Games of the week – Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise, Chronos: Before the Ashes, Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Warp Drive
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise
Platform: Switch
Genre: Fitness
Price: £39.99
Switch up the sweat
With gyms in and out of lockdown, staying fit in the usual way hasn’t exactly been easy in 2020. So, in punches Nintendo with Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm And Exercise. Think of the classic dance mat games except you’re using your arms. The game is pretty straightforward, using the Joy-Con controllers in each hand to fire punches to the rhythm of the music so it hits the on-screen sequence in tune. After a quick tutorial and setting up your target weight, you can get into daily workouts which range from light, regular and heavy. Each round will tell you the difficulty and the parts of the body it will test. There are achievements to keep you going and a score at the end with details like your estimated calorie burn. Whether it makes you a good boxer or not remains to be seen, but we certainly felt the sweat.
Skip to the end: Nintendo tips gaming on its head once again with a fitness-led take that is both enjoyable and good for you – a rare combination in this day and age.
Score: 9/10
Chronos: Before the Ashes
Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Stadia, PC
Genre: RPG
Price: £24.99
A challenge of a lifetime
Serving as a prequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, except guns are swapped for swords. The main focus is on your protagonist’s lifelong quest around a mysterious labyrinth to end the reign of a great evil – and when developers say lifelong, they mean lifelong. The unique aspect here is that every time your character dies, a year of their life is lost until they can attempt their mission again, and with that year comes nature’s ageing process, meaning nimbleness fades while your wise senses increase. It’s an interesting take that works and adds a new dynamic to the game. As you go about your journey, you are confronted with fairly standard combat which plays out well and puzzles – some more frustrating than others. Graphics are so-so.
Skip to the end: Ageing process and the consequent change of characteristics offers something different worth exploring.
Score: 7/10
Destiny 2: Beyond Light
Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, Stadia, PC
Genre: First person shooter
Price: £34.99
Ready for the darkness?
What better way to fight darkness than to embrace and use it? Well, that’s the motive behind Beyond Light, Destiny 2’s latest big expansion. This makes for an interesting way of eliminating foes by basically freezing them and shattering them into pieces – aka Stasis. The campaign is pretty short but you can’t help but love the new icy moon setting of Europa. It’s definitely a worthy evolution of the popular title, though there is a distinct lack of guns and not much in the way of loot all-round.
Skip to the end: Embracing the darkness feels great and the gorgeous setting makes it even sweeter.
Score: 8/10
Warp Drive
Platform: iOS
Genre: Arcade racing
Price: £4.99 on Apple Arcade
Racing with a twist
We’ve all played arcade-style racing games but Warp Drive tips the genre on its head, quite literally. Instead of racing to the finish line, this title adds something a little extra: teleportation. This helps (or hinders?) you from finding different routes and can even send you flipping around and driving from the ceiling. It can be hard to get used to controlling the game on a mobile device at first but it is compatible with controllers if you have one. The 3D graphics are super impressive and smooth for mobile too, along with a slick, edgy art-style and fast-paced rocky music that makes you want to get to that finish line – although that’s not the only way to win, as level objectives vary with others requiring you to finish before the time runs out.
Skip to the end: A refreshing alternative take on racing that adds an interesting new dynamic, though the graphics impress us most.
Score: 8/10
