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Joystiq hands-on: Project Treasure Island Z (Wii)
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii, Action, Puzzle, Casual
Officially unveiled at Capcom’s San Francisco Gamer’s Day, Project Treasure Island Z is scheduled for a Fall, 2007 Wii release. (The title’s name may change before then.) The adventure/puzzle game is based on many — Capcom says 80 — different Wii Remote gestures, like twisting keys and scooping water. After playing the game, I’m interested in its final version; Capcom seems to be living up to its innovation-and-risk ideal.
Gamers, especially the American audience, will first notice the risky kiddie graphic and character style in the single-player-only game. Project Treasure Island Z has a lot of substance beneath that saccharine layer, but Capcom faces a significant challenge in selling the game to older players.
I asked about the target audience and age for the title, and a company representative admitted that it skewed young at first glance. However, she mentioned that Capcom will work to market the game to a broader group, including hardcore, dual-system gamers.
After getting past the graphics, I picked up the Remote — the only means to control the game — and swung into action. I moved my character by pointing and clicking on-screen. “Zack” (no relation) interacted with the environment when I clicked on objects. But the point of Project Treasure Island Z is the method of those interactions.
Gallery: Project Treasure Island Z (Wii)
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Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations confirmed for America
Filed under: Nintendo DS, Adventure, Simulations
Capcom has officially announced what many already expected after its beg-for-it-contest; Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations is on its way to North America for September, 2007. The third game in the series offers more of the same to established fans of the DS courtroom drama. Players control Wright as he muddles through cases, and in some points of the adventure game, they play as his mentor, Mia Fey, in the proceedings.
Gallery: Phoenix Wright 3
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Capcom to buy/sell IP, publish games with global approach
Filed under: Culture, Business
As part of a long presentation to captive game writers, Capcom discussed its business plans for the future. We’d normally drift off to sweet dreams about Harvey Birdman, but head of research and development, Keiji Inafune woke our gaming hearts by contrasting Capcom with the current, big-on-budget, low-on-creativity sequel state of gaming. He said his vision for “Capcom in the future” is a company that’s “not afraid to take risks.”
Inafune and other executives explained how the company can sustain itself without falling into a sequel pattern through new-to-Capcom, licensed IP; using its own IP in other ways; and selling games to a global, multi-platform market.
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Street Fighter, Mega Man on mobile phones
Filed under: Portable, Retro, Fighting, RPGs, MMO, Business, Mobile, Casual
Capcom is reaching for a broader audience to grow its business, including several upcoming mobile phone titles. A direct port of Mega Man II and a looser, but faithful port of Street Fighter II will ship in June; trivia game, Millionaire Music Edition, will be released in May; and MMO, Shade II, is scheduled for the first quarter of 2008. All titles will be available on various carriers and support Java and BREW phone platforms.
Mega Man II and Street Fighter II may resonate most with long-time gamers. Capcom said that Mega Man II is a literal port of the original. Street Fighter II, however, has about “80 percent” of the original game’s combinations in order to adapt to more awkward keypad mashing. In-development versions of both titles seem about as fluid as their originals; maybe there’s more to this mobile gaming thing than trivia. (If not, there’s Millionaire Music Edition, as in “Who Wants to Be A …”)
Shade II — there were so many unanswered questions from the first Shade — seeks to expand the MMORPG mobile space. Capcom was cagey with statistics about the popularity of Shade, saying that it has 600,000 unique users, but not saying how many concurrent players are in the game. Still, like the first game, Shade II will be a basic MMO with quests, leveling, cooperative play, and even PVP. Maybe that New York electronics law is to protect ourselves from injury if mobile MMOs become popular.
Prices will vary with carriers, but the games are expected to cost a couple dollars or less on a monthly subscription, or less than $10 to buy.
Gallery: Capcom mobile games
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It’s official: Lost Planet finds PC gamers
Filed under: PC, Action, First Person Shooters, Business
Capcom signaled its self-described return to more frequent PC releases by officially announcing a PC version of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for June. The Windows XP and Vista game will support DirectX 10 for gamers with those shiny video cards, but DirectX 9 players are also invited into the snowy world.
The PC version will run at resolutions up to 2,560×1600, making the console war’s “True HD” sound like a tired marketing slogan. (Oh wait, it already did.) While the graphic effects beyond resolution will also be improved, little else is certain to change.
Capcom told us at its Gamer’s Day event that the PC game may include new multiplayer maps and even increase its 16-player online cap, but both updates are still pending. However, multiplayer matches between Xbox 360 gamers and PC players will not be supported.
Gallery: Lost Planet (PC)
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Joystiq impressions: HP’s Misto
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Puzzle, Peripherals, Business, Casual
HP showed off another research and development project, Misto, at its recent game media event. Misto is basically a coffee table with a touch-sensitive display rigged underneath its glass. That’s not to say it’s not impressive for a coffee table or a display; we’ve just seen similar projects, and other creative, homebrew game tables.
