Many of the games shown in this video are shown too briefly to make any kind of substantive observations. Let's see how it goes.
2008
DSi: Slimmer, SD card slow, internal flash memory, bigger screens, internet browser, DS online store, and 2 cameras. Over the past few years, I've faced several road blocks when designing software fore the DS because it lacked many of these key features. Once again, Nintendo supplies the hardware/features that I need to design my innovative games freely.
The fashion game: Looks to have very high production values considering the detailed customization and the 3D graphics.
Nintendo Pedometer & Wii Fit for my pocket? Sign me up. I loved my Pokemon Pikachu with its built in pedometer when I was in middle school, and I look forward to this next step. Nintendo had to find a way to put Mii's on the DS. They're the best tool Nintendo has to make games personal and accessible to the broadest audience.
The Kirby game looks just as colorful as other games in the same series.
The Valkyrie Profile, Chrono Trigger, and the Shiren The Wanderer look very traditional in their core RPG design. Let's hope at least 2 of these 3 have some tricks up their sleeve.
The Soccer game looks slick. It appears that many developers have figured out how to make nice looking 3D DS games. The implementation of the Mii's fits, and the game appears to support a range of detailed stats.
Sooo many RPGs. I guess they come with the territory.
Professor Layton looks as dashing as ever. In other words, it looks like more of the same.
2009
The Iwata, Reggie, and Miyamoto Mii's are charming. I'm not sure what kind of game/software they're in.
Mario & Luigi look like they're control with the touch screen for battles. Interesting change.
Wario Paint/Ware: Looks like Mario Paint. Plays like Wario Ware. Perhaps everyone makes micro games and shares them for content that's always unique. Either way, this game has piqued my interests.
3D picross. I liked 2D picross. Hopefully they'll find an intuitive way to manipulate the camera. The rubik cube DS game's camera controls are pretty complicated and finicky.
More RPGs. Such is Japan.
Much of the Wii game footage is too short to deduce anything. There's a lot to look forward to this fall and next year from the Wii. The games shown in the video run the full gamut of "casual" to "hardcore" games and from familiar to new IPs. There'es something for everyone.
Writing a video game review can become very difficult for a number of reasons. A limited amount of time for a reviewer to beat a game can put a lot of pressure on that particular reviewer's gameplay experience. Word limits can be constraining. Games can be massive and/or segmented so that simply describing the game can take pages. And the lack of developed competitive communities can put a freeze on any accurate assessment of game balance. Throw in issues with embargoes, review codes, and lock boxes and you a royal mess that is the current state of video game "journalism" (sometimes more aptly referred to as the video game enthusiast press). To the people who write game reviews, I want to express up front that many reviews contain real nuggets of insight even if such treasured content is buried in a sea of feature lists and a plethora of other redundant content. For the most part, however, game reviews and the scores/ratings that accompany them are bunk. Many have already...
Wario Ware had the right idea. This game, in its own quirky way, took a look at games and stripped the established formulas and conventions down to their bare essence: simple forms, simple functions, and simple goals. To keep things fresh throughout the franchise history, Wario Ware games have embraced the power of a governing gimmick. After the first Wario Ware game was released on the GBA, the following Wario Ware used gimmicks of twisting (tilt-pack), touching (DS), motion controls (Wiimote), and,if you include Rhythm Tengoku, music. Not only are the Wario Ware games a smorgasbord of quick fire micro games, but they are also jam packed with creative additions that range from arcade games to what can only be described as "doodads," "toys," and "other." To give an example of what can be found in the "other" section, there is a "game" where players squeeze water out of an old wash towel that has been conveniently dipped in water. It ...
These are sad times for the video game industry (at least for some developers). These are sad times because someone like Jonathan Blow felt compelled to present a talk attempting to explain/teach developers that they should look carefully at their games as they build them and push themselves to be more creative. While listening to this talk I couldn't help but think nearly everything that Blow said was common sense and/or instinctual for the good developers. But because there are so many bad games made by bad, supposedly clueless developers Blow had to adress these issues. It's times like this that make me feel like the video games industry is still in a period of nonage, and insightful individuals like Blow have to father us by telling us to brush our teeth and to use soap. The gaming industry has sprung up all of a sudden it seems. We're all relatively new to the medium that we're defining as we go along, and it doesn't help that we anre't well supported by a...
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