12/12/2006

You Get To Make Hot Dogs!

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

- The big bit of gaming news today (in case you haven’t heard) is that Dragon Quest 9 is coming out for the DS. I cannot overstate home how gigantic this is; Dragon Quest is easily THE biggest, most popular video game franchises in all of Japan (even more so than Final Fantasy, believe it or not), and instead of coming out on a next-gen platform (I think its not such a crazy thought to assume that whichever system was announced to receive it, let’s say either PS3 or Xbox 360, would have a guaranteed ticket to the top of the mountain), the next proper chapter (not a spin-off, like Rocket Slime, but the “real deal”) is hitting the DS.

On, and there’s a neat looking Dragon Quest spin-off first person hack and slash coming out for the Wii as well.

Regarding the hardcore gaming audience’s reaction to this, if you go over to NeoGAF, you’ll find this thread, which my friend Rob summarized it being filled to the brim with “Nintendo fanboys heralding it as the second coming, Playstation loyalists who are genuinely taking it personally, otaku who think the step back in graphics will be the end of mankind, and XBox fans just kinda shuffling their feet with their head down. In other words: Monday on GAF.”

EDIT: I just checked, and its fucking 78 pages long. Oh my God.

- Though the real big news of the day is that Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess finally came out today for the GameCube. And unfortunately, the entire release is becoming a huge fiasco, since for whatever reason, Nintendo decided to produce only a few copies, and now everyone’s scrambling for them like crazy.

Well, actually, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out why Nintendo’s not bothering to produce many copies, even if it seems like they’re missing out on another chance to make some easy money. Because the bottom line is that its going to force people to buy the Wii version… and the Wii if they haven’t done so already, which is more important to Nintendo than anything right now.

But still, all those promises that the game would definitely be coming out on the Cube… which wasn’t totally empty in the end, but this is still a huge slap in the face of all those who waited patiently. No solid reasons have been given as to why there’s such a low print run, though its not like making Cube games is all of a sudden tricky or costly thing for them to do; Nintendo is the masters of just making stuff that isn’t that necessary or just plain redundant. Game Boy Advance SP with improved screen anybody?

Anyway, so now panic and frustration is starting to spread across the board(s), followed by the after-effect, such as the expected tales of underhanded bullshit from Gamestop employees. You know, the jackasses that tells everyone to pre-order copies, but in the end, they horde 95% of the stock for themselves so they can eBay it and then leave the customer in the dust with nothing.

In another fine example that further illustrated the total uselessness of pre-ordering, I had my copy reserved with BestBuy.com for over a month now, and when I checked my order status this morning was listed as “back ordered”. So I simply went “fuck this shit” and headed up to the Nintendo World Store, which had a small stack of them. So yeah… I finally have my copy, and I’m happy. And yes, when I get my Wii, I will also get Zelda for that as well (though I just want the Cube version, since it is after-all the “definitive” version).

EDIT: So now I’m hearing that the game might not be that hard to get ahold of after-all. All the Best Buys in the city just got their copies about an hour ago, and a few friends had no problems getting theirs. Which is good! Though I do feel bad for kinda spooking them into running out to buy the game in the first place. But hey, its fucking Legend of Zelda. And yeah, kudos of Nintendo for not doing a Panzer Dragoon Saga on us, though its might still be too early to say anything just yet.

Elsewhere in the news (mostly stuff that fell through the cracks the first time around)…

- Remember when I mentioned how you can now use your Wii-mote on your Mac? Well, and Star Wars fans are gonna go ape-shit over this one: introducing WiiSaber, which does the same thing, but adds lightsaber sound effects into the mix.

Once more: when the fuck is LucasArts going to announce a proper lightsaber game for the Wii?

- Sticking with the Wii for just one second, according to Steve Totilo, the Bob Ross game for the Wii, as well as DS, is still on track, just with a different developer.

- So a fan created Cave Story comic book adaptation is in the works. And… I personally don’t think it looks all that hot. Its trying to be all dark and stuff, which I really can’t dig.

- Earth Defense Force X is coming to America! YES!!! This is simply awesome news. Hopefully Oneechanbara X is next. Or maybe… Senko No Ronde X?

- And Radirgy is arriving here as well? As Radio Allergy? WTF. I also find it funny how the last GameCube game (at least in the US) might be a Dreamcast shmup.

- Courtesy of the SelectButton forums (I think? I kinda forgot… sorry) comes something that I know MK will dig: Zoo Keeper (a fave DS game of hers) online, along with a few other really cutesy games.

- Time to check out some box arts. First off, I had no idea Cooking Mama was coming out for the Wii. And best of all, you get to make hot dogs!!!!!!!!

