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AICN Games: E for All Day Two! Super Mario Galaxy! Super Smash Brothers Brawl! Video Games Live!
Greetings humans, Monki here with my second update from the E for All Video Games Expo in Los Angeles, California.
Show Floor Impressions!
Things pretty much kicked off the same as Thursday...slow to start and then it picked up considerably in the afternoon. Lots and lots of kiosks filled with lots and lots of people.
I got a chance to enjoy some of the "showcase" stages today. Nintendo is demoing Super Smash Brothers Brawl in a very cool way. They place you in bleachers in rows of 8 and when it is your turn, they take two rows of people to play four separate four-player Smash Brothers matches. The winners of all those matches go and play on an enormous screen in front of those bleachers...so if you win your small game, you go to the "big show."
And of course Nintendo has a lovely group of booth babes helping the whole way. (I hear they shipped the ladies in from Arizona...or their modeling agency was there or something...)
Target is sponsoring a stage as well for the Guitar Hero lovers. The ten kiosks I mentioned in my last article were used to start up a bracket system for a big tournament being held. If you make it past the kiosks you get a shot at the big stage where you are judged on various elements by some Major League Gaming "Pro Gamers." I caught a guy absolutely destroying "Laid to Rest" on expert, head banging his way through most of the song and nailing the hammer-ons and offs with only one hand on the guitar with his other throwing the horns in the air...that guy got perfect 10s.
The longest line of the show this year goes to Metal Gear Solid 4. Pretty much immediately after the show opens, the line will stretch from the door of the MGS4 area all the way around the rest of the Konami booth.
Apparently you get about 15 minutes of game time before being asked to fill out a survey and then booted back out on to the floor.
I have yet to hit the Konami booth up yet in full force, but I will before the fest is over...if nothing else but to play some Contra 4 on the DS...woohoo...I loves me some contra.
Another pleasant surprise I got was when I stumbled across Martin Leung (the video game pianist) just as he started playing a set at the Video Games Live! booth.
I've actually seen him perform before at a Video Games Live! show, but having him rock out to Super Mario Brothers right there three feet away (as opposed to on stage a few hundred feet) was pretty badass. That kid must have played a crapload of games when he was young because his hands fly across the ivories.
To cap the night off I actually went to a brand-spankin' new Video Games Live! show just down the street at the brand-spankin' new Nokia Theater here in brand-spankin' old downtown L.A. (Pardon the spankin's.) This was the first time they brought in a bunch of new tunes including tracks from Chrono Cross, Halo 3, the new Conan game and many others.
Tons of special guests showed up as well from Nolan Bushnell all the way to Zack Ward and the Soup Nazi from Postal. The show itself was pretty sweet but there were a few minor technical difficulties with the new show and the new theater. At one point they had a Frogger competition and pulled two people from the audience. One of these two was a young kid and the other was an older guy dressed up like Snake from Metal Gear. Snake went first and was dominating the game (as much as one person can dominate Frogger) but then something happened and they lost the video feed and couldn't get it back up. Weak...
One cool new addition was Chris Kline, the "Vertex Guy" who, like Martin Leung, got his start with a video on YouTube...this video.
He came out and played the Contra Jungle Jam track on stage and did a fantastic job...he also closed the show with Tommy Tallarico (the creator/exec producer of VGL!) playing guitars on One Winged Angel.
All in all, it was a fun show and I recommend you check it out when it comes through your town. I know it is making its way through Austin sometime next summer and I'm looking forward to going again.
Game Impressions!
Today was my "Nintendo Day" at E for All. I got some hands-on time with most all of their major offerings.
Super Mario Galaxy
I'll be honest; my Wii hasn't gotten a whole lot of playing time over the past few months. (I set that joke up pretty easy for you...) My 360 has been taking up the majority of my time as of late with major releases like Bioshock and Halo 3 dominating the lion-share of my gameplay.
This could all change soon...
Super Mario Galaxy is exactly what you'd expect out of a next-gen Mario title. The controls are simple and polished, the graphics are wonderfully cartoony, the levels are excellently designed...I mean...it's a Mario title for a new console...when have any flagship Mario games sucked? (Super Mario Bros. 2 doesn't count, cause it came out AFTER the 'original' SMB and even so, SMB3 is one of the best games ever made.)
You control Mario's movement with the nunchuk thumbstick and jump with the big A button on the Wii-mote. You can use your Wii-mote pointer to collect jewels on the screen while you play as well...which brings me to a very happy observance. While I was running around with Mario the lovely booth babe assigned to my station was using a second Wii-mote to collect jewels across the screen as I played...basically acting as a second helper on a single-player game. Kinda like someone controlling Tails in Sonic 2. They don't have to be there, but with someone else helping you out, it could make for some good times...if only the booth babes came with the game to help instead of my roommate...alas.
I played a couple of different worlds; one was a racing arena where you rode on the back of a stingray around a track trying to get your quickest time. The Wii-mote controls the ray as you roll your wrist left and right. The tilt sensor still isn't as responsive as I would like, but it worked better on Galaxy than it did on most games that rely on the tilting.
