No More Heroes 2 Trailer
A sequel to the fun beam katana brawler for the Wii finally has a trailer! Well… it had a trailer last week at E3. It looks like Travis Touchdown has gotten himself involved with the wrong group of dangerous assassins again in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle . The humor is crude, the animation is shaky, and the dialogue is more suited for a porno… but I can’t wait to swing my Wiimote around and watch blood spray everywhere. This time the hero will be able to wield two of his trademark beam Katana as he mercilessly cuts down his foes.
Source: Kotaku
Final Fantasy 13 trailer brings the shiny
The new trailer for Final Fantasy 13 has been going around the Internet today. Square again pushes the definition of “good looking game”. Whatever story is presented, however, is incomprehensible. At least Square is consistent on that front.
News report from 1990: Nintendo is in trouble
This report from 1990 details how industry analysts believed that because Nintendo didn’t get it’s “16-bit” unit out before Sega and other competitors that it’ll face the risk of losing it’s dominant market share.
What this report is really telling us is that the industry hasn’t changed all that much. This same discussion took place when Microsoft released its console a year before Nintendo and Sony, and we all know who is currently leading in the seventh generation console war. I think it proves that again and again the media and analysts don’t know what they’re doing and the real champion of the gaming industry is game play, not graphics.
New Ghostbusters Trailer!
The best part about this trailer is that it feels like Ghostbusters. The story, the setting, the dialogue, and the return of the original actors combine to make a perfect package…. at least in the trailer. The early gameplay footage seems great, however. It seems to be shaping out to be a fantastic release. I’m counting the days.
Thanks to Kotaku for the information!
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2
The Dynasty Warrior series was always a favorite of mine. I can’t really explain why. The Game Play wasn’t too compelling and the five versions released on the Playstation 2 were basically the same game with slight variations. But there was something satisfying at playing the role of one of the great Generals from Romance of the Three Kingdoms and killing thousands of rampaging Chinese.
in fact, at the height of my Gundam fandom I imaged what it would have been like if Dynasty Warriors had a Gundam skin. Last year I did get my wish but for the lackluster Playstation 3. Perhaps this second version will push me over the edge and make me buy Playstation 2’s unworthy son, perhaps not. But you can’t say the game doesn’t look fun, can you?
PAX: Fruit Fucker Cosplay
With all the news coming from PAX about new games, game demos, and detailed descriptions of the amazing panels featuring some of the most important people in the industry I find the below video to be far more relevant to this blog.
That’s right, the Fruit Fucker! In the fleash…errr…metal! Watch as he justifies his cosplay.
Source: Kotaku
Chrono Trigger getting North American release before Japan
In a rare and strange event US J-RPG fans will not have to wait for a release to arrive from their favorite Pacific island. Chrono Trigger DS will be released in the United States a full two days earlier then in Japan. The rerelease of the beloved SNES classic will drop in the United States on November 25th and in Japan on November 27th. Get your pre-order now so you can claim to have beaten the DS version before the Japanese even get to touch it.
Source: Kotaku
The Hidden Lyrics to the Megaman 3 theme
I never knew that the Megaman 3 theme had lyrics, but it seems like an observant user has uncovered them. They seem a little bit… self promotional…
“Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood” Pre-release rundown
I’m not sure what to think about BioWare and Segas new attempt to refresh the long suffering Sonic franchise. The two companies are responsible for some quality games. BioWares Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic is not only the best Star Wars game made to date (I’m expecting Force Unleashed to knock KOTOR off its throne) but one of the best American Role Playing Games in recent years. But can they do the same with Sonic?
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood begins while our hero is on vacation after defeating Eggman (Dr. Robotnik for those stubborn readers who grew up with Sonic) when he hears from Tails that Knunkles has been kidnapped and the Chaos Emeralds are disappearing. The game is divided into two parts. The first half happening in Sonics world and the second happening in a different dimension where Sonic must take on a mysterious alien race.
The gameplay is standard RPG fair with enemies appearing on the world map and turn based encounters are activated by walking into them. Special moves are activated my giving special touch combinations with the stylus. Some of these special moves will require certain characters in your party, one such move is called “Blue Bomber” and requires Sonic and Tails in the active party.
The premise and the game itself seem to be fairly solid at this point, of course we won’t really know what to expect until someone plays it. But at this point in the development stage, only a few weeks from going gold, we’re looking at a fun adventure RPG featuring the Sonic characters. Probably nothing that will revolutionize the genre or redeem Sonics past few years of mediocrity, but a solid game none-the-less.
The points I’m worried about is use of Sonic in a turn based game. Sonic games have always been about speed. Not about killing enemies, not about collecting rings, and not about how many wacky side characters Sega can introduce. The games were about speed. How fast you can think while zooming though the levels was the element in the original games. Adding a turn based RPG into this franchise will probably not work for the fans who enjoyed the gameplay of the classics.
The other factor that has me worried about this game are the use of all the Sonic side characters in the game. These side characters have never really been embraced by the fans of Sonic games and were never counted as a strong point in the series. The last Sonic game I played, Sonic Rush for the DS, had some many characters that I didn’t know of it just left me bewildered and confused. Sticking with the dream team of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles might have been a much better choice in order to craft a solid story. But we have yet to find out if for once these characters add something to a Sonic game instead of taking away. They haven’t worked in Sonics favor so far, I don’t know how Sega plans on changing that.
I’m excited and worried at the same time. The combination of BioWare and Sega is either going to be a stunning success of fall into the muck of gaming history with the rest of the Sonic games that came out in the past fifteen years. I hope it succeeds, and I hope it will be good enough to take it’s place among the classic Sonic games. Mario RPG managed to do it, why not Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood?
Some interesting links and video about this upcoming game:
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Wikipedia entry
E3 2008 Director Interview via Gametrailers
The Mario Scarf, level one
There are very few things in this world that would get me interested in Knitting, but one of them is video games! Cassie started a blog dedicated to her goal of knitting all of the first level of Mario into a single scarf.
Check out her blog to follow the progress up to the scarfs completion: The Mario Scarf Blog
