Man, anyone that tells you that all the biggest games come out near Christmas is a dirty rotten liar. March is where it is fucking at. We’ve got a plethora of hyped games flooding out this month. Other then the four we’re looking at here there is God of War: Chains of Olympus, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate, Final Fantasy: Crisis Core and a whole host of other games vying for your attention. Even games not so in demand like Sega Super Star Tennis are getting hyped up to no end. So since we’ve already taken a look at February let’s jump right into all the shiny packaging and pretty advertising we can. There might be more hype this month thanks solely to one game (you know which one) then any other during the entire year. So strap yourself in and get ready to ride the roller coaster of PR speak and doctored screenshots. This is The Hype Machine.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Release Date: March 9

The Game: Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the next installment of the Smash Bros. series in which classic Nintendo characters — and now non-Nintendo characters — duke it out against each other in multiplayer action. While the multiplayer is the selling point, the game also includes a single player venture called “The Subspace Emissary” along with plenty of collectibles like trophies, stickers and a myriad of Nintendo trivia and fanboy service. Is this even necessary? Who doesn’t know about this game?

The Hype: Brawl is actually a really interesting creature in the world of hype. Whereas other games are usually 75 percent corporate advertisement hype and 25 percent gamer generated, Brawl is probably closer to 50/50 and might even push into 25/75 when it comes to hype generated not by advertisement and Nintendo themselves. The mere mention of the game sent the internet into turmoil when it was first announced and just in case you missed it almost every major website out there has an “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Brawl” page and all of them constantly report on updates as benign as the existence of a menu. All of this is completely and totally devoid of Nintendo prompting anyone with more than a daily updated website, something most games have but don’t get nearly the same attention, and a few select interviews. Don’t go thinking Nintendo is some sort of above the hype company, they’re just playing this really smart.
Anyway, on to the hype itself. This game is routinely titled the most anticipated game on the Wii and possibly any system out there. With good reason too as IGN says, “the anticipated Wii brawler represents the culmination of Nintendo’s beloved franchise; more characters, stages and options than ever before, not to mention enhanced graphics and addictive online-compatible multiplayer modes to boot.” For rabid Melee fans this game will be everything they thought was missing from that game and probably a shit ton more considering a level editor has been put in. Probably the most anticipated feature for Brawl is the online battles, a feature sorely lacking from Melee. In an interview Masahiro Sakurai said, “We’re mainly focusing more along the lines of bringing lots of people in together to play simultaneously in perhaps some new and different ways” (You’ll have to wait till next month for commentary on those, just the hype here).

Barebones Hype: This will be, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most prolific, feature packed, fanboy loving, well designed, fun to play games of all time.

Why It Might Fail: I know I’m supposed to see through the hype here but…this game won’t fail. The online could be terrible, I guess but I don’t even know if that is a deal breaker for anyone considering we all played Melee non-stop for years on end with no online.

Army of Two

Release Date: March 4

The Game: Army of Two is a third person shooter with a heavy focus on cooperative play between the game’s two protagonist mercenaries, Rios and Salem. The two take on missions all over the world featuring a variety of weapons and locations with the levels designed around the two working with each other to defeat the enemy. Aggro plays a large role in the game as distracting the enemy is important to allowing your partner to kill them.

The Hype: I remember a while ago reading an article on Army of Two in EGM that basically summed the game up as the next step in co-op gameplay. This was of course before Gears of War hit and co-op became the hot new thing. The hype though is that the game is still going to revolutionize the world of co-op gameplay since it has been built from the ground up with the idea of playing multiplayer, not single player. In an interview with GameSpot senior producer Reid Schneider said, “Army of Two is built from the ground up as a co-op game. It focuses on two-man strategies and tactics. What really differentiates the gameplay from other shooters is the interaction you have with your partner, whether it is a live player or the AI partner.” If cooperative gameplay is the popsicle stick house, then aggro is the glue that holds it all together is seems. The game has a heavy focus on aggro (where the player attacking is perceived as the greatest threat and thus is attacked more). In the game’s IGN blog, assistant producer Matt Turner says, “Unlike MMO aggro where you’re never really sure how much attention you are drawing, we decided to make it a clear and concise tool whereby making it easier to manipulate and transfer between players.” Aggro will also give you special powers or abilities like bullet time. Put it all together and you have a game where what your co-player is doing is often just as important as what you are doing no matter what. And that really means no matter what, as the single player co-op AI is going to be incredibly smart.