Then I checked out one of Mario's new power-ups, the bee suit. Nothing too special...it gives Mario the ability to fly for a brief amount of time and a few different attack moves. If you hit water in the bee suit, you lose it...eh...bring back the tanooki suit!
I didn't get a whole hell of a lot of time with this one, but I will certainly be buying it when it hits in a couple of weeks.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Gamers have been waiting for this match up for decades...Mario vs. Sonic...on the same system. If you would have told me Sonic would end up on a Nintendo system when I was a kid playing my NES...I probably would have punched you. Sega and Nintendo just don't mix. Sega does what Nintendon't...etc...but here we are...dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria.
The game itself is a lot of fun. I tried out a few different events during my hands-on time. My first bit had me as Bowser on the archery field. First of all, BOWSER WITH A BOW AND ARROW!!! Sweet...secondly...it's pretty cool. The pointer from the Wii-mote creates a target on the screen and your nunchuk has one as well that you manipulate by tilting it. Get those two targets lined up and let go to fling your arrow towards the bulls-eye. It takes a bit of getting used to (you have to account for wind as well), but it is pretty rad.
Next up I hit the trampoline as Knuckles...another simple setup...you flick your wrist to make the character bounce up and down and once you get enough height you have to match the pattern on the screen. For example, in the air you might have to press A-A-B-A-flick Wii-mote. If you succeed before your character hits the trampoline again you'll be rewarded with Knuckles performing a double-flip with a twist...or something along those lines. The patterns get longer and longer as you go on...good times.
Up next was table-tennis. It's pretty much Wii Sports tennis on a smaller scale. Use the Wii-mote as your paddle and keep the ball on your opponents' side of the table...the bigger guys rule at table tennis because they have all the power! Bowser has a killer serve.
From there I tried my last event, fencing. I was Peach...because there is nothing hotter than a Princess with a weapon.
Again...simple, refined controls. You swing your wrist, the character swings their sword. You hold A and swing your wrist, your character will parry. If you hit them enough times you get a power move which can blow your opponent off the course for a ring-out. Now, I kind of wish fencing was a first-person event where the Wii-mote would act as the hilt of the sword, (or is it lance? I forget) moving with your movements...but it did a decent job.
This game is poised to take Wii Sports' crown away as the party game to play when you have a lot of people over.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Let me first come out and admit...I haven't played a lot of Smash Brothers before...Nintendo just never screamed "fighting game console" to me. As a matter of fact, I really was never a fan of fighting games on consoles at all...I preferred my fights to be standing up next to a random person at the arcade.
That being said...I think I've been missing out...the hype for Super Smash Brothers Brawl is incredible. I've watched people sit and wait to play Brawl for half an hour...play their match and then jump right back in line. This thing is a monster.
The build available at E for All includes almost all of the characters except for Solid Snake...which makes me sad...but Sonic is in there and he is a total badass.
I won't get in to too many details on this one as I don't want to embarrass myself to someone who may be an enormous fan...just suffice to say that this one is fun and I love the one-on-one-on-one-on-one aspect of the game. I'll be checking this one out more thoroughly in the future...promise.
Wrapping it Up!
We're now at the halfway point of E for All with only the weekend remaining...I expect it to get really busy.
So far the buzz around the fest is pretty damn positive...fans that were kept away from E3 now have the chance to get some meaningful hands on time with some titles that won't be out for a few months and there are plenty of free shirts to go around for everyone!
I told you I'd keep you up to date on the chalk drawing, and here you go...progress is being made!
I've got another busy day planned tomorrow, so I've got to get prepped for it all! Until next time, back up the tree I go!
-Monki
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mario galaxy looks great
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Just an uninspired, blandly designed game, and I still haven't forgiven Nintendo for it. Galaxy better be a work of fucking genius.
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Half the games you listed as why Nintendo will rulesthe holiday season, won't be out until later. The others won't be very good. You know Smash Bros has been delayed until February right? Nintendo's only big title before Christmas is Super Mario Galaxy, which should be rad. But that's it.
Also, I think Mario Sunshine is over criticized. Just like Wind Waker is. -
When it first came out you were excited and played the heck outta of it I bet. I think now, looking back you think Super Mario Sunshine is garbage, because the charm of it being new wore off and you saw passed all the pretty graphics and colors.
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I have loved all the Smash Bros Games. It is not really a "fighting game" in the traditional sense at all. It really belongs in a class all its own, maybe call it something like an arena game. Plain and simply it is what Nintendo excels at, insane amounts of whacky fun.
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WTF, GIVE US THE BLOODY DETAILS!!!
