Brand new super franchise to be revealed in May [21/02/2006 14:13]
Nintendo will announce a new franchise for Revolution at the annual E3 games show this May, with the goal of creating another big success story like gaming behemoths Zelda, Mario and Nintendogs.
"This year's E3 will be Revolution's coming out party", according to Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's executive vice president of sales and marketing. In an online interview Reggie confirmed that new franchises and "a lot of information" will be uncovered at this year's event.
Reggie also revealed further nuggets of info, confirming that the name Revolution is still a code name, that Nintendo has shared over a thousand Revolution development kits with developers across the world, and that a third version of DS wasn't "an unreasonable assumption".
When questioned about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Reggie was positive that Nintendo would launch the game for GameCube in 2006, later adding that "GameCube games will only be compatible with GameCube accessories" and that Revolution titles are the only ones that will use the new controller.
With Sony and Microsoft still fighting over who's got the best technology and multimedia support, it looks like Nintendo has been busy with what gaming is all about - the games. May 2006 can't come soon enough.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
You've probably seen it already in the news, but the upcoming Nintendo Power shows the New SMB for release on May 7th. There hasn't been a new 2-D Mario for quite some time, but this one looks like its going to catch up on that. It's a mixture of Mario 64 and Sunshine graphics and art styles with gameplay taken from every Mario game and streamlined in to a completely new experience. What excites me the most is that the ability to grow and the fireflowers are back, not to mention the level of difficulty returning to its roots, leave it to Nintendo to remmind us why we love Mario.
News Article: New Release Date for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
News Date: 02/19/2006 1:06:17
Source: Spike TV
Vice President Reggie drops date in interview with Spike TV.
On Spike TV's "Game Head" tonight, they featured an interview with NOA Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Reginald Fils-Aime. When discussing "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess", show host Geoff Keighley directly asked when the game would be released. Fils-Aime answered that it would be out in the fall of this year. In addition, he stressed that it would be for Nintendo GameCube, contradicting rumors that the title was being moved to Revolution.
Jonathan says: Shocking! (No.)
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So they stress it's for GC... Can you say "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Special Edition, only for Nintendo Revolution"? or "Revolution launch date - Christmas 06"? I bet you can.
Funniest thing I've seen in a long time. It looks like you can use anything and everything you find to kill the dozens, hundreds maybe, of zombies. Looks like alot of fun, too. Go to Trailer 3.
After so many months of seeing screens and video of Dead Rising, it was a pleasure to both see and play it in person...what was once something that looked merely "good" became "frickin' awesome," for lack of a better term.
On the surface, Dead Rising is basically a "survive a mall full of zombies" game. You kill them, you avoid being killed, and things move on from there. In fact, your only goal in the game is to get on the helicopter that's coming to get you in 72 hours.
This is where it gets complicated. Dead Rising quickly becomes a game of options--you have 72 (simulated, not realtime) hours until the helicopter comes to your rescue. Certain tasks take certain amounts of time, and dying takes some time off the clock as well--meaning that every choice you make has a consequence. It's a kind of gimmick familiar to those who watch 24...and brings a bit of tension to the game. Do you save fellow humans? Do you go after the scoop? Or do you save your own butt and forget everything else? Different choices will make different things happen in-game, and that will eventually lead to a different ending. Consequences in play, all the way through.
As a sort of counterbalance to the serious tone of the plot, Dead Rising's gameplay takes a decidedly over the top tone. Gore flies everywhere as you kill zombies left and right. From the traditional goresprayers of chainsaws and axes to unconvential items like coathangers and purses, you can find over 250 items to keep the undead at bay. One of the crowd favorites was the lead pipe--by going into first person mode, you can throw a lead pipe like a javelin into a zombie. When it hits, you hear a sickening splat/thud combo, and then the pipe is left sticking out of the zombie whereever it landed a blow...and blood is spraying out of the open end.
The playable demo included one mission: go to the pharmacy and get medicine. Although the mall wasn't finished, the amount of detail put into creating it was amazing. Everything looks and feels like a real mall--which is an impressive feat, given that the Dead Rising team specially designed every object in the game...over 2,000 in all.
Going from the security room to the pharmacy was a bash, too. Combat was decidedly simplistic (jump, hit, throw, grapple), but being able to get through the zombie-filled mall and courtyard was rewarding. You can't just blaze your way through, killing each one... No, you've got to be smart, make hits count, jump and dodge. Eventually you'll get to your goal (which sadly wasn't possible in this early build as one of the areas wasn't done) and you can try your hand at getting back.
In short, Dead Rising is one of the most inventive and fun games to come along in a long time. It eschews any sort of linearity for an almost fully open experience that only has one solid objective. As well, it ignores the "Resident Evil" mold Capcom has made, and instead makes a name for itself as a sort of mix of 24 and Shaun of the Dead.
It also does NOT have that new age techno garbage music that has plagued the Tetris series for too long. It DOES have remixed Nintendo retro music.
What it still lacks is the classic Russian classic music like Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. And that, well, it makes me sad. Seriously, while I do love the retro Nintendo music from the videos I watched, they really REALLY need to add some russian music and artwork fare to the next itteration of Tetris. DO IT!
However, everything I've seen so far makes me WANT this game. Some DS Bust a Move and Dr. Mario and I'll be set.
