Tech-Gaming writes: "At this year's E3, a kiosk displaying Zephyr: Rise of the Elementals sat relatively unnoticed by a majority of attendees. Hoping to experience a hidden gem, I grabbed a controller, and immediately identified the game's thinly-veiled inspiration. Players controlled a burgeoning cyclone that absorbed nearby environmental objects, gradually growing in size. As more matter was collected, the whirlwind grew, and engulfed a variety of increasingly large items. While this Katamari-clone wasn't bad, it seemed woefully uninspired.
Fortunately, the developers at Loose Cannon have worked diligently over the last few months to enrich the title's look and feel. The game has been rechristened Tornado Outbreak, and a recent playthrough indicated a wealth of changes. Most apparent was the title's shift in perspective- where Zephyr presented a sky high camera angle that evoked Namco's rolling diversion, Tornado Outbreak's viewpoint is directly behind the expanding tempest, bringing the player closer to the game's inspired sense of destruction."
GR:
"As of right now, the list of Xbox 360 games that people want to be playable via the Xbox One's backwards compatibility boils down to a popularity contest. 'Letting the fans decide' is one of the easiest ways to make a gigantic corporation like Microsoft feel more personable, and thousands of gamers have jumped at the chance to vote on the Xbox Feedback page for the games they'd love to see make the transition. The current frontrunners include no-brainer picks like Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption, and Skyrim, and we've all got some personal favorites on our wishlist for Xbox 360 oddballs than can shine again on Xbox One."
The newest episode of Pixelated Radio features discussions of the Nintendo 3DS, Crysis 2, Homefront, Dragon Age II, Ōkamiden, Faery: Legends of Avalon, Tornado Outbreak, Rayman 3D, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars, Islands of Wakfu, and plenty more.
Tornado Outbreak is a surprisingly fun little budget release and a strong multi-platform debut for developer Loose Cannon Studios. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have gotten the level of promotional support from the publisher it deserved, so it's likely to have fallen off the radar of many gamers – if they even knew of its existence.
If you're a big fan of The Munchables and looking for something else along similar lines, you'll undoubtedly enjoy Tornado Outbreak. It doesn't have the same level of charm or replayability of Namco's title, but it's still certainly worth checking out.
