E3 2010: Goldeneye 007 Hands-On

Goldeneye for the N64 was a great title in its time, and one of the pioneers in promoting Nintendo's 4-port system toward friendly game-night gatherings. But in all honesty, it's been quite some time since I've played the game to really make any comparisons to today's remake. In the end, however, the memories that remain are the game's strong multiplayer presence, its fine gameplay, and different modes to play as. And, in that light, Goldeneye 007 for the Wii certainly lives up to it.

I got to start a two-player game with another person on the floor. I was playing as Oddjob on the Classic Controller, while my opponent was Jaws. The first thing I noticed was how the controls were a bit flighty, making me feel like I wasn't really walking on the floor. I'm sure after some personal tweaking that this is an easy issue to resolve. Also, my Oddjob character had his special trademark hat-throwing attack as his special, which I went nuts over before I got killed. As for the weapons, they were still satisfying to aim and fire at your opponent. The graphics are a nice upgrade from the much-more-blockier designs the N64 version were filled with, and adequate enough for a Wii remake; there wasn't any over-the-top glossy textures or extravagant backgrounds necessary to make the game stand out any more than it should.

Overall, the time spent in the game just whisked me away to a magical memory when gamers were still virgin FPS players, and tea-bagging was still an afternoon activity with real tea. Sure, Goldeneye 007 is a remake and not the original port of its N64 counterpart, and there will be people completely opposed to that simple fact - but the sensation of the game is still alive in spirit, and I'm sure people will gladly overlook that just to relive their childhood once more.

Super Mario Galaxy 2...finished!

It was a lukewarm reception, but Super Mario Galaxy 2 is now finished. As to it being complete, well, that's another matter entirely. If any Mario player is dedicated, the game is quite short going off the bare minimum. Even with the often double-backing I did to get some out-of-the-way stars that were just for completion's sake, the game still felt shorter than I thought. However, I've only secured only about 80+ stars, still far from collecting them all

Still, the level structures were well-thought of, and the game keeps itself quite fresh at times, so you never feel like anything's really the same. A gaming classic amongst Mario titles, for sure.

E3 2010: I finally got my hands on the Nintendo 3DS, but I'm tired

But I'll say this: The 3D works well, it's very awesome, and I want it NOW! More details and impressions/suggestions later!

E3 2010: Hands-on with...

Dragon Quest: Sentinels of the Starry Skies on the Nintendo DS! The game is much more surprising than I thought, and is a very-welcomed addition to the series. Stay tuned to Akiba-Station.com for impressions!

E3 2010: Lost in Shadow

This game is beautiful. Will have more on this game later.

E3 2010: Day 2 coverage begins today

I'm finding that having a blackberry for blog coverage is more useful than I realized. So you'll see on-the-floor E3 coverage sprinkled throughout the day!

E3 2010: Nintendo 3DS up real close

And behind glass. The lines were WAY too long to check it out, so all you get for now are pictures.

The system looks pretty slick there with its nicely-formed analog stick.

Notice how the Select, Home, and Start keys are right below the touch screen? And you can see the SD-card slot and volume control from this angle, too.

The back of the system also shows the two cameras used to make your own 3D images!

And the back of the system shows the power adaptor port, 3DS/DS slot, stylus holder, and infra-red port.

Hopefully the lines aren't so bad tomorrow for me to get a better hands-on of the actual device, as well as the highly-touted 3D experience.

E3 2010: Some random things on the E3 floor...

Just fresh from his last kill, Issac starts to eye my limbs...

Wouldn't it have been great if one of them was actually a real person in costume and waved to the crowd?

A rather timid Sonic, not sure if his presence was known on the E3 showroom floor.

E3 2010: Day One over...

...But I'll get to posting this day's discoveries tonite! Stay tuned!

The calm before the E3 storm

Portable devices...check. Laptop...check. Pen and paper...check. Camera...check. E3 pass...check and double-check. Looks like I'm good and ready to report! Remember that if you want me to ask any particular questions, send them (one question at a time) to GameritisGuy@gmail.com, and I'll do my best to get some answers!

Gameritis also has a facebook page, so please "like" it if you want to receive updates through there.

I'll also be coverage over on Akiba-Station as GameOrDie, so please check for updates there as well!

