Quote:The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Hands-On


SEATTLE--At its Gamer's Summit today, Nintendo had a new and seemingly almost complete version of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, the new Game Boy Advance Zelda adventure from Capcom's internal Flagship studio. Flagship has had plenty of experience with 2D Zelda games before, what with its Game Boy Color games Oracle of Season and Oracle of Ages, not to mention the GBA port of A Link to the Past. So it wasn't much surprise to us to see that this newest Zelda seems to be fully upholding the spirit of the venerable series.

Here's one of the most amusing things we noticed about The Minish Cap: Link starts the game with no hat. If you've read our previous coverage of the game, you know that Link will wear what is essentially a sentient hat in this newest adventure, but at the beginning of the game, you won't have any head covering to speak of. We saw how Link happens upon his future cap under attack by octoroks and subsequently has to save the hat from harm. A Nintendo representative said that we could basically look at The Minish Cap as the story of how Link got his famous hat. The game's namesake is a real wisecracker, and it'll raise up off of Link's head and offer some quip or piece of advice at various times in the game, as the situation warrants.

Apparently, The Minish Cap will have some minor gameplay connections to the most recently released Zelda game, Four Swords on the GameCube. That game had four different Links working in conjunction to solve various puzzles, and The Minish Cap will use a similar mechanic in some places. You won't have any other players helping out, however; rather, special pads on the floor will occasionally cause Link to split into four identical selves so that you'll have some extra muscle if you have some overwhelming task to complete. In the example we saw, Link had to spawn his clones while facing the proper direction so he could move them all as a group and push a massive block out of the way. We imagine this four-Link mechanic will figure prominently in some of the game's more devious puzzle designs.

We also got a better feel for the way the kinstones will work in the game. As reported previously, you'll collect kinstone fragments as you progress through the game, and you can match up your fragments with those of various other characters to effect changes in the game world. In the new build, we got to see how you'll be able to access a menu screen where you can manage the kinstone fragments you've collected, which ought to be handy since the kinstones are categorized by the designs on their faces (and also because there's something like 100 of them). More importantly, after you make a kinstone match, the overworld map will show you an icon when you zoom in that indicates where (and what) the effect of your latest pairing is. Sometimes a match will cause a new character to appear, or open up access to a new area, and so on.

The Minish Cap seems like it might be a bit more story-driven than previous Zelda games, since we ran around in a town that was chock-full of characters we could interact with. There seem to be a fair number of noninteractive dialogue scenes as well, from what we played, so there may be a bit more plot to this game than your average Zelda. In any event, we'll be curious to see how The Minish Cap has shaped up when it hits stores in January. Stay tuned for more info before then.

Quote:Feel The Magic: XY/XX Hands-On


SEATTLE--Feel the Magic is the US moniker for Sega's Sonic Team-developed DS game that goes by the equally eccentric title of Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru, or, I Would Die for You (when translated into English). The unique game plops you into the role of an average joe eager to gain the favor of what is likely to be an unattainable hottie. While we got a hint of the wackiness that was to come last month at the Tokyo Game Show, where Sega had a provocative looping video of the game, at today's Nintendo Gamer's Summit we got our hands on a demo version of the game. The demo only offered a handful of the minigame-style scenarios from the game, and was devoid of the bulk of the story that will tie the disparate bits of insanity together. But it still gave a decidedly memorable impression.

The few story bits that were in the demo offered some insight into the odd story courtesy of stylish in-game cinematics that played out with the iPod-style characters interacting in a brightly lit world. The gist of the game is simple: One day you're walking down the street and see a gorgeous beauty who you apparently decide is worth your devotion. To make that pipe dream a reality, you join the Rub Rabbits, a troupe of performers who go around in bunny ears.

This in turn causes you to go through a series of the aforementioned scenarios that find you doing all manner of craziness that will somehow impress your oblivious sweetie. The demo we played let us try six of the scenarios that did a fine job of showing off the DS' touch screen functionality as well as Sonic Team's loopiness. The first scenario revolved around coaxing goldfish to swim up a man's esophagus and jump out of his mouth. Such a task proves surprisingly easy to do, as you simply have to rub in an upward direction on a silhouette of the man's stomach until said fish scurry up his esophagus and escape. Once you complete the goldfish scenario, the demo lets you pick your next task.