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Awesome competition for the hot looking game here: http://tinyurl.com/385slg
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And an awesome Zelda webcomic up ons: http://tinyurl.com/39numq
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I was in fact dying to play it when it first game out. And then I played it. I trudged through the first level sort of putting on a smile trying to convince myself that this was a worthy successor to Super Mario 64, on of the greatest games of all time. The second level my patience began to wear thin. By the third level the completely mediocre level design and repetitive squirt the water horseshit had began to become an albatross around my neck. By the fourth level I did something I had never done with any first party Nintendo game, I put the controller down and never came back. Unthinkable for any previous Mario game. I think it's a pretty apt metaphor for Nintendo since the days of the gamecube actually. And don't give me some bullshit about how if I had just kept playing level 7 would have hooked me or blah blah blah. I've played enough videogames that I don't need to play through more than one or two levels to know exactly what I'm getting let alone four, and since it was of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, to that point arguably the most consistent in game history, it's ridiculous that by level four the game was outright bad. Not only that but it ran on that horrible water pack gimmick. So even at the time I couldn't stand that game. I havent been a fan of Nintendo since, in fact I feel they have let most of their major classic franchises (Zelda and Metroid excluded) slip into mediocrity. As for the Wii, it's novelty. Nowadays I want a videogame to have an immersive world with a gripping storyline to go along with the gameplay, not some novelty where I can simulate bowling in the comfort of my own living room. I understand people like that novel shit, but I want to use whatever control scheme makes me better equipped to play the game effectively, not which one allows me to flail my arms around the most. Soon some company will come along and rip off the technology and use it in a way that will flesh out the world rather than just make it seem like a cheap tack on (Zelda on Wii anyone) that in practice actually makes the game more difficult to control (Metroid anyone).
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Don't be ignorant. Also, Sunshine is a great game. Don't be mad just because you first played Mario 64 when you were like fucking 9 years old and you can never get back the feeling you had when playing it for the first time. If you stopped playing it after the fourth level that's your loss. Nobody's gonna say it would have gotten better for you by level 7 because it was incredible from the get go.
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Was indeed a turd of a title and, strangely, i find myself having to agree with nearly everything IndustryKiller just said. However, the point worth mentioning here is that SM64 was such an amazing game that pretty much any sequel had an awful lot to live up to; indeed many Nintendo games since the glory of the N64 have totally failed to meet expectation because they did such a good job on N64. Those were the days. Wind Waker was boring compared to Ocarina of Time and Twighlight Princess, while a step in the right direction and a million times better than WW, was also hampered by the success of Ocarina. BTW, did i say Ocarina of Time was the greatest game ever made?Word is though that Galaxy IS the worthy succesor and heir to the legacy laid down by SM64.
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Sunshine was never intended to be a true mario sequel. I remember reading an article with an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and he pretty much said that Sunshine was a stand alone adventure not to be bundled with his mario land and mario world adventures.
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The ending sequence on that game still holds up as one of the most satisfying ending sequences of any games, and the game itself fucking rocked socks.
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Still, SMB2 was in every way better than SMB1.
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Ocarina of Time is certainly up there, but you know for my money I gotta go with Final Fantasy 6. To this day I have never had such an emotional reaction, or felt so emersed, or fell so crazily in love with a group of characters, or believed in a world as I did in that game. That game alone single handedly disproves Roger Eberts asinine theory that videogames can't be a work of art.
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Was the immenseness, (is that a word?) of the land of Hyrule. It just made everything feel epic and the fact that you were entirely free to go where you liked just made it feel even bigger.infact, take exactly what you just said and switch the game names around and thats how i feel about Ocarina...i'm getting all teary here.As for Roger Eberts theory, i guess since he knows fuck all about games and the gap between cinema and gaming is narrowing all the time it's the only thing he can repeat over and over to help him sleep at night.
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And after the Wii Zelda and Metroid and am about out of faith on the Big N. Zelda, while engrossing was WAY WAY too easy and Metroid was just BLAH! One thing I'm getting sick of is Mario bias.
Mario does not make a game great simply by being in it yet all his games get a few extra points in reviews. If I saw one more review for Super Paper Mario that said "Some of the level design is boring and there's not enough action and the cutscenes go on waaaay too long... 10/10!!!" I was gonna start throwing turtle shells at bitches. -
You don't have to play for 20 hrs straight to make it worth playing. Our 2 gamecubes have tons of classic and great games (Smash Bro, Soul Caliber 2, Burnout 2, Zelda, SMS, RE4, Sands of Time, Hulk, XMen...the list goes on and on. Fun games, great system, great control. Arguing about details is meaningless. Was it fun? Memorable? Unique? YesYEsYes. Nintendo Rules.
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with all of the games and the most overhyped game franchise ever, Halo, 360 will prolly win the race because Wii won't be able to ship enough for demand. eh, who cares for me, i am a real gamer, a PC gamer...
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This is where you should go if you want to know more. If you haven't been keeping up with the game's development, prepare to be very pleasantly surprised. Go, now.
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with the Wii. Nothing else worth of notice? *sigh* yeah...I'm definitely trading this in now...
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You make a handful of fair points, but - I have to say, the Wii-mote in no way makes Metroid harder to control. I've played my share of console based FPS's, and the nunchuk/Wii-mote control on MP3 is the best control scheme I've ever used on a console, hands down. And I've also gotta say that the gesture based combat in Zelda did immerse me more in the game than traditional button pressing does. It's not perfect, but it's not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.
