Nintendo @E3 2011: Day 2 and 3 Wrap-Ups

Bang and POW! Here are Nintendo's own E3 videos featuring a ton of cool games and info. I'll also be posting all of the 3DS and Wii trailers starting next week in case you missed them. Wii U videos as as well are coming. As for the stock drop as a result of the Wii U announcement... Hell, am I the ONLY one who got that darn presentation? Analysts are dopes ESPECIALLY if they're not game developers or gamers. All I'll say is this sort of inane speculation that drives stock prices down is ridiculous.

Some Friday Night Frights From WBIE...

Um.... Hmmmmm. ONE of these promo images from WBIE I got this week scares the hell out of me and one doesn't. I'll leave you to decide which one. Let's hope I'm all wrong for being a bit jittery... Maybe it's all that caffeine or lack of sleep (one leads to another and next thing you know... you're all wacky about the littlest things)...

Nippon Ichi's Having a Little Holiday Sale...

HEY! Want some very, very cool Nippon Ichi, Gust, and other sweet NISA stuff from games to anime DVD's, soundtracks and more? Well, just bust out that credit card or PayPal account and click that pic above. Plushies, Prinnies, Glicees and more wallet exploding goodness galore!

Some of the prices are flat out BARGAINS (Disgaea DS or My Lord, What Have I Done to Deserve This 2 PSP for $10? BOOM, I'm there!), which means you'll go crazy with the deals here, dood! They've got my money already (What, you thought I get ALL my games for free?)!

Review: Rock Band 3 (DS)

Platform: Nintendo DS/DSi

Developer: Backbone Games/Harmonix

Publisher: EA/MTV Games

# of Players: 1 (2-4 via Wi-Fi)

Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Official Site

Score: B+

You'd have to be crazy to even think of making a direct comparison of any portable game to a console version these days, but that's probably what's going to happen with the console and portable versions of Rock Band 3. I'm not (that) crazy, so I'll tell it to you straight - the DS version is a solid, challenging and fun music game with some excellent songs, plenty of unlockable gear and a peripheral-free control system that's pretty much perfect once you get the hang of it. The game could have used a few more songs, but such are the limitations of the DS hardware. What's here, however sounds great and combined with the overall polish, the game makes for a great on the go RB3 experience.

Disney Interactive Announces Epic Mickey, TRON: Evolution Collector's Editions

With two of the most anticipated (and definitely two of my most anticipated) game releases this year, Disney Interactive Studios is definitely putting Disney Epic Mickey and TRON: Evolution fans on notice that they're in for some really cool collector's editions. There's also a cool TRON iPhone/iPod Touch app from Disney Mobile that's free and has a few fun features (that updated version of Tanks is pretty darn cool, by the way.

Click away below for press releases and nice photos. Now if only someone would get one of those fancy custom bike shop wizards to cook up a WORKING life-size Tron light cycle replica...

Review: Ragnarok DS

Developer: Gravity Co./GungHo Works

Publisher: Xseed Games

# of Players: 1-3 (Wi-Fi)

Rating: E10+

Official Site

Score: B

Squeezing a MMORPG down onto a handheld system is a pretty dangerous thing to do when you think about it. For starters, if the game is too condensed from the original PC iteration, longtime fans will want the scalps of the programmers and publishers for ruining their favorite game. On the other hand, if the game goes completely away from what's expected and tries to innovate too much, unless it does everything new right, it may alienate fans while it tries to please new players. Gravity and GungHo Works have managed to make Ragnarok DS an excellent example of bringing old and new elements together in a supremely addictive dungeon crawler geared towards new and old fans of their online classic. The game pulls you into its world with a nice combination of action and humor, plenty of quests to keep you busy and a fun, challenging multiplayer tower that allows up to three players to explore and battle monsters via Wi-Fi.

As this is a smaller scale version of a much larger online experience, there have been a few necessary changes. Rather than create a completely custom male or female avatar, you're thrust into the shoes of Ales, a young adventurer with dreams of riches and power who sets out to earn enough loot and respect to start his own guild. He meets up with Sierra, a partial amnesiac magic user who's shown escaping from some evil types in the game's opening section. Ales comes across her in a forest she's passed out in after a narrow escape and she tags along, allowing for a running plot element when the baddies chasing her pick up on her trail once again. The plot is pretty standard stuff, so don't come into this expecting a groundbreaking plot. Ales is an orphan, Sierra has amnesia, there's a cute mage with a sassy attitude and the usual masked teleporting evil meanie that pops in to make life miserable for the team at certain points.

