Dragon Quest V
- 3 save files
- Can only show specific areas
- Square Enix being very protective
Retro Game Challenge/XSEED/Fragile
- Review going up today
- Turned out really well
- XSEED publishing the game
- XSEED apparently told Matt that people should buy the game because it’ll help them in their cause to bring Fragile to the US
- Fragile a Namco game in Japan - Matt thinks it’s a game Namco might want to publish one day
- Biggest downside in Retro Game Challenge is the localization - Fake game magazines you can read, in the back there are fake letters - one of the letters written in by Homer Sexual
- Craig wants a bit more creativity in their localization next time
- Fragile is in heavy Japanese but you can get through it
- Control in Fragile is pretty good, beautiful, storyline seems dramatic - Matt can’t wait to get it in the US
LIT
- Developed by WayForward
- WiiWare title
- Craig digs the concept
- Puzzle game where you’re in rooms that are darkened
- Get through the room, don’t go into the darkness
- The way the concept is implemented frustrates Craig - Matt heard him growling
- Certain little things that bother him (ex: Idea of turning on lights is good, but meter prevents you from turning on too many lights)
- Should be able to see the solution without trying and resetting
- Craig still recommends playing it, just be prepared for wonkyness in the design - Craig says it’s worth it for the price
- 800 points
- Matt hates the control scheme
- Context sensitive
- Game went final to WiiWare pretty quickly
House of the Dead: Overkill
- Game ships tomorrow
- Turned out well
- Bozon would like to ask about the frame rate
- Some of the moves swaps models on the fly
- Model swap freezes the frame for a second
- Other than that it’s pretty cool
- A lot of swearing
- Some of the delivery over-the-top
- Matt likes how you don’t think you’d see something in the game, but then you do
- Bosses could be a bit tougher, could have used more balancing - but still already an awesome game
- Bozon assumes there will be a sequel
- Has a turn-off ridicule mode and calibrate IR
- Don’t unlock dual-weild mode until you beat story mode and the director’s cut mode
- Can buy guns, unlock them, multiplier system is neat
Deadly Creatures
- Matt gave it an 8.0
- Craig didn’t think the game shouldn’t have received the editor’s choice award - only scored 8.0
- Matt likes the theme, most of the execution except for the polish
- Kind of glitchy
- Play as tarantula/scorpion, run through environments
- Mix of combat + exploration
- One of those games that will make you feel squeamish
- Was over a bit too quickly
- Had some annoyances like loading pauses
- For the most part Matt had a good time with it
- Good choice if you’re looking for something darker on Wii
- Switch off between scorpion and tarantula in between levels
- Bozon loves the sound
- Matt wishes there was more exploration elements
- Hopes it sells well for a sequel
- EDGE apparently gave the game a 5/10 - Matt doesn’t understand that - Maybe 7s, but never below a 7
EA news
- Moving half to development to Wii
- Dead Space heading to Wii
- Daemon, Bozon, Matt big Dead Space fans
- Game is really good + atmospheric
- Want someone really competent to bring the game to Wii
- Matt has high hopes for the game - doesn’t think it’ll be exactly what everyone thinks it’ll be but it’ll still be pretty awesome
- Next week and a half to 2 weeks - more news will probably come
- Kind of knew it was coming
- Matt thinks it’ll be fun - doesn’t think people have to worry about it being a port
Sonic and the Black Knight
- Coming out next month
- An interesting game
- It’s fun - has a nice presentation
- Gimmick is that Sonic has travelled back to realm of King Arthur, has a sword
- Feels like Sonic Unleashed daytime levels in some ways because you control character with nunchuck + Wiimote
- Matt likes the sense of speed, graphics, interface
- Have leaderboards and not so hot multiplayer mode
- Matt not finding crazy level designs from Unleashed (day levels)
- Only played a few hours so hopefully it’ll ramp up
- Right now it hasn’t blown Matt away because control mechanics for sword not so hot - all waggle
- Racing towards enemies, waggle - Can shake controller like a monkey
- Matt never really feels a good sense of satisfaction fighting enemies unless he has the lock on
- A lot of the times you stop to attack, then momentum is gone
- Villagers in levels require you to stop, kills guys, have to talk to villagers
- Certain missions require you to strafe over to villagers clumsily, talk to them
- Daemon suggests doing what Capcom did with Mega Man 9
- Matt wanted to note that they’ve only played a few hours - game might get better
Klonoa
- Really good
- Daemon has spent a lot of time with it
- Remake of Playstation game
- 2.5D platformer
- Stuck on a 2D plane but levels spiral around - interact with foreground/background
- No pointer control in the game - can use classic controller, just Wiimote, Wii remote + nunchuck
- Coming out later this year
- Craig loves Klonoa - it’s not just a platformer, but you have to figure things out
Onslaught
- Bozon thinks it looks like a N64 game
- Screenshots put up next to Turok, Turok looked better
- Technically impressive - 4 players online, it’s a WiiWare game
- Reminds Matt of War
- Craig says Japanese still haven’t gotten the FPS genre down, he’s a little nervous
- If it controls really well and runs in 60 FPS, Matt won’t care
Real 3D game
- Data Design publishing the game
- Put out a press release stating they’re putting out the first console game in 3D
- Need to wear 3D glasses to get the effect
- Finally have a game that doesn’t make you want to vomit
- Apparently a port of a PC from another developer
- Not actually being developed by Data Design
- Bozon tried emailing Data Design, didn’t get a reply
- Called Battle Rage: The Robot Wars
Reader questions
- Frontier working on Lost Winds 2 (already announced it) - Matt thinks it’ll come out this year
- Fire Emblem for DS is a lot of the same Fire Emblem stuff - remake of the original - game will get a good score - if this sells well they’ll look into remaking other entries in the series - director wants to make a new Fire Emblem game that is super casual
- Craig/Bozon would like to see World of Goo on the DS - 2D Boy doesn’t have any plans to do so - Matt wants Smash Bros. on DS
- Craig doesn’t think DS software gets the credit it deserves - most owners don’t buy many games
- Nintendo hired a company to figure out how to sell more games to Wii owners - Nintendo saying that Wii owners not buying many games, just playing Wii Sports
- Don’t really know, but Matt figures the Metroid Side Story on the Japanese website refers to something about more information on space pirates (website related) - Matt surprised there hasn’t been a Hunters sequel - NST hasn’t been up to much lately - Matt heard they took a beating on some of their projects
- Should wait until NPC! Metroid Prime to start the series if you haven’t already - will be in widescreen
- Possible future releases for NPC!/wishlist - Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Sunshine, Killer 7
- Matt thought the RE5 demo was good, but feels like RE4 - he’s a little disappointed - he’ll buy it anyway
- There’ll definitely be more RE on Wii - could be Umbrella Chronicles sequel, etc. - Matt wants something original
- MadWorld month starts off today - positive impressions - really great game - very violent
- Nintendo won’t patch games such as Brawl and Mario Kart
- Dragon Quest V, Sonic coverage, MadWorld direct feed coming soon
Pixel Art can be fun.
