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[Annoyances and an uninspired monster breeding system make the sequel nowhere close to as good as the original.]

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TalkBack / REVIEWS: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

« on: December 23, 2008, 12:01:40 AM »

Annoyances and an uninspired monster breeding system make the sequel nowhere close to as good as the original.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewArt.cfm?artid=17444

 Dawn of the New World is a direct sequel to the original Tales of Symphonia for GameCube, and with it come new features and a new cast of characters.  The game takes place two years after the merging of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant, and not all is well in the world.  A social divide between the two worlds is causing a lot of tension and a nasty uprising, and it's up to a boy named Emil to figure out how to bring the world together and restore peace.    

This immediately brings forward one of the biggest problems with Dawn of the New World.  Emil, our hero, starts as a whiny, apologetic, pathetic loser who suddenly gains the power of bad-assery, yet somehow remains a whiny, apologetic, pathetic loser in the process.  Though he slowly gains confidence through his lady-friend, Marta, Emil will be a thorn in your side for almost the entire game.  It feels out of place for the main character to be that annoyingly whiny, especially considering for how long it goes on.  I don't care how it works into the story.  Heroes are supposed to be manly, because we want to play as manly men.  Not whiny kids.    

Thank goodness you can choose to control other party members in battle! The battle system has been improved upon tremendously with the addition of a free-run button and the ability to equip more than four Artes (special moves) thanks to the motion controls of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.  Because the battles are more open this time, setting up a good formation and then maneuvering your characters into a favorable position is more important than ever.  It's very easy to get surrounded if you don't watch what you're running into.  Still, often times the battlefield feels clogged up because of how your partners and enemies seem to roam around freely themselves without really staying in some pre-determined battle formation.  While you do have some control over how characters act and what moves they can perform, battles usually turn into free-for-alls.    

This is especially true when you are using captured monsters to fight alongside you.  New World introduces the ability to ally with enemy monsters and have them join your party. Unfortunately, you go about capturing them through some very confusing elemental system that somehow determines whether or not you can capture a monster from that battle.  After joining your party, captured monsters can learn new skills, including very useful healing Artes.  Because different monsters have different elemental alliances, adding them to your party when entering certain areas can be helpful.    

However, there is never a point in the game where having monsters fight with you is any significant advantage over main characters.  Since you can never directly control them, and they cannot use items, friendly monsters don't feel like they're really a part of your team, but rather just out there doing their own thing.  In fact, it never really feels like you have a solid party at all, particularly because the characters from the original game will constantly join and leave the group as the story dictates.  You never have a chance to build up a stable platform that you're comfortable with, which ultimately ruins the flow of the game.    

Still, the one thing that the Tales games have always excelled at is telling a good story.  Optional skits further explain the story behind all of the characters, and if you decide to read through them all you'll learn quite a bit about the heroes.  However, even that comes at the expense of speedy gameplay, as everything stops when you activate one of the skits.  There really should be some way for the skits to take place simultaneously with the action.  Despite that, the story is really the thing that gets you through the beginning of the game, if only because you want to know why Lloyd (the main character from the first game) killed Emil's parents.  About the time when you find out is also, conveniently, about the time when the game actually starts to become much more tolerable.  Even so, that's asking quite a lot to have to sit through a lot of slow conversation and curious story branches early on.    

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World is going to disappoint a lot of people, particularly fans of the original GameCube epic.  Naturally, it would be hard to live up to the original, but the sequel feels uninspired.  It's still a good game on its own merits, mostly because the battle system is still solid and it's addicting to try to string together the biggest combo possible.  However, the constant whining from Emil, a party that never feels like it has a foundation, and poor pacing and flow make waiting for the good stuff an exercise in patience, where it should be an exercise in fun.

Pros:
       

Free-movement battle system is fun

 

Four-player co-op during battles

 

A bonus for GameCube Tales owners

       Cons:
       

Monster capturing system doesn't add much to the game

 

Your party never feels like a party

 

Emil Castagnier, the most pathetic hero ever to grace an RPG

               Graphics:  7.0
       Although it looks rather rough around the edges at times, the colors and the new animations, particularly the motion-captured cut scenes, help make Dawn of the New World stand out from most other Wii games.

               Sound:  5.0
       Other than the familiar battle themes, I guess the most I could say about the audio is that it wasn't noticeably bad…or noticeably good.

               Control:  8.0
       The fighting system feels great in your hands.  The motion controls of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk are used to perform additional Artes for any non-monster character on top of the four you can assign for yourself, which means you theoretically can indirectly control everyone during a battle at the same time.  To get the most out of it, switch your character to Manual control mode.

                      Gameplay:  6.0
       Throw aside the fun battle system and you're left with a mostly disjointed mess.  Your party never feels complete, your captured monsters don't feel like they are really a part of your team, and to top it off, Emil's constant whining will make you wonder why you're even playing the game in the first place.

 

       Lastability:  8.0
       The game can take 100 hours to complete if you really want to go after all the subquests, monsters, and optional goodies.  However, unlike the original, which took as many as 80 legitimate hours to complete, this will only take half of that.  Because the majority of the game is optional, whether or not you decide to explore it comes down to how much you can tolerate its weaker parts.

 

       Final:  6.0
       Dawn of the New World is a moderately enjoyable game, but there will be plenty of times when you wonder why you keep bothering with it.  It may be because the battle gameplay is good fun, or that the story is interesting enough to keep your attention.  Or maybe you've got a high tolerance for annoying lead characters.      

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TalkBack / Firmware is the New Hardware

« on: November 24, 2008, 06:04:22 PM »

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=17257

  Last week, Microsoft rolled out its brand-new Xbox Live Experience, or in other words, a massive firmware update to the Xbox 360 which totally transformed the interface, functionality, and overall experience to give the console a fresh new look with some kickin' rad things to do.  Ignoring the fact that Microsoft still hasn't done much to address the long-standing hardware issues surrounding the Xbox 360—a friend of mine recently got the dreaded red ring of death, even this far off from the console's launch three years ago—the fact that such a large refresh of a console can come so far from its birth date bodes well for the future of consoles in general, including the Wii.    

Though I personally am starting to be annoyed by it, I believe the channels system for the Wii Menu is a good idea when considering those who maybe aren't so technologically advanced enough to navigate through more complex menu systems such as the PlayStation 3 XMB or the (now) old Xbox 360 dashboard.  The thing is, though, that as we've just seen with the Xbox 360, the front end interface of a game console can be radically altered with a simple software update.  There's no reason why a similar makeover couldn't be possible on the Wii.    

Consider already that Nintendo is fixing (kind of) a major flaw in the hardware, the lack of storage space, with some promised software updates.  Initially, Wii Channels or Virtual Console games could not be accessed directly off of an SD card, and the deletion process recommended by Nintendo to help clear up space was so convoluted and inconvenient that it was probably costing Nintendo lost sales in the long run.  The fix, which will come in a future update, will no doubt help alleviate these issues.  A previous software update has sped up the SD transfer process, showing that's it's possible to improve upon hardware with the right kind of software.    

The thing that's most promising about this, however, is that it's completely possible for the Wii of 2010 to be orders of magnitude better than the Wii of 2006, even if both are using the exact same hardware.  Nintendo could find some optimizations here and there to speed up the Wii Shop Channel, or perhaps rebuild it from the ground up to be just as easy to use as the Nintendo Channel.  The possible future addition of memory expansion could require more advanced memory management tools, making it easier to sift through several dozen game saves, Wii Channels, WiiWare games, Virtual Console games,  and other saved data.    

Going even further, Nintendo could totally overhaul the Wii Menu if it felt so inclined, perhaps turning it into a more fully-featured menu where some of the stock channels are built-in to the menu or more tightly integrated into the console.  Perhaps other channels could be collapsed into each other, like the Virtual Console Channel idea that many would like to see become an option, wherein all of your VC games can be accessed via a single channel.  In fact, the concept of channels could be dumped entirely for a better layout or a more appropriate one depending on how much functionality Nintendo adds on to the console in subsequent, future updates.    

Who knows?  Maybe Nintendo can unlock DVD player functionality for all with the proper firmware update, as long as the console is technically capable of doing it in the first place.  That's the neat thing about console updates nowadays, because you never know what fresh ideas, performance enhancements, bug fixes, and other goodies will be delivered to your hardware every time you update.  This is only possible in an Internet-connected age.  Nintendo's new console hardware will come eventually, but as long as Nintendo keeps evolving and refining the built-in software residing on the actual Wii console (and it keeps producing games we want to play on it), it may be something we won't much mind waiting for.

[For those that didn't get the GBA import, here's the perfect chance to find out how difficult it is to get your hexagon on.]

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TalkBack / REVIEWS: Art Style: ROTOHEX

« on: November 12, 2008, 09:39:12 PM »

For those that didn't get the GBA import, here's the perfect chance to find out how difficult it is to get your hexagon on.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewArt.cfm?artid=17180

 Only after I started playing through Rotohex for WiiWare did I realize that I did what a lot of Nintendo fans do without batting an eyelash: buy the same Nintendo game a second time, but on a different platform.  I already imported (and reviewed) Dialhex, the Game Boy Advance bit Generation game and the forerunner of Rotohex.  What irks me is that with the exception of a new mode in Rotohex, the games are identical.  You probably won't mind, however, since chances are you didn't bother importing the original.  Still, I didn't mind playing through the game again because Rotohex is a much better experience on a console, albeit a relatively shallow one.    

Rotohex is a puzzle game wherein triangular tiles fall into a hexagonal playfield.  By rotating pieces within a hexagonal cursor, players must create solid, six-piece hexes which will clear away, opening up more room for tiles to tinkle down.  The game ends when the playfield fills to the brim.  Gameplay centers around clearing hexes of a target color and generally keeping the field from getting too full.  When cleared within a hex, special tiles can cause a hole to open at the bottom and drain extra tiles to  get you out of danger, or cause all tiles of a certain color to switch to that of an adjacent tile, making it that much easier to clear away hexes of the required target color.    