Less than 6 hours til go-time...

Bit Trip Runner...finished!

The last few levels near the end of Bit Trip Runner were nail-bitingly difficult. I mean, so-close-to-the-end-but-then-running-into-an-obstacle-and-having-to-restart-to-the-beginning-all-over-again-50-times difficult. But finally completing each level was still so worth it.

Did I mentioned that this game is a recommended purchase?

Cave Story: What I was missing...

Let me set this up for you.

• I have never played Cave Story before on my own.
• Most of my information came from the updated sprites for the WiiWare version of the game.
• I played a version of the game briefly last year at E3, with little or no knowledge of what I was actually doing.

Cave Story was a game that appealed to me in two ways: its indie status and its retro style. Nevermind that this game is 6 years old, has received game translations and tribute sites, and was completely free. Some how, some way, the game never got through to me.

Until now.

After I downloaded the game, I told myself I'll play just about 5 minutes since it was late, and then call it a night. An hour later, I was forcing myself to turn off the system.

The gameplay mechanics are so simple and addicting. You collect life capsules to increase your total health, and you have weapons in your inventory that level up depending on the triangles that you collect from defeated enemies. Collect enough of those triangles, and you can level up your weapon to a stronger level, up to level 3 max (when I first played the game, will probably increase later, I'm sure). The devilishly evil aspect is, when your character takes damage, so does his weapons level. Not only does this force you to desperately try to level up your weapon to maximum status, but it reminds you that you can't blaze through a corridor of enemies in a split second unless you're not taking damage at all. Suddenly, this has become a horizontal SHMUP!

The story is as eclectic as its character design, both done by Daisuke Amaya (aka Pixel). It starts up with a character that has no knowledge of himself or why he's there, but that's where the game shuts up. It's not constantly in-your-face that he has amnesia, nor do you get any reaction from him of any concern for that fact. Unlike most games using the "lost memory"approach, Cave Story just lets you explore the world and worry about it later. The nicely-decorated levels and assortment of random art explains itself as you traverse the world. It's a nice no-nonsense approach to giving the gamer what they want, while letting the environment and ambiance tell the story instead.

While I've heard there are some audio issues, the game is still a much-needed departure from all the "next-gen" content that comes out on a weekly basis. If you feel adventurous, download Cave Story on WiiWare and go spelunking. Hopefully, you'll encounter a gaming nirvana you've never realized you were missing.

Recap: Mega Man Zero Collection event at Capcom

The Capcom-Unity event had about 30-40 guests gather for its pre-Mega Man Zero Collection event this past Friday, giving fans the chance to sample the DS game days before its release.

The event, which was held at the Capcom offices in San Mateo, was equipped with a room of about 11-12 TVs all running Mega Man games from their anniversary collection in celebration for all things Mega Man.

The center table, which was decorated with Mega Man Zero fan art, was devoted entirely for Mega Man Zero Collection playable on 4-5 Nintendo DSes.

There was even a small theater setup to play a staffer’s Netflix queue of Mega Man: Upon a Star anime, which, despite the dubbing and dated animation quality, was a pretty decent portrayal of the blue bomber.

Food and drinks were provided for fans, including the Mega Man E-Tank drink, a red-bull-tasting energy drink that was a very dedicated shade of Mega Man blue. While it wasn’t exactly like the E-tank drinks sold in Japan, the cans were still theme-appropriate and well accepted.

There were plenty of opportunities to win raffle prizes throughout the event, and the host was playfully reminding everyone that most of them were donated from Seth Killian’s Mega Man personal collection. These included many toys and figures that, frankly, I wasn’t even aware were out in the market at all; the Battle Network electronic toys were something I thought were never going to make it from Japan. There were even some Mega Man vinyl figures (like decorated Munny figures), and even some Japan-exclusive Mega-Man-themed Kubrick figures.

But the most coveted prize went to the winners of the Endless Mode competitions for both Mega Man 9 and 10. Players survive through a random gauntlet of enemy-filled screens with all weapons unlocked and available to them, with only one life to use. Top scores are measured in how many screens you can survive through. The player with the most screens won a Mega Man 9 press kit (the faux NES box and cartridge) and T-shirt. And boy did they compete. The winner from the Mega Man 9 Endless Mode competition was doing so well not dying that the host had to tell him to manually stop due to time constraints, forcing his hand at after 41 screens and still strong.