While you're limited to Ales, Sierra and one other party member (from a small pool of characters you'll come across during your travels), the game has 17 job classes you can choose from as Ales gains levels. You can be a fighter, archer, a few types of magic user, hand to hand fighter and so forth and so on. Choosing a job gives you access to special skills linked to the job and each class has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, Archers have some great long range attacks, but suffer against up close melee fighters. Fighter types can dish out major damage against enemies up close and personal, but may be weaker to certain types of ranged or magic attacks ans so forth and so on. If you're well-versed in the RO world, you'll probably have a good idea of which class to play. However, no matter your previous experience with the online game, it's just pure fun to pick a class and discover what it can do once you get a few levels under your belt.

Leveling up your party members and their job skills makes things easier as you grind away, however, there's an interesting Catch-22 that pops up as the game continues. If you decide to play a "weaker" job, there will be a few times where you're stuck with a new party member who's under-leveled, which has your poor party getting beat up for a bit until everyone gets stronger. In actuality, there are no "useless" jobs here - it's up to you to unlock your chosen job's full powers as the game progresses. By the way, the game uses the Touch Screen exclusively for most of the controls and menus, but you can move around and access the inventory using the D-pad and buttons if you like. I ended up using the D-pad for the most part as I'd occasionally run into enemies too quickly with the stylus method.

Other than the occasional cinematic break before a boss fight, combat happens right on the lower screen. You can choose automatic or manual battles, the difference being how much you'll be tapping, dragging and slashing with your stylus. With automatic combat, regular attacks require a single tap on an enemy while special attacks are done with different stylus motions. Manual combat will give your fingers more of a workout as you need to tap and tap some more along with do all your specials as noted above. You can set your allies to a few different tactics, but you may want to keep Sierra as a healer for as much of the game as possible. As long as you keep her gear current and make sure she's not trapped by a strong enemy or enemies, she's a lifesaver that can keep you going during the toughest fights.

In a nifty touch, you can set "hotkeys" in order to use potions and skills on the fly, although the skill bar sometimes blocks your view of enemies approaching from the top right of the screen. You can close the bar with a quick tap of the stylus, but given that you're always going to be using one of the three switchable skill tabs, you'll find yourself keeping it open more often than not. Combat is fast paced and exciting with no shortage of respawning beasties. You can pretty much stay in one area early on and grind away at lesser foes, gaining levels and job skill points until your fingers go numb. When you level up, you gain multiple points to distribute among your main attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Agility, etc.) while a single Job Points is doled out once per job level up.

At Job level 30, you're allowed to take on an advanced job (an Archer will become a Hunter, for example) that has even more useful skills. The one caveat here is your Job Level drops back to 1, but you keep all your older skills. You'll breeze through the first 15 to 20 new Job levels fairly quickly, but by this time, you'll most likely be facing off against some pretty darn powerful monsters. If you're finding yourself getting whomped quickly, you can warp back to a previous town and beat up on some easier creatures until you get stronger. There are a bunch of side missions where you're gathering monster parts for certain folks and most of these quests will reward you with cash or decent items. One of the cool things about the game are the Cards you net from killing monsters that can be placed into weapon, armor or items with slots to boost your team's stats, sometimes dramatically.

Visually, the game looks very much like the PC original or a mid-level PSOne game with cute-looking anime-style 2D sprites and some sparsely detailed 3D maps. Equipped gear shows up on your party members and the emoticons that appear over almost everyone's heads during dialog sections are brilliantly implemented. You'll see some lovely ladies (presented as gorgeous painted portraits) as guides in each town and the different monster cards are quite amusing to look at. Speaking of amusing, the game uses a lot of humor throughout and if you're in the right mood, there are a few laugh out loud funny moments during some conversations. Yes, these are the requisite melodramatic RPG moments here and there, but the generally light tone of the game works quite well. While there's not a wisp of voice acting here, the musical score is simply outstanding. You've got light, bouncy tunes, dramatic battle themes, comical cut scene stuff and a lot more. From a presentation standpoint, this is one of those games that clicks on all cylinders.

My main complaint with the game is the camera zoom function. there are three settings and only the farthest one is any good for combat. Playing zoomed in or at medium view will only get your party wiped out, especially in areas with fast-moving or ranged enemies. The far view is near perfect, but you lose a bit of detail in the characters, making the game not quite as good looking as it is when zoomed in. Fortunately, cut scenes are presented as scaled in, so you'll catch every bit of emotion on screen. It would have been interesting to see what Gravity and GungHo could do with the PSP's higher resolution and wider screen, but I guess we'll have to see if the game sells well enough as a DS exclusive in order to find out.

