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Friday, December 14, 2007

Dewy's Adventure

Dewy’s Adventure is another Wii-exclusive game from Konami that tries to use the system’s motion controls in a meaningful way. This time, the team behind Elebits makes players hold the remote sideways like a normal controller and slide a water droplet character named Dewy across platforms. Unfortunately, tilting the remote in all different directions often sends this droplet to his watery grave. The unresponsive controls, while innovative, are going to turn off all but the most persistent young players. That’s a shame because Dewy’s Adventure is far too cute for anyone else to give it a chance.

This game’s always-cheery star slides through levels with a smile on his face and playful sounds to go along with every movement. So, while the uninteresting story may involve defeating the black rain, there’s nothing dark or sinister about this game’s design. Many would call this a general audience game, but it’s better classified as a younger audience game.

Behind the layers of pastel colors are some fun and innovative puzzle mechanics that anyone can find appealing. Players can use up and down on the D-Pad to raise and lower Dewy’s temperature in addition to tilting the Wii remote to slide. This clever gameplay element turns Dewy into either ice or mist and the entire environment around him freezes up or swelters in heat. He can spin attack enemies as an ice shard or zap them with lighting as a floating cloud. Motion-controlled earthquake and wind-blowing moves join the temperature-based ones; shake the remote left and right to cause the ground to shake or shake side to side to initiate a gust of wind.

More interesting than any attack, though, is the way in which the environment changes when adjusting the temperature. A great example is when dangerous bodies of water freeze over, sometimes building a bridge to a previously inaccessible part of a level. If you happen to fall off of that bridge onto the sheet of ice below, find a nearby lily pad and raise the temperature. Doing this causes the ice to melt and the water and lily to rise, getting you back to the start of where you can ice up that bridge again.

Dewy’s Adventure is full of well-designed puzzles and temperature-based boss weak spots like a good Mario platform game. But, Nintendo would never let its star mascot fall off of platforms so much. Whether I died because the controls weren’t as tight as they should be or the stationary camera lacked depth perception, my frustration and enjoyment level of this adventure would rise and fall much like Dewy’s temperature level. Added to that aggravation were the times that I felt unprepared for the mini-bosses. After saving a lot of NPCs from harm's way and losing most of my life, mid-level bosses would do me in. Not only was I forced to start the level all over again, I began without everything I spent time collecting. Again, Nintendo would let a flaw like that ruin an otherwise entertaining game.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Atlus Announces Trauma Center Tuesday

Publisher Atlus revealed a new campaign today called Trauma Center Tuesday intended to promote the upcoming release of Trauma Center: New Blood.

Starting today, Atlus will update the official page every Tuesday with a variety of new content. This includes, but is not limited to: new videos, screenshots, features, and game information.

Today's debut update unveiled a television commercial for New Blood. The commercial highlighted new gameplay, including the all-new Cooperative Mode..

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Gate of Thunder

Gate of Thunder was one of the original pack-in games included with the TurboDuo, a souped-up system that combined the TurboGrafx-16 console, its CD add-on, and some extra memory into a single unit. So it's only fitting that Gate of Thunder is the first CD-based TurboGrafx game to be made available for the Wii's Virtual Console service. For 800 points, you get seven stages' worth of intense 2D shooter action, memorable boss battles, and an elaborately produced soundtrack that some consider a classic.

If you're familiar with horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-ups such as Gradius and R-Type, you'll feel right at home with Gate of Thunder. You get three ships multiplied by seven continues to get through seven stages, each of which entails dodging enemy fire, avoiding the scenery, and destroying as many enemy ships as you can. The design isn't innovative in the least. You blast them, and they blow up. They blast you, and a new ship appears to replace the one you lost. However, the excitement level is always white knuckle, thanks to the speedy scrolling of the scenery as well as the constant volleys of missiles and plasma unloaded by each successive wave of enemy ships. Furthermore, the numerous subbosses and bosses are ominous, intricate, and require some strategy to defeat.

Thankfully, the weapons system is well conceived. You can blanket the screen with firepower after acquiring only a couple of power-up pods, and the weapons themselves are all nicely balanced. Just tap the button and you'll quickly cycle from a piercing laser, to a less-powerful spread wave, to missiles that deal crazy damage to anything above or below you. Some pods also give you the added benefit of back-up homing missiles and shields. One particularly welcome feature is that you can double-tap the fire button to direct the firepower of your two companion ships directly behind you, which comes in handy for dealing with ships that fly past you or those that appear from the rear.

The visuals aren't especially detailed, but the game makes up for that with some slick background-layer scrolling effects as well as a constant onscreen deluge of ships and missiles. You may also find your interest piqued by some of the scenery elements you have to avoid, such as falling space rocks and giant crushers that actually shove inward from the backdrop. Although the sound effects and voice samples are merely passable, the soundtrack consists of one wonderful track after another of rousing compositions put together with old-school synthesized beats and CD-quality instrument samples. Imagine stereotypical chip-generated video game music mashed up with your favorite orchestral CD and you'll end up with the general gist.

