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High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle Now that the fungineers at Nintendo have increased the smile efficiency of the Wii Remote via a brand new accessory, the Wii MotionPlus, what’s in store for the vanilla Wii Remote? What if I don’t want to purchase a reasonably priced copy of Wii Sports Resort, but want that 1:1 motion control the Wii MotionPlus promises?
Nintendo’s corporate affairs VP Denise Kaigler confirmed to us earlier this week that the Wii Sports sequel is currently the only game that’s confirmed to take advantage of the new sensor, but… what if? What if, say, Mario Teaches Sniping is coming down the line and requires the add-on? Will Nintendo release an updated Wii Remote, one integrated with the MotionPlus tech built-in?
Katsuya Eguchi, producer of Wii Sports Resort and MotionPlus subject matter expert, says the company is currently thinking about integrating it into the current remote.
There are really two faces to E3. One of them is that of a business summit, intended to connect the video game industry with the press as a way of showing their wares to the public. The other looks at game developers as artists, presenting the fruit of their ideas and labors often for the first time.
Interactive entertainment is both business and art, and the Academy of Interactive Arts And Sciences recognises both of these faces with their annual DICE Summit and Interactive Achievement Awards. They also host the Into the Pixel game art exhibition, which we saw this year at E3, award scholarships to game design students, and more activities designed to support the industry’s creative talent.
We sat down with Academy president Joseph Olin to talk about the state of the industry, this year’s E3, and more.
“As much as I think most people reflect upon 2007 as a watershed year for games ad interactive entertainment, I think everything I’ve seen so far at this E3 shows… that 2008 to 2009 will be bigger, better and brighter than last year”, said Olin.
There’s no doubt in my mind that giving the Tomb Raider franchise over to Crystal Dynamics to develop was the best thing that’s happened to the series. They’ve took a dying franchise and given it new life, and they’re getting better at it with each new title. From the demo of Tomb Raider: Underworld I sat in on this week, I get the feeling the trend is continuing.
The demo started by delivering new depth to the series, plunging a scuba diving Lara Croft deep into the ocean to recover an ancient artifact. Lara swam smoothly, using a harpoon gun to take out circling sharks as she solved a puzzle that opened a door to an ancient temple.
Once inside and on semi-dry land, Lara crawled, jumped, and shimmied her way around a giant octopus (or kraken, if you prefer), bringing the roof down on its head in order to progress before the demo ended. While I didn’t get to control her myself, the gameplay and mechanics seem in place, but what about the look of the game? As the demo ended, a man behind me stood up and offered his opinion.
“You got her arse perfect”. The assembled crowd shifted uncomfortably.
“And the dimples beneath her…” Thankfully he stopped before I tackled him to the ground. Lara Croft does strange things to a man.
Last year’s Spectrobes on DS sold around a million copies, but I have heard tell that critics found it lacking in substance a bit. From what I saw at Disney Interactive’s E3 booth, though, they’ve fleshed things out.
For monster-collector nerds like me, it’s exciting to know that Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals has doubled the number of Spectrobes you can unearth through touch-screen archaeological digs, and it looks like they’ve expanded upon the battle system, too.
So how does the new Spectrobes stack up?
It’s no Pokemon, but it looks cute and complex enough to possibly be fun. You play as either Jeena or Rallen, interplanetary police officers, and as you traverse the story you unearth fossils that you can take back to your ship to make into creatures. Each one has a child form, an adult form and an evolved form, and, paging through the scrapbook of character designs, I was thoroughly impressed.
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Among the revelations: Sega starting courting the former Clover folks as soon as there the problems with Capcom became public and Mad World was created mostly behind closed doors on Sega’s faith.
Check out our other Jeffery and Sega stuff here: Another Mario Sonic Collaboration in the Works? Sega: The iPhone is as Powerful as the Dreamcast Sega E3 Coverage
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is the musical equivalent of the MK team’s Kid A, says associate producer Hector Sanchez. For those unfamiliar with that Radiohead reference, maybe MK vs. DCU being the video game equivalent of a post-make up KISS will make more sense. Regardless of the rock allusion, Sanchez essentially told me at E3 that after seven slogs through the MK universe, expanding and retreading, rinsing and repeating, it was time for a change — a big change.
Like Radiohead and KISS before them, the team decided that there wasn’t much further they could take the Mortal Kombat franchise without doing something radical, hoping that after the shock wore off, that the core fans would come along for the ride.
I suspect that they will, with DC devotees also hopping on board. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe is currently resting at the top of my personal list of biggest surprises at E3 08. Not only is it disarmingly fun, it reminds me of my favourite entry in the series, Mortal Kombat II.
During Konami’s E3 press conference, they announced a World Championship for Metal Gear Online about the same time they announced MGO‘s Gene expansion pack, which launched yesterday.
The championship tournament is set to take place at the Tokyo Game Show in October, and is open to players from North America, Europe, Japan and Greater Asia. Those four territories will hold regional championships, and the top teams therein will get a free ride to the Tokyo finals.
The tournament kicks off at San Diego Comic-Con, where players can register and compete for prizes. Details for the regionals themselves in North America will be announced soon.
Full details after the jump. Anyone here tournament-worthy?
Speaking with a group of game writers earlier this week SCEA head Jack Tretton talked briefly about how Sony Computer Entertainment has benefited under the shift from Ken Kutaragi to Kaz Hirai.
Specifically, he talked about the promise that Sony’s regions would be a bit more antonymous under Hirai.
“There is no question that Kutaragi-san ruled with an iron fist, but it was his vision”, Tretton said. “In terms of how we went to market in region, that was anonymous”.
But Tretton said that Hirai has a better understanding of the company’s day-to-day operations and the challenges they face both in Japan and abroad.
Nintendo fans may still be mentally recovering from the company’s softcore E3 media briefing that focused on fare like Shaun White Snowboarding and Wii Music, but fans of Wave Race may find the following lifts their spirits. Wii Sports Resort‘s “power cruising” mode may be a more hardcore appealing experience than it would appear at first blush.
“I’m confident it will surpass Wave Race 64 in depth”, said the game’s producer, Katsuya Eguchi. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, considering he’s credited with director duties on the Nintendo 64 classic.
Even if it’s not as fully featured or “deep” as the original watercraft racer, it’s going to have to suffice for now. Eguchi opted not to comment on plans for a sequel, something we shan’t hold our breath for.
I was drawn to take a quick peek at Eidos’ Monster Lab because of the clever character design art mural all around the play area. The game has you enlisting the aid of three mad scientists, each with a different speciality, to try and take down one ultimate scientist who’s mastered all three abilities — alchemy, biology, and one that seems more mechanically-oriented. It’s on Wii and DS, but I saw the Wii version.
Monster Lab has the player building creatures and exploring a cartoonishly eerie supernatural land to collect parts to build and strengthen monsters to fight other monsters. As players progress through the narrative, they’ll be able to enlist the help of each mad scientist to build new items and reach new areas.
So it’s a bit collection and construction, a bit combat, and a bit story-based exploration — a pretty clever core idea with a cool aesthetic.
