E3 2010: Additional Game Impressions

Here's My quick thoughts on some additional games that were on display at E3 but not shown off during the conferences.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS): The N64 classic and self proclaimed best game in the universe will be released on Nintendo's new handheld system. I never played the original game as I didn't get into the Zelda series until Wind Waker. All I've heard about this game is that its really good and the water temple is bitch, which apparently is going to be made a tad easier in this version.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Really..another Kingdom Hearts game? I love the series but they're really just stalling with the third game. We've already got a prequel coming on the PSP and two handheld titles that take place between the first and second games. Its unknown where in the timeline the game will take place in, but I'll probably play and at least the 3DS's analog nub will make the game more playable than the DS iteration of the series that came out last year.

Sonic Colors (Wii and DS): This looks like it takes what worked about the sonic levels in the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed and made them into their own game. Sonic has some power-ups to use that don't seem to impede the gameplay so is shaping up to be a pretty good title...lets just hope that Sega doesn't predictably mess this up...

Marvel vs Capcom 3 (PS3, Xbox 360): I guess this is the Vs. Capcom's series answer to Street Fighter IV. I don't play Marvel vs Capcom 2 that much but I might give this a shot when my fighting game friends get a hold of this.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Multiple Platforms): This is just further devaluing of the Star Wars series. The purpose of the first game's plot was to bridge the gap from the prequel series to the original movies so making a sequel to that seems kinda pointless...I did kinda like that game, so I'll check this one out in spite of my bitching...

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (Multiple Platforms): seems to play more like the DS games than an actual continuation of the original series, but I'm intrigued by the episodic content and my fondness for the series pretty much forces me to want to download this. If I had a choice between Sonic Colors or this, I'd guess I'd go with this one.

Okamiden (DS): I still need to finish the Wii version of Okami before I can even try this, but I like what played in that game and I hope this handheld version doesn't disappoint.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem (DS): Sadly, this game continues the Mini Mario gameplay that second game used...I want them to go back to the Donkey Kong Arcade style gameplay from the first game.

Star Fox 64 3D (3DS): WooHoo! I love Star Fox 64 and having a portable version of it is a dream come true. I don't know what will be added to the game other than 3d effects but I hope it doesn't mess up with what made the original game.

And so E3 2010 comes to a close...

E3 2010: Nintendo Impressions

Wow...that's all I really can say about Nintendo's press conference. It truly feels like this year was an apology for the last two years of so-so and just terrible E3 showings. Nintendo rocketed back into what they do best, showing off great games. The best thing about the conference was that long dormant home console franchises are getting Wii games this year and almost every game they presented seemed worth checking out.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: So the first official Zelda game made specifically for the Wii was finally unveiled and it looked great. The graphical style seemed to combine the cel shading of Wind Waker and the more detailed Twilight Princess. The Wii Motion Plus is required to play the game and apart from a new beetle item, what they showed here was just generic Zelda gameplay, though there is a twist to typical story that has yet to revealed. The game is slated for release sometime next year.

Mario Sports Mix: Mario's sole game for the time being. After going on two proper adventures, the plumber finally takes a break and goes back to all the sports plaaying we usually have to put up with inbetween those big adventures. The difference this time is that instead of the whole game focusing on one sport, there are at least 3 sports on display: hockey, volleyball, and a second go round with basketball. The game will also release sometime next year.

Wii Party and Just Dance 2: Nintendo showed how fair they've moved from casual gamers as these were the only two games aimed directly at them during the show. From what was shown, Wii Party is just Mario Party with the Miis and Just Dance 2 is...well Just Dance 2. Neither of them were interesting but neither of them looked horrible either.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: The Golden Sun DS title that they showed off last year and haven't given any info on since has finally gotten a trailer, the subtitle of "Dark Dawn" and vague release date of this holiday season. If there's one thing that really bugged me about Nintendo's conference its was their failure to set a concrete release date for anything. Anyway, the trailer looks cool and I can't wait to try it.