All attending fans also got a free Mega Man Zero T-shirt of the winning design from their recent contest, which will be mailed to them at a later date.

Overall, the Mega Man event was a living embodiment of the franchise’s strength and lasting power. For a company to be able to “reboot” their series at its 9th installment AND create not one but FOUR successful branching titles using a side character AND still remain strong says a lot about their game, their quality, and their fans.

Mega Man Zero Collection is out for the Nintendo DS now for $29.99.

3D Dot Game Heroes: Sending Link

Sorry for re-using a good joke, but I've finally put my 3D Dot Game Heroes Link character up on a hosting site. And I've fully fooled myself into thinking this is a new Zelda game with this custom hero in my game now.

Thanks to everyone's positive comments on my first creation! I'll have to see what to make next...any suggestions? Post them below!

Click the link below to download your own copy of Link to play in 3D Dot Game Heroes! Directions to upload the character are located here.

Download link for Link in 3D Dot Game Heroes

Gameritis attending E3 2010

It's nearing the magical time of the year where the game industry's best come out to reveal what they have in store for the new year - E3 2010! And again, I'll be covering the floor as much as possible this year. Only this time, I'll have more than a silly Blackberry and Twitter account to report my findings. Well, there may be still be Blackberry posts here and there (for when I can't whip out a laptop), but no Twitter this time. I'll try to remain ever vigilant in keeping posts coming both here and Akiba-Station, so please think of me as your inside E3 man.

Like last year, I'll be accepting questions you want me to ask on the showroom floor to whatever company reps I can find, so please post them on the Akiba-Station post that will be up shortly. Let me know which vendor I should ask, and what question you want me to ask. Please limit questions to one per post...I don't want to see full surveys of questions from each person. And real questions, not childish stuff like "Why do your games suck" and "When will you make a game I'll actually buy", k?

Still don't know what Akiba-Station is? Check it out in the Links section today!

As for any Gameritis faithfuls, you can send me your questions at GameritisGuy@gmail.com, with the subject "E3 2010 question."

Super Mario Galaxy 2 and ModNation Racers arrive fashionably late

While I'll be too busy this Memorial Day weekend to enjoy Super Mario Galaxy 2 and ModNation Racers, they've still managed to reach me right before the weekend began to rub their noses in my face. At least they'll be waiting for me when I return.

3D Dot Game Heroes editor easy to grasp, pleasant on the ears

There was no choice more obvious than Link to base my first custom pixel character on in 3D Dot Game Heroes. While the game was very enjoyable with its default blue-armor-clad character, it was still missing that je ne sais quoi.

But using any editor without the comfort of a mouse and keyboard made me a little hesitant at first. Sure, it's still pixel placement when you come right down to it, but there are so many things that could go wrong when implementing tools to operate in three dimensions. Fortunately, the tool set that was given was very simple to grasp. And the background music while you create is so upbeat and catchy, making time melt away - I could listen to that all day!

The cursor you work with is always relative to you and not on the camera angle. So, if you rotated your creation to the left and hit left, the cursor will go left relative to you. This makes navigating around a real breeze, making all the hard-to-reach areas much more manageable. Also with the left and right analog sticks acting as the zoom and rotate, respectively, observing your work at all angles is very smooth.

Their color palette is quite diverse, despite the lack of a real color wheel (like what ModNation Racers has). I really only had to change one color from the default palette they started me on to get all the colors I would need for Link. And you have all your typical "undo," "redo," and "erase all" commands at your disposal. But what I really enjoyed the most were the "resize" and "move" tools.

To resize, you just need to hold the X button and create how big you want your cursor to encapsulate, from all 3 dimensions. And, with their simple no-fuss navigation system, it's very easy to set up a huge block cursor with a change in camera angle. With a variable size, the now can be used to place larger areas of pixels, delete larger areas of pixels, and, most importantly, MOVE a large area of pixels. A lot of games can use a lot of the rules set that make this editor so hard to put down.

The approach I went to create Link was to first re-create the 2D sprite on the closest layer, and re-create the side angle sprite to one side of the area. From here, I eyeballed where all the pixels would meet up in the middle, and then worked my way out. After probably a good hour, I had the initial stand pose up and ready. Considering that artists never intended the pixels to coordinate and match from the front and side, there were a lot of liberties taken to make it all work.