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Oct 21, 2007 10:35:05 AM CDT
:"I am a real gamer, a PC Gamer..."
by just another useless chump with a microp
Wow, you just made yourself sound like an arrogant douche. Get over yourself. I'm not a PC game hater by any stretch. But PC/Consoles are both perfectly valid gaming mediums. Pound for pound, I'd be willing to wager that Console gaming is a much bigger industry.
I don't WANT to agree with people complaining about the Wii's novelty versus quality content...but I kind of have to. The system HAS potential, and the functionality of the wiimote offers itself to a fully immersive world, but yeah so far they've seriously dropped the ball with it. Instead of "A huge epic world with a great storyline, which the motion-sensitive controller helps draw you into further by letting you experience what your character does", we've been getting more stuff like "HAY LOOKIT ME!!! I CAN FLICK TEH WEEMOTE! HAR HAR HAR!" Other games seem to barely even acknowledge the functionality, instead just offering normal game play, then the occasional minigame because they feel they have to.
Still that said, I really felt like Metroid Prime 3 was a great indicator of what the Wii could be. The game was absolutely amazing. It's only flaws in my opinion was that it was too easy (seems to be the norm for all Nintendo games nowadays) and way too short. Metroid Prime 1 took me 35-40 hours to complete with 100% pickups. Metroid Prime 3 took me 15 to do the same. Bah. Bah, I say!
And the Mario tip...I'm gonna have to agree with IndustryKiller. Super Mario Sunshine was garbage. I wanted to like it so badly, to the point that I thought something was wrong with me. I kept thinking "Why don't I like this game? Everyone says it's so great, but I am hating it!" But I realized that it's really rampant fanboyism. It really was not that great a game. It wasn't terrible, but it did rely way to heavily on that stupid water pack, and just overall was not very fun. I'll play Galaxy, because it looks like fun. But I guess we'll see. -
It's all right to say that SMB2 was a crap game. It wasn't a Mario game! It was a Japanese title called Doki Doki Panic! that Big N slapped Mario and Co. into to make a quick buck. Go download a ROM of Doki Doki Panic! and see for yourself. Same exact game, they just replaced the sprites.
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It just did...I tried really hard to like it. Super Paper Mario is fantastic though, for me it is behind Mario 64 as the best Mario game of all time. My top three list list is this: 1 Mario 64, 2 Super Paper Mario, 3 Super Mario World, and I have high hopes that Galaxy will make the list change.
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I loved the art direction in Wind Waker and it had some great items and bosses and I loved the dungeons... All FIVE of them. What??
WW needed WAY more dungeons and WAY less saaaaaailing... endless SAAAAAAAILING!!
The biggest kick in the nuts WW delivered was the end. SPOILER ALERT! You spend the entire game thinking "I'm gonna bring Hyrule back! We're bringing Hyrule back, AWESOME! Gonna bring up Hyrule from the bottom of the ocean! Yay!" Then you get to the end and the characters say, "NAAAAAH! Fuck Hyrule! Let's go do MORE FUCKING SAILING!!!" AAAAAAAAARGH!!! -
Was poor. Not because of the artistic style but because too much emphasis was placed on trying to make it feel bigger than Ocarina of Time. I played the game to completion and, to be honest, couldn't wait to be done with it. Never experienced that with any Zelda game ever before; I've always wanted it to continually be a new experience.
Sure, exploring the ocean was a novel idea at first but became boring very quickly, even when you could warp using tornados or whatever they were to the places you needed to go.The game just didn't feel right. Twighlight Princess though had a great deal of the magic that made Ocarina such an enjoyable experience, it was just a shame they delayed it to make it a wii game, and to be honest the controls on the Wii version feel forced, it's a much better game on Cube. -
Having played through Metroid Prime 1 and 2 for the first time JUST so I could get to Prime 3, and having just recently finished prime 3 (last week maybe?) I have to disagree with the folks sayin the Wii controls make it harder to play. Maybe it's the learning curve cuz after about a half hour I found my footing. And then in the days to come I truly started to appreciate its economy. SO cool. I never played Sunshine but based on things I've read, I've already accepted that Galaxy will be the successor to Mario 64 and Sunshine not so much. As for Wind Waker...
I have to disagree with the guys saying it was a pain to get through- I only played it for the first time last year on my Wii and I have to say, I find myself thinking about it more now than when I was playing it. That game left such a great impression on me I sometimes find myself wishing I had enough time to go through and play it again. Unfortunately the free time I do have must be given to new stuff but *sniff* maybe someday...
and while I'm on the disagreement bus, I just have to say that I just listened to IGN's E for All podcast and it was such a contrast to Monki's report. I really enjoy their critical eye and the way they can communicate their context to me, but damn if this seemed like a totally different E for All than theirs did. Thanks for a really enthusiastic and un-jaded report, Monki. -
I know that.
Did you know both Die Hard 3 and Die Hard 4 were originally not Die Hard scripts, but completely different spec scripts? Same thing.
