First Party GameCube @ E3
With the Revolution on the horizon, what’s left for the GameCube?
Tags: e3 2005 Categories: Features, Game Cube Features
Posted by David Hinkle on Jun 22nd, 2005
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If the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess doesn’t excite you, then I fear your gamer’s license must be revoked. Ditching the cell-shaded look for a more mature, realistic presenation and Link, Twilight Princess takes the franchise to new territory. The combat is very reminiscent of Ocarina of Time, only with a more intelligent targetting system. The demo build available at E3 had 4 demo levels: Toaru Village, Horse Battle, Temple, and Temple Boss. Toaru Village has you running about the village, learning to ride the horse and communicating with the various NPCs. Horse Battle has you fighting off a pack of boar-riding enemies while atop your horse, eventually going one-on-one with the leader in a joust-like duel. Temple has you running about an undisclosed temple, solving various puzzles with the help of some monkeys. Finally, Temple Boss has you taking on a giant mutated plant, with the help of the Gale Force Boomerang. The boomerang handled much like it has in the past, except now the targetting allows for you to target multiple areas to damage with one throw. With tried-and-true fun gameplay and fantastically stunning visuals, this is definately the upcoming game to watch out for on the GameCube.
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Yoot Saito’s Odama has a very interesting premise. Combining pinball and strategic warfare, it creates a truly innovative and fun experience. Compatible with the microphone, you can control your armies with your voice (although on the show floor this was fairly useless, what with the plethora of people and noise). Set in feudal Asia, you won’t find each level to be full of neon lights and bumpers, but more of a natural setting with streams and trees. Graphically the game looked well and eventhough it was an early demo build, there weren’t any glitches or inconsistencies in the frame rate. With the amount of noise on the floor, the microphone input couldn’t really be checked, but with such an original concept this game is definately one to watch out for.
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DDR will finally be hitting the GameCube in the form of Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. For anyone who’s been under a rock for the past 10 years or so, DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) is a game where you step on arrows on a specifically-designed floormat cooresponding with arrows that display on the screen in time with music. While DDR has seen plenty of iterations in the arcade and on home consoles such as the PS2 and Xbox, it’s never been available to those who prefer the Nintendo consoles. Now, with Mario Mix, GameCube owners can dance to remixes of some of Nintendo’s most notable tunes. Fans of both DDR and Mario should be pleased with this upcoming title.
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Mario’s next outing is in Mario Baseball, an arcadey baseball game featuring many familiar faces. Much like what Mario did for golf and tennis, Mario Baseball will be more focused on action and cartoonish gameplay. With specialized pitching and hitting for each character over 5 innings, the game is accesible to just about everyone. There will be 6 different ballparks available, although there were only 3 selectable at E3, each with their own theme. With a wide array of selectable characters from the Nintendo universe of games and solid gameplay, both baseball addicts and casual fans alike will find something worth their time.
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Finishing off the Mario hat trick (pun very much intended) on the GameCube is Super Mario Strikers. Much like how baseball, tennis, and golf were handled, Super Mario Strikers will be an arcadey approach to soccer. The most notable thing about the game is just how fast it plays and how much this speed creates a tense, nail-biting experience. With some bruising tackles and powerups, you’ll really be able to put the damage on the opposing team’s players and goalie. In addition, each player has their own power shots to help them get that goal.
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Finishing up the sports titles is Pennant Chase Baseball, recently delayed and should be coming out around the All Star break. This is realistic baseball, but with Nintendo’s near-patented “ease of use” for everybody. THe games are either playable to their full extent (though fielding is automatic) or you can play the role of manager and just breeze though a game in minutes by telling a batter to either swing away or bunt. Players can even create their own player and go through a near RPG-like experience by taking their player and trying to make them the Rookie of the Year.
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For those who enjoy more of a tactical, strategy-based game, Fire Emblem should tickle the fancy. The demo build available at E3 showed off some solid play and graphics. With a cel-shaded approach, the game is very colorful and stylish. Battle, once you encounter an enemy, has you fighting until death. Battle is very quick, with a skirmish lasting a matter of seconds. Before going in you choose your weapon and given whether your enemy is atop a horse or not, or equipped with certain armor, can either help or deter your attack. As with many games of this type, you’ll be reading a lot as the story is progressed through character dialogue in the form of text balloons. Seeing as how the console lacks a lot of titles such as this, I’m sure strategy-based game fans will welcome this title with open arms come this fall.
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How cool would it be if you could possess people or objects? Well, Geist has you doing just that…and it’s quite fun. Taking over the role of an unwilling recipient of some state-of-the-art treatment, your spirit is essentially stripped from your body and held prisoner. It doesn’t take long before you’re able to escape, and upon doing so take up the task of finding your mortal flesh. Using your ability to possess inanimate objects, you must scare people in order to possess them, gaining all of their abilities. Taking over soldiers lets you use their gun and gain access to areas they can only access and such. While the controller isn’t very much suited for FPS titles, the action doesn’t get so intense that the controller’s awkward design gets in the way. Still, this may differ come time the game goes gold.
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Lastly is Battalion Wars, once titled Advanced Wars: Under Fire. While it failed to do anything but disappoint at last year’s E3, the title has very much made a complete 180 degree turn. While it appears to be your run-of-the-mill third-person shooter with a cartoon look, don’t let the cover fool you as to the contents of the book. With the ability to issue commands to your comrades in real time and switch between several skirmishes at any time, the game takes on a slight RTS feel as well. The total control over every aspect of the game is very much welcome and thanks to an intuitive control scheme, fairly easy. While Advanced Wars really didn’t do anything to elicite excitement, Battalion Wars manages to do the complete opposite.
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Tags: e3 2005
Posted by David Hinkle on Jun 22nd, 2005 and is filed under Features, Game Cube Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