Solo mode is the initial challenge players will be faced with.  Clearing six hexes of a target color will add a new tile color to the game, ultimately bringing eight different colors into the mix.  The unique nature of the rotating, hexagonal cursor means it can be pretty challenging to spin the correct tiles into the correct position fast enough to stay ahead of the raining tiles.  It's key to keep your special tiles ready to put into a hex so you can use them in a pinch.  As you get close to completing Solo the difficulty ramps up considerably, giving you extra pressure to clear it.  It's a very enjoyable challenge.    

Special tiles are neat because they change functionality with every rotation, meaning you need to make sure it will do what you want as you slide it into position.  I found that the color-swap ability is extremely useful when there's space available to work with, since getting tiles to switch to the target color makes clearing the required six hexes that much easier.  However, sometimes the nature of hexagonal rotation will cause you to spend way too much time clearing a hex, so you need to be very efficient and plan to clear hexes as quickly as possible.    

Rotohex has added a new mode from Dialhex called Sprint.  Here the goal is to clear six hexes of the target color as quickly as possible.  This mode gets more and more difficult as you add more colors to the playfield, since there will be fewer tiles of the color you need to beat the round.  On top of that, tiles fall in at a hopelessly fast rate.  If you're not clearing tiles one after the other in this mode you're going to fail very quickly.  I'm having no luck whatsoever clearing the five-color mode; I’m lucky to get four out of six of the required colors.  I can't imagine how impossible it gets when there are eight colors to deal with.  Still, this mode is pretty much the ultimate challenge for someone who can easily deal with Solo mode, gets bored by the endless deluge of tiles in Endless mode, and has no problem beating up a buddy in the game's traditional garbage-dumping Versus mode    

The thing I like most about Rotohex, especially when compared to the GBA version, is the upgraded sound.  There's a Lumines-esque soothing feel to it, complemented by the tinkle of the falling tiles and the mood change accompanied by an ever-changing color palette.  In an attempt to pretty up the flat playfield, a mirror-like reflective border rings the hexagon, though this has the negative effect of making it difficult of seeing where the border actually lies.  Another strike against the game is the sometimes unwieldy Wii Remote pointer controls.  It can be hard to get the cursor exactly where you need it in a hurry and keep it there, which is why I prefer to play the game holding the remote in the classic sideways position.    

Besides these issues, the only other problem with the game is perhaps its largest one: there isn't as much depth as you wish there was.  For me, the addition of Sprint mode adds much more replay value to a game I've already played, but I still find it lacking in other areas.  Then again, considering the game's low WiiWare-friendly price point, it's a good deal in the end.  More than anything, I'm glad that Nintendo is finally releasing these games to the American game-buying public in one form or another.  Let's hope we see more Art Style games on WiiWare in the near future.

Pros:
       

Unique and challenging gameplay concept

 

Soothing music and sound

       Cons:
       

Somewhat shallow

 

Doesn't come in a sweet little shiny game box

               Graphics:  3.0
       There's not much you can do to pretty up flat triangles, but the things that were done, particularly the reflective playfield border, don't work very well.

               Sound:  7.0
       The sound generated by the soothing background music and the interactive sound effects made by the steady rain of tiles make for a very simplistic, yet dynamic, aural experience.

               Control:  7.0
       The traditional sideways Wii Remote configuration is as tight as can be, though it will take a lot of practice to figure out how to best manipulate tiles to your advantage.  The pointer option could work better with practice, but I didn't bother with it much because of how much trouble I had keeping the pointer where I wanted to point it.

                      Gameplay:  7.0
       I really like the idea of the spinning cursor and triangular pieces working together to make and clear hexagons.  Rotohex is quite the challenging puzzle game, too.  Still, I really wish this idea was further explored rather than just sticking to the same basic idea appearing in similar gameplay modes.

 

       Lastability:  4.0
       Not bad at all considering its low price, but you'll really feel like there should have been more to this game then what you get.

 

       Final:  7.0
       Rotohex is by no means the best puzzle game you will play this year, but I recommended it solely on the basis of it being a completely different puzzle game that will challenge you in new ways.      

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TalkBack / The DSi and What it Means for Wii HD

« on: November 08, 2008, 03:57:46 AM »

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=17153

  The Nintendo DSi is now out and about in Japan.  We probably won't hear any official sales numbers until toward the end of the month, but initial reports are saying that the thing has sold out of its initial run already, which isn't that surprising.  What is surprising, at least to me, is what Nintendo was thinking when it cobbled together the DSi, and what that thinking could mean when it comes time to put together a successor, sequel, or other upgrade to the Wii.    

For the longest time, Nintendo has always dubbed itself a “games only” company.  Every piece of hardware it made was strictly for playing video games, and that was it.  Nintendo never considered media players, cameras, or any of that other stuff to be integral to the enjoyment of playing games (preferably its own games).  Yet, starting with the Wii and now the DSi, Nintendo has seemed to realize that that extra functionality is beginning to come essential when it comes to creating a value proposition for hardware.    

For as long as I've owned portable devices, I've found that the portability aspect of them is a misnomer.  Yes, you can take them anywhere you'd please, but most of the time there's little reason to do so.  For instance, of the portable devices I have—including an original Nintendo DS, a Game Boy micro (yes, I know), a PSP, a point-and-shoot camera, and my trusty iPhone—I only carry my phone with me on a regular basis, and have absolutely no reason to take anything else anywhere I go.  The iPhone is essentially all of the above: Obviously, it's a smartphone I can use to get on the Internet, but I can also take pictures and play games on it.  Although it's not the best camera I own and it's not the best game player I own, the simple fact of the matter everything I could need is all in one device.  That means I only need to take one device with me, instead of two or three.  Portability only works when it's convenient, and hassling with carrying more than one “portable” makes things less than convenient.    

In light of this, the Nintendo DSi, and Nintendo itself, seems to be headed in the right direction.  Although cameras have been tied with game systems for a while now, including Nintendo's own Game Boy Camera, the fact that Nintendo built cameras in to the hardware means the feature needs to be taken seriously.  Not just because there's a camera facing the user for gameplay purposes, but that the outward-facing camera was put there with the specific purpose of taking pictures of whatever happens to be around.  Everyone in Japan has a better camera than what's in the Nintendo DSi, including the one that's likely housed inside of their keitai, or mobile phones.  But now that's it's there, people will use it, which gives people one more reason to use their DSi day-in and day-out.    

The reason why Sony has always pushed the PlayStation brand as an all-in-one set-top box solution is because it feels that having one device, for one price, will meet all your home entertainment needs.  As the global economy worsens and money becomes an issue for many people, this line of thinking makes sense.  Granted, paying $400 for anything when money is tight is a stretch to begin with, but when it comes time to put that money down, you'd want a device to do as much as possible, i.e., why buy a $500 Blu-ray player when you can get a Blu-ray player, game console, Internet hub, media player, and George Foreman grill for the same price?  This is why the PlayStation 2 took off. It was a value proposition, even at a high price.  The PS3 should begin to come charging back for the same reason.  People pay for things that offer them convenience, something that Sony hinges its entire hardware strategy on.    

Nintendo is surely starting to realize that if it stays games-only, it's not going to be a major player.  The Wii is still primarily a games-only device, but Nintendo is pushing it as something you'd want to put in your living room and have the whole family use.  The photo channel and the SD slot built-in to the Wii, along with the Internet Channel and other various utility channels, showed that Nintendo was beginning to expand the functionality of what its hardware could do.  Nintendo will say that stuff is in there so the users can have more fun, but ultimately it's in there so Nintendo won't fall behind in the consumer electronics world and be stuck in the one-trick pony business model.  Nintendo took the initiative with the Nintendo DSi and broke out of that model in a way that few expected them to, giving the system a multi-use purpose without abandoning its core functionality.    

Which brings me back to the Wii.  Many years from now, we're going to look back at the Wii and realize how utterly brilliant Nintendo was with its design and marketing.  I guarantee you this will be taught and brought up in marketing and advertising classes in the not-too-distant future.  What I'm starting to realize about the Wii—and the Nintendo DSi helped me see this—is that Nintendo is using the Wii as the starting point for its inevitable global takeover.  No joke: Because Nintendo is reaching out to so many new consumers and telling them how great the games experience is, and also showing them that the Wii can do a little more than just play games, Nintendo is basically training people to believe that Nintendo is the way to go for home entertainment in the future.  The features that Nintendo is adding to the Wii gives that many more people an excuse to use the console every day, which Nintendo is absolutely hell-bent on seeing happen.  Ditto for Internet features.    

Point is, when Nintendo decides to roll out Wii 2, Wii HD, Twii, Xii, or whatever Nintendo is going to call it, a throng of new consumers will have been so used to using the Wii and Nintendo's services that they will first look to Nintendo for the next version.  To make sure Nintendo cashes in on this captive audience, it's going to need to put in more functionality in it than ever before (while still keeping the price reasonable, obviously) so that it can stay relevant in the living room of the future.  Nintendo is already experimenting with streaming television and movie delivery services in Japan, and this is being done through a console that people said was just two GameCubes duct-taped together.  Just think of what Nintendo might be able to do when it tapes on a third.

[It would be exactly that if you didn’t check out our import hands-on and direct-feed videos of Monolith Soft’s action-adventure Wii game.]

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TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Disaster: Day of Crisis

« on: October 06, 2008, 06:21:10 PM »

It would be exactly that if you didn’t check out our import hands-on and direct-feed videos of Monolith Soft’s action-adventure Wii game.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16899

 It’s been a while, but Nintendo’s investment in Monolith Soft is finally bearing fruit with the completion of Disaster: Day of Crisis.  After years in the works and a few delays for good measure, the erstwhile Wii launch title has been released in Japan.  Or, to put it another way, Nintendo has finally released a game that should have come out two years ago, and for all its time in development hell, it still currently doesn’t have a North American release date—it isn’t even listed on Nintendo’s own website.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.    

   
 The Disaster: Day of Crisis intro movie.

   

In Disaster: Day of Crisis, a former marine and rescue specialist named Ray finds himself in the middle of Blue Ridge City when it gets hit with a series of natural disasters triggered by a massive earthquake.  Expect fires, tornadoes, fire tornadoes, a tsunami, floods, and a volcanic eruption—and that's just for starters.  The initial earthquake was predicted by a rogue military group called STORM, which then uses the inaccessible city as their “hideout” to hold the United States hostage with a nuclear warhead that they’ve somehow come across.  Ray is trying to rescue Lisa, the sister of his former partner, whom has been kidnapped by STORM. So not only does Ray need to deal with the STORM threat, but everything Mother Nature is throwing at him.  As the title implies, the action takes place over the course of a single day.

