The Boondock Saints Mobile Game
Platform: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch App
Developer: Boondock Saints, LLC
Price: $2.99
iTunes

The brothers McManus have come to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch in the form of a duel stick shooter game, complete with its own story that lives up to the characters from the cult film The Boondock Saints.

Let me first say that I like the idea of this game, which was probably overly ambitious given the platform. Players can choose either Connor or Murphy to charge into each level to do some mindless shooting with a range of weapons. The 14 total levels also feature gameplay by Noah and Romeo at certain points. After accomplishing each mission, you get a tattoo to show your experience.

The mobile game nails most characterization of the Boondock Saints movie, but the basic mechanics make the gameplay painfully slow as well as the response time to movement. And while I chose to play this game on a handheld device, the controls may be better with the larger screen on an iPad.

Still, like many of the very first arcade games in the ’80s, someone with skillful hand-eye coordination and lots of practice can definitely succeed.

Street Fighter IV
Genre: Fighting
Rating: 12 (VSC Rating)
Publisher: Capcom
Format: Xbox 360, PS3 (Coming soon to PC), Arcade

Chances are, you’ve already heard about Capcom’s legendary Street Fighter series – Street Fighter 2 was/is the benchmark for almost every 1v1 fighting game that exists today. If you haven’t, then you’re either not a gamer, or haven’t set foot in an arcade in the last 15+ years.

SF2 is quite possibly one of my favourite games of all time – it is (in my opinion) one of the most polished and flawless fighting games to date, even if it’s 2D. The game’s combo system and tactical gameplay makes it fun for beginners to pick up, and great for hardcore players to arrange tournaments around (which in turn makes for some amazing viewing).

Capcom haven’t been able to match the original Street Fighter 2‘s quality for a long time (the closest they came for me was Street Fighter Alpha 2), and in the development of their latest release; Street Fighter IV, you can tell they’ve gone back to the roots of the series. Capcom did attempt delving into the world of a 3D Street Fighter before, with the Street Fighter Ex series – these, although good in their own right, were overshadowed by games like Tekken and Dead or Alive.