coming attractions

while i’m collecting my thoughts for my next review, i thought i’d post this list of games that are coming out in the next few months that i’m interested in. ever since i got a DS (and … i might as well mention this here … a wii … yes it’s true … i’m starting to think i’m in danger of losing the right to call myself a retro gamer … oh the humanity …), ahem, a DS and a wii, i’ve been paying more attention to when games are coming out.

in particular i’m firmly fixated on the release date of smash bros brawl (december 3rd in north america), and each weekday update at the official smash bros website just makes me more impatient. let it be known that the eminent release of the new smash bros is what (almost) single-handedly drove this consumer and fanboy to put an end to his delay buying a wii once and for all. not zelda twilight princess, not mario galaxy, not metroid prime, but it was smash bros all the way. even if it’s only half as good as it looks so far, it’ll still be awesome to play as pit in his mighty comeback, and to see all the other nintendo references — and now including 3rd party characters as well. bring it!

anyway … i had come across this list on amazon, which provides a highlighted overview of the best wii games, past, present, and future. there’s prob. a completely comprehensive list of upcoming wii/DS games somewhere online, but in the meantime here’s my list of games i’m interested in. def. not all ones i’m going to buy, but ones i’m keeping my eye on. most of these dates are from amazon.com. (dates subject to change, etc., etc.)

edit: turns out ign keeps a list of upcoming releases. the wii release dates list is here and the DS release dates list is here.

- Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party Bundle: 9/25/07
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: 10/1/07
- Zack and Wiki: 10/16/07
- Guitar Hero 3: 10/29/07
- Endless Ocean (a.k.a. Forever Blue): 10/29/07
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn: 11/5/07
- Super Mario Galaxy: 11/12/07
- NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams: 11/13/07
- Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords : 11/13/07
- Link’s Crossbow Training: 11/19/07
- Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: 11/20/07
- Trauma Center: New Blood: 11/21/07
- SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL!!!!!!1!!!!!: 12/3/07!!!!
- Nitrobike: 12/4/07

wario landed

zipped through the first wario land game (for the original game boy) this week. as you may know, the game is sub-titled “super mario land 3″ but has pretty much nothing to do w/ super mario land 2 (which i reviewed a year ago here). wario land features the newly-minted nemesis from that game in the starring role, and although it’s a fairly typical platformer, it’s a breath of fresh air from the regular mario series. instead of jumping on enemies as with mario, here wario uses brute force to charge into them and flip them over. powerups are provided in the form of three hats, a dragon hat (which enables you to shoot fire), a bull hat (increases charge ability and speed), and a jet hat (for flying).

the gameplay, as you’d expect, is tight, and there are several moments of brilliance scattered throughout. there’s also an increased emphasis on exploring, more so than in super mario world (1990) or mario land 2 (1992), which is enjoyable. this game (from 1994) has 15 treasures hidden among its 40 levels which really adds to the gameplay in a way that collecting dinosaur coins in mario world didn’t, along with a handful of second exits. the different endings, dependent on how many coins and treasures you have, do a good job providing additional motivation to not just rush through each level. all of this along with entertaining enemies and graphics and good music make this one worth playing, despite its only mild difficulty. like sml2, wario land was also developed by nintendo’s R&D1. i’ve inadvertently played a lot of their games, so i’m going to have to work my way through the rest of them. and yes i def. have wario land 2 lined up for next year.

la la la, la la la la la links:
- text from the instruction booklet, where you’ll learn the crucial info that up+A jumps will allow you to jump higher
- good walkthrough at IGN
- page at wikipedia
- screenshots of the six endings

evil passing through

finished resident evil 4 last week. i’d read in a lot of places that a lot of critics regard this as one of the best gamecube games and one of the best games ever, and although i enjoyed a lot about the game, overall i def. don’t count this among the best games i’ve played this year. i’m not at all familiar w/ the “survival-horror” genre, and it seems that a lot of the praise for the game comes from capcom’s decision to break the conventions of the other games in the series and move in a different direction. but just coming into it as a newbie i found the game, while atmospheric and quite excellent during the first two chapters, really dragged its way to the finish. this was largely due to the fact that by then much of the enemy variety had been exhausted, the difficulty lessened somewhat, and some of the showiest environments were packed into the beginning (e.g. the village, swamp, and besieged shack). there were also some areas in the castle section that distinctly reminded me of castlevania 64, which i had played earlier this year, including one place where the music was eerily very similar.

one thing worth noting is the excellent voice acting. kudos to paul mercier as the hero leon, and carolyn lawrence as his whiny sidekick ashley. and how’s this for a bit of trivia: carolyn lawrence is also the voice of the squirrel “sandy cheeks” on nickelodeon’s spongebob squarepants. awesome.

anyway, i won’t be replaying this anytime soon, although people have been raving about the wii-make which might be worth a playthrough. it’s interesting to note that on the IGN resident evil messageboard it seems that many fans prefer resident evil 2 or the remake of the original resident evil, both of which i’m interested in checking out. eventually!

one li’l link:
- good guide at IGN