Did you play the real japanese SMB2 in Super Mario Allstars on the SNES? It sucked, and that's your reason why the Doki SMB2 was the better sequel. -
Just like every other Nintendo console since the days of the N64. The Wii games are mainly minigame collections or (worse yet) ports of last-gen titles. The sales are starting to slack because the novelty is wearing off. This system is a fucking joke.
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Enjoy garbage like Brain Age because that is where Nintendo is heading. Shit that should be a Flash game on the internet you should be playing for free but Nintendo finds a way to screw you out of $50 for it. Oh, and their online gaming strategy is a decade old. Fucking retarded.
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I really didn't enjoy it that much, but I recently replayed it in anticipation for Mario Galaxy and I probably enjoyed it twice as much. I don't know what it was, I think distancing yourself from it, and playing it once all the hype/negativity is gone is important. I have extremely high expectations for Galaxy, and I really hope they're relatively met. Just the concept of using old Mario music, bringing back the boss pirate ships from Mario 3, bringing back Fire Flower Mario, etc. is all a very good sign. I also love the Smash Bros. updates, I just wish they wouldn't tell us who the secret characters were, I'd like there to be SOME element of surprise. I still remember fucking challenging Falco in Melee, and being surprised to see him.
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Someone must have tickled your prostate for that line, because I got through this whole tiny show in about 1 hour.
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Miyamoto has said this is the cloest thing to "Mario 128", and the fact that he directed this game, and not Sunshine, I also think speaks volumes. The last game he directed was Ocarina of Time, and you all know how good that was. Also the fact that Mario games have moved from Mario Land, to Mario World, and now, Mario Galaxy I think is slightly relevant to how important this game will be in the scope of the series. Also, I know it's unrelated, and a really stupid concept, but is anyone else excited for Sega Superstar Tennis? Just the idea of having all these great Sega franchises meshing has me interested. I suppose if it's a tennis game, I'll have to put up with it.
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Luckily for Nintendo, just about everybody else has forgotten Mario Sunshine.
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If they did they wouldn't have added Delfino Island locales to every Mario game they've done since, even Mario Kart DS. And the fact that in Brawl, Mario will have his FLUDD attachment shows that they're not only trying to forget about Sunshine, but even kind of proud of it.
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I think they work fine for that game for hte most part, but lets transfer those controls to something more competative. If you and I were playing Halo, for instance, and I had the regular xbox controller, and you had the Metroid controls, I'm going to destroy you. Not because I'm so much better, just because of my increased mobility. That's just the way it is.
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I'm not so sure the controller has the hands down advantage in this case. You can aim awfully fast with the Metroid controls and that makes up for a lot of the mobility. I guess we'll have to wait for a multiplayer game with good controls on the Wii to see how they hold up. Sadly, that SHOULD have been Metroid.
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In the end you are always just aiming at the center of the screen. Makes for a really lame FPS. Constantly just realigning the screen to the center and push a button. Talk about boring.
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For home consoles they have the worst sales for games outside of 1st party titles. Just look at the sales charts for the past year. All the 3rd party releases for the Wii are pretty much off the charts. And I don't mean in a good way...I mean they don't even register in the top 10 compared with other system releases. Also look at the reviews for 3rd party games. The Wii by and large has the worst line up of titles. Small collection of crappy games. That is what your $250 gets you. Cheap out on your console and you get cheap software. Don't be surprised when your Wii collects as much dust as your Gamecube. Hell, I can't even remember the last time I powered up my GC. I bet it has almost as big a layer of dust as Joan River's vagina.
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"Gamers have been waiting for this match up for decades...Mario vs. Sonic...on the same system. If you would have told me Sonic would end up on a Nintendo system when I was a kid playing my NES...I probably would have punched you."
You must mean SNES. Can a real gamer please write this? -
As someone who only played Wind Waker only recently, i can't help but wonder when, if at all, you played Ocarina of Time?Perhaps Wind Waker IS enjoyable if you've not been completely spoiled by the magnificence of Miyamotos masterpiece.
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I did actually play Ocarina. And that game too left an impression on me. I think the construction and game mechanics of that game bests Wind Waker easily- I guess what's significant to me is that I think the art direction alone would indicate the designers were going for something incomparable. I mean, don't get me wrong- Ocarina IS one of the best video games of all time. I just don't see why that in itself means Wind Waker has to suck.
PervOmatic- have you played Prime 3 on Veteran mode? It allows for your targeting reticule to be smaller so that its movement does not cause the screen to move as well until you get closer to the "boundin box". What's more, I think in any mode if you Z-button lock before aiming it locks the frame so you can essentially shoot to any place on the grid. Unless I misunderstand your point, I think Retro addressed that issue. -
Wind Waker is merely an average adventure game which is made to look even worse when compared to its predecessor. I can't think of one person who plays games and doesn't think of Wind Waker as anything other than a bitter disappointmentThere wasn't enough in Wind Waker to match the immense feeling you got riding around the land of Hyrule in Ocarina. The ocean was an attempt but it soon became boring. The thing that make Zelda so awesome, the puzzles, the dungeon, the boss fights, the weapons; they were absent or not worth mentioning in WW. Someone above me said it best. Five dungeons! Dear oh dearOcarina had the dungeons plus all the other levels to procure the suits and boots and weapons plus all the mini quests you could pick up in the towns, PLUS the ability to change the environment by going backwards and forwards through time, alter the weather, change the time of day. Ocarina had SO much and the attention to detail really showed/ Wind Waker had so little to start with it can only look like a pale immitation when compared properly.
