Nintendo's first demo disc is out

[OB1]

You can buy it at EB, Best Buy, etc. On the disc are playable demos of Billy Hatcher, Sonic DX (which I heard is even worse than the Dreamcast version), Soul Calibur 2, and uh... some more games. I think Viewtiful Joe might be on it, but I'm not sure.

[OB1]

Ok it looks like those guys from the ign boards were wrong since EBgames only lists Billy Hatcher, Viewtiful Joe, Splinter Cell, and Sonic DX.

[Laser Link]

WOO!

[A Black Falcon]

Great! I'll need to get it...

[OB1]

Ok I can now confirm that a playable SC 2 demo is on the disc! Yay!!

[Laser Link]

That's really good. Billy Hatcher looks cool, but I really want to play SC2 and Viewtiful Joe.

[OB1]

I'm really looking forward to Giant Egg (I don't want to call it Billy Hatcher). The movies I've seen looked really good and I've heard that it's a ton of fun.

[Great Rumbler]

It's about time!! I'm definitely going to pick this up as soon as I can, if only for the Viewtiful Joe demo!

[Dark Jaguar]

They should be giving it away rather than selling it. While demos of games I really want are nice, I refuse to ever pay for a demo alone. Pack it with a game, or the system, or something.

[OB1]

They are packing it in with the system.

[Dark Jaguar]

Good to know that. Still, as you can imagine, I won't be getting it that way either.

[Great Rumbler]

Both Sony and MS have demo discs that they sell, but your point is well made. Oh well, I'll pay the small price and enjoy the demos while you drown in a sea of envy!! :evil:

[OB1]

Damn, none of my local stores had the disc in today. But I did pick up X-Wing Alliance for $10. Do I really need a joystick for this game, ABF?

[A Black Falcon]

Yes. X-Wing Alliance, just like X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2, and almost all other flightsims that aren't Freelancer, needs a joystick... a few do let you use mouse (Freespace 2, TIE Fighter and X-Wing in the original DOS versions (not the XVT engine versions, however)... but its terrible controls. I tried it once in TIE Fighter... HORRIBLE! It uses like a stick so you have to constantly pick up the mouse... not fun at all. I don't think Alliance lets you do that, anyway.

Oh, if you have a analog gamepad you can use that. It wouldn't be nearly as good as pretty much any joystick, but its technically usable... but there really isn't anything like using a real joystick to fly the ship. Its not just because its more fun that way... real joysticks have much better accuracy and specific control than the best mini-stick in a analog gamepad. It'd be usable... just not as precise. Or as fun. Joystick with one hand, keyboard on the other... since these games use lots of keyboard keys. I still remember what several dozen keys do in TIE Fighter... :)

Lets see... offhand... TIE Fighter. I don't remember XWA's control scheme... I played that game less and never fully adjusted from TIE Fighter. :)

joystick -- button 1 fires, button 2 targets ship in sights. Others do stuff I don't use. Oh, except the throttle, which changes speed. :)

keyboard -- F8 is shield power level, F9 is weapon power level, and F10 is beam power level.

1 through 0 change the camera view. Same for numeric keypad. - decreases speed (as alternative to the throttle axis on the joystick), = increases speed, backspace sets speed to zero. and \ sets speed to full.

X changes laser config (single/double/etc), S changes shield config (all front/balanced/all rear) on shielded craft, W switches weapons (lasers to ion cannons and missiles if you have them), B turns on the SLAM overdrive in the Missile Boat, T is next target, Y is previous target, R is target closest enemy fighter, Z switches to a special view screen where you see stats and flightpath plans for the targeted ship. Hitting Q then spacebar quits the mission. H enters hyperspace in ships with hyperdrive -- also quitting the mission. Also, I belive that ; and ' (though I may be wrong... don't use those commands enough... but its near there) switch power from weapons to shields and shields to weapons (shifting energy from one to the other to bolster one at the cost of the other). , switches the targetted ship system you are targetting in the currrently targeted craft or station. . goes to third person mode, behind the ship... but its useless since you get no interface there (realistically, you have no displays -- radar, power, etc... in that view mode... not too useful.). ENTER matches your speed with your current target, up to your max speed.

M opens the map screen. You can move around and zoom the map with the joystick and the first two buttons on it. From here left and right (on, I think, the keyboard) switch to the other parts of the pause interface... each one has a keyboard shortcut, but I only remember M... there's a game options screen (with sound volume and some settings... including the invincibility and unlimited missiles/ammo options that I have never used... it'd be no fun at all to win that way...), wingman commands list, ship systems (for repairs), and a keyboard commands list page (with all commands in the game listed).

Yes, that's from memory. If I'd looked it up, I'd have known the rest of the pause screen hotkeys and which keys, for certain, do the power shifting and if there are power shift keys for the beam power as well as weapon and shield. I honestly can't remember...

edit: just remembered! There is also a key to turn on the game recorder (records mission for watching and saving afterwards)... I think its C, but am not sure...

[OB1]

I can't afford a joystick right now.

[A Black Falcon]

Even one of the cheap $10 or $20 ones? Seriously, that's all you really need... all the other things on them (8 buttons, twist axis, etc) are nice extras, but not really necessary... and its so much better with any joystick than any analog pad... oh well.

[Darunia]

I wonder if they'll keep on making demo discs.

[OB1]

I can't even afford a $5 joystick right now. I have to spend all of my money on a monitor.

[A Black Falcon]

Owch... then you'll have to use a analog gamepad. I'd bet the game would be harder with the loss of precision... but can't be helped at least. At least you have some analog-control thing so you can play the game...

