This Week’s Releases (Sep 26-30, 2005)

  • Post last modified:Saturday, March 27th, 2021
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by [name redacted]

Week twelve of my ongoing, irreverent news column; originally posted at Next Generation

Catching up from a strong PSP showing at TGS, the DS has begun its cavalcade of fall delights. Also, some decent compilations and a creative D&D game. Check it out!

Today (Monday, September 26th)

Trace Memory (DS)
Jinx/Nintendo

In Japan, this is called “Another Code”. Neither name is that memorable, I’m afraid. The game itself is (as with Lost in Blue, below) one of the new slate of adventure games that serves to demonstrate how the DS hardware might be used. Trace Memory is in essence a Myst-style adventure game – nothing special on its own right, except that point-and-click games have generally been alien to the console and handheld side of the industry, due in part to interface issues, in part to the different mindspace projected by a PC and a TV environment.

In their intimacy, handheld games are a little closer to PCs than are console games – so in theory, the only real hurdle should be the interface. With its stylus and touch screen, the DS is perhaps even more ideal than a PC-and-mouse setup; simply tap where you wish to look. Beyond this, Trace Memory blurs a few edges between PC adventure games and console-style adventures by displaying an overhead view on the top screen and leaving the bottom screen for your character’s first-person perspective. Use the control pad to precisely navigate, or use the touch screen to point your way around. You can think of the bottom screen as a heads-up display or the top screen as a mere map, if you like.

The game is short, from what I gather. That seems just as well, for what the game is. There was a little buzz around Another Code a few months ago, even before people stopped dismissing the DS out-of-hand – so it should gain a small and reasonably loyal following on release. Even if it doesn’t sell through the roof, it still should be valuable to study.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (PSP)
EA Canada/EA Games

This was released for the three major consoles last week; now here’s the pocket edition. Marvel Nemesis, until not long ago, was known as “Marvel vs. EA”. The idea was that Capcom has had a great thing going with its “versus” series, games that pit Capcom’s vast repertoire of recognizable characters against those of other companies – X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK – so since EA has its fingers in every other pot, why should EA be left out of this party?

There is an inherent problem here, of course: for all its wealth and power, EA has no real IP to work with. It has no original characters. There’s also the lesser issue that EA has never really made a fighting game before. So what does EA do? It pays Marvel to come up with some new characters to represent EA, that can fight against Marvel’s own characters and appear in some cross-over comics. Hey, it worked for G.I. Joe, didn’t it?

I guess somewhere along the line, someone noticed how silly it sounded to keep calling the game “Marvel vs. EA” if all of the characters were Marvel’s – so thus we have the vaguely euphemistic “Marvel Nemesis”. Amongst the four versions of the game, average scores sit between 50% and 65.9%. For this one, the average is 50%.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (PSP)
EA Sports/EA Sports
NBA Live 06 (GameCube/Xbox/PS2/PC)
EA Canada/EA Sports
NBA 2K6 (Xbox/PS2)
Visual Concepts/2K Sports

Sports games!

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 (Xbox/PS2)
Midway/Midway (September 26th)

The first two Midway Arcade Treasures packages weren’t that bad, as far as these things go. The only thing that stuck out to me was that few of the games were actually by Midway. All of the really good ones tended to be by Atari Games or some other once-noble company Midway bought out then dismantled somewhere along the way. This collection is no different really, though what puts it apart from the earlier two compilations is that some of it is weirdly recent – including some of the last material out of Atari Games before Midway shut it down a couple of years ago. Atari Games’ San Francisco Rush series, particularly its latter chapters, were new when the Dreamcast was out. And Midway’s own Hydro Thunder was one of the Dreamcast’s big launch titles.

Notably, All of the games here involve driving or racing in some form, whetherbeit Atari Games’ early polygonal Race Drivin’ (which I suppose matches both criteria), Atari’s Badlands, Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road – which is the game by Leland that Atari basically cloned in Badlands. There’s some good stuff here even if you don’t care too much about cars, as most of this is just classic arcade fare. Cars or not, I like it that Midway’s working with themes. That’s something you’d think you’d see more of. And yes, it should probably help the collection sell to the Wal-Mart crowd.

The Suffering: Ties That Bind (Xbox/PS2/PC)
Surreal Software/Midway

Described on Midway’s own site as “a uniquely American action-horror experience”, this is the sequel to Draken developer Surreal’s reasonably well-received game from last year. As before, this gorefest is set in such HBO-ish locations as maximum-security prisons and slums – specifically those of Baltimore. Hm. To abandon skepticism for a moment, it is nice to see Midway with an original property. And it does look like Surreal and Midway are taking care with this series. They’re even getting kind of… innovative. Not only does the sequel follow immediately from the original game; the ending the player received before dictates how the new game begins. That’s a detail I don’t think I’ve ever seen before – though Shenmue came kind of close. If Midway continues down this road, it might be on its way out of trouble before too long.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2)
Sucker Punch/SCEA

Sly Cooper came out when everyone was still high off of Metal Gear Solid 2 and “stealth” was the new double-jump. Didn’t have it, you weren’t 2002. Thus, Wind Waker and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (which was delayed until 2003, so see what good stealth did for it!) and who knows how many other games. Sly was more… sly, in that the entire game was based around stealth, so at least it was coherent. Combine that with a competently-designed furry mascot, and you have a decent zeitgeist cipher. It did pretty well, and it might as well have.