Goldeneye 007: A semi remake of that popular N64 game. The only thing I know has been changed for sure is that James Bond's Pierce Brosnan appearance had been updated to that of the current James Bond: Daniel Craig. Never played the original game so this should be a treat.

Epic Mickey: This one kinda disappointed me, mainly because the pre-release screen shots and character models looked really dark and steampunk like, while the material shown to us here didn't reflect any of this. I guess that just wasn't in this portion of the game. What was shown was very straight forward platforming material and that is enough to get me a little interested in it.

Kirby's Epic Yarn: I was so happy for this game's announcement. Kirby hasn't stared in a home console platformer for over a decade (Kirby 64 was the last one). The game's art style is incredibly unique what with everything looking like strands of yarn. It also looks like Kirby's traditional vacuum ability has been altered in some fashion. I can wait to get my hands on this one this holiday.

Metroid: Other M: Some actually gameplay footage was shown in the new trailer and it still looks cool, but they didn't say anything new about the game Nintendo had had already been releasing info about the game throughout the past year. In one of the few release dates given, the game will launch August 31st.

Donkey Kong Country Returns: Retro Studios, the people behind the excellent Metroid Prime series are working a revival of the original Donkey Kong Country series. The classic team-up of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong returns and lots of elements of the previous country titles as will as Donkey Kong 64 show here. I'm looking forward to its release this holiday (so tired of that vague release date)

Nintendo 3DS: So, this is it. Nintendo's successor to the DS. its capable of 3d images without the need of those dumbass glasses. I can't really say anything about this because the problem of the showing of a device like this is I can't talk about it without playing it myself. It looks cool and the analog stick is an interesting addition (maybe Super Mario 64 DS will actually play well now) and the graphics shown off were amazing for a handheld. I want to try it out.

Kid Icarus: Uprising: Everyone's really excited for this 3DS launch title as the first title in the franchise since some game boy game released in like 1991 or something. I'm not terribly excited in it since I never played either Kid Icarus game and what I saw of the original wasn't that great. I did notice a lot of voice acting (for a handheld Nintendo game) and It the games premise seems interesting enough to give the game a shot.

So yeah, Nintendo really stepped up their game this year.

E3 09: Nintendo Impressions

Well...This was a pretty good improvement over last year. Sure Nintendo still had those dull, annoying as hell bragging speeches to bore us with. But Nintendo was a bit more on point to the business of telling us about the games they had coming. Nintendo had a tad more games than Microsoft that I was interested in, but I really wish they would have said a little more about some these games.

New Super Mario Bros Wii: This appears to the major triple A title for the holidays that was long rumored for past couple of months. Co-op Super Mario Bros is something that I feel was long overdue. I'm not super excited for it since this appears to be mostly the same as the Ds game and we've already seen that (plus New Super Mario Bros wasn't my favorite iteration of the series). Also why are the 3rd and 4th players both Toads? Why not Wario or Waluigi? Oh well, its Mario...I'm gonna buy it...and the co-op better be online.

Wii Sports Resorts: Really...they showed us all this game really had to offer last year, but at least it looks a bit more like full game now....Still not gonna buy it though.

Kingdom Hearts Ds: We've known about this game for a while and the press conference didn't tell us anything more than a release date (Sept. 29). I love the Kingdom Hearts series but Chain of Memories for the GBA kinda tainted my feelings for Handheld iterations of the series. But at this one isn't card based so I'll probably buy this when it releases in Sept.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Another Ds game that we've known about for quite some time as the game has been out in Japan since February. I love the Mario & Luigi rpg games but I don't really have anything to say about this game other than it's release date which was an unannounced date in the fall...why? All they really had to do with the game was localization and Nintendo doesn't really have anything for the summer...so why wait til the fall?

Golden Sun Ds: A nice surprise announcement. The Golden Sun games on the GBA were wonderful and it was a little confusing as to why the series was absent from the DS. Well it's here now and although we were not given a date, it looks nice.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again: Wow more Mario stuff...I didn't care for Mario vs Donkey Kong 2. It's lemmings-like gameplay was too much of a departure for me. The one thing was cool about that game was the custom level builder which Minis March Again basically is. It's a downloadable game for the DSI which I don't have and even if I did I probably wouldn't buy it.