We opted for the simply titled "candle" scenario, which requires you to blow out a descending candle in one of two ways. As the candle descends from the top screen to the bottom of the touch screen, you'll see a group of fellows looking up at it. You can cause them to blow puffs of air at it to extinguish its flame by literally blowing into the DS' microphone or using the stylus and rubbing in an upward motion over each of them individually to cause them to blow air at it. Doing this too quickly will cause the gang to get dizzy and be unable to move for several precious seconds, which will result in the candle getting to the bottom of the screen and burning everyone. Nice.

Seeker was the next game we tried, and requires you to rub the touch screen, which is made to look like a sandy beach, in search of whatever appears in your lady love's thought bubble. There are two significant catches to the whole shebang: the segment is timed, which requires some fast rubbing on your part, and some items look merely similar to your honey's desires, and may cause her irritation when you offer them to her.

The next episode, wash her, found us trying to keep our sweet girl clean by rubbing a variety of grime off of her. No further comment.

After that, an episode called bull proved to be a fast paced affair that sends you up against a horde of rampaging bulls that threaten to squash your sweetie who's apparently tripped and fallen in Pamplona, Spain during the running of the bulls. You'll have to tap each of the incoming bulls with your stylus to ward them off. After you've warded off enough of the four-legged terrors, you'll have to deal with el mero jefe, a massive bull with 100 hit points that you'll whittle away by tapping like a madman on it as it advances on you.

The last demo we tried was similar in spirit to wash her, only rather than sweep off dirt, you're responsible for knocking off hordes of scorpions that have found their way onto your lady. As we all know, this is a real drag when it happens.

The graphics in the game are stylish collection of flat color imagery that animates smoothly and features some artistic touches. It's difficult to assess what, if any, taxation Feel the Magic is causing the DS hardware as the game is hardly graphics intensive and the stylish look is simple. However, such concerns don't really matter as the game's style goes a long way towards establishing its own unique reality. The action is fast and the visuals are inventive, which helps make the game a true original.

The audio in the game is an equally unusual collection of tunes and soundbytes that frame the action well. We'll admit to hoping for an even more-over-the top approach in the voice and music, but what's on hand gets the job done.

Based on what we played, Feel the Magic is best described as "crazy". However, we'd like to stress that this is the good, "must sweep scorpions off woman of my dreams who probably doesn't even know I exist," kind of crazy that recalls some of Sega's eccentric gems such as Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo. Needless to say we were left wanting more, and are especially curious to see how the final story will tie scorpions, bulls, goldfish, beach trawling, and candle blowing into one cohesive package.

At any rate, Feel the Magic is looking like a slick launch title for the DS that does exactly what Nintendo has said it hopes games for the system will do: push the envelope and offer a new experience that is unlike anything seen before, by taking advantage of the hardware's unique functionality.

For more updates on the Nintendo DS and other impressions and media, check out GameSpot's coverage of Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Quote:Yoshi's Touch & Go Hands-On


SEATTLE--The first game we tried on the Nintendo DS at today's Gamer's Summit improbably ended up being our favorite, and it wasn't one we even knew the first thing about before we sat down with it. Yoshi's Touch & Go is a new 2D action game that's stylistically almost identical to the classic Yoshi's Island but that you play entirely with the stylus and touch screen. The innovative gameplay and charming style of the game had us running through the brief demo several times before the end of the day.

At the beginning of the demo, Baby Mario began falling through the sky, suspended by a cluster of balloons. This was a treacherous sky, full of bad guys (but also full of coins), and it was up to us to direct Mario's descent to earth by drawing lines of cloud with the DS' stylus that would gently guide him along. The tricky part is that Mario was seen only on the top screen, while the bottom screen (being the touch-sensitive one) was naturally the only one we could draw on. So we constantly had to resist the urge to watch Mario himself and see where he was going, because we already had to be preparing the next section of the sky for his arrival. Basically, to get through this part, we had to stop looking at Mario at all to get to the ground without disaster.

