We’re not just debating the best video game of 2009 this week. We’ve got other awards to dole out. Today, I declare which ’09 game had the best cut scenes and which was the runner-up.
There comes a time in the week to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we?
It’s been a busy few days here at Kotaku. I’ve been down in Melbourne for a conference and we’ve also redesigned the site. But I’ve still managed to get some gaming in.
Here’s a lovely batch of screens from Little King’s Story for the Nintendo Wii, which could be the prettiest strategy title ever created.
Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada says “the games industry worldwide is in danger if we keep making sequels,” just weeks before the 19th installment of Harvest Moon hits PSPs in Japan.
Marvellous Entertainment USA and XSEED games are teaming up for E3, showing off their line up of upcoming titles together as one united force of goodness. While the focus is mainly on the Nintendo DS and Wii, there is a PSP game in the form of RPG sequel Valhalla Knights 2 to spice things up. The name of the game here is RPGs, and the two combined have them in spades. For the Wii they’ve got three outstanding offerings – Rune Factory: Frontier, which takes the RPG/farming sim combo from the DS games to the console market, Avalon Code, a new RPG from the team behind Rune Factory and the Final Fantasy III and IV DS remakes, and the recently announced Little King’s Story.
For those of you with a low tolerance for hit points, the dynamic duo will also be showing off XSEED’s first DS games, Populous DS based on the classic PC game, KORG DS-10, a music creation program, and Retro Game Challenge, a mini-game title based on the Japanese Game Centre CX TV series. Perhaps these three non-RPG titles will calm me enough to keep the Rune Factory fan in me from dry-humping their booth.
Marvellous’ upcoming Little King’s Story for the Wii looks brilliant. A delightful fairy-tale aesthetic, gameplay that promises to be a hands-on version of The Settlers and cow knights? All exciting stuff. Made even more exciting by the announcement today of one of your rival kingdoms in the game. Which is…the Kingdom of the Drunkards. Led by King Duvroc, he “wishes for everyone in the world to be happy” and “thinks it’s Mardi Gras all year round”. Duvroc has a daughter, Princess Bouquet. She loves science. And is trapped in a pot. Once you beat Duvroc, “the princess will appear from inside the pot”. Can’t wait.