The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: They didn't say anything about this game other than "it's good" which wasn't enough for me. I didn't care too much for Phantom Hourglass, the last DS Zelda game, and this looks pretty similar, just with trains instead of a boat. I'm sure it will be good and it will sell well. I'll check it out...but most likely not at launch.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: Wow..just wow. It was pretty much confirmed beforehand that would be a new 3d Mario title on the Wii and here it is. I was hoping that it wouldn't be another Galaxy...but who cares, the first Mario Galaxy is in my opinion one of the best games of this console generation and this seems to just be an extension of that which is fine by me. It also appears to harder than the first one which would address my only real complain against the original. Oh...and Yoshi is the game...which makes things 10 times better. The game will release in 2010...hopefully in the summer.

Metroid Other M: A new Metroid game developed by Team Ninja of all people. It's a nice change of pace from the Prime series and it'll be nice to see this as a sort of what could have been if Metroid Prime had been taken in another direction. It won't come out till next year along with Galaxy 2 so at least there are 2 big games to look forward to next year..finally.

So all in all, Nintendo did pretty well. At least they have actual games coming out this year.

E3 08: Nintendo Impressions

Okay so last year Nintendo kinda bombed at the their press conference. This came as a result of them spending too much time focusing on gloating over their glorious comeback and not enough time focusing on their actual games. They failed to present anything of value apart from the release dates of 3 games we wanted, and they only unveiled two games to the masses: Mario Kart and Wii Fit. This year is even worse. The main problem with this year's conference is that Nintendo seemed to just flat out ignore the hardcore games and focus entirely on the casual market. There's no Mario, Zelda, Kid Icrus, or Pikmin titles that were revealed as everyone expected and hoped, So my favortive games that were revealed for nintendo wii and ds were titles that were revealed weeks piror like Wario Land: Shake it and Kirby Super Star Deluxe. There were 4 titles that were annonunced at the actually managed to get me a little interested even though they were causal games.

Animal Crossing: Okay I haven't played the other 2 games in the series, but I think I'm ready to at least give it a try. It was the first of 2 hardcore titles revealed in the show and this one is fairly interesting because Nintendo will finally be jumping on the online voice chat band wagon with it's new Wii Speak addition. I like this because it's not a headset like X-Box Live so the parents can keep their eyes on what's going on with the kids and what they are saying, which is something the parents needs to do with their kids on X-Box Live.

It's also worth noting that around this time it was stated that teams that work on the Mario and Zelda titles are working on games right now. Could have told alittle more about these games, but nooooo... they felt it was more important to talk about the sales of Wii...NOBODY CARES!!!! everyone already knows how well the wii and ds are selling.

Wii Sports Resort: Everyone loves Wii sports so it no surprise that evryone will love this follow-up. I don't really have much to comment on with this game, but my whole family loved the oringal so I don't think I have a choice but to pick up a copy. My only concern is that the game needs to have a bit more content if I actually need to spend money on the game. The orignial was great game that we got for free and I know that I personally would not have spent the money on it if was sold apart from the console.

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars: Okay so it's okay for nintendo to release GTA on handheld, but not on the home consoles (not that I'd want to play it, if I have to play GTA it will be on 360 or PS3), but playing GTA on the DS would been nice if has more in common with it's console brothers that the horrible top-down game boy verisons of it.

Wii Music: I've wnted this one since the launch of the Wii and was worried that it wasn't coming, but it's here now and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I Think it's a nice alterative to rock band in that sense that you won't have large drums and guitars taking up space in yuor living room.

And that's it. I, like many others, wish there were more titles from their mainstream franhises, but i understand Nintendo is still still trying to grab some of those casual gamers that are still on the fence about the Wii. However they should be a bit more wary of this, while they know that they already have the hardcore audience that owns the system for mario and smash bros, and they have done a great job keeping us happy over the last year with Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros Brawl, they need to keep these people happy to ensure that they don't jump ship.