The Barebones Hype: This is the future of co-op gaming and will prove that games can be designed around more then a single player.

Why It Might Fail: The co-op could fall flat on its face and if it does then there really isn’t much to the game especially if it turns out that the friendly AI is also crap. Also if the characters don’t truly have that buddy feel to them it could destroy the entire feel of the game.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Release Date: March 20

The Game: Ryu Hayabusa, the star of all the Ninja Gaiden games, returns to a Nintendo platform with Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. The game will feature 3D graphics and be almost completely controlled by the stylus not to mention being played while holding the DS sideways. Otherwise the game is full of ninja magic, swords, death and throwing stars not to mention revealing more of the epic story of Ryu.

The Hype: The hype around this sucker revolves mostly around two things: the fact that it’s a Ninja Gaiden game and the fact that it’s a Ninja Gaiden game controlled almost entirely with the stylus. In an interview with IGN, noted loud-mouth braggart, Itagaki, the head of Team Ninja said he was trying to make the fastest iteration of Ryu Hayabusa seen yet and that the touch controls allow for this. “My goal was to maximize the ability of the touch pad,” he said. To accomplish this he’s mapped almost everything to the touch screen. Touching the screen makes you walk somewhere, slashing makes you attack, etc., etc. If this all sounds kind of cumbersome it won’t be. I could pull hype quotes from Itagaki until the cows come home on this subject but we can also take 1UP’s word on it when they say, “Thanks to forgiving controls, it all works very smoothly.” They also offer us this wonderful line of hype at the beginning of their preview of the game: “When Nintendo created the DS, this is what they had in mind. Not the exact game idea — and probably not the violence — but games that can’t be done on other systems, and ones that use the stylus confidently.” It all sounds like the perfect culmination of the DS touch screen, action and violence with the difficulty curb of a Ninja Gaiden game. Graphically the game is also being championed as one of the most impressive on the DS.

The Barebones Hype: The touch controls will offer one of the most intuitively controlled games out there and the quickest of the Ninja Gaiden series. It’s also going to be really purdy.

Why It Might Fail: Touch controls can go horribly, horribly wrong and putting all its eggs in one basket could be a pretty bad idea for Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Plus the track record of games that use the DS play on words in the title is not so great.

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Release Date: March 18

The Game: The tactical military series Rainbow Six returns to Vegas once again. Players, either solo or online with friends, can lead their team through Vegas in order to rescue civilians and save the world yet again. This iteration offers more of the same R6 gameplay that its predecessor had but now with new features and even flashier graphics.

The Hype: If Brawl is the gamer hyped game of the year then Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 might be the advertiser hyped one. The initial trailer, made up of nothing more then pretty lights and strippers, debuted at the biggest gaming hype machine of all, the VGA’s. Of course if you’ve got a hit as big as the original R6: Vegas was you don’t really need much more than strippers and lights to get people excited — especially when you’re promising to basically improve almost every feature in an already-acclaimed game. As 1UP put it after receiving the press release of the game, “The keyword of the press release is ‘more.’” More action, better online, a new match making system and all the standard upgrades we’ve come to expect with each new iteration of the series.
One of these major new features in the game is the Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization (A.C.E.S.) which allows you to upgrade weapons and other features of your character like in Call of Duty 4. But with R6: Vegas 2 the upgrades go the extra length allowing you to create a soldier that plays to your style of gameplay. “In addition to general experience, though, you can earn experience in three separate specializations. A normal kill will simply add to your basic experience, but specific kinds of kills will earn you experience in a specialization, which reinforces your style of gameplay,” GameSpot explains in a preview of the game. This means that the game will actually mold to your style of play giving it even heavier customization elements then any shooter before it. Did I mention strippers?

The Barebones Hype: More of what you love, less of what you don’t. R6: Vegas 2 is going to deliver the definitive tactical shooter experience both on- and offline.

Why It Might Fail: While more of what you love always sounds good it can often mean simply more of the same. If the game doesn’t differentiate itself enough from the first R6: Vegas then what’s the point?

Well that’s it for this month of hype. We’ve got plenty of strong games that need to live up to some pretty big expectations. Here’s keeping our fingers crossed that they all do. Tune in next month when we see if these games actually stood up to all the hype around them. This has been The Hype Machine.

Categories: DS, Hype Machine, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Previews, Sony, Upcoming Games, Wii, Xbox 360