E3 is, finally, right around the corner and us games journalist types are getting antsy. Because the show is slated to bring back the glitz and glam of the E3s of yore, we might finally be spared another Giant Enemy Crab or Ravi Drums incident. Of course, bringing back booth babes doesn’t necessarily mean that the games that will be unveiled this year will be anything to get excited over. Because my soul is torn between hopeful optimism and jaded pessimism, I will offer here my predictions on what the best and worst possibilities of this year’s E3 might have in store for us.
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Were you wondering, like I was, why in God’s name anyone would buy the Wii version of Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed unless they desperately wanted to swing an actual light saber? You probably weren’t because you’re up to date on all the hottest news, but I just found out about the mulitplayer battle mode included on the Wii, and since some new information has been released on it thanks to GDC I figured I’d bring everyone up to date. Since the Wii is so graphically underpowered compared to the PS3 and 360, some of the game’s levels have been removed or reworked for the Wii release. To make up for this the Wii version of the game will include a one-on-one light saber battle mode where two players will be able to duke it out in a myriad of different levels.

The multiplayer mode will feature 20 characters and multiple levels to play on. Players cross sabers of light in nine different settings while swinging their Wiimotes in one of the four cardinal directions in order to attack. Power-ups will litter the stages and enivironmental hazards will be involved some how. The one level that has been seen featured TIE fighters in the background which could be flung at an opponent when a “Force Unleashed” power-up was obtained. If your light sabers collide, as light sabers are wont to do, you’ll have a quick time event in which motion controls will determine the winner. It all sounds like it could be really awesome and force me to buy a Wii version and a 360 one if the multiplayer on the Wii turns out well.

That is a big “if” though as often things like this, especially on games ported to the Wii, are simply tacked on as “we’re sorry your system is underpowered” kind of thing. Hopefully LucasArts knows better than this and the multiplayer will stand up to the high level of innovation and design that the main game has. Heck, who am I kidding. LIGHT SABER WII CONTROLS! YUMMY DELICIOUS!

[Via MyWiiNews]

OK, who are you and what have you done with Nintendo? We get two good games in one week? We can drop the charade, I know the real Nintendo would never release both Harvest Moon (Super NES®, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points) and Lords of Thunder (TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points) within the same week. That’s just too much cult classic (as the press release put it) goodness in one week. So I’m stuck wondering where you put the real Nintendo.

I suppose I’ll cover this Faux-Nintendo press release since it’s the only one I’ve got, but just know I’m on to you, Nintendo imposter. Harvest Moon is one of the greatest sims ever. Every time I plug one of these games in, determined to hate it for its farm managing antics, I find myself instantly caring about how my cabbages are doing and whether or not my cows are comfortable or not…Curse your fun! Making me play games that I’m supposed to hate!

I am informed by the gods of the internet (read: Google search) that Lords of Thunder is actually a completely badass game too. How could it not be really? Not only is it a side scrolling shooter with heavy metal music, but every description of the game also mentions knights/badasses. Not just knights, who are already badasses, but knights who are badasses on top of already being badass. That’s so much badass. This is one of the coolest things about the VC, a game like this that few got the chance to play (since it was only released on the TurboGrafx-CD and Sega CD), is now totally accesible to the masses.

Farming goodness and flying knight badasses go live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Enjoy one of the better press releases not-Nintendo has not put out after the jump.

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One day a highly influential piece of gaming writing will come out titled “No More Heroes: Attacking Norms in a Male Dominated Culture” or something to that effect, something that sounds really smart. This is because No More Heroes is really smart, smarter than its cheesy dialogue and punk-esque art style make it look. In fact at its core No More Heroes is a game about gaming, a critique on gaming’s culture and one of the most intelligent video games out there. But this isn’t that aforementioned paper, so let’s ditch the philosophical discussion and get to the review … because even a bad game can have smart ideas.

So what is No More Heroes? Smart and bad or smart and good? Find out after the jump.

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Sorry about the pic; I’m just used to articles about large sums of money being about Nintendo, but it seems like they aren’t the only ones with enough cash to pull a Scrooge McDuck. Turns out this little thing called Guitar Hero is also printing money, though I’ve been looking all over my GH3 guitar and can’t find the handy slot the bills come out of like on the DS. The NPD group, in their all knowing wisdom, is reporting that the Guitar Hero franchise has made over 1 billion dollars and this doesn’t include downloadable songs. Of course what’s a few million dollars here or there, really? Looks like Activision’s purchase of the franchise from Red Octane for 100 million dollars was a wise investment.

Does anyone else read 1 billion dollars with a Dr. Evil voice in their head?