   

There are a variety of gameplay styles within the main adventure.  The game is built upon a standard adventure model, where Ray walks around a given part of the city from Point A to Point B, generally looking around to try to rescue anyone that may need help. In the process, you may be required to lift debris off of someone and pull them to safety, clean and bandage a victim’s wounds, or even administer CPR.   These rescue sequences often use Wii Remote motion controls in conjunction with timed button presses.   Rescues are optional, but completing them will earn you additional points that you can use to upgrade Ray’s attributes and abilities.    

 
 Watch out for that tsunami!  Also see a sample of a rescue procedure.

   

Players have different meters and indicators they need to worry about at any given time.  The most important ones are the stamina and life meters.  Stamina slowly drains at all times, and the only way to keep Ray from running out is to eat food.  Food can be found around the levels by busting open containers around the levels.  If Ray runs out of stamina or takes damage otherwise, he loses a chunk of the life bar. Life will also start to drain away if Ray stays inside a smoky area for too long. Furthermore, smoke fills the lungs meter, which will eventually go down on its own once Ray is in clear air, or can be rapidly returned to normal by repeatedly taking deep breaths with the Z Button.  Performing this action is particularly annoying since you need to press the button several times to reset the lungs meter to normal, even if it only shows them as 10-20% filled initially.    

Another meter only shows up when you are engaged in a gun battle.  Whenever STORM finds Ray, the game switches over to a shooting mode, which plays a little bit like Namco’s Time Crisis games.  Ray can duck behind cover by holding the Z Button, letting go of which makes Ray pop out so you can start shooting.  The game gives clear warning when someone is about to shoot—a bright red cursor on the gun barrel of an enemy flashes just before they fire—giving you time to get your shots in.  This warning system makes the shooting portion feel really easy, as if the game is holding your hand through it.  By holding down the C Button, Ray enters concentration mode, which zooms the view in and makes it much easier to score devastating headshots.  He can only stay in this mode for a limited time though, as indicated by another on-screen meter.    

   
 See what it's like to get into a firefight in the middle of a subway wreckage.

   

These gun battles feel generally slow, but I’m finding that they're beginning to pick up somewhat now that I’m more than three hours into the game.  Another positive development is the ability to upgrade my current weapons and buy new ones with the battle points I’ve earned from doing well in the gun sequences.  I’ve come across one really tough boss battle up to this point so far, but for the most part they’re a matter of hiding behind cover until a pre-determined opportunity presents itself, at which point you just pop up, aim the Wii Remote pointer at the giant, purple “shoot me to win” targets, then move on to the next area.

   

You can easily tell that Disaster: Day of Crisis is a few years late to the Wii party from its first few chapters.  A game that frequently involves waggle-punching random containers strewn about a level to reveal important, life-sustaining items is one with a design that’s tired and redundant.  Apparently, our hero is strong enough to bust open metal mailboxes or giant boulders with just two or three bare-fisted punches, but what makes this really ridiculous is that, at least so far, busting up breakable items is the sole purpose of motion-activated punching.  Truly, it’s the definition of “waggle” in the despicable sense of the word.    

The game basically tells you where to go and what to shoot (at least in the first few hours on normal difficulty), and thus the entire product has a “tutorial” feel to it.  It’s as if I’m being told how the Wii experience is supposed to work when I'm playing Disaster, but I already know this thanks to two years of experience playing Wii games.  The driving sequences just hammer this point home, since all you do in two of the first three of them is navigate from one place to another, essentially accomplishing absolutely nothing.  In the other one, you are trying to outrun a tsunami—the only problem with this being that the camera looks behind you, and so you can’t see the cars you need to swerve around until the last moment, if you even manage to stay on the bridge that’s crumbling beneath you.    

While my first impression of Disaster: Day of Crisis has left me somewhat underwhelmed, I did like some of the cut-scenes (wait until you see that tsunami head into the downtown area), and the story introduced an interesting plot twist early on.  That’s more than enough for me to keep playing it and see what the full product will bring to the table, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is basically a 2006 game that's been shelved until 2008.  I don’t know if the later chapters or scenarios will be much different, but based on what I’ve played so far, it doesn’t look all that promising.

[Fans of the band will want to Walk This Way, but otherwise it feels like the Same Old Song and Dance.]

6

TalkBack / REVIEWS: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

« on: September 21, 2008, 07:55:00 PM »

Fans of the band will want to Walk This Way, but otherwise it feels like the Same Old Song and Dance.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewArt.cfm?artid=16720

 Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is Activision's first crack at a band-themed Guitar Hero spin-off title, and with that first attempt comes some high points, but also some severe faults.  As a game centered around one band—and therefore, one style of music—it can only truly cater to one type of Guitar Hero fan, which is obviously anyone who enjoys the music of Aerosmith.  And as big as Steven Tyler's band is, that means a lot of people will still be happy playing this game.    

However, that also means that people who want a wide variety of songs or a large selection to choose from will be abruptly disappointed by what the game has to offer.  If Aerosmith isn't your cup of tea, this game is obviously not for you.  The majority of songs are provided by the titular band, although Aerosmith did hand-pick songs from other artists from the likes of Joan Jett, The Kinks, Lenny Kravitz, Stone Temple Pilots, and Run DMC.  That variety is short-lived, since three out of every five songs per venue in career mode are from Aerosmith, as are all of the bonus songs.    

While I do enjoy listening to the band, and some of their iconic songs just beg to be played with a plastic guitar, bringing all their most popular songs together in one game just doesn't do it for me.  It is especially deflating that there are only 41 songs in the game (29 from Aerosmith and derivatives), which is a lot less than GH players are accustomed to for a game that costs the same as the flagship titles.    

The setlist will probably be the ultimate factor in whether or not Guitar Hero Aerosmith is a game you'll want to pick up, but for those on the fence, there are some remarkable improvements to other areas of the game.  Most obvious among those is how great the Wii version looks.  Vicarious Visions did a great job with their from-the-ground-up production.  Characters are fantastically animated and the virtual Aerosmith fits in perfectly.  The audio quality sounds pretty nice (and it's really in stereo and surround sound this time), and it feels like the strumming issues from Guitar Hero III have been resolved for the most part.  Of course, all the online gameplay modes have been preserved and work great, complete with on-screen notification when your friends want to challenge you to an online rock-off.    

It's for those reasons why Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is still a good game for those interested.  The relatively small selection of tracks, lack of track variety, and laughable amount of bonus content are potential negatives for those on the fence, but the bottom line for this Guitar Hero game is that you either like Aerosmith or you don't.  If you love them to death, this game should be in your collection.  If you don't care for them, don't get it.  If you think you're somewhere in the middle, you should ask yourself if you really need to spend the money on what amounts to a glorified expansion pack with Guitar Hero: World Tour looming on the horizon.

Pros:
       

Very much improved graphics from Guitar Hero III

 

Great if you love Aerosmith

       Cons:
       

Not as much content compared to other Guitar Hero games

 

Featuring one band means less variety in song selection

               Graphics:  8.0
       The venues and atmosphere are standard Guitar Hero fare, but the animation of the characters on the stage is really impressive.  Guitar Hero: Aerosmith looks much, much better than the last Wii GH game.

               Sound:  8.0
       The music sounds good - as well it should - but whether or not you like what you're playing ultimately depends on how much you like Aerosmith.

               Control:  7.0
       Phantom strumming issues have been improved from Guitar Hero III, but there's nothing special to say about the controls otherwise.

                      Gameplay:  7.0
       Solid, fun, and enjoyable Guitar Hero gameplay, no matter what songs you're rockin' out to.

 

       Lastability:  6.0
       Forty-one songs won't seem like a lot after you breeze through the six-tier career mode, with only 11 of them being unlockable bonuses.  Replay value is standard for a Guitar Hero game, but it really feels like there is some meat missing from the Aerosmith version.

 

       Final:  7.0
       Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is simply another good Guitar Hero game with a different set of songs, that's technically improved from its predecessors in many ways.  That in itself is not a bad thing, but only big fans of the band will get the most enjoyment out of it.      

[Get your 86-song strong set list right here.]

7

TalkBack / PREVIEWS: Guitar Hero World Tour

« on: September 19, 2008, 07:12:06 PM »

Get your 86-song strong set list right here.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/previewArt.cfm?artid=16712

 Guitar Hero World Tour is setting the bar high with the number of songs that will ship on-disc.  Initially, 86 songs, all master recordings, will be available to play, with music from artists like Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Van Halen, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Jackson, and a whole lot of others.  On top of that, many songs come in the form of "live" studio versions that may help you live the dream of playing as if you were the one recording the track in the studio.    

With the promise of more songs available through the Wii's Pay & Play downloadable content service, as well as a potential endless supply of free, user-created tracks through Activision's free GHTunes service (see our impressions for more on that), there will be plenty of new music to come back to.  World Tour will be available for all platforms on October 28, 2008.    

The Guitar Hero World Tour Set List:  

 
• 311 - “Beautiful Disaster”
 
• 30 Seconds To Mars - “The Kill”
 
• Airbourne - “Too Much Too Young”
 
• The Allman Brothers Band - “Ramblin' Man”
 
• Anouk - “Good God”
 
• The Answer - “Never Too Late”
 
• At The Drive-In - “One Armed Scissor”
 
• Beastie Boys - “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
 
• Beatsteaks - “Hail to the Freaks”
 
• Billy Idol - “Rebel Yell”
 
• Black Label Society - “Stillborn”
 
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “Weapon of Choice”
 
• blink-182 - “Dammit”
 
• Blondie - “One Way or Another”
 
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - “Hollywood Nights”
 
• Bon Jovi - “Livin’ On A Prayer”
 
• Bullet For My Valentine - “Scream Aim Fire”
 
• Coldplay - “Shiver”
 
• Creedence Clearwater Revival - “Up Around The Bend”
 
• The Cult - “Love Removal Machine”
 
• Dinosaur Jr. - “Feel The Pain”
 
• The Doors - “Love Me Two Times”
 
• Dream Theater - “Pull Me Under”
 
• The Eagles - “Hotel California”
 
• The Enemy - “Aggro”
 
• Filter - “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
 
• Fleetwood Mac - “Go Your Own Way”
 
• Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
 
• The Guess Who - “American Woman”
 
• Hush Puppies - “You're Gonna Say Yeah!”
 
