Upon closer inspection, you can tell I caught him in the middle of playing the New Super Mario Bros Wii game, with his Wii-mote strapped to his wrist.
Upon even closer inspection, you can see his clever E3 badge.
Even closer inspection reveals that it's actually a combination of two badges! You can tell the "E3" logo appears twice on the left side. Now THAT'S power!Comic videogames are as volatile as videogame movies, and usually get overlooked by my gaming radar. So my lack of interest never waned, even with the promise of a huge limited-edition batarang. With low expectations, I began playing the demo. What I experienced blew me away.
It wasn't the murky graphics or the original story that I marvelled (er, "DC'ed." Pure gold.)...but the fighting that I enjoyed the most. Every punch and kick was seamlessly chained together so well, you can't even tell when one punch ends and the other begins.
Lemme give you a memorable example. I was punching one guy in the face, with two other enemies behind me. In a natural fluid motion, I perform a roll motion over the second guy, which transitioned immediately to a creasant kick to the third guy's face!
There are even movie style attacks, like Batman's no-looking-behind-backhanded-fist counterattack, or his cape-spreading aerial glide kick from above. They've even included his trademark grapple-from-above taketowns, which purposely position the camera to give you an optimal view of the enemy being wisked away into the unknown abyss above.
Add to this the random slow-motion of final blows, and you have the makings of almost cinema-like battle sequences sure to qwell the doubts any gamer has to this Batman game.
For the record, I just jumped into an abandoned station where I'm already wandering around the environment looking for enemies to fight...and I did. Slowly.
First off, you have all your attacks laid out before you in these little rectangular buttons, which you can select by pressing left and right on the d-pad. Once you select one, you can attack an enemy. I don't know if it was just me, but attacks felt like they had a 1-2 second delay before executing. To add to the waiting time, after every attack you must wait for the circular guage to refill again before issuing another delayed attack.
In any case, battles have now become more sluggish than it needs to be. I had to idle my time running around in place, just to wait until my meter's full before getting my attack in. While this might be fine for people that have the time, I certainly don't.
I'm sorry, Level 5, but if the gameplay doesn't capture my attention, then it's not meant to be.
Handling the proton pack is as fun as it sounds. Not only do you get to shoot your own particle beam, but you can perform your own wanton destruction, and even make your own burn marks on the wall!
Taking down ghosts requires you to wear them out first before you're able to wrangle them in your beam. Once you do, it's a simple matter of wrestling with the ghost until it's over the trap to suck 'em in. And even that's not a guarantee - you need to keep them steady over the trap, or else they may wriggle free from the trap's beam, and you have to wrestle them back over it again.
While it' true that the "cast" is controlled by the computer, it never really feels artificial. In fact, you really feel like youakre working as a team. There would be times when there are three beams locked on one ghost, and it wasn't until I helped out that the ghost made it over the trap. Other times, they were okay fending for themselves while I was on my own.
The humor wasn't over the top funny, but was enough for the game itself to give me a chuckle every once in a while. The cutscenes weren't in the "uncanny valley," and sometimes were comparible to the movies.
Hey, to have a Ghostbusters game with all original cast members reviving their roles is good enough for any fan of the movies to purchase this game and play it at least once.
I've tried two of the most popular games on the floor - Dueling Swords and Table Tennis - to get a feel for both accuracy and precision, and what I got was just that.
The sword wielding felt quite natural, feeling accurate in every hit I landed. In my best moment, I took 4 timely swings, quickly knocking my opponent in the water - a quick left, right, left, and right blow.
The table tennis game was where I really tested the WM+ limits. With some ping-pong experience under my belt, I mopped the floor with my opponent at 6-1. The amazing thing was that the sensor recognized every spin I applied to the ball, feeling absolutely precise and natural.
Color me impressed and sold.
If you're a fan of Magical Drop 3 or Money Exchange, this puzzler would be right up your alley.