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The geek in me creamed its shorts when Sonic was added to the roster. My 5 year old fantasies fulfilled. I think Sonic will play similar to Fox. Emphasis on speed with short, solid bursts of power.
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I love the Zelda franchise and yeah, Ocarina of Time was the best out of the last few incarnations. Wind Waker was dull because of all the sailing. I grew up on the Gulf Coast and sailed a lot. I can't believe Nintendo took the wonderfully calming and enjoyable aspects of sailing and took all the enjoyment out of it. The other aspects of the game were solid but the traveling around, searching for sunken treasure, and boring the fucking shit out of me just made it a chore to finish. I can't remember a game in recent years that I regreted playing but just had to finish. Ugh, what a trial that was. That was the start of Nintendo's downward spiral into mediocrity for me and the Wii just perpetuates it. Look at crap like Excite Truck...for fuck's sake that wouldn't barely pass muster as a crappy Namco arcade title but Nintendo tried to pimp it as a launch title. It is just sad. Also, anyone who pays full price for the Brain Age ports on the Wii is just a fucktarded moron that will never be smarter no matter how many video games they play.
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I agree that the xbox and ps3 have far better game libraries available. It really isn't even competitive; there are barely a handful of good Wii games.
That said, nearly every quality game on the xbox and 360 is in a genre that I would prefer to play on my PC, where I can get better graphics, better control and, in some cases, the ability to run user-created mods. The only reason I would ever play a FPS, RPG or even a sports title on one of those consoles is if it were an exclusive title that I could not get on a PC.
In contrast, the quality Wii games have a very unique position. They are extremely polished, innovative and only make sense to play on a tv-based, motion-controlled system with multiple people and plenty of room. -
1. It tried too hard to be like Ocarina of Time. That's the only reason I can imagine for that stupid baton thing for music-making.
2. Level design. It doesn't bother me that there were only 5 dungeons. What bothered me was that none of them were particularly fun. I always found myself in one saying "Shit, when will this end?" and when I found another saying "Shit, another one?"
Navigating the ocean was fun for what it was. I stayed up until 2AM my first day mapping the damn thing. Also, boss battles were solid. Ocarina's final boss let me down because I coasted through the thing without breaking a sweat, but Ganondorf in Wind Waker was a genuine challenge. -
Oct 21, 2007 5:33:43 PM CDT
I can't think of one person who plays games and doesn't think of
by chiahead
so happy i could oblige.
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*ahem*
still happy to oblige. -
One, PervOmatic, you're an idiot. Wii sales are slacking? In your sad fantasy land, maybe. 500,000+ plus consoles in September, the months of Halo 3. Just a tad shy of the 360's sales (the first time it's managed to top the Wii since launch, IIRC), and in a month with no good Wii games released. I don't care one way or another for the console war, but you're totally wrong.
As for the discussion of Metroid Prime 3's cotnrols, I'd say they're easily the best FPS controls on a console, ever. Way more fun, intuitive, satisfying, AND accurate than any dual analog FPS could ever be. Anyone who disagrees is a hyperactive 3 year-old. -
It's funny that people talk about Wind Waker's oceans being so boring, and in the same breath how awesome it was to ride on Epona in Ocarina of Time. Sure, it came first, but apart from finding stupid gold skultullas most of Ocarina's field is pretty empty. What was unforgivable about Wind Waker was the stupid treasure map mechanic where you find something in the middle of nowhere and paying $#@%ing tingle for all the maps...
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With Ocarina, you could at least see paths, or walls in the distance in most cases. In Wind Waker you could get genuinely lost in the water, and it felt unncessary that even when you were going the right way, it took ages to get there. I agree, I got bored with the sailing.
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I'm not saying you can't enjoy playing with Metroids controls more. SOme people enjoyed playing Twilight Princess with the Wii controller. I just prefer whatever control scheme will allow to play the game most intuitively and kick the games ass the hardest. With Zelda that's the gamecube controller and if we were to go one on one in say, Halo, with me using a controller and you using the Metroid set up, to put it plainly, I'm going to school you. Plain and simple. Fun has nothing to do with it.
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that the Wii controller has for FPS's. I think int eh long run it'll be a good thing for consoles, but as of right now it's still, despite accuracy. Less untuitive for fast paced combat and no more accurate than a mouse and keyboard. In fact ask any top PC fps player or top Halo player is they would take the Metroid setup in a competition and ten out of ten of them would say absolutely not. Guaranteed bar none. Also with Wii's limited graphics capablities it's going to render the system unable to keep up with the technologies that the genre is using to expand into ever greater pastures of gameplay, environment, and grandiosity. Now I'm sure I'll have 900 Nintendo fanboys jumping down my throat about why that isnt true, but I will be willing to bet you large sums of money you will never have an fps experience with near the gameplay of something like a Halo or Gears of War, at least not one exclusive to Nintendos system that wont be trumped immediately by Microsoft or Sony. I'm not for or against any videogame company, I'm just stating the probabilities.
