GoldenEye Wii

Part of Eurogamer Expo 2010

I love GoldenEye on N64. It is to this day the best FPS in existence. I was better at GoldenEye than anyone I knew was. At a sleep over two people made me stay up until past 3am trying to beat me at it, and failing. I knew the single player game backwards. I knew all the routines not from trying to memorize them but simply through playing it so much that they became ingrained. I love that game.

It is odd that they should choose to remake it. That it is updated with Daniel Craig bothers me not a jot. It may be that they want to spin out a few bucks based on nostalgia alone. I may buy it, but I will rarely have a chance to play multiplayer with other humans in person, and my Wii’s wi-fi connection is quite simply bollocks.

At the expo this was hidden right in the middle of Nintendo’s stand, between Kirby and Donkey Kong, with no branding and no notification this was GoldenEye, the greatest FPS of all time. Only a piddly little 19″screen. The rep told me it was displaying via AV lead and not composite. And it showed. It was jaggy, and ugly. It was multiplayer only and took me right back to the glory days. Partly because the character models don’t seem to have advanced at all.

It looked horrible. To play, it was standard. I beat the other two players 10 – 3 – 2. I can’t say I was disappointed because it was just one round and I didn’t see any of the game proper. I can’t decide whether to buy it for old times’ sake and possibly be disappointed, or just leave the memory untainted and roll out the N64 occasionally.

The question remains though, why remake this?

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Part of Eurogamer Expo 2010

I’m an unashamed Zelda fanboy. When I saw this blacked out booth I immediately joined the queue, there was just no question that I was going to play this game. It’s like it’s written into my DNA. I was genetically incapable of walking away.

Turns out I would have been better off not knowing it was there at all. Allow me to explain.

The expo entrance queue took less than 15 minutes from this point.

The queue in this photo on the other hand took more than 30 minutes to get through.

Nintendo only had two machines and though I was glad for my ten minute demo, I was not for everyone else’s.

The demo was the same one we saw at Nintendo’s E3 keynote, in which Miyamoto-San experienced great Wiimote difficulty. From about 2:20

Heads fucking rolled.

That was obviously a low battery or more likely some kind of interference. The controls are fluid. At first it was strange to use the Wiimote in an involved way consistently, not just to waggle or to perform strikes. It was a gas to have precision movement of the sword at all times and to be able to instantly whip out a bow and take a perfect aim in a second.

It was also great not to have shitty Wiimote directions flashed intrusively in my screen. The day those are gone, we will all be richer for it.

I would have preferred 10 minutes in a more active setting. The area I got was fairly empty with basic enemies, but perhaps it was perfect for acclimatizing to the freshened controls. The director Eiji Aonuma has said he’d like to do something a little different with the format this time around so it doesn’t surprise me that there was nothing extra on show, they guard their titles quite jealously and this is a flagship name.

I’m guessing they will at least downsize the massive Wiimote plan on the right side of the screen, I hope there is the option to remove it entirely because it is ugly has hell and uses a lot of space. All in all, it felt so good to play.

I know, shocker, I enjoyed Zelda. Whoda thunk it?

Sadness

In the previous post I mentioned Sadness, at one point one of the most promising looking games on the Wii. It had a trailer “inspired by” the gameplay

News came in dribbles and plenty of people called shenanigans and labelled it Vapourware. Developers Nibris seemed to be going to some sort of trouble over it though and said a couple of times that they were still making it. Here’s the website.

It was supposed to be a psychological horror set in Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, it simply sparked in the mind and had me salivating at the possibility. They wanted to lose the in game HUD, they wanted no start up screen but a seemless entry into the game and they wanted to lose overt game saves.

I don’t know who the hell actually did this Nibris thing, and if they did actually work on a game what the hell were thay doing for so long.

The evidence says that this game did exist in some form because they had publishing partners which came and went and this guy, Arkadiusz Reikowski, made a demo soundtrack which he posted on his blog here.

Anyways, the same guy announced that Nibris had shelved Sadness as of 5th April 2010 thereby putting people like me out of their misery. After they announced a late 2009 release and nothing materialised in the year leading up to it, we all knew deep down it wasn’t happening, but hey, it’s nice to get some closure.

It’s just such a damn shame.

The Top 14 Games For The Rest Of The Year – 8

Part 7 here you guys.

8. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Wii

It will be great. I know it will be great. I don’t know if I will buy it. Sauper Mario Galaxy was one of the Best Games of the last decade. it was pure, distilled, unadulterated fun. I just can’t quite put my finger on why.

On a possibly unrelated note check out the star placement on the title logo for the first game. This is old but I only just found out about it.

See it?

That’s right: U R MR GAY.

Anyway I would highly recommend you get 2 if you have a Wii I just don’t know if I will, I’m not excited by it. Though I’m in no doubt of its quality.

GAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Part 9 tomorrow

Best Price: Red Steel 2

This woman has no connection whatsoever to the Red Steel franchise

So from this edition of Best Price the lesson I took home was the following ancient proverb;

“Play.com can suck it!”

Hit up the jump to find out why.

The Top 14 Games For The Rest Of The Year – 3

Part 2 here, you guys!

3. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle – Wii

Get your crazy on. My fears about Red Steel 2 looking shitty on my LCD TV will be irrelevent with No More Heroes 2 as it simply doesn’t matter. It should look grainy and scratchy and pulp.

The first simply did not take itself seriously, it was off the wall and subverted game design beautifully. It made a big deal about mundane tasks and took you repeatedly from nought to sixty in doing so. It chucked in retro graphics and a mandatory 8-bit arcade game. The protagonist, Travis a was an unremitting A-hole and the game fast forwarded over the climactic motivation explanation. It is slick and raw. It is the game Wet wishes it was.

It rightfully deserved a place in my Top 20 Games of the Decade and you should play it.

If you have a Wii.

Do you even have a Wii?

Oh you traded it? I see

Part 4 tomorrow

The Top 14 Games For The Rest Of The Year – 1

We’re only halfway through March but already it feels like a mammoth year. We’ve had easily the most interesting (calendar) year start since ever due to publishers rescheduling from October last. I posted a top 15 games here but since then 7 of those have been released, so time for an updated list. I wont include Blazblue as it has been postponed a couple times in Europe (next due on 26th March) and with it blowing hot and cold like this and generally being a cock tease I’m inclined to just forget it. Actually I have an import copy to play and review so don’t be mad, baby.

Why 14 games on this list?

Because I’m on holiday for two weeks and though Ill be checking in and leaving posting duties to be ably performed by Chelios and NastyButler, I want a post per day minimum.

If you think I’ve missed anything, then sound off. There’s nothing worse than a whiny pussy who wont say so to your face post.

Also, yo mamma.

1. Red Steel 2 – Wii

Red Steel was much maligned but really wasn’t as bad as “all that”. I mean it was no joy to play, but it wasn’t the worst thing I did that year (you still owe me, giorgio). Number 2 (snigger) promises actual decent swordplay and in context to the setting rather than simply dumped in between shootouts.

I like how they’ve gone stylistic so the Wii can cope with it graphically, plus it makes a nice change. The only thing stopping me from definitely getting it is not knowing how badly it’ll display on my LCD. Okami looked ok, I guess, but it wasn’t really pretty. It certainly lost something from displayng on my old CRT.

Part 2 tomorrow, suckas.

Wii Had Such Fun

Nintendo held a Media Summit last week where among other things they trailed and announced release dates for Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M (Trailers after the jump). I held back from newsing it because I wanted a little bit of perspective. I find myself merely whelmed by the prospect of these games and just about anything else Nintendo announce now.

I bought my Wii on launch day after spending most of 2006 telling everyone that it was going to be pure tits. Now, I haven’t played it in about 6 months, before that it was about 7 months. Part of me wants to know what the hell the company whose machines I grew up with is doing, and the other part of me just wants them to give me the goods, just let me know they still care and give me a game I want.

How has it come to this twisted, abusive relationship?

Motion Blur Part 1 – Nintendo

Motion controls on home consoles are happening, like it or not. A path to the future for some, a step backwards in game accomplishment for other. In this feature we’ll be looking first at the Nintendo Wiimote and Wii motion plus, because they’re already available. In part 2 we’ll look at Sony’s unnamed motion controller as an evolution of the wand based system. It  marries with the concept of the full body video control, as Microsoft have done with Natal which will comprise part 3.

Let’s stop eyeing each other up and get on with this.

Onward, then. To Nintendo…