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Strolling down the
Baltimore suburb area called “The Avenue at Whitemarsh”, fancy-pancy
shoppers ducked in and out of stores with tildes in their names and
seemed to be walking on air. I truly felt as if I were in a
different country. But, in the back of my head I could hear the
sweet call of Mario and the underworld music kept beckoning me to
the purple light.
Ready or not, here I
come!
After stepping into this “exclusive” Nintendo encampment, I
was greeted with professionalism. They took my coat of course, and
I stuck my chest out showing off my super-cool netjak.com
tee-shirt. My first impression of the whole ambience of the show
was a mixed bag. The first thing I thought of is “where’s the
peeps”. There were never more than 40 people there at one time.
With nearly 50 game stations, there was plenty of room to play what
you wanted to. This is a good thing.
I was a bit overwhelmed
with the “DJ” and his “spinning the phat tunez”. At one
time, I encouraged him to turn down the music so I could hear the
games. I might as well have been spitting in the wind on that
request. With that said, I was also a bit disappointed because of
the lack of developers. There were none. Hoping to score some PR
with the industry, I was left totally void. I did, however, speak
to a few Nintendo “representatives”, but I assume they all had to be
hired-guns; because they were absolutely clueless. They threw their
whole “blah-blah-blah” at me, and when I asked questions about
product and/or features they simply shot me a blank stare. One of
the “crew-members” I was speaking with was schmoozing me a bit and
was asking his drone like questions. He was speaking about the
controller, and I told him that I felt the “d-pad” was too small for
fighting games. He looked at me puzzled like, and asked what a
d-pad was… After nearly choking on my own tongue, I told him about
that small little “digital pad” at the bottom left half of the
controller… Needless to say the “staff” was about as knowledgeable
as a melted bag of Skittles.
For the devoted readers,
such as yourself, expect to go to a “Cube Club” event and be the
most literate and educated gamer there. Once I got past the robot
Nintendo crew; I checked out the scene. The make-shift arcade truly
felt like the “good ‘ole days” when arcades were at its peak. Flat
screen televisions lined the walls, all with platinum Gamecubes
shelved in clear plastic casings. In all, there were nearly 50 game
stations that filled the area. Music blared, Snapple folks were
snappling away and Panasonic dummies took your picture with tiny
cameras.
Celda… and no I don’t
have a lisp.
As like any other gamer
who feeds on unreleased software like crack, I headed straight for
one of the two Zelda set-ups. The small crowd must have felt
my presence, and parted like the Red Sea and I felt like Moses
carrying my pen and paper as a staff…
My first disappointment
regarding Zelda was that it was the same disk they spun at E3
six months ago. I was hoping for a full-versioned copy of the game
so I could check out the opening intro and CGI. But, for demo
purposes the set-up was perfect. You could choose from one of a
handful of levels and play it mid-game. This was nice, simply
because you didn’t have to trudge through the opening acts to get
through the storyline…
My impressions of the new
Zelda (code named Celda) were mixed. The overall feel I got,
was Ocarina of Time meets Cel Damage. The cel-shaded
graphics seemed to dumb down a bit of the gameplay in my opinion. I
fear that Nintendo thinks that Zelda is going to be their Ace in the
hole, but may end up disappointing many fans. However, the game is
solid, tight and smooth; and plays nearly identical to Ocarina. My
biggest let-down was just the same way it was with Ocarnia… no jump
function. C’mon Nintendo, even if jumping serves little to no
purpose; hopping around should be standard fare now. Other than
that, little has seemed to change as far as gameplay.
I did like the overall
feel of the game, and the physics were outstanding. Events like
swinging with your hook-shot were perfectly in sync with gravity and
physics. And if you thought Ocarnia had some huge bosses, just wait
until you see them in this rendition… The bosses were mind numbingly
huge, and were fantastically portrayed. Fear not, Zelda will be a
huge success. Why? Because it’s Zelda.
Prime Time
After I got my initial
fill of Zelda, I headed straight on over to the full running version
of Metroid Prime. I have to say, Metroid Prime is going to
shatter pre-conceived ideals of FPS from this day forward. Many
people in the industry are comparing the huge success of
Microsoft’s
Halo with the upcoming Metroid game from Nintendo. While I can see
the similarities in comparisons; in reality they are two different
animals. Halo fell under the category of a Quake-type clone and
Metroid more resembled a futuristic version of a
Ghost Recon
hybrid.
The targeting system
within Metroid is one of the best I’ve played to date. The first
level is a great introductory to the game, and really got you
excited to blast some alien scum. There were two other hooks that
Metroid has that are unique. The first is the scan; which allows
you to scan (duh) the surrounding environment with a zoom
lens and text pops up describing the item you are looking at. This
is a great little feature, and really bumped up the strategic
elements up a few notches. Secondly, there is an infrared mode;
which allows you to pick up heat and movement when you think the
surroundings are safe. This was also a nice feature, and made you
think a bit before charging into an unexplored area.
