Gamesugar

July 3, 2012

Hands On with Project P-100

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , — Jamie Love @ 8:36 am

Project P 100
There’s a bit of a snipe hunt for the game that puts the Wii U in perspective and makes ownership mandatory, or at least that’s the vibe I get whenever gamers talk with me about Nintendo’s new hardware. Since the publisher recently held an event in Toronto to offer local press the opportunity to sample their wares from this year’s E3, I had the chance to revisit titles Nintendo is currently showing, still suspecting some surprise announcements before the launch later this year.

I can’t claim to have found a system seller in the mix, but a lengthy session with Platinum Games’ working title, Project P-100, did go a long way toward convincing me that the incentive for early Wii U adoption is materializing.

The game was stationed next to Pikmin 3, which made it easy to compare the surface play style as I took command of a squad of brightly colored super heroes from an angled overhead view. As with Pikmin, players lead their team into combat, commanding them to attack the various enemies encountered throughout the city. However, Project P-100 works to bring legitimate evolution to the familiar via the Wii U gamepad.

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June 12, 2012

E3 2012 – Hands On with Nintendo

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 6:59 pm

E3 2012 nintendo Wii U
Following Nintendo’s E3 2012 Press Conference, there were plenty of voices of concern regarding the showing, particularly a lack of first-party titles associated with a yet to be cemented launch window. And while I was a bit surprised in this regard as well, given how easily a simple series of teaser trailers for Super Smash Bros., or further adventures in the Star Fox and/or Metroid franchises might have worked to lessen skepticism, I’ve become a bit Zen about the issue.

Nintendo’s Press Conference seemed to focus intently on a wider audience beyond those that had gathered in Los Angeles for the event, and if the Publisher’s showing in 2010 taught me anything, it’s that Nintendo has proven with past hardware releases that they can summon titles from the void to suddenly turn the frowns of the hardcore faithful upside down. They’ve done this on the Wii, the 3DS, and the 3DS eShop in recent memory, though there is something to be said for the lack of consistency that sometimes makes their surprise announcements as necessary as a drop of water is to a man lost in the desert.

What seemed most noteworthy this year, aside from the 3DS being pushed off the stage to make space for the Wii U, was Nintendo’s interest in multiple media streams. In many ways, Nintendo’s attempt to reach out through more channels could be blamed for lessening the showmanship people have come to expect from an E3 Press Conference that opens the show every year. On the other hand, if you’re familiar with Nintendo’s rather dinosaur-like approach to social media in the past, their growing interest in reaching out to more people through more channels is something that should be encouraged – we just need to remember that such pursuits involve continual experimentation and don’t always promise ideal results.

And now dear Sugarfiends, it is time to take a walk through the hands on time I managed to scavenge with Nintendo’s first and third party offerings. The list seems a bit light this year, but in earnest, I tried to bring back as much first hand information as possible.

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E3 2012 Interview – Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:55 pm

Castlevania Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate E3 2012
For the second year in a row, Konami got a jump start on E3 with their pre-show, which offered up a much anticipated extended look at Platinum Games’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengence.

The broadcast also delivered a cinematic trailer for the sequel to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, giving players a glimpse of Dracula pummeling an entire army and the nod that this next release would center around exploring the character who has provided the foundation for the series as a rather one-sided villain to date.

On the floor of E3, I managed to nab some hands on time with a more portable release in the Lords of Shadow Franchise as well with Mirror of Fate for the 3DS, entering an expansive castle that brought back some fond memories of a series that has had a rather extended break from portable hardware.

After whipping through some skeleton enemies and a rather large adversary that required some skillful dodges on my part, I was offered the chance to sit down with Konami’s Dave Cox and MercurySteam’s Enric Alvarez to talk more about Mirror of Fate and the Lords of Shadow franchise. One of the most important notes from the outset of that talk was that Mirror of Fate is not an attempt to continue the 2D stream of portable Castlevania releases, but rather an effort to bring the Lords of Shadow experience to the 3DS.

Since it’s always best to hear straight from the developer behind a title, I’d like to offer up the opportunity for you to hear the entirety of that conversation for yourself, which you can both stream and/or download below.