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Oct 21, 2007 11:15:37 PM CDT
PS3 FTW! Fuck the Wii. Worst gaming system I've ever bought.
by allpowerfulwizardofoz
I own all 3 and I can say with no bias because of that the Wii is the biggest piece of shit gaming system I've ever plunked down money for. This coming from a former Nintendo flag waving fanboy. I've owned them all folks and I've supported Nintendo with every single system sans the Virtual Boy and I have to say I've never been more disppointed in my life. Last gen I hated the PS2 and I never really cared for the PS1 except to play Tomb Raider which was awesome. This time around I have to say while Sony has not been on the ball with putting out games they have some true next gen gems out there that are worth playing and 2008 is shaping up to be the PS3's year. What Nintendo did wrong this time around Sony has done right IMO.
The new 40gig model is about the drop at $399.00 packaged with Spiderman 3 on Bluray so they have an edge with that new price point.
And the 360 is a great system in it's own right. I've had much enjoyment out of it since buying one in July same time as I got my PS3, same day actually.
The Wii on the other hand is nothing more then a white paper weight that never gets turned on. It was fun for about a month then lost it's charm. Nothing more then a glorified gamecube with a gimmick controller. Waggle for the suck. -
Oct 21, 2007 11:19:35 PM CDT
Jesus of Suburbia, I disagree Windwaker was awesome.
by allpowerfulwizardofoz
And that's what Nintendo did right last gen that they did not do right this time around with the Zelda series. For me Windwaker was a refreshing new spin on the Zelda series and I loved every cel shaded moment of it. While Zelda Twilight Princess was exactly what you described. Nothing more then an over bloated Ocarina of Time IMO. I hated it. I played up til the first few encounters with the Zoras and lost total interest in wanting to complete it. I felt no connection what so ever to that game. It was too sterile and trying to hard to be a copy of the past and not a fresh step for me. Can't see how you can't see that about Twilight Princess and not appreciate Windwaker which was not even close to being anything like Ocarina.
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Shuttlepod is right guys, we should all be neutral and not give a shit about anything. Let's ignore that some good point have been made simply because their delivery wasn't palettable enough to the fair sensibilities of some people. So let's all just take a Xanex and kill our passion for anything and everything. Cause it's much better to be boring than honest.
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While i thought Wind Waker was a bit on the boring side when the sailing brought everything to a screeching halt, and I thought Twighlight Princess is an improvement, I think TP is hte last Zelda game Nintendo can make using that template without the series getting stale. They have to start getting a bit more grandiose with a more organic world. Rather than one or two tiny hub towns with random dungeons using the same elemental themes of the last games with Gannon as the ultimate bad guy. I think it's time to shake up the series a bit. Send Link on a real adventure with consequences that feel a bit stronger in a larger gaming world. SOmething more akin to Final Fantasy in scope and story but obviously with the Zelda gameplay we know and love. And as much as I love Gannon, a different bad guy for once. And shit if they get really ambitious maybe give Link a bit more of a personality.
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Oct 22, 2007 6:22:30 AM CDT
I have owned all consoles since SNes
by nomoredirtyjokespleaseweareyanks
Including the Dreamcast(which I freakin love).However when it comes to the last gen I own for the xbox and PS2 about 30 games for each but finished only about 2/3 of them. I only own 20 gamecube games but have finished everyone of them and consider WindWaker, Metroid and Pikmin 2(the first was to small) to be the best games I own of that generation. With this new gen I don't yet own a PS3 but have many 360 games. Halo 3 is great, Oblivion is awe inspiring, and Bioshock is probably the best FPS I have played on a console. However Twilight Princess on the Wii is superior to them all, Its lower resolution graphics have left me more stunned than gears of War. The artistry on display is staggering. Most other Wii games suck however.
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I especially loved "MARIO 64", back in the day. In that game, Mario's first dive and swim into the moat was nothing short of revolutionary. But despite all the fun, I haven't owned a Nintendo since. However, I've owned a Dreamcast, a PS2, and an Xbox (my favorite, last gen). Currently, I enjoy what I feel is the best game machine to date (other than the company's hardware problems), with that being the Xbox 360. And Xbox Live is worth EVERY penny. In downloading demo after demo, I get to try before I buy. Originally, I wasn't all that interested in purchasing "PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 4" (as I already own PGR3 and "FORZA MOTORSPORT 2"),...but have you seen the weather effects in that game??? Get the most out of the demo and you'll see. Stunning and beautiful, it is. But in going back to Nintendo, I'm very curious about the Wii and some particular games from the previous generation, too. I've never played "MARIO SUNSHINE" or "PAPER MARIO" or "WINDWAKER", which are ALL games I would love to play. And I'm sure I would enjoy them with my young son. And "MARIO GALAXY" just may be the final straw that inspires me to make the jump. Maybe I'll wait for that Wii-dvd (player) combination console. And I'll be keeping my Xbox 360, thank you very much. I'm waiting for "MASS EFFECT", a game that will be giving me that 80's-quality sci-fi rush I've been without for far too long.