Nintendo released yesterday the sizable lineup of games that will be released in the first half of 2008 and it’s giving Wii owners a hella lot to look forward to. Games such as Super Smash Bro. Brawl and Mario Kart are obvious givens and there aren’t to many major surprises but seeing Alone in the Dark in March on there gets me a bit excited and later on in “Summer” we’ll finally be getting some Wii light saber action when Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed hits shelves. Of course with the good comes the bad and it looks like there are plenty of quick and dirty mini-game cash-ins flooding the Wii game market too. I’m just guessing, but you’ll probably want to stay away from any game where the letter ‘S’ has been replaced with a ‘Z’ such as Kidz Sports Soccer, coming out in Feb. Of course the biggest release for these two quarters is going to be Wii Fit simply because it is so different.

On the DS side, things are looking very good as each year seems to bring bigger and better things for the hand held that was once considered a lame gimmick. There are still your Pet Pals: Animal Doctor but with innovative games such as N+, Professor Layton and (glee!) Apollo Justice flooding in I don’t think it’s going to seriously bother anyone. By the way, all three of those are out in Feb., leaving plenty more months for even more great games.

Hit the jump for the entire list of Wii and DS releases so you can plan your shopping now.

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Interviews with the guys behind the Metroid Prime series, Retro Studios, are few and far between so when one like Next-Gen just did comes along I always jump at the chance to read it. I’ve been constantly impressed by how well the studio translated a 2D game into 3D and am always blown away by the level of quality in the Prime series. The far too short interview gives some pretty good insight into what working with Nintendo is like with game director Mark Pacini saying,

They hammer the game from every possible angle. It can be literally as small as moving a box one centimeter to the left. They can spot these little details that are so important to game flow.

Sounds pretty precise but I guess this explains why most Nintendo games (a) come out so well and (b) get delayed five times over. Moving every box a centimeter takes a lot of time. Sadly Next-Gen didn’t ask Retro about what their next project was going to be other than to mention that they won’t be working on a Metroid game in the foreseeable future. For a bit of discussion on working with the Wii remote and some other game design choices check out the full interview at Next-Gen.

In this week’s retro review (and I do mean weekly, despite the absence of the article for the past couple of weeks), we’re taking a look at one of the four Kirby games to be released on the Super Nintendo, Kirby’s Avalance.

[Note: Kirby's Avalance is not to be confused with Super Puyo Puyo or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which was released on the Sega Genisis. Kirby's Avalance was basically a clone of Super Puyo Puyo featuring Kirby characters, while Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was a clone of Super Puyo Puyo featuring Sonic characters. DO NOT get these 3 confused as they are indeed different games.]

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These are darkest of days for those of us who are eagerly awaiting the release of HAL Laboratory’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The reason for this is that the original release date for the game was December 3^rd, 2007. That was last Monday, and for the past three days I’ve been cursing the gods of gaming with a mournful cry of, “I could be playing it right now..!” and then sobbing uncontrollably for hours on end. The only solace I’ve managed to find in such times of misery is the nightly update of the Brawl’s official website, Smash Bros. Dojo.

Sadly, even this pleasure is quickly becoming jaded to me. For the last few weeks, the updates have been disappointing to say the least and I think I know why: the delay has forced the man behind the game, and updater of the website, Masahiro Sakurai, to stretch out the news an extra two months. In the time that’s passed since the delay, we’ve only gotten one character update, which was the addition of King Dedede on October 25^th. It’s been forty-one days since then, which adds up to twenty-six updates. Just for comparison, in the same time period before the delay happened, the character profiles for Sonic, Lucas, Snake and Ice Climbers we all added to the site. The only other update that’s been worthwhile since then has been the announcement of the Stage Builder on October 29^th, and that was still a whole month ago!

In the meantime, we’ve been treated like complete and utter garbage! Honestly, game modes that were obviously going to be in the game and bits of news we already knew from E for All just don’t cut it … at least not for a whole month. Last night, Sakurai had the nerve to update with the announcement of the Smash Ball again. Didn’t I hear about this thing way back in May? Come on! Where’s Captain Falcon? Where’s Jigglypuff? And more importantly, where’s MegaMan?!?

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to get by knowing that this Christmas, instead of playing some good ol’ Smash Bros. with my brothers, I’ll be huddled in a dark corner somewhere dreading when Coin Mode will be announced while choking down my aunt’s holiday fruit cake. Thanks for ruining Christmas, Sakurai; I really appreciate it.

The original Nanostray had a couple of flaws, but it was the first 3-D shooter for the Nintendo DS. Nanostray 2, however, makes up for this, by adding a ton of additional features, as well as tune ups for the older ones. I honestly cannot wait to play this game, as I’m a huge fan of side scrolling shooters, such as Ikaruga and Mobile Light Force 2 (I doubt anyone knows of this game, but I do love it).

Read on for the press release.

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