• Interpol - “Obstacle 1”
 
• Jane's Addiction - “Mountain Song”
 
• Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze (Live)”
 
• Jimi Hendrix - “The Wind Cries Mary”
 
• Jimmy Eat World - “The Middle”
 
• Joe Satriani - “Satch Boogie”
 
• Kent - “Vinternoll2”
 
• Korn - “Freak On A Leash”
 
• Lacuna Coil - “Our Truth”
 
• Lenny Kravitz - “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
 
• Linkin Park - “What I've Done”
 
• The Living End - “Prisoner of Society”
 
• Los Lobos - “La Bamba”
 
• Lost Prophets - “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”
 
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Sweet Home Alabama (Live)”
 
• Mars Volta - “L'Via L'Viaquez”
 
• MC5’s Wayne Kramer - “Kick Out The Jams”
 
• Metallica - “Trapped Under Ice”
 
• Michael Jackson - “Beat It”
 
• Modest Mouse - “Float On”
 
• Motörhead - “Overkill”
 
• Muse - “Assassin”
 
• Negramaro - “Nuvole e Lenzuola”
 
• Nirvana - “About a Girl (Unplugged)”
 
• No Doubt - “Spiderwebs”
 
• NOFX - “Soul Doubt”
 
• Oasis - “Some Might Say”
 
• Ozzy Osbourne - “Crazy Train”
 
• Ozzy Osbourne - “Mr. Crowley”
 
• Paramore - “Misery Business”
 
• Pat Benatar - “Heartbreaker”
 
• R.E.M. - “The One I Love”
 
• Radio Futura - “Escuela De Calor”
 
• Rise Against - “Re-Education Through Labor”
 
• Sex Pistols - “Pretty Vacant”
 
• Silversun Pickups - “Lazy Eye”
 
• Smashing Pumpkins - “Today”
 
• Steely Dan - “Do It Again”
 
• Steve Miller Band - “The Joker”
 
• Sting - “Demolition Man (Live)”
 
• The Stone Roses - “Love Spreads”
 
• Stuck In The Sound - “Toy Boy”
 
• Sublime - “Santeria”
 
• Survivor - “Eye of the Tiger”
 
• System of a Down - “B.Y.O.B.”
 
• Ted Nugent - “Stranglehold”
 
• Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
 
• Tokio Hotel - “Monsoon”
 
• Tool - “Parabola”
 
• Tool - “Schism”
 
• Tool - “Vicarious”
 
• Trust - “Antisocial”
 
• Van Halen - “Hot For Teacher”
 
• Willie Nelson - “On The Road Again”
 
• Wings - “Band on the Run”
 
• Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
 

[Activision's entry into the battle of the bands is shaping up to bring the house down. Also, find out why the Wii version might be the best of the lot.]

8

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Guitar Hero World Tour

« on: September 19, 2008, 07:12:04 PM »

Activision's entry into the battle of the bands is shaping up to bring the house down.  Also, find out why the Wii version might be the best of the lot.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16711

 Activision has pulled out all the stops with its version of a full band game in the form of Guitar Hero World Tour.  Just like its direct competitor, Rock Band, the game features gameplay for up to four players simultaneously: two on guitars, one on drums, and one singing.  It's also got a long list of master recordings from a wide array of bands (see our preview for the confirmed set list).  Where World Tour is going to set itself apart from any music game before it will be the ability to create and share playable songs via a full-blown music creation studio and a dedicated online music sharing service.  To top if off, the Wii version will not only be as fully-featured as the other versions of the game, it will have an exclusive mode as well.    

Before diving in to the details of the different modes and features of World Tour, first there's the matter of explaining the changes in the Guitar Hero formula that were required to fit in drumming and singing.  Bass and guitar playing have some new tweaks.  Bass players need to worry about strumming an open pick (done while not hitting any fret buttons) and guitar players have some new note patterns to learn.  Some tricky sequences I noted during my play time were, among others, needing to hold down each note of a hammer-on, and hammering-on multiple lower notes while simultaneously holding down a higher one.  The new note patterns appear to be an attempt to bring some difficulty back to the higher levels of the game.  I saw some songs that were not afraid to overwhelm players with notes.  To make things a little easier for those trickier passages, star power notes now always appear in the note highway, even if star power is already activated.    

Singers playing World Tour will have an easier time of keeping track of their voice tone.  It's very easy to see where the game is registering your voice and it's obvious if you're singing too low or too high.  I didn't play enough songs to see if there was something else for singers to do in songs with large portions of singer silence, but I do hope there is something for them to do there.    

Drummers will find that the wireless drum kit and drumming gameplay is probably as close as you're going to get to the real thing without having to pay for the real thing, though it's not without its faults.  World Tour has a five-pad kit with a kick pedal, which means there are six things you'll need to keep track of.  The layout of the note chart matches the layout of the kit, for the most part, which means the only thing you'll need to be careful of is the adjustable cymbal pads.  I found my drumsticks getting caught underneath them every once in while, snapping any note streaks that I had at the time.  They weren't as quiet as I was expecting, but they're still not bad.   Regardless, because the kit is two-tiered and has velocity-sensitive pads (the harder you hit them, the louder the sound) it feels very good to play on.    

The new hardware for the new Guitar Hero game appeared to be designed with some of the new gameplay changes in mind.  For one, singers and drummers can activate star power at any time.  Singers can just scream into the mic and drummers can crash both cymbals at the same time.  Obviously, guitar players can do it at will with a guitar tilt to the sky, but a change to the guitar can make it easier to activate in those streaming note sections.  A large, long star power button has been added to the guitar a little further down the body, about where your palm would normally rest while strumming.  Slamming on the button with your palm—it takes a good deal of pressure to use, likely to avoid accidental presses—will also juice things up and double your individual multiplier.    

Special guitar solo sections are also new to the game.  When one of these sections come along, you can use the new sliding touch pad on the lower portion of the guitar neck.  This area of the guitar is best used to nail those fast up-and-down note patterns without the need to strum.  The touch pad feels very nice under the fingers, although it might be difficult to just pick it up and start nailing combos.  It takes a different set of skills to be able to "feel" how far up and down it you should go to hit the correct notes in the solos, but I suppose it's similar to how you'd play a real guitar in the same situation.    

If you ever get tired of playing the music that comes in the game, you might want to consider making your own.  Guitar Hero World Tour will feature what could very well be the most ambitious mode ever thought up for an online-enabled music game.    

The music creation mode will allow you to literally lay down your own tracks for band play in the game.  This means you can create your own music, from scratch, complete with up to five instruments.  Only three of them will be playable, of course (two guitars and drums, no vocals), but the tools are available to get pretty deep with exactly how you want to put your song together.  There are dozens upon dozens of different sounds across multiple instruments, from three different guitar types (lead, rhythm, and bass), drums, and keyboard, among others.  The sample songs I got to check out sounded a bit more like a midi file than a rock anthem, but the renditions of Fur Elise and Flight of the Bumblebee I saw were convincing enough for me.    

The mode is split into two parts, which are integrated with each other.  In a jam session you can mess around with the instruments and try to find the sounds you want to use.  You also can record portions of your instrument playing, either individually or as a group.  This recorded music can then be imported into the recording studio portion, where you'd actually go to officially record the song and edit notes directly.  In either mode, you can select sound sets on the fly through the pause menu, as well as change the chord set the guitars use.  Raising or lowering the neck of a guitar while playing will let you change the octave range of the notes you're playing, giving you even more options when jamming on the guitar.    

Music creation will be the cornerstone of a new service Activision will be launching with the game called GHTunes.  Players who think they've got a hot song on their hands can submit their song to GHTunes, complete with customized album art and other information.  People will easily be able to find songs created by their friends.  More importantly, GHTunes will keep a daily, weekly, and all-time list of the most popular songs.  Songs can be rated upon completion to help weed out the no-hit wonders from the epic rock anthems.  Songs from GHTunes will be free to download.  This service is on top of the regular paid song download service that will also come standard with the game.    

Yes, that's right: The Wii version of World Tour will have DLC, just like the versions of the game on the consoles with the hard drives.  It's not clear how much space downloadable songs will take up, but chances are if you're a heavy downloader of music, you're going to want to invest in a bunch of SD cards (if you haven't already).  As if that wasn't good news for Wii owners, here's something else that might surprise you.    

Mii Jam Session is a special mode exclusive to the Wii version, where you can select a Mii on your console and play around with the guitar, making music with every action you perform.  While you could technically do the same thing in the recording studio, the difference in jamming with your Miis is that a lot of the music that comes out is automatic.  The angle of your guitar and whether or not you hold down the star power button will change what sounds a guitar makes when played, and it's very easy to get some cool sounds going.  This mode is very fun, and also somewhat educational for new players.  Cards with note patterns appear on-screen, prompting people to try and follow them if they'd like to do so.  A drummer can join in the fun as well, though the drum kit is limited in options.  However, one of those options is the ability to use a cowbell, so it makes up for it.    

The jam session mode is very simple, very shallow, and above all else, very fun.  Unlike Nintendo's attempt to bring music to the musically disabled (Wii Music, cough), World Tour caters to the lowest common denominator while still making it fun for experienced gamers to jump in and play around for a bit.  Anyone can grab a guitar and pretend to be a rock star without needing to worry about keeping their combo going or holding back bandmates in the main mode.  I spent a good deal of time messing around, seeing what music I could make.  I almost managed to do Mary Had a Little Lamb on my guitar, but I couldn't quite find the right note.  (Hold down all five fret buttons, if you can manage it, for a secret surprise!)    

Here's the bottom line on Guitar Hero World Tour, based on what I've seen of it so far: It's going to revolutionize the music game genre.  The original Guitar Hero did it the first time, and World Tour has the pieces to do it again.  It truly feels like it's going to be a complete band game experience, and totally something worth upgrading for, even if you've already invested in that other band game.