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Who wouldn't love to create...or originate...or inspire ideas for the Wii? Even though I don't own a Wii, I have played it. Thanks to some friends, I'm familiar enough with the system, though I've yet to play the games that I (personally) would love to play on the Wii. From my experience as a gamer and my knowledge as an educated artist, I don't understand why I've yet to see the Wii push the boundaries of what it CAN do SO differently than any other console available. In terms of gameplay, some people would argue that the hardware design is better than the competition. In this respect, we can consider the Nintendo Wii on the same but unique playing field. However, no matter how strongly you (may or may not) feel about 3-Dimensional game graphics, the Wii cannot compete with the 360 or PS3 in this way. However, in 2-D and 2.5-D terms, in more of a cell animated style, it can. In fact, in my view, when you add that to the gameplay options that the Wii offers, the Wii system can do far better. My argument is that the Wii has combined strengths which have yet to be seen in unison, at full potential. (Perhaps "MARIO GALAXY" will change that.) ANY traditional cell animated cartoon you know of (from television, Disney, whatever), past or present, could possibly be PLAYABLE (as a game) on the Wii, involving the "Wii-mote" in whatever unique ways you can imagine. (How about the work of comic book artists coming to life, in each artist's unique style?) There is NO EXCUSE why an amazing "STAR WARS: CLONE WARS" cartoon can't be quite incredible on the Wii, allowing 1st-person point-of-view in that specific cell animated style (lightsabre action included). Nintendo should be eating this stuff up, lapping it up like a dog (perhaps even with the Wii controller, in a tongue-licking motion...heh,heh). When it comes to games and/or movies, sometimes you've got to think outside the box. And when it comes to the Wii, sometimes you've got to think outside the Xbox.
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Let me tell you, there are some great games that don't go for the wii-mote gimmick. [br][br]
1) Super Paper Mario - Very funny dialouge. Great gameplay. Great puzzles. In addition to this, the gameplay actually switched to something new for each boss, and even the normal levelsswitch it up sometimes. I am VERY impressed.[br][br]
2) Metroid Prime 3 - Although MP3 totally embraces the Wii-mote, it does so for gameplay, and not for gimmick (unlike say Lair, or a ton of 3rd party Wii games). Amazing so far, but I don't have a hang on the controls yet. I've only just beaten the first level/boss though, so I think it'll just take anouther hour or so of playing to get the hang of it.[br][br]
Those are the two best examples I can think of. I own Twilight Princess, but haven't started it yet. I also never owned a N64 (i was NES, Genises, SNES, PS1, PS2, 360, now Wii), so I haven't played Ocarina of Time. -
Let me tell you, there are some great games that don't go for the wii-mote gimmick. 1) Super Paper Mario - Very funny dialouge. Great gameplay. Great puzzles. In addition to this, the gameplay actually switched to something new for each boss, and even the normal levelsswitch it up sometimes. I am VERY impressed. 2) Metroid Prime 3 - Although MP3 totally embraces the Wii-mote, it does so for gameplay, and not for gimmick (unlike say Lair, or a ton of 3rd party Wii games). Amazing so far, but I don't have a hang on the controls yet. I've only just beaten the first level/boss though, so I think it'll just take anouther hour or so of playing to get the hang of it. Those are the two best examples I can think of. I own Twilight Princess, but haven't started it yet. I also never owned a N64 (i was NES, Genises, SNES, PS1, PS2, 360, now Wii), so I haven't played Ocarina of Time.
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go here: www.smashboards.com
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I never said I hated Wind Waker, just the dungeons. The bosses ruled, and playing the ocean and treasure hunting was fun, I don't care what any1 else says. As for Twilight Princess, I've never played it so I have no opinion. Video games are not a hobby for the broke.
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I can't understand where you get the idea that WW was a refreshing new spin on the franchise? I mean, yeh it was cell shaded, but that was about as refreshing as it got and we all know that the cell shading was something you either loved or hated.Every other element of WW was lifted from Ocarina and was either used to little or no effect or stretched out to the point it became boring. Where ocarina felt like it was perfectly balanced WW, and to a lesser extent, TP, couldn't capture the essence of what made OoT the classic title it is.Maybe Miyamoto will give the next Zelda his full attention rather than simply supervising and we'll all get the Zelda game we've truly wanted. I think what's probably upset most people about WW and TP is that every Zelda game has been better than it's predecessor by a long shot; we've just not seen anything that can top OoT.
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Does anybody remember the images of the next Zelda game to be introduced with the game cube of Link and Gananadorf fighting, that would have been an official sequal to ocarina and majura's mask that wasnt cell shaded?
Anyway Ocarina Of T -
Time was the best Zelda game and oracle of ages.
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