[OB1]

BTW the damn thing won't let me change most of the graphics settings. I can't get it over 640x480.

[A Black Falcon]

Thats odd... I know you can do that somewhere...

[OB1]

And whenever I go into the options menu mid-game is slows down pretty bad. I can't find any visual settings options in the main menu.

[EdenMaster]

Originally posted by Darunia
I wonder if they'll keep on making demo discs.

History has shown that Nintendo doesn't like to do things that would get them ahead in the console industry, so I would doubt it :).

[A Black Falcon]

Don't be THAT cynical... they made one so more aren't out of the picture. :)

[Darunia]

It'll take more than demo discs to get them anywhere in the industry with things the way they are now... and...

this is my 3,000th post!! Booyeah.

[OB1]

Ok I finally got the demo disc last night so here are my impressions!

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg: Stupid name, fun game! Basically what you do is push these eggs around, feeding them by killing enemies and eating the fruit they leave behind (don't ask). You can then hatch the egg and get a little animal buddy to walk by your side and use special attacks and stuff. Or you can just roll around with the egg for a while. The controls are good, the graphics are nice, the camera is fine, and the music is right for the game. The demo is very short so I'll have to wait and see how the long the game is and what kind of reviews it gets before deciding whether or not I'm gonna buy the game.

Viewtiful Joe: You know, when I first saw this game I thought it looked pretty neat, but I never considered buying it. Then I read ign's impressions and thought "hey that sounds cool but I still don't know if I want to plop down $50 for it". Well now that I've played the demo I can tell you that I am definitely going to be getting this game as soon as it comes out. The movies don't do this game justice. It's just so fun, insane, and cool at the same time. The bullet-time and mach speed modes are just so damn cool, and this game really does do bullet-time much better than Max Payne, Dead to Rights, or Enter the Matrix do. I'm serious. The demo lasts for a while so if you're itching to play this game, head on over to Best Buy and pick it up! I'm really looking forward to this one.

Sonic DX: This is so sad. I can't believe Sega is actually going to try and sell this for $40. It's worse than the DC version which came out in 1999! Some things look a lot better than the DC version (such as water), but this game suffers from a jumpy framerate. The DC version didn't have slowdown like this. If you want this game badly, go out and find a used Dreamcast and I'll send you a copy of the game.

Soul Calibur 2: Just like SC1, only prettier! If you liked the first one (and who didn't?) you'll like the sequel. It looks and plays very similar to the first game, only more polished and more visually pleasing. VF4 is still the king of 3D fighters. Unfortunately Link is not playable in the demo, and there's no two-player mode (in the demo, of course).

Splinter Cell: Only played this one for a few minutes, but it looks good. Definitely not as good as the X-Box and PC versions, but if you don't have an X-Box or a good enough PC, get this version.

GBA demos:

Wario Ware: Words cannot describe how crazy this game is. But thankfully it's a crapload of fun, so if Best Buy or whoever sells this game for under $25 I'll buy it.

Dr. Mario: Exact same as the NES version. Hopefully Nintendo will release a GBA puzzle collection some day.

[A Black Falcon]

Sounds great! I'll have to get this soon...

Oh, and the fact Sonic DX will include all the Game Gear games doesn't make it any more worth buying?

[OB1]

For $40? No way. You can get a Gamegear emulator for the DC with all of those roms for only $3. Stay away from Sonic DX and get a used DC.

[A Black Falcon]

But there aren't many good DC games worth getting that haven't been ported... why get one NOW?

Anyway, how could Sonic DX be WORSE than the DC version?

[Dark Jaguar]

Dr. Mario is just like the NES version? They didn't even bother using the SNES version? Yes, a puzzle collection (with an all-puzzle mode like Tetris and Dr. Mario had) is in order.

I played Wario Ware on a GBA in a store 2 days ago. I was surprised to see it there and wondered if the game was already out. Apparently, it wasn't, so this was likely a demo cart much like Metroid Fusion had for a while. That game has everything I always wanted in a game! FINALLY my dream of a giant foot kicking contest wherein a straw sponge and a stack of bolts are kicked on those small skateboards over a cliff has come to light!

[OB1]

There are plenty of great DC games that haven't been ported over to other consoles. And Sonic DX is worse than the DC version because of slowdown. The DC version has a much more consistant framerate.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, isn't Wario Ware great?

[Great Rumbler]

Judging from the demo, Sonic Adventure DX is a glitchy, jerky romp through enviroments that looked good 4 years ago with a horrendous case of bad framerates. I'm not kidding, DX is an awful mess. I could stand to play for more than a few minutes it was so...it was just horrible. I can't believe that Sega would make something like this and actually charge people money for it. Unless they fix a lot of things over the demo version, I can't recommend this game, Game Gear games or no.

Viewtiful Joe on the other hand is a marvelous achievement in awesomeness. It's really fun and very addicting.

[OB1]

Viewtiful Joe really caught me off guard. The game is incredible. It's definitely on my top 10 most-anticipated games list for this year.

And the final version of Sonic DX is just as bad as the demo. Several magazines have gotten the final review copies and all of them have complained about the disgraceful framerate. The DC version is much, much better.

[Dark Jaguar]

Huge shame, considering that the GCN version of SA2 actually ran smoother than the original. What is up with that? I mean, on the one hand, bonuses the original doesn't have, but on the other hand, according to the masses, it actualy has frame rate so bad I'd actually notice it and not be able to play. I think I'll just stick with the original that I already have.