[Be a guitar hero. And a bass hero. And a drum hero. And a singing hero.]

9

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Rock Revolution

« on: September 04, 2008, 05:59:49 PM »

Be a guitar hero.  And a bass hero.  And a drum hero.  And a singing hero.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16651

 If strapping on a huge guitar grip accessory and fretting on your Nintendo DS seems a bit much, Konami thinks they've got an alternative solution to get your portable music fix.  The Nintendo DS version of the company's Rock Revolution will let a player pick an instrument and play through a song, using a control method that best suits that particular style of play.  Guitar, bass, drum, and vocal parts are available to choose from.    

The first mode I tried out was the guitar section.  Here, a guitar is displayed on the touch screen with up and down arrows scrolling down from the left and right side.  When an arrow crosses the middle of the guitar, you need to literally "strum" across the guitar in the direction indicated by the arrow.  The stream of arrows and the resulting strumming motions mimic the motion of strumming on a real guitar convincingly.  The arrows don't exclusively alternate between up-down-up-down, either.  Sometimes you need to perform several strums in one direction, and other times a double arrow will show up, requiring you to quickly do an up/down motion in one note, similar to that of a whammy.  The guitar mode was quite challenging and a pretty pleasant surprise for me, even after having played Guitar Hero: On Tour.    

Next up was the bass guitar.  Instead of being a copy of the guitar mode, bass mode plays much more like its real-world counterpart.  Four strings appear on the touch screen, and small circles begin to come in from the side on the different strings.  An arrow will appear above one of the strings, telling you exactly where to pluck it to play the note correctly.  The arrow could appear anywhere on any string at any time.  This felt a bit random on the first few songs, but after getting used to it a bit it made sense to differentiate the bass mode from the regular guitar mode in this way.  I'm still not sure if this was the best way to organize it, but credit is due to Konami for making the bass and guitar sections unique game modes.    

I didn't get to try out the game's vocal mode, and I only had a brief glimpse of the game's drum modes.  It plays pretty much as you'd expect with a DS game, with a touch-screen drum kit and a line of notes to be played on the bottom.  I only tried it for a moment, but I was immediately turned off by the fact that it's quite difficult to follow the notes on the top screen and hit the right drum on the bottom screen without taking your eyes off one or the other.    

Then again, that could also be because I'm a stubborn pro and went straight for one of the harder difficulties.  Even if you're experienced in the field of music games, there's still a learning curve to get used to a different system of gameplay.  Rock Revolution has four different systems of gameplay in one package, just like the modern console music games.  Of course, it's hard to carry around a guitar, bass, microphone, and full drum kit in your pocket ... unless, of course, it's all inside a single DS game card.

[The idea of bringing board games to the video game space makes sense when it's done like this.]

10

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Hasbro Family Game Night

« on: August 26, 2008, 04:45:23 AM »

The idea of bringing board games to the video game space makes sense when it's done like this.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16594

 Though video games have been starting to take over as a major source of home entertainment, they are still no replacement for a good, old-fashioned family get together around a classic board game.  Electronic Arts figures that the best way to capture that feeling (and make money off of it) is to bring a bunch of classic Hasbro-branded games together and put them all in a single Wii video game.  The result looks like it will be a very well-produced, slick way to play the classics.    

Hasbro Family Game Night will feature six board games: Sorry!, Battleship, Boggle, Connect Four, Yahtzee, and Sorry! Sliders.  These games are pretty much carbon-copies of their real-world counterparts, but with the obvious advantages of having the console keep track of scores and having nothing to set up or put away when you're done. (In fact, selecting a game from the main menu will open up the box for that game, set everything up, and then put everything neatly in its place when finished before returning to its virtual shelf.)  Additionally, each game will allow you to customize popular house rules and alternate game modes to keep the games fresh each time you play.    

One of the games I got to try out was Battleship.  The version in Hasbro Family Game Night was in full 3D, complete with a water-logged board, perfect for placing your five ships.  The game I played against another person had salvo rules activated, meaning I could fire as many shots per round as I had ships remaining.  The outcome of that game isn't important (I won, of course!) but I got a really good idea that this rendition had a lot of neat details put in.  The boards of the two competing players are placed back-to-back, just like they would be in an actual game, and between turns the camera swoops around to the other board.  Ship pieces are hidden from view to both players once they've been placed to prevent peeking. By pointing the Wii Remote at the upper portion of your board, you can select which squares to target and fire away.  The squares were a little small to easily select where you wanted to shoot, and there was no option to undo an errant choice.  Still, the game was fun and the presentation was very nice.    

Another game I got to try out was Sorry! Sliders, a new game that Hasbro will be releasing later this year.  It's related to the classic Sorry! game in name and pieces only, as this game is more akin to the Olympic sport of curling than anything else.  There's a spinning scoring zone in the center of the game board.  The Wii Remote is used to "bowl" a Sorry! game piece from the outer edge of the board (the actual board game will have small ball bearings on the bottom of the pieces) as close to the center as possible.  Play rotates between up to four players, and the idea is to knock pieces out of the scoring area.  The weight of the pieces when throwing them toward the center felt quite realistic, and as long as four players can get together and a lot of pieces get thrown around, the game looks as if it would be good fun.    

All the games I played in Hasbro Family Game Night were fun.  Even Connect Four, which has an option to play continuously in a set time limit and to use special chips that affect the game board in some way, like blocking a column or pushing out all pieces underneath it.  The concept of taking these classic board games and spicing them up in ways that only a video game can is a very good idea, and if the price is right then getting six board games for the price of two or three might be a deal too good to pass up, particularly for the kind of new audience the Wii is attracting these days.

[Pokemon meets Ouendan. Sort of.]

11

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Zubo

« on: August 26, 2008, 08:37:08 PM »

Pokemon meets Ouendan.  Sort of.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16524

 Notice: The original impressions of this game inadvertently included some erroneous information.  These impressions have been corrected.  We apologize for any confusion.    

First thing’s first about comparing Zubo to Ouendan: It's not a game that's all about the music.  It's an adventure game with a turn-based, RPG-style battle system that has music .  It could be best described as a game made in the style of Pokemon, with different characters to find, collect, and use in battle.    

The combat is turn-based, although it's odd that each turn consists of one and only one attack from each side.  You have three characters in your party, you can attack opposition with only one character each turn.  The same applies to the opposition.  This means you can technically get away with  using just one Zubo for the entire game, but realistically you're going to need to share the workload.    

Each member of your party has four different moves to choose from, not unlike Pokemon.  In fact, Zubo plays a lot like Pokemon in that every character in the game, be they Zubo or the evil Zombo, is sorted into a class that is weak or strong against other classes.  There are 55 different Zubos to find, and each of them have their own personalities and abilities.    

When initiating an attack during battles, an outline appears around your character, along with several larger outlines that begin to constrict toward the inner outline.  This is just like Ouendan's constricting circles, except the “circle” in this case is shaped like your Zubo.  By tapping on the touch screen as each outline meets up, you perform part of your attack.  The more successful timed taps you perform, the stronger your attacks will be.  It is difficult to follow exactly when you should tap the touch screen to initiate part of an attack, since the outlines of your character move with it, but the music can help you out with that. If you know the rhythm of the music you can get the most out of attacks, but concentration is required, regardless.    

The adventure aspect outside of the battles is pretty standard fare, with touch screen puzzles and some environment activity.  Since I spent the majority of my playtime in a battle, it's difficult to say for sure how varied the normal gameplay is.  However, considering the game that Zubo looks to be inspired from, it's likely there will be things to do outside of walking from battle to battle.

[Scratch on the touch screen to pull off some sick tricks on your skateboard.]

12

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Skate It

« on: August 04, 2008, 05:21:38 PM »

Scratch on the touch screen to pull off some sick tricks on your skateboard.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16523

 Skate It on the Nintendo DS is the handheld version of EA's Skate.  In the original console version (which was not released on the Wii), players could use the second analog controller stick to "flick" tricks, as if they were controlling the feet or board of the skater.  The DS version takes this design and applies it to the touch screen of the handheld version.    

Tricks are performed exclusively through the touch screen, but not by touching buttons.  Instead, players need to draw a line in a certain way on the skateboard to perform a trick that naturally follows the motion of that line.  For instance, a simple ollie is done by drawing a straight line from the back of the board to the front of the board.  A heelflip is done by drawing a line away from the board, perpendicular to where your back foot would be in it.  Spins are possible by drawing in a circular motion while in the air.  It sounds complicated, but once you sit down and play it, the motions needed to perform moves make sense once you understand how things match up.    

Performing basic movement around the demo skate park was fairly easy, and I was able to do jumps and basic spins without needing to look down at the touch screen to see where I was drawing.  Pulling off certain grabs and flips required a bit more effort, as I needed to be a little more precise in where I was on the touch screen.  Larger combination moves like spinning flip tricks and multiple grabs required a more complex “double draw” motion with the stylus, essentially doing two tricks back-to-back in one go.  I only managed to pull off such a trick once, since the time you have to draw a trick pattern is limited to how much time you spend in the air.  There's not much time to do the bigger tricks, so you'd better make sure you make your time count.    

To that effect, the draw-to-trick system in Skate It DS feels a lot more realistic, as it were, than just pressing buttons and grinding away all day as in the Tony Hawk games.  Since a lot of skateboarding game fans have been used to that system of play for so long, making the transition to all touch screen controls will be difficult.  Then again, if you're tired of the same old way to play, the controls of Skate It are certainly a change of pace, and based on what I played at E3, they appear functional enough to work through normal gameplay.  It's going to take a lot of practice to nail the sickest tricks, though.

[The Sims meets Nintendogs.]

13

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: The Sims 2 Apartment Pets

« on: August 04, 2008, 05:20:05 PM »

The Sims meets Nintendogs.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16522

 A game that I hadn't heard of until seeing it at Electronic Arts' E3 meeting was a new spin-off of The Sims 2 line of games, designed specifically for the Nintendo DS.  The Sims 2 Apartment Pets is a Sims game where you control a human interacting with the environment around them, combined with the animal interaction sequences that you'd expect to find in a game like Nintendogs.    

