Start saving your monies for May 23

[Great Rumbler]

E3 won't be the only major video game event in May. Nintendo has four highly anticipated games launching in May featuring a powerhouse franchise, hot new rhythms, out-of-body experiences and sacred stones.

May 1: Pokemon® Emerald for Game Boy® Advance SP offers a new, more challenging Battle Frontier where players will face a fierce new lineup of competitors that is certain to test the skills of even the best Pokemon Trainers. The game features compatibility with five previous Pokemon titles, and up to four players can battle wirelessly.

May 9: Donkey Konga™ 2 follows last year's Nintendo GameCube™ smash hit with a new selection of modern, bongo-bashing songs. Donkey Konga 2 has dozens more songs in every genre to help you find your groove.

May 23: Geist™ for Nintendo GameCube will help you scare people senseless. Wander as a ghost and possess people, animals and objects in your path to help you unravel the mystery of your condition and get back to your human form.

May 23: Fire Emblem™: The Sacred Stones for Game Boy Advance SP lets you take advantage of your strengths and exploit your enemy's weaknesses. The role-playing game features new character classes and epic battles.

Giest and a new Fire Emblem on the same day? That's crazy talk!

Planet Gamecube

[OB1]

Definitely gonna get Fire Emblem, but Nintendo has yet to prove that Geist is worth $50, or even half that much. Let's hope they show the game off before E3, especially if it's supposed to be out just a week or so later.

Gotta love Nintendo!

[A Black Falcon]

Nintendo's allergies to the media really hurts them, I think...

But yeah, Fire Emblem's a buy, for sure, at some point.

[Great Rumbler]

From everything I've seen and heard about Geist it APPEARS that it could well be worth every penny, BUT the actual game may not be worth $50 or even $30 and that's something that I'm sure we'll start hearing more about as we get closer to May.

[OB1]

You'd think that they'd want to show off a more final product more than a week before it comes out... unless it's a real stinker, which it very well may be. It is n-space, after all.

[Great Rumbler]

That's how Nintendo always is though, they almost never show off games.

It is n-space, after all.

And Retro was merely of collection of extremely rough projects and rampant mismanagement until Nintendo got involved. Of course we all know what happened. My point being that with Nintendo...anything is possible!! *cue rainbow, faeries, unicorns, ect.*

[A Black Falcon]

Retro was CREATED by Nintendo. That's different from working with a team with a previously quite mediocre team... so yes, this game definitely could go either way. But I wouldn't take the lack of information as a sign of bad things. It's just a sign that Nintendo hates the press and doesn't seem to understand that games that aren't big names won't generate their own press... well, either that or they want to bury it. But I'd bet on the former.

[Great Rumbler]

For the record Retro WAS NOT created by Nintendo. They were in fact created by Jeff Spangenberg who hired around 30 people to make games. Nintendo became interested in the endeavor and bought up some of their stock. And the rest, as some are want to say, is history.

I do see your point, though, but what I'm saying is that before Nintendo took over these guys were going nowhere. All the projects were showing very little signs of progress at all. Nintendo exerted their creative influence and got to start working, now they obviously aren't exactly the same thing, but with Nintendo involved there's always a good chance the game will turn out good.

[OB1]

That's definitely true, but when Nitnendo showed off Metroid Prime for the first time it looked superb. Geist looked like crap the first time it was shown, and last year it didn't look like Nintendo-quality material.

[Great Rumbler]

I think you're being a bit overly critical of it. It doesn't look THAT bad, though I'll agree with you that's no Metroid Prime.











http://www.nlgaming.com/games/1687/movies/e3geist.wmv

[OB1]

It doesn't look bad, but certainly not very good. Definitely not Nintendo-good.

[Great Rumbler]

Did you watch the video? It's not very good quality, but it does look better than those shots.

[OB1]

The ancient E3 video? Of course I've seen it.

[Great Rumbler]

Well, anyway, it's coming out on May 23.

[OB1]

yeah...

[Great Rumbler]

I hope it turns out to be a good game because it has a cool premise.

[OB1]

Yeah... wouldn't get your hopes up though. Better to be pleasantly surprised, no?

[Great Rumbler]

I suppose it is at that.

[EdenMaster]

Hmm...the only for-sure buy on the list for me is Fire Emblem. The first one was great, so I'm highly interested in the new one. It's got the same engine, so I'll be able to jump right into it, which I like.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I hope it turns out to be a good game because it has a cool premise.

Same here. As far as I know, this sort of thing has never been done before, and with Nintendo producing it, you know there's a good chance for high quality.

[Dark Jaguar]

Actually the whole "possession" thing has been done before, but since nearly no one even talks about that game any more, I think it's safe to say that game wasn't that good. I forget what it was even called, but you played as an angel who had to do stuff via other people's bodies.

[Great Rumbler]

I can only think of one game that ever did that before and, no, I can't remember what it was called.

[A Black Falcon]

Messiah, the good-concept-but-mediocre-results PC game from ... Bungie, was it?

You played an angel (little child one) who possessed people by flying quickly into their backs.

[Great Rumbler]

It was developed by Shiny and published by Interplay.

[lazyfatbum]

Just my two cents, but Geist should look better for a last or second to last gen title for a system that's in its twilight. But who cares? It's a first person shooter with the ability to become a ghost and do cool stuff with things; Anything that takes an FPS and makes it new or different is a welcomed and rare gift that we dont recieve enough of (across any platform). The premise is cool so let's hope the execution is too.

As for the graphics, they look as good or if not better than Eternal Darkness which was considered the best back in the day, and as long as I can find myself immersed in the game i'll have no problems with the lack of graphical flare when compared to current gen stuff like RE4 or Metroid Echoes. Those are bank-busters anyway with giant dev teams and ass-loads of cash sunk in to them. I'm happy with 'independent' games that are lower budget as long as they bring something good to the table as far as gameplay dynamics or design in general.

I guess the bottom line is, for me anyway, that I need to rent it first instead of blindly buying it as I usually would when a game carries the Nintendo name.

My two cents turned in to about a buck fifty.

[A Black Falcon]

It was developed by Shiny and published by Interplay.

Right, Shiny. Never played it... I tried to run the demo but it didn't work so I gave up. It got bad reviews anyway.

[Great Rumbler]

It was also extremely buggy and constantly locked up.

[OB1]

How is Geist an "independent game"? It's backed by the largest developer in the world...