The complete summary:
Sonic and the Black Knight
- People have been complaining about the review, saying IGN is biased, etc.
- Not so hot - 3.9
- Matt says he gives bad Sonic games bad scores
- Just not a good game
- Can look at it as not a good Sonic game or not a good game in general (both are true)
- Doesn’t have any of the trademarks from the Sonic games
- Matt can’t remember a single loop in the game
- Always at a dead stop fighting enemies, stopped a lot
- Sword-play is just one move - mapped to waggle
- Basic game is running forward for a second, stopping for 30 seconds, fighting off enemies
- Secret Rings did have its issues but it was still a fun game
- By design they’re trying to slow you down
- Actually have to stop, walk up to a townspeople clumbsily to interact with villagers
- Don’t really collect rings so much either
- When you stop you realize how bad the controls are
We Ski and Snowboard
- Very mediocre game
- Pretty much the same game as last year, looked like the same game
- Added the ability to snowboard but have the same controls as skiing
- Does support the balance board
- Balance board controls work
- Nothing else to do in the game
- Everything is unlocked from the very beginning
- Nothing to entice you to move forward
- No goal or objective you’re working towards
- Visually not too bad
- Framerate chugs in multiplayer
A Boy and His Blob
- Very pretty
- Knew about it for a little more than a month
- Still a little early
- All 2D
- Videos up today
- One of the best looking 2D games Craig has seen
- Being done by WayForward
- It is a bit rough in some areas, still looking really good
- Only concern is how far they will take the gameplay mechanics
Punch-Out
- Will have Classic Control
- Turn Wiimote sideways
- 1 and 2 buttons become punch buttons
- Good for purists
- Next Level Games are good, Bozon has faith in them
- Has to be like the NES and SNES games
- Daemon was expecting the game to use the Balance Board somehow
- Can obtain special Star Punches
Excitebots
- Looks a lot like Excite Truck
- Some screenshots are up
- Game comes out really soon
- Game seems to have some hovering stuff
- Should bring out Excite Bike 64 in anticipating for Excitebots
- Bots have a lot of personality
- Monster Games developing the game
- Bozon hoping for AAC/MP3 support
EA Grand Slam Tennis
- Got to play it without Wii MotionPlus
- Hands on in a day or two
- Feels like Wii Sports Tennis
- Apparently can control character with nunchuck
- Mix of realism and exaggerated characters
- Doesn’t use Miis
- Will have an online mode, will be pretty deep
- Was a lot of fun even without MotionPlus
- Really have to think during rallies
- Timing-based
- Can go to a practice mode
- A button is lob, B button is drop-shot
- Game requires you to think about how much power you’re using
- Wished they could have played it with Wii MotionPlus
- Frame rate might be locked at 30
- Still make tweaks to game
- It’s pre-alpha
- Big selection of characters, courts
- Online mode will be “badass” from what Matt hears
- Matt thinks people will like this game
EA Sports Active
- Really geared toward women
- Uses the Balance Board, but it’s secondary
- Cooler than Matt thought it would be
- Matt thinks it’ll be a big hit
Wii MotionPlus
- Matt heard that Nintendo is apparently struggling internally with Wii MotionPlus
- Trying to figure out a few hiccups, were going to delay it past June
- EA won’t have to hold onto their game for MotionPlus
Ghostbusters
- Matt impressed with what he saw
- Red Fly developing the game
- Thought it was pretty nice - was pleasantly surprised
- Matt likes the style
- Controls were good - really tight, responsive
- Engine also seems really good - particle effects, lighting effects, good framerate
- Frame rate never dropped in co-op
- Can paint the walls
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
- Wii game is a port of the DS game
- They look identical
- Games have same price
- Bozon thinks it’s fun
- It’ll be a weird game to review
- DS game is phenomenal, better than Rings of Fate
- Wii game is basically a DS game
- Quest, level up, get new clothes
- Comes out later this month
- 4 player locally, 4 player online
Region-locking on the DSi (downloads)
- Can still play retail cartridges from any territory
- So many different age rating systems
- DSi has own built in family settings
- Will probably wait until next year until Nintendo will think about exclusive DSi games
Moon
- Talked about disappointing January sales last week
- NPD numbers showed it sold less than 1500 in launch month
- Mastiff responded to the discussion last week
- NPD doesn’t report from some retailers, Mastiff says the numbers aren’t not entirely accurate
- Actual number is 3-4 times as much
- Still sounds really low
- Mastiff says they’ve put a lot of marketing behind it - over $200,000 in promotion
- Full-page ads in magazines, online ads, promotions, etc.
- Weekly sales moving, may turn out to be a long slow-seller
- Mastiff agreed branding may have hurt the game
Reader questions
- DSi will play any retail cartridges (any region)
- Bozon and Matt amazed there hasn’t been a WarioWare game for Wii that uses the Balance Board - Would be awesome if they did
- DSi is partially compatible with WPA2 - 6 slots for Wi-Fi - First 3 for DS compatibility, second 3 are for WPA (using store, browser, DSi specific software)
- New piece of The Conduit on Friday about the story - more on the controls, multiplayer coverage coming soon
- Unclear why no 480p in MadWorld - might be related to the game’s visuals - still looks incredible
- Can play MadWorld on normal or hard (which is ridiculously hard) - Enemy AI ramps up on normal as you go through (not incredibly hard on normal)
- Story is special in MadWorld - deeper than Matt thought it’d be - Good half hour of cut-scenes
- Not entirely smart to release MadWorld close to RE5 - Daemon, Matt more excited about MadWorld than Resident Evil 5
- Daemon thinks Pole’s Big Adventure is a very funny game - traditional old-school 8-bit platformer - crazy stuff happens in the game - your head can explode
- Played Boom Blox Bash Party - Can’t really write about it (or talk about it) - Game is awesome
- No plans to bring World of Goo to the DS
- Ocarina of Time could be ported to the DS but who knows if Nintendo will do it
- DSi can take video in certain games - no built in function on the DSi - no reason why it couldn’t be done