The demo I saw at E3 had me in control of a female Sim in her apartment, which is situated above a pet salon where she works for a living.  The furniture and other decorations within each room of the apartment can be changed and customized in the usual Sims fashion, and your character has the usual Sims traits such as happiness, health, and whether or not she needs to go to the bathroom.  To that effect, it doesn't appear much different than the average Sims game.    

The difference in Apartment Pets is that you need to interact with different types of animals.  Dogs, cats, snakes, hamsters, birds, and other pets can populate your apartment, and you'll get to interact with them.  You can play with their toys, dress them up in customizable outfits, and just generally love your animals.    

The animal interface is tied into how your Sim gets on in life.  The pet salon is your main source of income, and in order to make good money, you must tend to other pets that customers bring in.  You get a notification that a new customer wants pet service, at which time you have the option of taking the elevator down to the salon on the ground floor.  You can use touch screen to perform tasks like clearing up fleas, picking a new collar, and eliminating funky odors from the pet.  If you don't want to be bothered with cleaning up someone else's filthy pets, you'll still earn money, but it won't be as much if you take charge of your shop and do things manually.    

The game is fully 3D and can be played from an overhead perspective or zoomed in with a fully controllable camera that can swoop down to eye level.  The game actually looks quite good, with fairly detailed animals and some nice looking Sims, complete with the shiny green diamond to point them around with the touch screen.  Up close, the animals look pretty good, too.  I was particularly impressed by how good the hamster looked, although that might have been me just wanting to put it on the hamster wheel again and continue watching it be cute.    

I think EA may have found a good combination with Apartment Pets.  It's something that puts quite a bit of meat on the average pet simulator by adding in the tried-and-true human simulator franchise.  People who may have been exposed to video games through Nintendogs may be interested in it as well, seeing as it's an extension of what they already know and love.  A lot of people like the Sims, and a lot of people like their pet simulators.  It could very well be the best of both worlds.

[Judge not, lest ye be judged...]

14

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Castlevania Judgment

« on: July 30, 2008, 01:52:25 PM »

Judge not, lest ye be judged...
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16506

 Let's not beat around the bush.  Based off of the playable E3 demo of Konami's Castlevania Judgment for Wii, I couldn't say that the game was very good.  I might go as far as calling it bad, but I would want to see the full product before I can say for sure.    

For those not aware, Judgment is Koji Igarashi's solution to get a Castlevania game on the Wii.  Instead of creating a proper Castlevania game with the vampire slaying action we all know and love, he decided to develop a fighting game with a hodgepodge of Castlevania characters from over the years.  True, long-time fans of the series might salivate over the fact that Alucard and Simon Belmont are in the same Castlevania game, along with Dracula, Maria, and ten additional characters. Just the prospect of getting to square up against Dracula—the Dracula—would normally be something too good to pass up.    

Alas, the fighting game crafted around all of these Castlevania characters appears to be nothing more than a Wii Remote waggle-fest.  Wii Remote motions performthe A button fires whatever sub-weapon your character has in inventory.  Castlevania staples like holy water, throwing knives, and the cross will be there, as are other items.  Also in line with Castlevania tradition, the use of sub-items requires you have hearts in stock, which can be obtained through destroyable candlesticks that are littered throughout the 3D, free-roaming levels.    

That seems fine enough, but more waggle comes into play when you want to start performing stronger attacks.  Holding down the B trigger and giving the Wii Remote a swipe will perform a strong attack.  Combination attacks are possible with the right sequence of button presses and follow-up remote swipes.  Additionally, characters have special moves which can be performed by holding A+B while performing a swiping motion.  This requires your character have some special meter at their disposal, which can be filled by attacking your opponent.  In other words, do more waggling.    

While I was playing the game against other people, most of our matches devolved into us frantically waving the Remote around, hoping to connect with attacks.  Even when I tried to be strategic and thoughtful about my moves, I realized I was still performing the exact same motion with the Wii Remote every time I wanted to perform a strong attack or a special attack.  At least in the demo, there were no special motions to perform or no sense of variety for the player.  It's just swipe, swipe, swipe, and swipe some more.    

The characters certainly had different moves.  Simon's attacks were based more on physical, mid-range combat, which is what you'd expect with his trusty whip at his disposal.  Maria's attacks were completely based on magic, meaning she could swoop about and attack from a good distance, even having the ability to hover while she jumped.  Alucard used a combination of physical and magical attacks.  While I have no doubts that fourteen different characters will have about that many different styles of play, if every single one of them uses the same basic control setup with the same old boring remote swipes, there may not be much of a point for that variety.    

Judgment's gameplay is very fast, and it feels similar to Power Stone or similar roaming 3D fighters.  It's not like a traditional 3D fighter, a la Soul Calibur, although Konami's fighting game looks a lot like it when going to select a character or set up a fight.  Someone even made the comment that the game kind of looks like a Soul Calibur rip-off.  (I found that interesting, considering that Namco's Soulcalibur Legends for Wii could be perceived as a Castlevania rip-off from some perspectives.)  It certainly doesn't play like it, or at least not yet.  The game was still early in production, or at least it appeared that way, so Iga and crew may yet have some cleaning and polishing to do.    

But if I may be completely honest, Castlevania Judgment is not the Castlevania game fans of the series really want to see on the Wii.  (Again, just like SC Legends wasn't the Soul Calibur game fans wanted to see on the Wii.)  Even if the final product turns out to be good, there's going to be that part of us that is going to be disappointed that we're not hacking up zombies and vampires and exploring a castle, knowing that Dracula is waiting at its core.  Being able to choose him from a character select screen sort of defeats the purpose.

[If you like tapping your feet to the beat, this might a game up your alley.]

15

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Rhythm Heaven

« on: July 30, 2008, 01:44:02 PM »

If you like tapping your feet to the beat, this might a game up your alley.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16505

 After years of complaining, Nintendo finally did the right thing and will be bringing Rhythm Heaven, lr at least the Japanese sequel for DS, to America.  The E3 demo of the game only had three sections, but they give a good idea of what rhythmically inclined gamers can expect from the full game.    

For those not familiar with Rhythm Heaven, it can be described as a game constructed in the style of WarioWare, only much more simple and elegant.  It uses music and visuals in tandem to prompt you to follow along to the beat to complete certain tasks.  The timing in the demo was generally unforgiving, which is great for people who want the challenge of going for the perfect score.  However, the game is simple enough for anyone to understand what to do.  That simplicity, however, may give the perception of boredom to some people.    

The first of the three games on the demo, which was my favorite, was the conveyor belt.  In this mode, two square cogs with holes in the middle roll in from either side simultaneously.  When they meet in the middle, you need to perform a swift flicking motion on the touch screen with the stylus, which will fling a bolt into the cogs and lock them together.  The cogs roll in to the beat of the background music, so it's possible to play the level with your eyes closed.  You'll almost need to for the second part, in which most of the screen blacks out, leaving you only with a small window with which to see the cogs intersect.  What makes this game interesting is that the tempo at which the cogs roll in changes, which creates a simple, catchy song of incrementally rising piano tones.  I played this mode several times to try to get a perfect score, and when I did, I promptly went back and played it again.  I was addicted to it.    

The second game in the demo was called robot factory.  Here, pieces of a robot fall from the sky, all to a simple beat.  After the pieces fall down, you need to tap the touch screen and hold the tap to lower a gas nozzle.  There are actually two points when you need to be aware of the timing: one when you lower the gas nozzle, and another when you raise it.  If you lower it too early or late, you'll miss the fill-up.  If you release too early or late, you'll make your robot friend very sad.  To hit the fill up at the proper time, you need to keep the beat going in your head, since there's a missing beat where you get no assistance with timing.  Sometimes, a larger robot with twice the capacity appears, requiring you to stay on the fill-up for twice as long (eight beats).  To further mix it up, sometimes the robots fall into place on the down beat of the rhythm, requiring that you change how you match the pattern with the music.  I felt this mode was enjoyable, albeit a little sparse.    

The third mode available in the demo, and my least favorite, was the chorus line.  In this mode, you control the voice of a member of a chorus trio.  He has two vocal ranges: On and off.  The directions claim "tap to close your yap," indicating that you must keep hold on the touch screen to keep quiet.  The goal of the mode is to follow along and match your vocal rhythm with that of the other two vocalists.  If the first two sing for a beat each, then when it's your turn to sing you must match the same cadence.  There will be some times where you must all sing in unison, but the cue to do this is very hard to hear and the timing to get it just right is extremely unforgiving.  If you mess up, and you will mess up, the other two singers will give you a dirty look.  It was charming, but not as fun to play as the other two demo games.    

Rhythm Heaven on the DS feels like it will have a similar structure to that of the WarioWare games, although the games in Rhythm Heaven will offer won't be as rapid-fire.  That means there could be hits and duds strewn about the different games on offer.  The E3 demo made that pretty clear to me.  Still, for anyone who likes music games, Rhythm Heaven is the genre stripped down to its basics, and that could make it just the thing for handheld gaming.  However, I wonder if the touch screen will be used for more than just tapping, holding, and flicking, or if there will be more variation in player input.  If not, then the game might as well have been released on the Game Boy Advance ... or at least, the first game should have been brought to America like we've been asking Nintendo to do.

[Find out what went down at Nintendo's E3 press conference with our summary.]

16

TalkBack / Nintendo E3 Press Conference

« on: July 15, 2008, 04:39:20 PM »

Find out what went down at Nintendo's E3 press conference with our summary.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16375

 Nintendo once again held its E3 press conference at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, the site of its 2006 press event. Nintendo highlighted its continued success with Nintendo DS and Wii, and showcased a handful of first and third party games. The overall emphasis was on casual gamers, with very little for traditional video game enthusiasts.    

Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo executive vice president of sales & marketing, kicked the show off talking about how much her kids love the fact that she works for Nintendo. This transitioned into a discussion of other ways she has tried to be cool, such as attempting to go snowboarding, breaking her wrist in the process.  This led to a demonstration of Ubisoft's Shaun White Snowboarding, with Shaun White himself demoing the special Wii Balance Board controls. It was unclear from the on-stage demo how tricks were executed, but you can look forward to NWR's impressions after we've had a chance to try it out.    