Misto’s demos relied on a few simple applications to prove its touch sensitivity. I moved puzzle pieces around the screen. I browsed through photos. I looked at houses I couldn’t afford; Misto is currently in-use with at least one realtor although not available for general consumers.
While a coffee table interface would be fun for certain games, Misto’s current version misses big by only recognizing one touch at a time. Sure, there are technical reasons why it and many other devices can’t juggle multiple users. But for the table to have the social gaming applications HP mentioned, that untouchability is a major oversight. If Misto ever makes it to market — perhaps for virtual/actual Settlers of Catan or other social board games — it needs to accept two or more touches at a time before we want one.
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Joystiq impressions: HP’s Panoply and Pluribus
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Peripherals, Business
At HP’s recent gaming media event, the company talked about its acquisition of VoodooPC and how HP fits into the console-heavy world of gaming. Specifically, HP seems to be positioning itself as a technology development company that will license its crazy inventions to the console companies. Mscape, an augmented-reality system is the most ambitious step in that direction, but two video projector concepts — Panoply and Pluribus — could also be ripe for the console space.
Both technologies assemble multiple, off-the-shelf projectors into a Voltron of a screen; Panoply combines several images on a curved, concave surface, while Pluribus combines and overlaps its projectors for big, bright images.
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Joystiq hands-on: HP’s mscape
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Portable, Wireless, Simulations, Business
HP showed off several of its gaming research and development projects at a recent San Francisco media event. The company said that many of these technologies had been in progress before the VoodooPC acquisition, but Rahul Sood and other VoodooPC leaders were able to see the gaming applications of previous research.
I spent some time trying mscape (”mediascape”) and discussing the project with some of its engineers. This gaming platform — which isn’t meant to compete with a hardware-and-software solution like the DS or PSP — has already been used in the real world, unlike most of the in-progress projects demonstrated.
Mscape sits on a PocketPC or other device, presenting an augmented reality game space. Other game designers and companies have tried to bridge the virtual world and the real world, with games that are played on devices by moving around outside. But HP’s muscle may eventually help push these new experiences to mainstream gamers.
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HP wants to bridge PCs and consoles behind the scenes
HP described how its consumption of VoodooPC has impacted both companies at a media event this week. Shane Robison, an HP VP, said that one of the biggest effects is that HP now has “Voodoo DNA” pumping through its hallways, we think like a virus affecting a host. Should the injection become a problem, HP may someday page Dr. Mario to sort things out; Rahul Sood, CTO of the HP gaming group and founder of VoodooPC, repeatedly said that HP wants to complement consoles and not be a competitor.
HP, however, offered few specific plans to bring PCs and consoles closer together from a gamer’s perspective. Instead, the company showed a series of game technology demos that may someday be licensed to console makers, generating more income from its annual $3.5 billion research and development budget. One of those projects, mscape, has been called a handheld challenger in other stories, but HP executives told us that it’s a platform that runs on certain PocketPCs and other devices; HP doesn’t plan to ship an all-in-one hardware-and-software version of the augmented reality gaming tool.
HP will continue pushing its computers to gamers, keeping the VoodooPC brand at the top of its price/performance tier, while introducing a new line of PCs that fits between the gap between that ultra-high end and HP’s standard machines.
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Today’s cleanest game video: Super Rub ‘a’ Dub trailer
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Online, Puzzle, Video, Casual
With the foolingest day of the year behind us, we welcome a trailer for Super Rub ‘a’ Dub, a game that at first glance looked like a joke. But, no, the game is a real downloadable title for the PS3, and the trailer quickly turned us from skeptical to interested. Players pilot a rubber duck through elaborate pools with the Sixaxis motion controls, herding up smaller ducks in the process. Elements of the game remind us of Lemmings and ChuChu Rocket; we hope the final title lives up to those classics.
See the video after the break.
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SSX Blur: Analyzing the controls
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Action, Sports
With the Wii’s focus on controls, how does a franchise like SSX handle the transition? Snowboarding — and Wii-only SSX Blur — lacks a direct relation to the Wii’s motion sensitivity, but the game still translates to hand movements. The steering mechanic, which relies on Nunchuk twists, fits well; it even seems like it had always been a part of SSX.
The tricks, however, are mixed; simple remote flicks feel like a gimmick, while drawing shapes for Ubertricks only works some of the time. Overall, the controls work well enough to keep me playing, but I sometimes stop in frustration after consecutive, unrecognized moves.
As far as graphics, sound, and other review standards, those all hold up in Blur, but aren’t my focus in this analysis. (Look up scored reviews for other opinions.) Instead, I’ll further explain how Blur translates a thumbstick-and-button game into a tilt-and-flail experience.
Gallery: SSX Blur
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Today’s most recursive game video: Third Life
Filed under: Culture, Online, Video, MMO
Some of you, the exact number, we’re not sure, have a Second Life. Others have a First Life. Today’s video pick introduces the Third Life as part of a Kit Kat ad in the Netherlands. Created by UbachsWisbrun/JWT (caution: website resizes your window, plays sound, and otherwise annoys), Kit Kat only loosely ties into the joke. Regardless, the humor scores high with us gamers, and we highly recommend the video.