Of course, the game is short, like most shooters are. It also opens with a dull outer-space mission and saves its two "drop your jaw"-caliber stages for the end, which will take most people a couple of hours of practice to reach consistently. Overall, though, if you enjoy space shooters, you'll enjoy going through Gate of Thunder multiple times. That's not a bad return on the roughly eight-dollar asking price.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Wii workout offers alternative form of exercise

Those looking to turn small muscles into bulging biceps may look no further than a Wii workout.

A Vancouver gym, known as Studeo 55, has developed a circuit training program that allows people to warm up or cool down by playing the Nintendo Wii console.

Owner of Studeo 55, Nathan Mellalieu, explained that one round with the Wii could burn up to 125 calories.

Some wonder if playing a simple video game can really keep one fit.

Kristen Tripicchio, ISU Recreation Services fitness coordinator, said, "You get out of it what you put into it."

Tripicchio added that a decent workout is possible.

However, the type of game is a critical factor.

Tripicchio explained that 30 minutes of Wii boxing could cause the exerciser to break a sweat, but the Wii baseball game may not provide enough physical exertion.

"I think it is a unique perspective. It provides additional possibilities for people who may not want to work out at all," Andy Read, ISU Recreation Services assistant director for marketing, said.

"I guess it's better than nothing," Tripicchio added.

Along with energizing gamers to get off the couch and hit the gym, the Wii circuit training also keeps the workout exciting for the typical fitness fan.

"If they're not enjoying it, they probably won't stick with it," Tripicchio said in reference to exercise.

This new workout program could make its way to the ISU campus.

Read explained that ISU Recreation Services has hosted gaming tournaments in the past.

"It could be a possibility down the road for sure," Read said.

Tripicchio agreed with Read, but added that it would require extensive work in getting the equipment, setting it up, and incorporating the virtual game into the fitness programs.

'The challenge would be the logistics of it," Tripicchio said.

R.J. Johnson, a sophomore middle level education major, has played Wii before and sees the potential in the circuit training.

"I feel more tired after a single game of Wii boxing, than I do with lifting hand weights," Johnson said.

Although he believes the workout is feasible, Johnson said just playing the Wii is not enough.
.

"It exercises certain muscles, but you need a balanced workout too," Johnson added.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Nintendo gets touchy with new Zelda

Nintendo has reworked one of its most beloved franchises in a new "Zelda" video game designed to appeal to a broader audience.

"The Legend of Zelda", which was first released 20 years ago and has become one of the company's most successful game lines, is a classic action-adventure game set the land of Hyrule.

"Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass" for Nintendo's handheld DS device has already won strong reviews for its beautiful imagery, deep storyline and innovative use of the device's touch screen to control almost every aspect of the action.

"It's definitely the big game of the holiday season for the Nintendo DS and reaches the traditional audience as well as the new audience they are starting to shoot for," said Jeremy Parish, features editor for gaming news site 1up.com.

A sequel to 2002's "Wind Walker", the new Zelda adventure once again puts players in control of the elfin hero, Link, after he washes up on a mysterious island following an accident at sea.

Instead of mashing buttons, players poke or trace movements on the DS touch screen to make Link jump, somersault, or swing his sword.

That's in line with Nintendo's drive towards making games more accessible to customers outside the core audience of young males who are happy to spend hours a day mastering every nuance of a title.

"I think what Nintendo was doing with the series was to strip it down to the essential gameplay and appeal to a broader audience," Parish said.

That should help make the game, which launched just over a week after Microsoft's "Halo 3" juggernaut burst onto the scene, a top-seller through the holiday season.

The game is expected to sell more than a million copies in its first two months on the market, according to game sales forecasting outfit The simExchange.

"Without a doubt this will be a chart-topper," said Jesse Divnich of simExchange. "We're looking at over a million units for a Nintendo DS title which is as strong as it gets when talking about a triple-A release."

Another highly anticipated game on sale this week is "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars", a fast-paced, graphically rich PC game that pits humans and alien Strogg in fierce online battles.

The "Quake" series, made by renowned developer id Software and published by Activision has been a staple of online "deathmatch" competition, and Divnich said he expects it to sell about 210,000 copies this month, not bad for a PC game appealing mainly to hard-core fans.

But it will soon face competition from other shooting games such as "The Orange Box" collection of games based on the dystopian "Half-Life 2" game, and "Crysis" with its super-realistic graphics. Both games are being published by Electronic Arts.

The consumer base is really waiting now to see how 'Orange Box' does and whether it will overtake "Enemy Territory" to be the one title that everyone w ill be playing this holiday season.

On the console side, Xbox 360 owners have "Project Gotham Racing 4", which features dozens of sports cars barreling down city streets.

Previews have praised "PGR4" for its gorgeous graphics and realistic weather effects.

Basketball fans have their choice of EA's "NBA Live 08" or "NBA 2K8" from Take-Two. Both games are available for the Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation 3.

EA has a good handle and control on the basketball market. For last couple of years, 2K has scored higher review scores among game critics but the sales are not going to reflect that.

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