Sydney, Australia, 30th June, 2009
It was a cold June night and an excited throng of people gathered in the modern, spacious THQ/Capcom Sydney headquarters to see the current crop of games that were shown in E3, as well as others currently in development. The headquarters is one of those new-age workplaces, with pool a table, balcony and a bar/cafe; but on this occasion, it had been overtaken with a plethora of Wiis, PS3s, XBOX 360s, LCD screens and projectors showing the latest and greatest.
DarkSiders
The star of the night was DarkSiders with 4 large LCDs showing this behemoth of a game. Based loosely on the New Testament, the protagonist is War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, hellbent on vengeance as he progresses through a brutal and violent world. The emphasis should be brutal and violent, as you’ll be slashing, stabbing and ripping apart opponents (using the familiar God of War context sensitive button pushing). DarkSiders sets itself apart though by trying a Zelda-like open-exploration world, in an attempt to forgo the linearity of its influences. The visuals are excellent and stylish, portraying a dark, unforgiving world with realistic and detailed animations. An extended inventory system beyond the usual weapon advancement seemed to add more unexpected complexity to a game of this nature, allowing you to equip different items, armor and weapons. Currency is in the usual form of orbs which gravitate towards you as you make your umpteenth kill and can be spent on character customisation, item acquisition and in an interesting twist, information from the inhabitants of the world. DarkSiders is a game to look out for as it seems to diverge away from the usual GoW hack and slash clone and tries to do something slightly different.
Marvel Superhero Squad
When I walked past this at the beginning of the night, I thought to myself this will be one popular game. 4 Wii-motes and characters such as Captain America, Storm, Hulk, Thor in mini cute super-deformed versions – how can you go wrong? Similar to Super Smash Bros, with up to 4 players fighting at a time, players choose characters from the Marvel Universe as they combat against each other in different environments and arenas. Each character has individual super powers with the usual combo attacks (using a combination of button mashing and remote swinging). Boasting an Adventure mode for the anti-social amongst us, the feature that most people would be interested in is how fun is it in a group. This game was really popular amongst the crowd, eager to try it out.
A few things I found were that unlike SSB, the arenas were huge compared to the characters contained on them. The arenas that I played were quite similar to each other and although told about items that can be picked up, I didn’t see any on the night. Even so, this game does have potential and is worth checking out when released.
Drawn to Life – The next chapter
Drawn to Life, the game that reminded us why we dropped art in school, now has a sequel on the Wii. Drawn to Life – the Next Chapter, was shown on a huge digital projector, only amplifying our woeful efforts at drawing, but indicated in a big way that Drawn to Life – The Next Chapter will follow in its predecessor’s success. Doing away with the overhead view storytelling elements of the original, this sequel focuses on platforming – and why not. The original was one of the best platformers of 2007 and the sequel continues on with this winning formula. One big feature that people are excited about is the in-game drawing. The player will eventually encounter a drawing rectangle, where they can draw freeform lines and shapes in order to progress. For example, if the player needs to progress to an unreachable cliff, they can draw a ramp or two. Readers who have seen and enjoyed the independent game Crayon Physics, know what I am talking about. It was rare to see the wii-mote free all night, a testament to its playability and appeal to a wide selection of people.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom
A games night isn’t complete without showing a beat-em up and what better one to exhibit than Tatsunoko vs Capcom, following the successful Capcom Vs. (…or Vs Capcom) formula. Pulling characters from the Capcom stables like Ryu and MegaMan Volnutt and more obscure characters from the Tatsunoko anime stables like Swan from G-Force, this game boasts large characters (PTX-40A and Gold Lightan took over almost 1/3 of the screen), over the top hit-combos, tag-team and outrageous hyper moves. The visuals seem great for a wii game and the action is exciting and fast paced. New gamers to the genre can opt for a simplified control scheme but there should be enough depth here to win over the capcom fans out there.
World of Zoo
With all the ultra-violence, it’s good to have a change, so for the younger games, World of Zoo fits in that slot. Blue fang, the developer of Zoo Tycoon, is also developer of World of Zoo, with an entirely different take on the zoo management game (management being used very loosely). You’re a zookeeper, in charge of all the exhibits and keeping the animals happy. Imagine Nintendogs but with 90 animals as you befriend your animals and try to keep them happy. In addition, you can customise your animals and learn interesting facts about them. With cute, cheerful visuals, an exceptionally easy control system and a variety of animals and exhibits, this game should appeal to its intended younger audience.
I haven’t gone into all of the games on show, but others which caught my eye were Resident Evil : Darkside Chronicles (the great undead splattering goodness continues), Lost Planet 2 (Impressive graphics and bosses) and Ninja Gaiden 2 (Oh the violence…. and ninjas!). All in all, an exciting night and it’s pleasing to see so much potential in these handful of games.
Ho Wong