   

Satoru Iwata took the stage to discuss the status of Nintendo's product line, highlighting its continued growth and success. Slides highlighted that according to Nintendo data, Wii hardware is selling faster than that of the PlayStation 2, and Wii software shows a similar trend. He also discussed the continued success of the Nintendo DS and its “evergreen” titles, such as New Super Mario Bros. and the Brain Age games, and that DS units is selling better than ever—especially to females. Iwata insists that Wii and DS owners must continue to be engaged, or else they will lose interest.  He then promised that the Zelda and Mario teams are working on new Wii titles, though he made no direct mention if those teams were actually making new Zelda and Mario games.

   

Nintendo went on to feature Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii with a video showing gameplay footage and series director Katsuya Eguchi explaining the features of the new title. Most notably, Animal Crossing will support a new microphone peripheral called the WiiSpeak, a community microphone that will pick up the voices of anyone sitting around the TV.  Players can visit each others' towns (after trading Friend Codes) and hang out, trade items, engage in activities, and more. The footage showed a fishing contest with friends talking online. In addition, players can send messages from the game to the Wii Message Board, to an e-mail addresses, or even directly to mobile phones. This entry in the series also introduces a city, where players can participate in auctions, interact with animals, and perform other Animal Crossing mainstay activities.    

   

NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime took over to further discuss business trends, boasting about successful marketing campaigns and joking about how Wii and DS units are competing for weekly sales figures. Reggie showed some quick reels of featured third party titles Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party, and Call of Duty: World at War, titles that would be "coming soon" to the Wii.

   

Next, Nintendo touched on the success of Guitar Hero: World Tour, then announced a second DS Guitar Hero entry, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades. Karthik Bala from Vicarious Visions announced some details via recorded footage. Most interestingly, players can share songs between the two Guitar Hero entries during multiplayer.  That is, if someone with On Tour plays with someone who owns On Tour Decades, the tracks from both games will be available. This was followed by footage of Spore for the DS, titled Spore Creatures. The DS entry is distinct from the version for other platforms, focusing on creature generation and interaction.    

The only Nintendo-published DS title announced was Pokemon Ranger: Shadow of Almin, with very few details given. However, Nintendo revealed that Grand Theft Auto will come to DS with a unique entry called Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. The new GTA game for the DS would be created specifically for the platform with a new engine and special features.  Nintendo also hinted at future travel companion DS functions they are experimenting with, such as checking for flight status at the airport and their current Safeco Field baseball stats service in Seattle. Cooking Navi, retitled to Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat?, is also scheduled for a North American release.    

   

Near the end of the presentation, Nintendo touched on its newly announced Wii Remote peripheral, the Wii MotionPlus.  The flagship title that will use this device is Wii Sports Resort, the sequel to Wii Sports.  Nintendo said it would be available in "spring 2009." Without a 2008 release date, Wii Sports Resort seems early in development, but Nintendo demonstrated a few summer vacation activities that will be included, such as a frisbee toss with dog game reminiscent of Nintendogs, a jet-ski game, and sword dueling. The MotionPlus allows the system to detect subtle wrist twists and movements, and Nintendo referred to the Wii Remote + MotionPlus as “the new remote” on multiple occasions. The Wii Sports sequel will come with one MotionPlus, with additional units sold separately.

   

Finally, Shigeru Miyamoto showcased Wii Music. Designed so that anyone can play—and Nintendo means anyone—the game will feature gesture controls with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, as well as the Wii Fit board as part of a drum kit in a separate game mode. The game is relatively free-form and appears to be similar to like EA's Boogie in that most of the activities are automatically done for your, but that's hard to determine without getting any hands-on play time.  The game will include a variety of songs, including Nintendo songs (the Mario theme was demonstrated live). The game offers other modes of play, such as the conducting, and a drum trainer.    

Overall, Nintendo announced a few key peripherals and established that it has no intent of giving up the casual market. However, with few new Nintendo DS or Wii game announcements from Nintendo itself,  and almost no traditional games presence,  the conference left video game enthusiasts fairly disappointed. Nintendo World Report will have more thoughts on the press conference and the games demonstrated shortly, so keep an eye out for game impressions, blogs, and podcast entries!

[Nintendo promises true 1:1 movement tracking and more accurate location sensing in 3D space with a new Wii Remote accessory.]

17

TalkBack / Nintendo Announces Wii MotionPlus

« on: July 14, 2008, 01:28:28 PM »

Nintendo promises true 1:1 movement tracking and more accurate location sensing in 3D space with a new Wii Remote accessory.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16349

 E3 festivities don't officially get underway until tomorrow, but Nintendo has let slip a little preview of what to expect from its press conference tomorrow morning.    

Wii MotionPlus is a new accessory for the Wii Remote that Nintendo says will “more quickly and accurately reflect motions in a 3D space” and provide “a true 1:1 response” of controller movements during gameplay.  The Wii MotionPlus plugs into the accessory port of the Wii Remote and uses the accelerometer and the sensor bar to make the tracking possible.    

The Wii Remote normally uses its internal accelerometer sensors and Wii sensor bar to locate itself in space, so what the Wii MotionPlus will do any differently or how it will work better than the existing Wii Remote technology is a mystery.    

Nintendo will provide more details of the Wii MotionPlus, as well as the rest of their E3 announcements, during the Nintendo Press Conference tomorrow morning in Hollywood.  Nintendo World Report will be there to provide you with the latest updates.    

[Super Mario slugs it out in his latest sports game appearance. Is it any good?]

18

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Mario Super Sluggers

« on: July 11, 2008, 03:19:17 AM »

Super Mario slugs it out in his latest sports game appearance.  Is it any good?
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16326

 Mario Super Sluggers (not Super Mario Sluggers, as I sometimes catch myself calling it) is yet another entry into the somewhat tired Mario sports line of Nintendo games.  As has been standard operating procedure recently, Nintendo outsourced development of the game to a third party, in this case Namco Bandai.  Putting Mario into the hands of another company seems to be good for the sports games, and from what I've seen playing through the Japanese import so far, it looks like Mario will be starring in another fun game that anyone can enjoy.    

When you think baseball on the Wii, the Wii Sports version immediately comes to mind.  Although you won't be able to move the bat around in real time while batting in Sluggers like you would in Wii Sports, almost every other part of the new game is a big-time upgrade, as you'd expect from a full-blown retail effort.  The pitching-batting mechanic alone has a lot more depth to it since both actions require a “wind up” period that makes it a bit more challenging to pull off a perfect pitch or to hit the ball with the sweet spot of your bat.    

Flicking the Wii Remote backwards begins the swinging or pitching process.  A circle will appear around your character (and the batting cursor if you're on offense) while a second, larger circle slowly constricts.  When the two circles meet, performing the standard throwing or swinging motion forward will trigger the action.  The closer the circles are to meeting when you let it fly, the more power that action will have.  Getting the circles to meet up when pitching is fairly easy to do.  The extra power doesn't just help fastballs go faster, but it also lets change-ups arc higher and slower, and curveballs curve more.  The A Button and B Trigger on the Wii Remote let you modify the pitch you throw toward the plate.  Hitting both at the same time will throw a special pitch that can confuse the batsman, but that can only be activated if you've got enough star power in the bank to make it happen.    

   
Check out the character roster as well as some pitching and batting action in this gameplay video.    

Getting the circles to meet up while batting is another matter entirely.  Since you don't know how quickly the ball will get to the plate, knowing when to begin the swing takes some practice.  You can still swing at any time, even without winding up, but in doing so you won't put maximum power into the swing.  Batters also have the A+B special at their disposal, and connecting on a pitch with a special swing will put even more gas into a hit.  If you don't want to be bothered with trying to time things perfectly, you can simply start your swing wind up immediately and just wait for the pitch to come to you.  However, if you're the type of person that tries to get it just right, conquering the timing of the batting system will bring you a lot of satisfaction.

   

Of course, being a Mario sports game, there's going to be the usual fun gimmicks thrown in to spice things up.  Each of the game's 40 characters wield unique bats.  This doesn't really affect gameplay, but seeing Donkey Kong swing at baseballs with an oversized boxing glove or Magikoopa swinging away with his scepter does add visual variety.  More pertinent to gameplay, some game modes throw items into play, just like you'd see in Mario Kart.  Bob-ombs, banana peels, and other hazards can be shot onto the field to cause problems for the defense.  Even the fields themselves come with built-in obstacles, such as the Freezies in Peach's indoor ice rink field, the warp pipes in Yoshi Park, and the water-spewing manholes in Wario City stadium.    

I've played quite a few games in the different ballparks and found that the quirks of each individual field do have their place, but the best bet is to stick with the basic Mario Stadium field if you just want to play a good, clean, fun baseball game.  Sluggers can get pretty crazy with just the items alone, so needing to worry about running into something while looking to catch a pop fly is more annoying than it is amusing (unless, of course, the trouble happens to the other team).    

   
Need a break from baseball?  Here's what you can expect from Mario Super Sluggers' mostly non-baseball Challenge mode.    

To help bolster the appeal of Mario Super Sluggers for single players, Challenge mode will bring a lot more to the table than just baseball games against the computer.  Challenge mode resembles a Mario platform game more than it does a baseball game.  Starting the game as Mario, you need to travel around from stadium to stadium, trying to locate team players to add to your baseball team, eventually getting enough talent on it to defeat Bowser in—what else—a game of baseball.  As you explore the grounds around each park, solve puzzles, and clear special baseball challenges, new players will be added to your roster.  Finding one of the team captains (the first player you would normally select in a regular exhibition match) will give your adventuring team a new ability to help unlock more of the world and find more characters and secrets.

   

The different puzzles, activities, and baseball challenges help mix things up during Challenge mode by offering more than just baseball, baseball, and baseball over and over again.  The baseball challenges you do come across can range from pretty easy (just hit 10 balls) to extremely challenging (hit three balls to right field in 10 at-bats: harder than it sounds), which helps prevent things from becoming too repetitive.  Based off what I've played so far, Challenge mode looks like it will be a nice change of pace from the usual single-player sports experience, although I'd need to play more of it to see the its true colors.    

From what I've seen of Mario Super Sluggers, it's looks like it will be a good, fun baseball game with a little extra thrown in for solo player looking for more value.  The baseball gameplay moves along quickly and something of interest always comes along to keep your attention long enough to stay with it.  The bottom line for me here is that so far, I like the game quite a bit.    

