For more on Zone of the Enders HD Collection, check out our full Zone of the Enders HD Collection review. Or, for more of the best Xbox 360 games for a 10 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
The Zone of the Enders HD Collection is a visually enhanced compilation of Zone of the Enders 1 and 2, two games that were originally released on the Playstation 2 between 2001-2003. Sci-fi inspired action games, both games see you piloting what's known as an "Orbital Frame", which is basically a hovering, anime styled transformer that comes armed to the teeth. While there's usually an overlying objective to each mission, most of your time will be spent beating up the enemy robots with a selection of high tech weapons, from energy swords, to homing lasers, before collecting a mission critical item, and moving onto the next level.
However, as both games were released quite a while ago, the Zone of the Enders games are fairly tricky to pick up and play. With complex controls conspiring with an awkward camera, it can be difficult for younger players to make their robot go where they want it to, as the game automatically tracks nearby targets with the camera, which means "forward" on the left analogue stick will keep changing. The difficulty level often fluctuates, too - one moment you'll be smashing through enemies with ease, while the next, you'll come across a boss that can kill you in the space of two hits.
However, if you're into similarly themed animé, or appreciates things like Transformers, Zone of the Enders may well be worth a try - so long as you have the patience to stick at things when the difficult boss fights pop up.
While Zone of the Enders HD is fairly light on anything too untoward, there are a few things parents should know about. Both games feature some distressing scenes, with the intro to the first game showing a giant robot fall on top of a young boy's friends (you don't see them get squashed, but you do see the robot fall, and then a pool of dark liquid begin to trickle out from underneath), while Zone of the Enders 2 has an animé cutscene where the lead character gets shot in what's supposed to be a zero-G environment. This leads to small circles of blood flying everywhere over the screen, as the character passes out, with blood trickling out of his mouth. While the game features a lot of combat, this is almost exclusively between two robots duking it out, and as such, there's no noticeable blood or guts featured outside of cutscenes, and nothing in the way of swearing.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