From there, a simple command allowed me to copy over that same pose to other poses, and then I just chiseled Link to match his walking technique for one walk pose. Thanks to their "flip" command, I took the same walk pose and just flipped it for the second walk pose. Walking done!

Next up was the Hurray pose, which appeared when you grab an item, or just fall from a certain height. This probably took the longest time since I had to work on both arms at once. After this was done, the attack poses were a quick edit away before I was able to preview my creation in their test arena.

Overall, I think the final result is quite impressive for a first try.

Needless to say, this has now become my character of choice when playing the game.

And yes, I figured that some people have already tried their hand at making Link. Heck, From Software even gave promo disks with Link as a bonus additional character to use, made by those folks. But it feels good to make a character from the ground up, and it's something I'll likely try again in the near future. Something tells me, though, that it probably won't get posted up on their Hall of Heroes upload page.

I'll try to see if I can upload the character on this blog, but if you want a copy, feel free to email me.

Bit Trip Runner downloaded, reminds me of Master Higgens

The very first thing I thought when I started playing Bit Trip Runner (800 Wii points) was my speed run memories of Adventure Island. I don't think many people realized how well designed the levels were to a point where players can just run through the level non-stop and cleverly jump, dodge, and attack enemies in a precise and consistent pace.

Bit Trip Runner, on the other hand, has your character already constantly running, so all you have to do on your end is jump, duck, and kick your way through their very-addicting levels.

I've only played through the first world and boss, and halfway through the second world, and I'm quite addicted. However, I must the game credit for that addiction, seeing that they'll automatically start the next level after every level completion. In addition to the constant level barrage, your character gets reset back to the beginning of the level if you screw up, without missing a beat. There is no extra lives to hoard, no powerups to obtain - you either pass the level, or you don't. There's not even any real interface or tutorial in the game; you just simply play.

The only items you pick up are either gold or these plus-shaped icons that not only improve your score but give you a rainbow streak when you collect all 4. And when you collect all the gold in a level, you're treated to a bonus level done in the familiar style of Pitfall, from which they drew a lot of inspiration. The bonus game even had a grainy filter and familiar static hiss that's reminiscent of all classic Atari 2600 games.

Sound is a strong presence in the game, performing on cue with all your gameplay actions. I found myself almost immediately bobbing my head to the beat, making the already-challenging game that much harder to enjoy and rock out to at the same time. The rhythmic beats also serve as audio cues that accompany the gameplay very smoothly. I was slowly becoming more concerned about not disrupting the beat rather than trying to finish the level, as ironic as it sounds. There were a couple of moments when I considered not picking up all the gold, to just complete the level without getting scathed. But doing just that would defeat the game's audio purpose, and would just give me bland beats.

Finally, the inclusion of ANAMANAgUCHI to Bit Trip Runner is simply awesome (If you ever get a chance to check them out in concert, please do so!). My only disappointment was that it's only used in the intro and end credits and nowhere in the game itself. At least the songs they used (Blackout City as the intro, Mermaid in the credits) were appropriate choices.

Probably the only gripe I've had with this game so far is that on some levels the colors are so vibrant that it's sometimes hard to distinguish the objects you need to dodge. Other than that, Bit Trip Runner is a glorious time-sink that is worth your time and Wii points...I highly recommend it.

3D Dot Game Heroes arrives with pixel goodness

In a time when games get more and more realistic, it's a nice departure to return to a retro, 8-bit world. Well, a 3D 8-bit world, at least. Thanks to 3D Dot Game Heroes, this dream is a weird reality.

And yeah, sure, this game is EXTREMELY similar to another game that rhymes with the Megend of Relda, but I personally think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I think without people who are fans of the classic game this is based on, this game would fall flat among the masses.

There's still yet the editor for me to play around with and create my own pixelated heroes.

Super Street Fighter IV...finished!

What did you expect? It's not like Super Street Fighter IV is anything new, and I've technically beaten it before. I just had to go through a once-over to sample the new mechanics, characters, and bonus stages for myself.

But this time I've exposed my (terrible) skill to the online community and secured my first win...after several losses.