[podcast]http://www.gamesugar.net/podcast/e32012/castlevaniae3.mp3[/podcast]

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March 23, 2012

Review – Kid Icarus: Uprising

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 6:29 am

Review Kid Icarus Uprising
Starting this review off by confessing that the act of playing Kid Icarus: Uprising causes my hands a great deal of pain is a frustrating situation. For every positive point I’ve discovered within the game, and for every reason that keeps me returning to the newest 3DS release from Nintendo, my hands ache that much worse for the extended sessions.

Assigning controls to the upper one side of the 3DS leaves my pinky fingers dangling while the rest of my fingers work to hold the weight of the system, and playing through the game’s plethora of stages finds those digits going numb, kicking off a painful throbbing that moves up my hands the longer I play and forcing me to break repeatedly from Pit’s sprawling adventure sooner than I’d like.

Playing Kid Icarus: Uprising is quite a bit like being offered a bowl of your favorite ice cream, and then being told to eat it with a steak knife. The task is not impossible, and many delicious sensations are waiting to be experienced, but the process is going to leave you scarred – in this case with wretched claws where your hands once were.

And the pain extends further, because no matter what one says about the content of the game, of which there is a great deal to be discovered, this issue of control keeps presenting a barrier that prevents me from enjoying the experience as much as I otherwise might.

While I suspect that many others will share my pain after taking flight with Pit, I can’t assume everyone will suffer the same experience however – perhaps some of you are monkey bar champions and can take down a bear with your fingers. And it’s also worth noting that despite the complaint, I keep returning to the game to cause untold damage to my digits, which certainly speaks to the quality of the content.

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March 8, 2012

Review Crow vs. Fun! Fun! Minigolf Touch!

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , — Review Crow @ 2:11 pm

Fun Fun Minigolf Touch
Caw ca-caw, caw caw caw caaaaaaw! Caaaw! Caw caaaaaaw c-caw caaaw! Caw c-caw caw caaaaaw! C-caw caw! Caw c-caw – caw caw c-caw caaaw!

[Being a bird of modest upbringing, Review Crow was initially put off by the title of this latest eShop release. For instance, Review Crow certainly doesn’t go around insisting that humans refer to him as Awesome! Awesome! Review Crow, and he very well could given that such a statement is rooted in absolute fact.

However, after scratching up the touchpad for an afternoon, Review Crow feels that there is something to this minigolf business beyond silly outfits providing birds with brightly colored targets.]

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March 2, 2012

Snake Eater 3D – The Good, The Bad and The Boss

Filed under: Editorial Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 1:34 pm

Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D
In deciding which Metal Gear Solid title to port to another platform, Metal Gear Solid 3 stands as the most viable choice. The story of how Big Boss became the world’s greatest soldier serves as the founding narrative for all future events in the series, providing loving bits for fans while creating the most accessible entry point for those not familiar with tactical espionage action – though it helps that the original Metal Gear Solid would require a far greater overhaul to become eligible for such a trip.

Metal Gear Solid 3D sits alongside four other releases of the game – 3 on the PS2 and most recently within the Metal Gear Solid HD collection for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. With that in mind, it seems more sensible to sort out the good and the bad of this latest 3DS version rather than rambling on about one of the most narrative rich releases in gaming and sticking a number to it.

It might also help sort out whether you’re better off spending the equivalent of what the HD collection costs to get your mitts on only one of the titles that release offers, which presents a pretty tall hurdle from the outset.

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February 12, 2012

Review – Rhythm Heaven Fever

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 9:19 am

Review Rhythm Heaven Fever
Videogame releases comprised entirely of mini-games leave me struggling come review time, puzzling over some means to measure and weigh how the individual offerings form together into a cohesive experience. The situation might be easier if today’s game was 101-disposable-games-in-a-box – insofar as I could probably get away with giving the quick thumbs up or down to each tiny game and be done with it.

But as with the WarioWare series, Rhythm Heaven is less about bargain quantity and much more about offering dozens of brilliant ideas for tiny games – a landslide of joyful tactile discoveries that find harmony in the audio and visual to leave an impression best captured by a snapshot of the player’s lips curling into a smile the longer they play. My best attempts to describe the experience to others recently tended to descend into off-key singing and wild hand gestures while hurriedly listing off the games that stood out most.

The best review is probably that there are so many offerings from Rhythm Heaven Fever that I feel obliged to mention. If you’re willing to read on however, I’ll try to offer some more constructive words on the subject.

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