We found straight diagonal lines to be useful for making Mario move along a line of coins, enhancing our score, and we also found out that most enemies could be encircled in a ring of cloud, which would then transmute them into a harmless bubble containing a tasty coin. Again, this is all played with no aid from the d-pad or buttons--Mario's fall is automatic, and you can only affect it by establishing guide-clouds for him to fall against.

Once he reached the ground, Mario landed right on Yoshi's back and the side-scrolling portion of the demo began. This part was almost identical to Yoshi's Island, with Yoshi trailing a line of eggs that could be launched at enemies or collectible items along a chosen trajectory. The big difference here is that Yoshi ran forward at all times without any input from us, so we had to think fast to make sure he and Mario got where they were going safely.

In this part, tapping Yoshi with the stylus made him jump, while tapping him again in the air made him perform that little hover move he's so good at. Like in the previous section, we were able to draw lines of cloud in the air here, which came in handy when we encountered pitfalls that were too wide for Yoshi to jump across safely. In this section, the second screen depicted the sky up above filled with coin configurations, so when we had a second to spare, we managed to launch the occasional egg skyward to snag a few extra points. Once we reached the end of this short level, the demo sadly ended.

To us, Yoshi's Touch & Go is a great example of the kind of games that could potentially make wary gamers understand the unique features of the Nintendo DS. Whether or not the concept will extend to an entire game--and, more importantly, whether or not consumers will embrace such a game--remains to be seen, but for now, we're very intrigued (and we'd like to play that demo a few more times, please). We'll bring you more on the game as soon as we know about it.

For more updates on the Nintendo DS and other impressions and media, check out GameSpot's coverage of Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Quote:WarioWare DS Hands-On


SEATTLE-It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Nintendo would be bringing a WarioWare game to the Nintendo DS following the appearance of tech demo that starred Mario's surly twin at this year's E3. As a result it was no surprise to see a DS version of the awesome series that has spawned GBA and GC incarnations appear in playable form at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit. As fans of the series with painfully short attention spans we were understandably stoked to try out the latest game in the series at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Nintendo's development team has wisely kept things simple with WarioWare's DS debut and maintained the format of the previous games. The DS game on display uses the elevator motif see in the GameCube version and flings the minigames at you with all the subtley of fully automatic Uzi. The minigames we played were a mix of familiar games we've seen before given a stylus centric twist on the DS. In a few cases we found ourselves timing a stylus tap on the A or B button on an image of an original GBA with one of the original minigames playing on it. In addition to old classics there are quite a few new games on hand that simply require you to swipe your stylus on the touchscreen to cut rope and fruit or push buttons among other fast paced tasks.

The graphic style of the game is on par with the GameCube game and features an eclectic mix of cartoony and photorealistic imagery that comes at a hurricane's pace. There's nothing to tax the DS hardware here but plenty to give the game it's own quirky style. The game's performance actually seems a little faster than the previous versions which certainly kept us on our toes. The audio in the game follows suit with the visuals and serves up a bizarre collection of sound effects and tunes that somehow manages to offer perfect accompaniment to the insanity.

WarioWare DS is shaping up to be an excellent entry in the slightly mad series from Nintendo. The fast paced gameplay, loopy visuals and crazy audio all add up to what will surely be a must have game for the DS. For more updates on the Nintendo DS and other impressions and media, check out GameSpot's coverage of Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Quote:A Nintendo representative said that we could basically look at The Minish Cap as the story of how Link got his famous hat.

Quote:The Minish Cap seems like it might be a bit more story-driven than previous Zelda games, since we ran around in a town that was chock-full of characters we could interact with. There seem to be a fair number of noninteractive dialogue scenes as well, from what we played, so there may be a bit more plot to this game than your average Zelda.

Quote:Awesome.

Where in the timeline does MC take place though? I hope to find that out soon.

Quote:Feel the Magic XY/XX sounds so awesome. I can't wait for the DS to come out.