I confess I didn’t even realize there had been a Sly 2. According to gamerankings.com, it fared even better than the first game in the review gauntlet. And from the looks of things, Sly 3’s doing even better. The game looks a little… rough, visually, in comparison to the first one. And Sucker Punch has thrown in a few strange features, like a 3D (red/blue) mode, which could say a number of things.

If the series lasts, it lasts. Opportunistic or not, it’s harmless and it keeps to itself. I can see a certain legion of fans following a series like this wherever it goes.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Septmber 27th)

Lost in Blue (DS)
KCE Hawaii/Konami

I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, when it was released in Japan. Suffice to say, this is one of the most interesting of the upcoming batch of DS games. Anyone who has a system would do well to pick this up, if for nothing else than to check out the ideas employed. A little too “weird”, gimmicky, and maybe boring to sell on the level of your Touch Kirby or whatever; rather, this is destined for a strong and mildly obsessive cult following. It’ll be one of those games you talk to someone about in ten years, and say “hey, remember that?” And if your friend’s in the know, his eyes will light up and say “Man! Yeah – why don’t they make games like that anymore?”

Lunar: Dragon Song (DS)
Game Arts/Ubisoft

Something else I wrote about last month. Looks like I’m getting ahead of myself! This is an original chapter in the Lunar series, that’s intended as a prequel to the games you already know about. It’s made by the people behind the earlier GBA Lunar remake.

Frogger: Ancient Shadow (GameCube/Xbox/PS2)
Hudson Soft/Konami

I’m a little baffled by the way Konami has made over and pimped out Frogger since the company reclaimed the rights a few years ago. You recall the dispute between Konami and Sega (who originally published Frogger, back in the day). Later, somehow, Hasbro got the rights to the game and made that 3D Frogger update for the PC that inspired all of those other “classic remakes” around the turn of the millennium. Then apparently Frogger made his way home again. Somewhere along the way he collected some clothes, and even became anthropomorphized. It’s confusing, because – I mean. Frogger. Who’s the audience here? Do kids really know or care who Frogger is?

Anyway. A few of these games, I understand, have actually been pretty good. This one looks like at least an extension of the ideas in the original game – so it’s not as random as some earlier games have been. It looks like a PSOne game, though I don’t see why it shouldn’t. Nothing really complicated or deep here. If this sells for twenty bucks or less, it’ll probably make a respectable impulse buy.

Far Cry Instincts (Xbox)
Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft

The console port of the PC game from a year and a half ago. It’s a first-person shooter that, unusually, takes place largely outside. It does this largely to show off its sophisticated engine and the draw distance it can generate. One presumes the Xbox will pull things off adequately enough for TV resolutions, though I don’t envy the programmers who had to pull it off. This is the sort of thing the Xbox was built for, really. It was probably a wise thing to port. Note if you buy the game some places, Ubi will pack in a free copy of Rainbow Six 3; I guess it’s not worth too much now that the fourth game is out. Such is the nature of yearly revisions!

Total Overdose: A Gunslinger’s Tale in Mexico (Xbox/PS2/PC)
Deadline Games/Eidos Interactive

From the producers of On the Farm and In the City, Eidos Interactive brings you Max Payne: South of the Border. Seriously, that’s… what the game is. It’s Max Payne in Mexico. The hero even looks like his face got stuck after smelling his socks first thing in the morning – just like Max! And it’s by a Scandinavian development team – just like Max! Ah well. Max Payne has kind of gone downhill since it left Remedy’s hands, and this is purported to have the sense of humor that Max Payne 2 lacked – so maybe this serves a decent purpose, in that regard. Early word has been pretty positive.

Capcom Classics Collection (Xbox/PS2)
Capcom/Capcom (September 27th)

There’s a lot of stuff on this disc. A lot. And as big as some of the names are, much of the material here has never been released commercially, or never in perfect form. See the arcade versions of Forgotten Worlds (the best levels were left out of the Genesis version) and Son-Son – which actually was never released in any form here, though it did get a Famicom port in Japan. Bionic Commando and Section-Z were kind of lousy in the arcade; too bad their NES ports aren’t present. And although the arcade Gun.Smoke isn’t too bad, the NES version is a notable improvement. Still, hey. Posterity counts for a lot.

