Party like it's 1993
E3 came and E3 went. It didn't feel that exciting to me so either I wasn't keeping up with the news properly or it really was as disappointing as everyone says. People are saying that E3 has no purpose in the age of instant internet coverage and after this year I'm inclined to agree. There were no big reveals besides FF13 for 360 because companies know they can announce their games whenever instead of waiting for this one big event to reveal everything.
Still I watched a lot of trailers, either shown at E3 or just released around that time, and a few caught my interest.
Sonic Unleashed
A few days ago I talked about how the pre-show trailer didn't have any of the overbearing rock music that has become a characteristic of the series over the past few years, and the next day I watched the real trailer which had yet another upbeat rock song. I know I said it was a bad thing before but I honestly like this one. It's energetic and happy and makes me realise how pretentious His World was with it's backing orchestra.
So yeah, WERESONIC. Probably the most unexpected thing Sega could have done. I'll admit it was kind of jarring when the blazingly fast opening suddenly leads into a completely different game. The backlash in some quarters has been really harsh with people immediately dismissing the game because it's not just going fast as Sonic and whining about how Sega never listens to their 'advice' (probably because if Sega did they would just complain instead that going fast as Sonic all the time is repetitive!). Since I don't have an arbitrarily narrow idea of what Sonic should be like I'm going to reserve my judgement until I've actually tried it. This is still the best hope yet for bringing the series back to respectability.
I'm just loving those ridiculous stretchy arms. There's no problem in treating Sonic like the cartoon he is (also he can breathe in space now for no reason). Besides, you saw what Weresonic did at 1:44 in the trailer? You can't do that and not be just a little bit awesome.
Street Fighter 4
I said before that SF4 didn't impress me but that's different now. Where the last trailer used some fancy direction to dress up a very bland game the new trailer shows a much more developed game where the footage stands on it's own merits. The animation is much better and there's finally more than one background to look at, and there are interesting new effects like the camera panning around during supers and strong strikes that paint black smears on the world. It's interesting how all the later SF series (alpha, 3 and now 4) have tried to be artistically distinct from each other. On the other hand the English voices are pretty awful and the new character designs are still bad. Also I don't know if I'll ever get used to the craaaaaazy facial expressions. You can't win them all.
I still don't know how the new mechanics work though. I keep seeing something that looks like a parry from SF3 but functions like an auto-guard. I'm still waiting for a good explanation of the new systems.
There's also Tatsunoko vs Capcom which seems like Capcom trying to make a successor to the Marvel vs games but without a license that's really recognisable in the west. Most of the Tatsunoko roster seems to be flamboyantly-garbed Japanese superheroes from the 70s that would leave the average American cold (except maybe the guy from Battle of the Planets). The reason I'm most interested in this is because there's a Mega Man Legends stage which should mean there's going to be a Mega Man Legends character, which I would like very much yes please thank you. It would certainly make up for some of the disappointing character choices made so far (oh Morrigan and Alex, you two will never be anything but fail). Whether Capcom will release this game outside of Japan is a less certain matter however.
Kirby Super Star Ultra
I got a glorious nostalgic kick out of this. It's still recognisably the game I love even if the sound and visuals have been touched up a little and the intros are in 3D now.
None of the handheld Kirby platformers (Nightmare in Dreamland, Amazing Mirror, Squeak Squad) have come close to matching Super Star because they lack the two things that made it so great: variety (both in objectives and in powers) and co-op. Unless the developers remove those in a fit of madness this should remain the best of the Kirby platformers for a new generation to experience.
Major Minor's Majestic March
NanaOn-Sha is still alive it seems. They shamed themselves into irrelevancy back in 2002 with the badly-received Parappa the Rapper 2 and since then none of their music games have come to the west but their new effort caught my eye. The ability to recruit a huge backup band reminds me of Space Channel 5. I worry that the game looks very simple but that's also like Space Channel 5, where the music and the experience was more important than the challenge. I hope this turns out well. The company deserves better.
Still I watched a lot of trailers, either shown at E3 or just released around that time, and a few caught my interest.
Sonic Unleashed
A few days ago I talked about how the pre-show trailer didn't have any of the overbearing rock music that has become a characteristic of the series over the past few years, and the next day I watched the real trailer which had yet another upbeat rock song. I know I said it was a bad thing before but I honestly like this one. It's energetic and happy and makes me realise how pretentious His World was with it's backing orchestra.
So yeah, WERESONIC. Probably the most unexpected thing Sega could have done. I'll admit it was kind of jarring when the blazingly fast opening suddenly leads into a completely different game. The backlash in some quarters has been really harsh with people immediately dismissing the game because it's not just going fast as Sonic and whining about how Sega never listens to their 'advice' (probably because if Sega did they would just complain instead that going fast as Sonic all the time is repetitive!). Since I don't have an arbitrarily narrow idea of what Sonic should be like I'm going to reserve my judgement until I've actually tried it. This is still the best hope yet for bringing the series back to respectability.
I'm just loving those ridiculous stretchy arms. There's no problem in treating Sonic like the cartoon he is (also he can breathe in space now for no reason). Besides, you saw what Weresonic did at 1:44 in the trailer? You can't do that and not be just a little bit awesome.
Street Fighter 4
I said before that SF4 didn't impress me but that's different now. Where the last trailer used some fancy direction to dress up a very bland game the new trailer shows a much more developed game where the footage stands on it's own merits. The animation is much better and there's finally more than one background to look at, and there are interesting new effects like the camera panning around during supers and strong strikes that paint black smears on the world. It's interesting how all the later SF series (alpha, 3 and now 4) have tried to be artistically distinct from each other. On the other hand the English voices are pretty awful and the new character designs are still bad. Also I don't know if I'll ever get used to the craaaaaazy facial expressions. You can't win them all.
I still don't know how the new mechanics work though. I keep seeing something that looks like a parry from SF3 but functions like an auto-guard. I'm still waiting for a good explanation of the new systems.
There's also Tatsunoko vs Capcom which seems like Capcom trying to make a successor to the Marvel vs games but without a license that's really recognisable in the west. Most of the Tatsunoko roster seems to be flamboyantly-garbed Japanese superheroes from the 70s that would leave the average American cold (except maybe the guy from Battle of the Planets). The reason I'm most interested in this is because there's a Mega Man Legends stage which should mean there's going to be a Mega Man Legends character, which I would like very much yes please thank you. It would certainly make up for some of the disappointing character choices made so far (oh Morrigan and Alex, you two will never be anything but fail). Whether Capcom will release this game outside of Japan is a less certain matter however.
Kirby Super Star Ultra
I got a glorious nostalgic kick out of this. It's still recognisably the game I love even if the sound and visuals have been touched up a little and the intros are in 3D now.
None of the handheld Kirby platformers (Nightmare in Dreamland, Amazing Mirror, Squeak Squad) have come close to matching Super Star because they lack the two things that made it so great: variety (both in objectives and in powers) and co-op. Unless the developers remove those in a fit of madness this should remain the best of the Kirby platformers for a new generation to experience.
Major Minor's Majestic March
NanaOn-Sha is still alive it seems. They shamed themselves into irrelevancy back in 2002 with the badly-received Parappa the Rapper 2 and since then none of their music games have come to the west but their new effort caught my eye. The ability to recruit a huge backup band reminds me of Space Channel 5. I worry that the game looks very simple but that's also like Space Channel 5, where the music and the experience was more important than the challenge. I hope this turns out well. The company deserves better.