angle of their arms, legs and body are all monitored by the Kinect as a player follows the motions on screen. The accuracy of the player’s movements determines how well they score on each dance move. Higher scores mean more stars, which have been trend in Harmonix’s music games for some time now.

The music game genre has been around now for a long time and has gone through many iterations. There have been controller based games, dance pad games, and even plastic instrument games. Now, Harmonix, the team responsible for the plastic instrument subsection of the genre goes back to its roots with Rock Band Blitz. Rock Band Blitz is a controller based rhythm game that isn’t just a rehash of Harmonix’s classic Frequency though. It is a compilation of all that the company has learned from and grown with since they embarked in to the world of gaming and music in 1995.

The Long . . .

The first thing you are going to notice is that Rock Band Blitz isn’t your standard rhythm game where the goal is to hit 100% of the notes on screen. In fact, it is impossible to do so. The reason is because Rock Band Blitz is designed to let players choose their path for which notes they want to play. Instead of a note highway assigned to each different player’s instrument, Rock Band Blitz is a one player game with four or five lanes all running next to each other. The player must make choices on which path to take to hit the most possible notes to get the highest score.

The note highway consists of four or five lanes, depending on the song. Each lane only has two notes that can flow down it at once though, a right or left note. It seems simple enough… until you see the four other lanes of notes passing by. This is where the strategy kicks in quick and gives Rock Band Blitz its legs.