As for multiplayer, players looking for a challenge will find the Mirage Tower waiting for them. Unlocked at level 25, this deadly dungeon packs 50 floors of high challenge, super powerful enemies and some excellent rewards for beating them. You can grab up to two other friends with a copy of the game and climb a few floors for fun and profit or go it alone for a true test of skill. I personally haven't cleared past the 20th floor, but I wanted to get this review in before I got sucked back into that deadly treasure-packed hell. In the end, your enjoyment of Ragnarok DS will depend on your appreciation of what's here plus a love for classic 16 and 32-bit era RPG's. Sure, what's here doesn't do much that hasn't been done before, but if you're a fan of the "daily grind" style of chase 'n chop RPG, you can't go wrong for a few dozen (or more) hours of monster-bashing, treasure grabbing fun.

Xseed Games NYC Press Event Impressions

Xseed Games dropped into the NYC area this past Thursday with a small but ridiculously cool lineup of Wii exclusives, one really unique game I can't talk about yet and one superbly insane PSP title that's a must buy no matter what your gaming tastes. With such a fine lineup of quality games, a few editor-types almost overlooked the tasty, never-ending sushi and other fine dishes coming from EN's capable kitchen.

One very cool thing about Xseed is that as a small publisher since 2005 they've always been 100% dedicated to each and every game they release. The company's President, Jun Iwasaki actually plays every game to completion (I can think of only one or two other corporate head-types that do this) and the handful of employees (well, two handfuls if you want to be more exact) work hard on every aspect of the localization process. That attention to detail has produced a small but reliable lineup of niche-oriented games that's garnered Xseed quite a few loyal fans.

Little King's Story was the showcase game at the event and with the July 21 release date right around the corner, the final version is indeed everything it promised to be and more. The Wii-exclusive Simulation/RPG hybrid is not only one of the most stylistically amazing games on any platform, the balance of family-friendly pick up & play controls combined with bits of black comedy make for quite a unique gaming experience. Think Pikmin meets Harvest Moon with a dash of The Sims and you're only about halfway there. The ability to recruit some very lively townspeople for various jobs and watch them eventually age, marry and bear children (that can be used to snag certain rare items) adds even more depth to the gameplay. I'll save the remainder of my glowing commentary for the full review, but I'd definitely recommend snapping this one up as soon as you see it.

Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga was playable in near-complete form and as a big fan of the PSP versions, I was very pleased at how this new installment is turning out. Hardcore VK veterans should be pleased with the improvements and neat surprises the game packs into its depths. Where the PSP versions were party-centric affairs, Marvelous and K2 have crafted a solid, addictive single player level grinder with a MMO-style online co-op mode for two players. Instead of up to five AI companions, here you're limited to yourself and up to two tavern-hired mercenaries in the single player game. If you're a fan of the PSP games upset at losing those five AI buddies, once you actually see gameplay movies of or actually play the Wii game, you'll see that the change makes perfect sense.

Controls are quite easy to pick up. Movement is done with the analog stick, tapping the A button attacks, you pick up items with B, the D-pad selects magic, menus and such. The C button is used for context-sensitive interactions such as climbing or otherwise interacting with certain obstacles in the environment. Once you creat a character, a tutorial level walks you through movement, combat, smashing barrels for items and other basics. The only Wiimote gimmickry comes into play for special attacks, which are done by shaking the controller when a special bar fills up. The dev team's goal was to make gameplay as accessible as possible to players of all skill levels without relying on throwing tons of gesture-based movements into the mix.

Combat now takes place right on the field, making this a true Action/RPG. There's no setting of grid formations or transitions to those small battle areas with limited movement options. There's also no targeting system - you just need to line yourself up with an enemy and hit the attack button. Your AI mercs will automatically attack anything in the vicinity, a good thing in huge areas with multiple paths and blind corners. As in the PSP games, using a bow is done in first-person mode with a tap of the attack button. Since you have a lot more freedom of movement, you'll be able to run away from stronger enemies and re-engage them at your leisure.

In terms of getting around, yes, you still need to hoof it about quite a bit, but there are supposed to be quick transport locations that are unlocked as you discover new towns and other areas. All the character classes and deep customization features from the PSP games are intact and the inventory screen is now icon-based and easier to manage.. Xseed's Product Manager Jimmy Soga says players can expect at least 80-100 hours of gameplay, which means a rather tremendous value in this rather pesky recession we're currently going through.

