Japan Review Check: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

A quick look at the highlights among the games coming out in Japan this coming week, courtesy the review pages of Famitsu magazine:

- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (9/10/10/10, 39 out of 40 points): The major release of the week (a PS3 exclusive in Japan for now) misses a perfect score by a mere point.

"The game is balanced so exquisitely that even casual users can enjoy this," wrote editor Atsuhiro Fujiwara. "The high-speed battles are thrilling, and the ability to parry enemy attacks is superbly done. You can use stealth to get through missions as well, but if not, there's a ton of cool-looking moves you can pull off. The boss-class characters really stick out in my mind; I just wish there were more of them."

"It felt pretty tough overall at first," added writer Ranbu Yoshida, "but once you figure out how parrying works, you're rewarded by seeing Raiden perform all of these thrilling actions. In particular, it's really fun to slice up foes in Blade Mode, and the taking life from your enemies gives you this amazing sense of accomplishment as well."

Other reviewers were less impressed by the parrying controls ("You don't get much chance to attack foes unless you can parry correctly, so I felt the difficulty level was a bit high," wrote Yoshida), but overall the reviewers enjoyed the experience. "The computer helps you out with parrying in Easy mode, so gamers of any ability can enjoy this, I think," Yoshida closed. "If it looks interesting to you, try it out!"

- Tank! Tank! Tank! (8/7/7/6, 28 points): Originally a digital download-exclusive in Japan, the retail package finally came out in stores this week, not that Famitsu was waiting with bated breath for it or anything.

"It's fun blowing away enemies with the simple controls, and things can get excited in multiplayer," wrote editor Motoki Shinohara. "Modes have been added from the arcade version, but for a retail package, there really isn't enough volume. The controls are simple, but that winds up making the game feel even more shallow."