The demo had me pulling a cyclop's eye out, disemboweling a minotaur, and shoving a beast's own horn into its own skull. There was even a close-up shot of Kratos forceably tugging someone's head off! Everything you like about God of War is here, and fans will get the full experience March 2010.
I personally think that, after playing games that require too much thinking, a rail shooter is a gamer's way of relaxing the mind in a casual and arcade-y sort of way.
This is why I hope games like Dead Space Extraction and Sin and Punishment 2 make it big here when they're released.
The folks at Treasure must've realized the huge sales for their virtual console release, and brought the fans what they wanted. Even the small trophy nod in Smash Bros Brawl might've been a sign or, better yet, an asset from this game. But if you enjoyed the first game, expect more of the same in this sequel!
The gameplay's execution is as smooth as the graphics, with attacks that flow naturally like an action movie. And it wasn't any button mashing - I knew what I was performing, and everything played out beautifully.
Plus, since it's Vanillaware, there are always the little things that give the game so much character - the way your character sheath their sword away, the small glance at you while they run forward, the swaying of the grass realistically. Every moment reminds me of their other awesome game, Odin Sphere. A definite must-buy on the Wii.
And yes, I'm smiling. Not an editor-of-a-highly-read-gaming-blog smile, but just a meh-gaming-blog smile.
My lingering didn't go unnoticed when soon one of the reps asked if I wanted to play - to which I admittingly asked for a picture with Charles. Being the very kind man he is (I've met him once before in E3 '06 - the last good E3), Charles and I snapped a picture together.
It was then when I noticed one of the Nintendo reps mysterious went missing. After my photo op, they and Charles were back to playing more Mario with just 3 people. Not forgetting my original intent and seeing the opportunity of a lifetime, I replied to the earlier request and said, "I still would like to play."
Once we were all set, we were selecting levels.
Nintendo rep: "Which level do you wanna play, Charles? How about level 3?"
Charles: "How about...level 8!"
NR: "Are you sure? That level's pretty hard..."
Before we knew it, we were playing the sandy levels of level 8! My player ended up to be the Yellow Toad, while Charles played as Luigi (my fave character, btw). And the rep was right - level 8 is hard, especially when you have 4 people trying to just navigate through the sand geysers and perilless pits. The best moments were when bad things happened to Charles - he expressed his misfortune with his Mario voice going "oh-no" or "why'dyou do that for," which made everyone else laugh.
Level 8 proved too much for our shenanigans ( there was a lot of jumping on each other's heads and pit falling), so we went back to a simpler level 3. By now, a japanese couple also recognize the celebrity playing the game, taking pictures of Charles focused on the screen.
There were moments when it felt like Charles was giving the play-by-play, in his Mario voice, no less! At one time, trying to grab a big coin was a 4-player-jumping-merry-go-round affair, which ended with me snatching the big prize at the end. In another moment, Charles was verbally expressing his intent to secure a Yoshi, to which I silently conceded in pursuing just to here him do his Mario "woohoo"!
Finally, we all passed Level 3, and Charles went back to greet more fans that showed up. By then, it was 6 pm, the day was over, and I left Nintendo's booth happy.
Before I take off to grab some grub, though, I'll leave on this note: I got a chance to meet Charles "it's-a-me, Mario" Martinet! Not only that, but I got to play with him and two other Nintendo reps a couple rounds of New Super Mario Bros Wii! The kicker? He kept doing Mario's "oh-no" voice whenever he messed up! What a great way to close the day! Will post up picture of us together later (sorta wished I had the right setting on my camera at the time, though).
While other games use powerups and weapons, Split Second gives you the ability to blow up the course to take out the competition, sometimes altering the entire course altogether!
While the concept is interesting, it appears to be the only thing going for it now. I enjoy the hub located underneath the car, though, minimizing the need to search the screen for your data.
This and being able to mark your enemies for quick kills is making this game more fast-paced than ever.