An all new graphics engine allows for some really impressive vistas and a great draw distance. For a Wii game, it looks quite amazing, especially when you realize that you'll actually be headed to most of those locations off in the distance. The intentionally gloomy color palette and some nice weather effects do an excellent job at setting a bleak tone to the early maps. As some of the enemies and bosses are quite large, the camera angle can be changed manually to allow players to see and attack these bigger baddies' weak points with weapons and magic spells. Although the game was running on a fine HD display, I'm thinking it will look a bit better on a good quality standard def TV (I've kept mine specifically for Wii and PS2 reviews).

As for any caveats, the game seems fairly straightforward in its online two-player limitations. It may be the first MMO-style RPG on the console, but I'll need to dig up some info on whether or not (or how quickly) players can jump in and out of games in order to play with multiple friends. There's no single screen co-op or split screen play here, so it looks like the game will absolutely appeal to those who love purely the glorious grind-fest more than those looking for a larger communal experience. Then again, given that there's nothing like this on the Wii, it'll be interesting to see what sort of new players dive into this richly detailed game world. Fans of the PSP versions should absolutely give this a shot, but anyone looking for a great value for their gaming dollar should definitely take a look as well. Currently, there's no set release date other than Fall 2009, so hit up your favorite retailer and pre-order a copy if you haven't already.

Also playable was the surprisingly scary Wii exclusive Ju-on: The Grudge, which Xseed is touting as a "haunted house simulator." Unlike other "survival horror" games where you're loaded for bear and the real scares are more likely to come from control issues and dopey AI partners, developers AQ Interactive and feelplus have created a deliberately paced chiller that's guaranteed to creep out anyone easily frightened. As a huge fan of horror games, what's here did make me jump more than a few times and yes, I did let out a squeak once or twice (much to my embarrassment).

What's great about the game is that you're not some badass super-cop or other heroic lead character. In each level you're put in the shoes of one normal guy or gal trying to live long enough to make it from one end of a level to the next. Playing as different members of the Yamada family, you need to merely guide yourself through different locations armed only with a flashlight (and some very steady nerves). Of course, being cursed by the series' vengeful ghost Kayako tends to make things a wee bit difficult as you slowly make your way through the darkness. And yes, her scary son Toshio pops up from time to time to make your heart pitter-pat even more.

Controls are easy enough for anyone to hop right into things. You use the Wii Remote as your flashlight, pressing the B button moves you forward while A activates doors and other objects. Pressing down on the D-pad makes your avatar walk backward. You're free to roam almost anywhere you like in a level (no on-rails nonsense here), but darkness plays very heavily into the gameplay. Since your cheap flashlight only realistically illuminates a small area, movement is slow and steady, which only adds to the creep-out factor. Given that that flashlight also seems to run on even cheaper dollar store batteries, you'll need to quickly locate extra cells scattered around the levels. Run out of torch juice and it's Game Over, even if you're steps away from the level exit.

Of course, Kayako has a few tricks up her tattered sleeves, such as using her long hair to block off certain doorways or zipping past your field of vision when you least expect it. Like Konami's upcoming Silent Hill: Shattered Dreams, there's no combat at all. However, should Kayako grab you (and trust me, she will grab you), you need to very quickly flick the Wiimote in the direction of arrows that flash on screen or else. These sequences are brief, unpredictable and definitely scary enough to make onlookers at the event hop out of their socks for a second or two. There were only two playable areas open in the build, a warehouse and hospital, but each held specific challenges that needed to be tackled in order to survive.

Visually, the game is solid, featuring realistic lighting effects and nicely detailed environments. Even with a ton of adjusting, the HD setup at EN was pretty darn dark, but in looking at screens and the game trailer online, I'm liking what I see more and more. The sound design here is excellent, what with the eerie music, background fx and Kayoko's chilling groans and other noises. As far as I saw, there wasn't anything resembling gore, however, I'm sure the game will save the bigger scares for the later stages.

There are some mild puzzles (find the key, track down a missing generator part), but based on what I saw, players won't be frustrated by ridiculous Resident Evil-era stuff at all. One really fun (or not, depending on how easily you freak out) element discussed but not shown was the two-player mode. Here, a second controller can be used to introduce totally random fright sequences into the game with the press of a button. This should make for some hilarious YouTube videos (particularly the ones where Player One is beating up on Player Two with that Wiimote after getting the crap scared out of them one too many times).

Takashi Shimizu, director of the original Ju-on films consulted on the game's development and it certainly shows in the methodical pace of the movement and the well-placed shocks the game throws at you. While super-jaded gamers immune to the idea of weaponless gaming might scoff at the game, it's definitely a pick for anyone who likes goosebumps popping up left and right when they least expect it. The constant level of tension makes for quite a ride and as a party game, I can see this getting played to death by fans of the movies and horror games in general. The game is set for an October release (I'm guessing around Halloween), so absolutely look into this if it's up your alley.