This also contains basically all the contents of the Saturn Capcom collections, each of which sells for a decent price on eBay and most of which were never released in the West. So you get the 194X series and the CPS1 Street Fighters, and the entire Makai Mura series (including Chou, which was developed straight for the Super Famicom). Essentially everything interesting Capcom had in the arcades in the late ’80s to early ’90s is represented.

For anyone who grew up in the arcades when Ninja Turtles were new, this is close to ideal. The emulation is great. Forgotten Worlds has the best control scheme it’s probably ever had. This is one of the best classics packages I’ve seen, and I hope it sells a bunch. At twenty bucks, that seems assured.

Worms 4: Mayhem (Xbox/PC)
Team 17/Majesco Games

Apparently the idea behind this game is to “return to the roots” of the series, which I guess means more Scorched Earth with droll British sound bites. Except now it’s rendered in 3D. All right. Worms is one of those things that will always sell, on its attitude if nothing else. I suppose there’s no need to mess with it too much. Heck, I don’t even know how you’d begin to.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow (PS2)
Bec/Bandai

It’s a Gundam game. Developed by Bec. Published by Bandai. It’s purported to be pretty competent. The domestic audience for this is, I fear, not quite what it might be in Japan. Thanks to Cartoon Network, however, it should be significantly greater than zero.

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (PS2)
Konami/Konami

The two big things this time around are an online multiplayer mode and eyetoy support, giving some purpose to those people who pay as much attention to their form as to their feet. Otherwise, it’s DDR with a new song list. Same old. There are two versions: the normal one, and one with a dance pad packed in. If you buy it some places, you get a free music sampler, presumably with music from the game – though you never know! The soundtrack I got with Resident Evil 4 was full of wretched pop songs from the Paul Anderson movie.

Wednesday, September 28th

Big Mutha Truckers (DS/GBA)
Zoo Digital Publishing/Destination games

Good heavens! It’s gone portable! Now you can truck in a truck! Maybe even a big one, that your mother is driving. Actually, the 3D engine here looks pretty decent, all things considered. And I commented on the game concept a few weeks ago. Though hardly high-brow, it has a little bit of something to it.

Still. Maybe it’s significant that the fifth and seventh results on a Google search are for Wal-Mart’s and Sam’s Club’s online store listings.

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (GameCube)
Genius Sonority Inc./Nintendo

Described as the first real Pokemon RPG for a home console, this is also apparently a sequel to last year’s Pokemon Colosseum (perhaps not coincidentally also by Genius Sonority). Along with the next Zelda game, this is probably one of the GameCube’s two last gasps before it falls by the wayside in favor of more intriguing Nintendo hardware. Of course, both games will probably top the charts for weeks. Such is the way Nintendo works. Some versions of the game come with a custom Pokemon “skin” for the GameCube.

Neverwinter Nights: Kingmaker (PC)
BioWare/Atari

New sub-races and three new modules. Such is the way of expansion packs! Not bad for twenty bucks, really.

Dragonshard (PC)
Liquid Entertainment/Atari

Liquid is trying to play magic with the videogame interpretation of Dungeons & Dragons. Not impossible; it already got flipped around once before, in the string of BioWare and Black Isle RPGs from a few years back. This time Liquid is approaching the license from a real-time strategy standpoint, and is taking advantage of an uncommon setting, that being the world of Eberron. Although it’s still standard fantasy fare, this is a world that’s basically constructed from magic, ground-up, in comparison to the augmented Western medievalism of most campaign settings.

What’s more curious is the approach to design. Liquid’s putting far more thought into this game than I’m used to seeing; in interviews with consumer videogame websites, Liquid president Ed del Castillo outlines exactly the thought processes that led to the game taking shape, and they’re not unlike what Treasure’s team must have been thinking when they made Gradius V. Without getting into too much detail on the whys (you can look that up yourself), Liquid has split the game into two levels: a higher RTS level, where the player builds cities, builds units, churns out all of the established and expected Warcrafty details. Then, however – not unlike a cross between Sim City and The Sims – the player can also zoom down and take a traditional D&D campaign through the world he has been managing.

As with Transformers, Atari seems to be striving to work its D&D license, rather than just sitting on it as just a profitable IP on its own right. And Dragonshard looks like it’s being calculated as something of a hit, as far as PC games go. From this distance, it seems like it will have earned any success it gets.

Thursday, September 29th

Raiden III (PS2)
Seibu Kaihatsu/Taito (Japan release)

I bet you didn’t even realize Seibu Kaihatsu still existed! Well, here you go then. This is rendered in reasonably nice 3D, and it’s pretty classically-styled as far as overhead shooters go. I’m told this is more of a side story than a direct follow-up from the first two Raidens. It still looks and feels like Raiden, though! This should also perk up anyone with a Toaplan or Nichibutsu fetish.

Next week, expect even more high-profile DS games approach, with Dawn of Sorrow and Phoenix Wright. And expect me to write effusively of them!