 Overall, I feel that
Metroid is going to do wonders for the genre, and it was so
refreshing to play a game of this caliber. I’m not even going to
expand on the graphics, for they just have to be seen in action to
be believed… I was overly impressed to find that Samus’s breath
would sometimes fog her shield, as well as other elements that
affected her vision. Very impressive.
Flawless Victory
Now that the “big two”
were covered, I ventured into the small crowd picking their brains.
Out of the first ten people I spoke with, and when asked about their
favorite title; each person gave the same exact answer… Mortal
Kombat. I couldn’t help but grin hearing this, and reminiscing
of years past and arcade glory overwhelmed me. I headed over to one
of the two Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance machines and stood
in line. In fact, these were the only games that you had to wait in
line for. Again, it reminded me of the old-days where I would stand
in line in the arcades to play Mortal Kombat 2. As I watched the
game in amazement, I felt like an eight year old on Christmas Eve.
The game is truly
outstanding. In fact, I’ll be so bold in saying that it is the best
fighter ever. Flame away my friends, but not even Soul Calibur or
Street Fighter (any of them) can hold a candle to this.
Unfortunately for Nintendo, the game is much better suited for the
Xbox or even the PS2. The quirky d-pad was too small to
consistently pull off special moves that usually consisted of
half-circles and timed combos.
Even with the mediocre
controls, MK was simply a blast to play. Everything from the
physics to gameplay, to the graphics and audio, the game was nearly
flawless. Weapon use was a welcomed addition, as well as the
different fighting styles that you can choose from (a la
Capcom vs SNK2: EO). During the evening, we only managed to pull off
about three different finishing moves; but all were breathtaking…
and if you didn’t smile afterwards you didn’t have a heart beat.
There was some
disappointment among us MK fans, however. Twice during the night,
the game locked up the Gamecube and it had to be physically
powered-off and rebooted. Frick… even if the software is
buggy; I could care less at this point…
Take a chance on me
There were only a handful
of games there that I haven’t played, and most game stations sat
vacant like an old stand alone of Ms. Pac-Man. But, the few that I
haven’t played I took a stab at and out of those there is a couple
to keep your eyes on.
I’ve never been a fan of the 007 series. You heard me right, I
despise the series… Yea, I even hated Goldeneye. With that said,
when I saw 007: Nightfire; I couldn’t help but check it out.
Sure, the graphics were drop-dead gorgeous, but I was sure that the
gameplay would be as unresponsive and dull as previous versions.
Needless to say, I was totally wrong and Nightfire is going
to easily be a top seller.
You know what? Thank God
for Capcom. If it wasn’t for their Gamecube exclusives, I feel the
system would be in dire need of some meaty titles. Luckily,
Resident Evil 0 (the prequel to all RE titles) is going to be
a brilliant follow up for the already successful
Resident Evil from
earlier in the year. The biggest flaw from the original Gamecube
version was the quirky controls, and Capcom addressed the issue
wonderfully. I felt the controls were very solid and very tight. I
also liked the fact that you can switch between characters; which
added a whole new level of gameplay that never existed before in the
series…
Gold medals and blue
balls
What was the biggest
disappointment as far as software is considered? Die Hard:
Vendetta. This game was laughable it was so bad. I’ve yet to
experience a game with such a horrible targeting system; not to
mention a head-bob worse than Ron Jeremy’s last victim… It’s so
bad, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore… goodbye.
Die Hard takes the cake
for worst game of show award. But, as with all gaming arenas, there
are always a few good ones… a few bad ones… and a TON of average
titles. I spent little to no time playing the plethora of sports
games, and avoided most Gamecube ports like the plague.
I think to the dismay of
Nintendo, none of their exclusive titles got gameplay and found it
almost humorous as they nearly begged people to play them.
Starfox,
Mario Party,
Mario Sunshine and Swingers Golf were basically
untouched. After an hour, the “Nintendo reps” basically left me
alone, chalking me up as a lost cause…
Well, what was my biggest
surprise? Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I can’t
believe it myself. I’m not a fan of the books or the movie, but I
played it casually and was immediately hooked. The simple gameplay,
the beautiful graphics combined with the overall fun of the game is
going to make this a huge success this holiday season. I still
can’t believe how much I actually loved the game. I kept looking
around making sure no one was watching me, and I even thought maybe
they spiked the Snapple or something… Definitely watch this one
folks, this has the makings of being a huge title… I anticipate this
game to be the biggest seller of the season.
Good strat ‘tendo
You have to give it to
Nintendo for coming up with this marketing strategy. What a
brilliant way to introduce people to a variety of games, especially
right before the holidays. Was it as effective as they wanted it to
be? I don’t think so. While it’s all about selling a product, the
lack-luster efforts of their exclusives were shadowed in the mass of
Mortal Kombat, 007 and even Knockout Kings 2003. Even so, I found
it very entertaining and met a lot of great gamers.
Even if you are an XBOX
or PS2 fanboy, remember… it’s all about competition and competition
helps everyone. It keeps everyone fighting for your attention, and
this can be done through free goodies, improved games and even
lowered pricing. Support the industry and check out the Cube Club
if it hits your town. Make sure to come back to netjak, and let us
know what you thought.
Oh, and make sure you get
Mortal Kombat, ok?
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