impulsegamer.com - Namco Bandai Press Day... the company formerly known as Atari

Namco Bandai Press Day… the company formerly known as Atari

Wednesday July 22 2009, MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA. On a cold and wintery day, Impulse Gamer was invited to the office of “Atari” in order to preview some of their upcoming releases. Thanks to Ross Purdy, a PR Executive from Atari, now known as Namco Bandai, he flew down from Sydney for the event as a handful of media representatives were treated to a hands on experience of the following titles;

Dirt 2
Mini Ninjas
Batman Arkham Asylum
Ashes Cricket 09
Katamari Forever
Tekken 6

As editor of Impulse Gamer and a huge comic fan, there was really only one game that I was looking forward to and that was Batman Arkham Asylum, however a little more on that later. The first game that I saw was Mini Ninjas which is a traditional arcade game for all ages that has a few killer twists, ensuring that this is truly a 21st century gaming title

Mini Ninjas

Paying homage to those classic Japanese martial arts movies of yesteryear, gamers play Hiro, a 114cm tall Ninja who has been given the task, just like the other Mini Ninjas to save the world. Unfortunately for Hiro, the evil Samurai Warlord stands in his way but just because he’s small, that’s not going to stop our little hero.

I was quite impressed by the review code for Mini Ninjas which boasted a great interactive gaming environment and even though the gaming world was a little Spartan, it suited the title perfectly. Although Hiro has access to a variety of weapons from swords to shurikens, when you do fight the enemy, you actually don’t kill them but rather turn them into animals which is really cool.

Mini Ninjas had some great atmosphere for an arcade “platformer” and hopefully this is the game to break the drought of this sometimes stale genre. This is definitely one title to watch out for!

Colin McRae Dirt 2

The late and great Colin McRae would be mightily impressed with the latest rally racing game by Codemasters and being a fan of the series, it’s great to see the franchise as strong as ever and it only feels like yesterday seeing those 2-dimensional crowds and that famous English accent telling us to turn left, right in order to prevent us from crashing. Of course those days are long gone and thankfully it has been replaced with state of the art gameplay and some impressive graphics.

Graphically, this was one visually “good looking” racing title that you could easily be forgiven in thinking that you are watching a rally race on TV due to the attention to detail and stunning texture details.

Apart from the lush graphics, it played quite well and with over 40 races, three disciplines and access to fully licensed vehicles plus a variety of other in-game options and Colin McRae Dirt 2 will definitely be racing into quite a few homes when it is released later this year. Bring it one!

Ashes Cricket 09

Developed by Australia’s very own Transmission Games, Ashes Cricket 09 may be THE game for cricketers. Although I’ve played my fair share of cricket games in the past, something has always been missing from these games, whether it was the “panache” of EA Sports, the gameplay or how it came together, they’ve been fun, however not that memorable.

Fortunately from the opening sequence of Ashes Cricket ‘9 plus that memorable “cricket” music of yesterday, you immediately know that you are in for a treat as the game starts. The game boasts the official line-up for Australia and England, however other countries have pseudo players which is unfortunate but you can create your own teams which may make up for this.

Apart from the impressive visuals, the game appeared to play quite well, giving the bowler or batsman some degree of control over the ball. Maybe we have a game to knock Brian Lara Cricket from its perch.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Hmmm… what can I say without being biased? The game rocks, it’s that damn simple. Written by comic scribe Paul Dini, the story involves an elaborate plot by The Joker to lure Batman into Arkham Asylum and best of all, the tale is oozing with Batman mythology.

Not just a fighting game but rather a game that compliments the origins of Batman as the world’s greatest Detective, it’s got all the best elements from gaming from mystery to intrigue to action and even a touch of romance.

With pre-rendered and in-game cinemas that merge flawlessly, the gamer controls one of the greatest comic book characters of all time, The Batman as he fights, uses batarangs and glides around the giant asylum of Arkham.

We tested this on the PS3 and needless to say, it was extremely sturdy and considering that we were not even playing the final code, Impulse Gamer certainly has high hopes for this game.

It’s pure Batman! From the way he glides down buildings to the way he battles his enemies which pays homage to Matrix, it’s fun and best of all, it’s addictively entertaining. Final Words? With brilliant voice acting, an engaging musical score and gameplay that actually works, Batman Arkham Asylum is definitely going to be one of the big games of 2009.

Although we couldn’t stay for the entire Press Day, Atari… err… Namco Bandai have some mighty impressive games coming out and it’s definitely going to be hard to knock them off their perch. With games such as Katamari Forever and Tekken 6 on the way, it’s going to be a good year for Namco Bandai! Scratch that, it’s going to be a good year to be a gamer!

Check out the following screenshots and set your alarms for some great gaming goodness!