The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces looks to be a real winner for arcade flight combat fans or anyone looking for a top-quality flying game for the Wii. Developed by Namco/Bandai and Project Aces (the folks behind the Ace Combat series), the game looks and plays beautifully. There's an interesting retro-futurist plot that has something to do with corporate sponsored wars becoming a new form of entertainment and your character, “Lynx” trying to uncover some big secrets behind it all. The game has a few gorgeously animated cut-scenes and in-game sequences that spelled out a few plot points, but the game is still in the localization process, meaning all the text and menus were still in Japanese.

Using the Nunchuck as a flight control stick and the Wii Remote as a throttle, the game excellently simulates actual flight mechanics. It only takes about a minute to get comfortable with the controls, but the game isn't a cakewalk by any means. One nifty feature is the ability to pull off a number of special flight maneuvers that allow you roll away from danger and shoot down planes with style. Here, the camera quickly breaks away from the cockpit or behind the plane view to a brief cinematic angle as your plane spins, flips or rolls and fires away. It's quite cool-looking yet doesn't feel intrusive at all, particularly when you're sending multiple enemies down in flames before zipping back to your selected viewpoint.

All the planes I saw looked excellent and most seemed to be based on popular WWII era and beyond propeller beauties. As you're zipping about the fairly large maps, the impressive skies, terrain mapping and draw distance really stand out. There will be solo missions, squad-based missions that have you teamed up with friendly AI fighters, bombers and more, but the game is strictly a single player experience. While this may be a buzz-kill for those who crave multiplayer dogfighting action, there's no reason to bypass the game at all since the Wii is starving for a great arcade-style flight sim such as this.

On the PSP front, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony was MIA, which was mildly disappointing, but the demo version of the upcoming Half-Minute Hero more than made up for it with its absolutely awesome, hilariously rapid-fire take on classic 8-bit RPGs. Marvelous Entertainment and Opus have teamed up to create a game even folks who hate RPGs can love. Here, you get a mere thirty seconds to get to a map's evil overlord or some other big, big boss and beat it to a pulp. The fun comes from figuring out how to utilize your time wisely while fighting super quick random battles in order to earn gold and level up your avatar. Time stops when you enter a town and you can reset the clock back to 30 thanks to the gold-happy Time Goddess who craves your cash for her own shopping purposes.

Gameplay is a mash-up of classic RPG, tsuguroku, and blazing fast mini-game button mashing that will initially have your head spinning. Death is at first a frequent friend until you figure out stuff such as avoiding forested areas with brutal baddies, reloading the game clock, using handy clues from villagers about certain weapons or tactics and more. Everyone who tried out the game at the event had a huge grin on their faces and I overheard more than a few variations on “Even though I don't normally play RPGs, I really like this game,” which is always a good thing when some editor-type expands his or her gaming horizons. With 120 stages (at least 15 hours of gameplay), up to four players (via ad hoc) and a great rockin' metal soundtrack, this could be one of the best PSP games of 2009, hands-down.

The one game I can't talk about yet is a VERY cool RPG (a top-secret DS title) that's unique in at least one element in what it brings to the genre, but you'll have to keep your eyes peeled for more info once the embargo is lifted. While the games shown at the event were exciting, it would have been nice to see a few more upcoming (and still early in the localization process) exclusives such as Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii), Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii) or even Ragnarök Online (DS), but the company needs to save some surprises for the next event, right? Nevertheless, one thing is certain: each game on display was a winner and most should appeal to those gamers who crave a bit of third-party variety in their libraries.

Currently Playing:

Oops! I forgot to add this to the first post, but it's a good way to get a second one in quick, right?

MadWorld (Wii)
Killzone 2 (PlayStation 3)
Afro Samurai (Playstation 3)
Fallout 3 (Playstation 3)*
Valkyria Chronicles (Playstation 3)
Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden (PlayStation 2)
Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (Xbox 360)
Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)
Mazes of Fate (Nintendo DS)
MOON (Nintendo DS)
Silverfall (PSP)
Lost Legends (PC)
Sacred Gold (PC)
Arx Fatalis (PC)
The Chosen: Well of Souls (PC)
Rifts: Promise of Power (N-Gage)

and a few more games...

*Yes, I know the 360 version has all that lovely DLC, but thanks to my current lack of broadband service, I flipped a coin and picked the PS3 version... which means I have to wait for that Game of the Year Edition (whenever that comes out, *sigh*).