   
The Mario Super Sluggers intro video.

19

TalkBack / Mega Man the Way it Should Be

« on: June 26, 2008, 08:45:42 AM »

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16226

  The past few weeks have been pretty devoid of big news, which is understandable during the run up to E3.  However, there's always that first big story that is a a sign of bigger and better things to come, and Mega Man 9 on WiiWare might just be the catalyst that triggers off a lot more big news.  But I'm not here to talk about E3.  I'm thrilled at the prospect of a brand-new old-school Mega Man game.    

I've always thought the original series was the best, even better than the Mega Man X series.  The NES games were challenging, despite their relative simplicity.  Yeah, some enemies and bosses were ridiculously hard, and jumps appeared downright impossible—the disappearing “vacuum” blocks come to mind.  But the beauty of the games was that you could do a lot with just shooting, jumping, and sliding.  Capcom made the most out of the limited core skills Mega Man had available—not to mention the audio hardware of the NES—and as a result made one of the best action-platformer series in the history of video games, which will soon be nine games strong.    

Here's some good news you might not have heard yet: Mega Man 9 is being made by the same core team that created the first batch of Mega Man X games, so you know it's going to be in the right hands.  Though I have a slight worry that the difficulty will be toned down somewhat to cater to a more casual audience, my gut tells me that it's going to be just as challenging as the NES games.  Konami didn't pull any punches with Contra 4, so I suspect MM9 will be in the same boat: A love letter to fans.  Capcom knows its audience and that its franchises have loyal followers, so I can't imagine the game not being just like everyone remembers.  It's the way Mega Man should be.

20

TalkBack / FEATURES: User Generated Content: Past, Present and Future

« on: June 06, 2008, 01:40:37 AM »

This is the talkback thread for the NWR feature, User Generated Content: Past, Present and Future.  Please leave any comments or feedback you have about the feature here.  We love to hear it!

21

TalkBack / Server Downtime Update

« on: June 02, 2008, 02:22:45 PM »

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16069

  If you visited Nintendo World Report over the weekend you might have noticed that the site had mysteriously disappeared.  We're back up now, but it was a frustrating weekend for us.  We learned that our database hosting provider, located in Houston, Texas, experienced a major outage.  "Major," in that a major electrical component shorted out, creating an explosion big enough to knock down three walls surrounding the room in which it happened.    

The subsequent fire forced our host to shut down the entire data center, affecting 9,000 servers.  Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident and no one lost any data.  NWR was never in any real danger of being lost to the Internet, as we redundantly back up our servers onto each other in case freak accidents like this happen.    

It appears that our physical server was none the worse for wear, and once our host resolves its power issues as a result of damage to the building, we should be just fine.  However, we were quite lucky to be located on the second floor of the building, as the first floor suffered major damage to networking and power systems significant enough for them to be knocked out of commission for at least the rest of the week.  If our server was down on that level, we may not have been around for quite some time!    

That's the explanation about our downtime.  We apologize for not being here, even it was completely out of our control.

[Or: Guitar Hero III+ featuring Aerosmith.]

22

TalkBack / IMPRESSIONS: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

« on: June 02, 2008, 02:06:24 PM »

Or: Guitar Hero III+ featuring Aerosmith.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=16065

 If you're expecting to see any big new features or amazing technological breakthroughs in Activision's immediate next Guitar Hero game, you need to lower your expectations now.  What I've seen during some hands-on time with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith basically confirms what most people have figured out already: it's mostly just Guitar Hero III with Aerosmith, their songs, and their likenesses put into the game.    

This means that there aren't any new modes or gameplay features that you haven't already seen in the Wii version of Guitar Hero III.  It still features a career mode.  There are still the two-player modes, with face-off, co-op, and battle variations.  It still has online play versus friends or against random players.  It will still not have downloadable songs.  (That will come in Guitar Hero: World Tour.)    

What Guitar Hero Aerosmith will have, however, is improved character models, venues, animations, and more graphical pop than GHIII.  Vicarious Visions, developer of the Wii versions of Guitar Hero, was able to build GH: Aerosmith from the ground up to best work on the console.  Guitar Hero III Wii was released concurrently with the other console versions, but it was more of a "port" of the PlayStation 2 version than a version made specifically for the Wii.    

Check out Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for Wii in action.    

The Wii version of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, therefore, looks leaps and bounds better than the previous game.  From what I was able to see with my hands-on, everything was better animated, venues felt more alive, and Aerosmith themselves really looked like they belong in the game.  Steven Tyler's lips and plastic face translate well to his digital doppelgänger.  It's all the more believable when he looks into camera from the on-stage view, even shaking the camera around or putting his hand into it while he sings.  Characters also interact with each other, which is something you never saw in the previous games.

   

It also appears that some of the “phantom strum” gameplay issues have been ironed out, although that's hard to say for certain given less than an hour of total playtime.  In terms of difficulty, I found some of the middle-tier songs on expert a fair challenge, probably about the same difficulty as concurrent songs in Guitar Hero III.  Top-end difficulty is still a question mark at this point, since Activision only gave us access to the first 25 songs.  (For a confirmed list of songs in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith check out our new preview.)    

The song selection choices, as you'd expect, are dominated by Aerosmith music.  If you're a fan of the band or like a few of their songs, chances are high that you'll like the majority of the music featured in the game.  Although Aerosmith has some fairly diverse music for a rock group, I still wonder whether or not a Guitar Hero game centered on a single band, as popular as that band may be, will have the same longevity or replay value as those with more varied song selections.  Still, there are a lot of fans of Aerosmith, and to them, it probably isn't going to matter.

[Check out the first 25 songs from the set list and the five venues you'll be playing them in.]

23

TalkBack / PREVIEWS: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

« on: June 02, 2008, 02:03:01 PM »

Check out the first 25 songs from the set list and the five venues you'll be playing them in.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/previewArt.cfm?artid=16064

 Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a first for the Guitar Hero series in that it's the first time the focus of the game is centered on a single band.  Aerosmith is definitely one of the most iconic groups in the history of music.  You'd need to search far and wide to find someone who doesn't know about the band or isn't familiar with one of their songs.    

Speaking of songs, we can confirm the first 25 songs in the game that has a total track listing of at least 41.  Here's the list, along with the venues you can unlock with each new tier of tracks:    

Nipmuc High School
  - Mott the Hoople – All the Young Dudes (*Cover)
  - Cheap Trick – Dream Police
  - Aerosmith – Make It
  - Aerosmith – Uncle Salty
  - Aerosmith – Draw the Line    

Max's Kansas City
  - Joan Jett – I hate myself for loving you
  - The Kinks – All day and all of the night (*Cover)
  - Aerosmith – Movin' Out
  - Aerosmith – No Surprize
  - Aerosmith – Sweet Emotion    

The Orpheum Theater
  - The Clash – Complete Control
  - New York Dolls – Personality Crisis (*Cover)
  - Aerosmith – Livin' on the Edge
  - Aerosmith – Ragdoll
  - Aerosmith – Love in an Elevator    

Half Time Show
  - Lenny Kravitz – Always on the Run
  - Black Crowes – Hard to Handle (*Cover)
  - Aerosmith – Back in the Saddle
  - Aerosmith – Beyond Beautiful
  - Aerosmith – Dream On    

Moscow
  - The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary
  - Run-D.M.C. – King of Rock
  - Aerosmith – Bright Light Fright
  - Aerosmith – Nobody's Fault
  - Run-D.M.C. featuring Aerosmith – Walk This Way    

If you're familiar with the history of the band, you'll see that the five venues revealed to us by Activision are the locations in which Aerosmith worked its way up the ladder of success.  One of the band's first gigs was at Nipmuc High School in Upton, Mass.  Aerosmith later famously went on to play in the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show.  Because the career of Aerosmith is already well-known, career mode in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will feature video clips and interviews with the band as they walk you through the time line of their rise to fame.    

The Guitar Hero: Aerosmith trailer.    

Part of this time line is the well-known rendition of “Walk This Way” with Run-D.M.C.  Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, a member of the group, is a playable character in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.  In addition to being able to select him as a guitarist, he also appears any time you select the song.

   

Additionally, since not every song in the game is by Aerosmith, any song not performed by the group will feature the familiar Guitar Hero house band instead.  Familiar characters, like Judy Nails and Axel Steel, are still a part of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and will be available to play in all modes outside career.    

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for Wii will be available later this month.

24

NWR Feedback / Server downtime

« on: June 01, 2008, 02:26:35 AM »

There was an electrical short and explosion in the data center that houses our DB server.  No one was injured and our server is safe.  The reports we're getting in from our provider is that we may be back up and running by mid-Sunday at the earliest, although this is a major outage affecting over 9,000 servers.  We will get you guys updates as soon as we have them.

[Here's a peek at part of the set list for the DS version of Guitar Hero.]

25

TalkBack / PREVIEWS: Guitar Hero: On Tour

« on: May 30, 2008, 02:26:50 PM »

Here's a peek at part of the set list for the DS version of Guitar Hero.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/previewArt.cfm?artid=16053

 You can't have a Guitar Hero game worth its weight without some good music to back it up.  Guitar Hero: On Tour will include "over 25" songs when it ships later in June, and we have confirmed a list of 20 of those songs.  You can see them, and the venues in which you can play them at, in the list below.    

Subway
  Do What You Want – OK Go
  All the Small Things – blink-182
  Spiderwebs – No Doubt
  Are you Gonna Be My Girl – Jet
  We’re Not Gonna Take It – Twisted Sister    

Rooftop
  All Star – Smashmouth
  Breed – Nirvana
  Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield
  Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
  This Love – Maroon 5    

Parade
  Heaven – Los Lonely Boys
  Helicopter – Bloc Party
  China Grove – The Doobie Brothers
  Rock And Roll All Nite – Kiss (*Cover)
  What I Want – Daughtry    

Greek Arena
  Jet Airliner – Steve Miller Band (*Cover)
  Black Magic Woman – Santana (*Cover)
  Stray Cat Strut – Stray Cats
  La Grange – ZZ Top (*Cover)
  Youth Gone Wild – Skid Row (*Cover)    

For our extensive hands-on and a video of On Tour in action, check out our impressions.