Quote:After that preview, I'm leaning towards saying the Four Swords era... as for the other comment, yeah, it is weird. Even if it is in the Four Swords period, I doubt it's before FS and FS has Link with his typical hat so... yeah, it doesn't make much sense...

Quote:Wario Ware... it looks weird and fun, like the previous games. This year? Yeah, likely not. The Yoshi game looks awesome though... great artwork (that copies Yoshi's Island), and unique gameplay. Looks like a great Nintendo unique concept game that could be a lot of fun (and look great too).

Quote:Unless the hat dies at the end of the game and Link cuts off its head so that it looks like a normal hat.

Quote:Yoshi looks great but the art definitely isn't as nice as Island's.

Quote:You'd have to put screenshots next to eachother to prove that because they look the same to me...

Quote:Oh, and I'm quite happy to see drawn games on the DS. It's got N64 power so I was worrying that the fully 2d game would finally almost totally fade away... clearly there are still some coming out. Though obviously for some genres the 3d will do wonders... see: racing games...

Quote:I just hope that Intelligent Systems will make a proper 2D Metroid game for the sytem.

Quote:Okay, I see what you mean. It's done in a similar style but next to eachother it's clear that Yoshi's Island looks better. Island also looks fully hand-drawn, which is great, while some aspects of the DS game look more 'rendered' or something... it's nothing like DK vs. Mario vs. DK, but yeah, the SNES game is the clear winner.

Quote:Yeah... though I do have to ask the question about repeating. That is, how often can they repeat that same formula before people get bored and we need another long break like the one between Metroid 3 and 4...

Quote:It actually looks a lot like Mario & Luigi, a great game but with an art style that left much to be desired.

Quote:Uh, we most certainly did not need a long break between Super Metroid and Prime/Fusion! As soon as everyone beat SM back in '94 the desire for another Metroid only grew. That's like asking how can people still play Mario and Zelda after all these years. Amazing gameplay does not get old. And your point is made even more ridiculous by the fact that Metroid has seen more gameplay diversity than either Zelda or Mario, relatively speaking. The only Metroid games that aren't a huge departure for the series, gameplay-wise, are Zero Mission (which is a remake of Metroid 1) and Metroid Prime 2.

Quote:I was quite underwhelmed by Mario & Luigi's art, as you may remember... I'd say that this is better than that. It doesn't match Yoshi's Island (or Paper Mario), but it's better than M&L probably...

Quote:I'm just pointing out that after you do things virtually the same way over and over in a short time period people DO get tired of the formula... you can keep doing it anyway (see Mega Man), but most people stop for a while at some point.

Quote:Yeah, but not by a whole lot. Who was it that loved M&L's art again?

Quote:Mega Man is not a tenth as good as Metroid. There's no comparison there. And with MM you have ten games following the same exact formula, one that was fun but up to a point.

Let me ask you this: After having played so many Zelda games (especially the Oracle games which are carbon copies of LA in terms of graphics and gameplay), have you ever once said "Man, this is kinda getting old". Hopefully your answer will be the same as mine: Fuck no! And Metroid isn't anywhere near Zelda in terms of number of similar sequels! Here's how I'd brake it down in terms of gameplay for the two series (hell I'll throw in Mario as well), bunched up into the titles that play a lot like each other:

Quote:Not me. I do like this more than that...

Quote:Sure Mega Man is an extreme case, but some people got tired of that formula a LONG time ago. Yes, the Nintendo games are better and more inventive. This makes that less of a problem. But I do think that it is a good point... you CAN have too much of the same. Redoing the same thing over and over is not necessarially a good thing! See: Mario Party. I think we all agreed on that one.

Quote:Is Metroid there? Probably not... but it has been getting a lot of titles in the last few years.

Quote:The 3d ones are one thing, and are newer, but the 2d ones? That formula hasn't changed much...

Quote:oh it's still great fun, but how many times will Nintendo want to do another similar game?

Quote:I definitely hope that they keep making 2d Metroids, but I wonder how much they will do... after all, 2d is inherently less flexible gameplay-wise than 3d.