Watch the ad after the break.
[Via Adverblog]
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Wii robot bowls 300, feels no emotion with victory
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Nintendo Wii, Sports
The Lego hackers at BattleBricks have created a robot that throws Wii Bowling strikes every frame, dominating any human that dares face off against this plastic giant. The robot looks like a spastic uneven bars runner-up, but it does the trick; its controls move the bowler off-center, hold B for the swing, and release it at the perfect time. It even resets itself — and its Mii — after each frame.
And yes, of course the robot is supported on each side by Linux and C++ guides — it just doesn’t get any more perfectly geeky. See a video of the robot in action after the break.
[Via Engadget]
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Component to HDMI cables already exist, already pointless
Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Peripherals, Business
Our BFF, Engadget, got a tip about an upcoming component to HDMI cable for the non-elite 360, and we’re left shrugging our shoulders. Such adapters already exist at a steep cost; you plug component and audio cables in one end, and a single HDMI cable feeds out the other.
That’s cool if you’re down with OCD, but for the rest of us, why bother? One feature of HDMI is to run a digital signal for audio and video over a single cable. Connecting each audio and component feed into an analog-to-digital converter negates that one-cable, digital-only benefit.
Another “feature” of HDMI is its support for HDCP, and these adapters can’t handle that copy-protected signal. What that means is someday, when a studio executive pushes a red button to turn on an Image Constraint Token for new movies, an HD-DVD enabled 360 will down-scale HD movies to DVD-quality; full quality in that future scenario will require a direct HDCP connection between a device and a TV. And some of our fancy HDTVs don’t even support HDCP. Thank you, piracy panic.
Maybe Microsoft is preparing an HDMI cable to interface with the original 360’s video-output port. Even then, the interface change won’t impact games; it’s only a convenience and movie issue.
Note that pictured adapter includes component to VGA cable.
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Today’s franchise face-offiest game video: Bauer versus Riker
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Retro, Action, Fighting, Video
It’s Riker versus Bauer in tonight’s video pick. (What, you thought we’d post about that other video again?) Through the magic of editing — and a rocking soundtrack — these two leaders face off in a game of Street Fighter. Bauer uses his ability to multitask to get Gamefaqs tips, while beardless Riker has only his grimace and guile. This YTMND mash-up loops soon after it starts, but the quick editing is dense with detail; we laughed through several repetitions.
The video isn’t embedable, so you’ll have to venture into the dangerous tubes beyond Joystiq. But be sure to come back to tell us what you think.
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Today’s stop-motionest game video: Lego SMB
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Retro, Video
For tonight’s video, we chose the Super Mario Bros. Lego video that’s been floating around recently. This stop-motion animation shows Mario as a regular-shaped Lego man; instead of making a video as close to SMB as possible, Mario, mushrooms, enemies, and other items are warped through the Lego lens. There’s a place for literal Lego game tributes, but we still like this short. Love those sound effects!
See the video after the break.
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Today’s most vocal game video: Devil May Cry 4 trailer
Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Video
Some of you wept over Devil May Cry 4’s multplatform ambitions, but we welcome the fall of another console-specific franchise. (Well, some of us remember a simpler day.) We’ve picked this action game’s trailer for tonight’s video.
We tried the game late last year, but rational analysis aside, we’re sold on all of Dante’s different grunt and attack sounds. Can we get a remix? See the video after the break.
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Today’s juiciest game video: Fruit-for-blood sound effects
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Video
A video showing Foley effects for Dark Sector wins our pick of the day. There’s nothing new about using abusing fruits and vegetables to make game sounds, but we still like this demonstration by the action game’s sound designers. You’ll never look at an orange the same way again.
See — and hear — the clip after the break.
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Today’s comparingest game video: Virtua Tennis 3 360/PS3
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sports, Video
The PS3 versus 360 side-by-side showdowns keep rolling out, with GameTrailers mixing those versions of Virtua Tennis 3 together. This comparison may be even more interesting because those versions were developed by two studios (Sumo for 360 and AM2 for PS3). Or maybe that difference makes the comparison about each developer instead of a straight 1080p hardware shootout.
Either way, taste both flavors after the break, or hit the HD version on the GameTrailers site.
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Today’s most relative game video: GTA clock
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Business
While some of us are counting the seconds until the Grand Theft Auto IV release, others are so GTA-hyped that they count the seconds until the game’s trailer. Rockstar apparently took its online promotion to late-night TV, featuring 30 minutes of the countdown to the ad to the game. YouTube user “nospacesinmyname” lets us all bow down to the clock.
Alas, the clip only shows a few minutes of the entire 30-minute “commercial.” We’ve watched it four times with the hope that some GTA IV magic will reveal itself, but nothing has differed. Maybe on the fifth try.
Watch the TV clip after the break.
[Thanks, Godfree]
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