Here’s what the box to Virtua Fighter 5 will be looking like, which btw is still pound for pound the best damn PS3 game that I’ve played thus far, and which makes up exactly 50% of any burning desire to get the console (with the other bing MGS4, naturally):

And I hate to brag, but I’m gonna get the chance to play VF5 tomorrow! But more on that later. Anyway, this also recently surfaced: the cover to Lumines Plus for the PS2:

I swear to God, more than anything else right now, the lack of info regarding Lumines for the PS2 pisses me off the most. First off, its supposed to be a straight port of the first game for the PSP, but nothing’s been made definite yet. Second, it was supposed to come out last month, then it got pushed to February, and now it might be coming out this month. Jesus fuck, what’s the deal here?! And the reason behind my frustration is that it will literally decide if I get a PSP or not. Though I’m still interested in Every Extend Extra, even though I hear its not so hot… as well as the PSP version of Gunpey (I’ve been playing the DS version for the past few days and just can’t get into it)…. along with Exit. Plus there’s still WipeOut… I used to have a hard on for Ridge Racers, but I think I ruined that my listening to the soundtrack too much… still curious to see what a train-wreck Katamari 3 is…. what little of Loco Rocco I played was pretty disappointing, but I want to give it another chance… I also heard that the PS2 version of Tokobot is better than the PSP original… I still want to play Mega Man Powered Up despite the goofy art direction… I already have Ultimate Ghouls and Ghosts and I don’t know why. Oh I do: I’m a Capcom fanboy 100%. But anyway…

Back to the subject on-hand: the box-art is not bad, though I was hoping to see a return to the original art from the Japanese PSP release. Oh well.

Here’s the cover to the new Wii Sonic game:

You know, as much as I want nothing to do with Sonic these days (the PS3/Xbox 360 re-boot makes me want to hang myself, the Genesis redux of part 1 makes me want to cry, and the new PSP game just bores me to tears), I will admit that I had fun playing the new Wii game recently. Plus, I’m pretty amazed that no one has thought about having Sonic actually wear a ring thus far, so I want to see how that plays out.

- Though back to the PSP real quick, and onto the subject of… viral marketing. A very dirty word these days, but a result of the times we live in, since popular media these days is not just coming at us from all sorts of angles, but its also interactive. Like all things, when its done well, it can be quite compelling, awesome even. For a good example of excellent game related viral marketing, ilovebees comes instantly to mind.

As for poor examples, Sony is at the top of the list, and it would seem that they’ve completely topped themselves with all i want for xmas is a psp. It might very well be the most annoying thing that Sony’s brilliant marketing department has ever come up with (even worse than the fake graffiti from last year). Shit like this seriously kills any desire to get a PSP, and this article that talks about it being exposed illustrates how dangerous such tactics can be (Lord knows I cringe every-time I see an Apple ad, the one with the guy in the business suit, and the douchebag).

Whereas Nintendo has a site where you run around like a cute little snow dude.

- Also time for the obligatory YouTube video: this one features an entire scene from 1-1 from Super Mario Bros 3 recreated entirely in Legos.

Oh, and here’s another one that Katie just passed along, of a fat kid playing DDR. Hey, he’s still better than me.

- Meanwhile, over in Japan, things, as expected, are far more insane…

Dear God, this is beyond amazing.

  • djtiesto

    Not sure where you heard about Every Extend Extra not being too hot… but I really think you should give the game a try. I just bought it recently (it was one of those games where, I waited and waited for till it came out, then when it finally did, I never picked it up), GS/EB is selling it for $20, and it’s seriously the most fun I’ve ever had with my PSP. You would absolutely love it, the visuals are awesome, the music is very good (although more beat-heavy than melodic, and the music doesn’t really change much, only at the boss fights or it speeds up when you collect “Quicken” items), and the gameplay is addicting, especially when you finally “grasp” it and try for big scores.

    That whole Dragon Quest thread on NeoGAF was a total disaster, especially some of the comments from the graphic whores (since when was DQ ever about graphics?) I’m personally a little miffed at the change from traditional RPG to online action RPG, as it seems there are far too few quality turn-based RPGs without extraneous gameplay systems heaped upon them being made anymore, and I’m worried that the gameplay might get really repetitive, but I have the utmost faith in Yuji Horii… and after all, the Dragon Quest series is my favorite franchise in video game history.

  • https://www.fort90.com Matt

    Yeah, the NeoGAF thread embodies the very worst that hardcore video game fandom has to offer these days (holy shit, its at 96 pages!), and I too am annoyed by the graphics whores’ complaints. As much as dhex claims DQ7 to be the worst RPG on earth (which I know has got to ruffle your feathers :) ), I still want to check it out, if only for the SNES graphic styling, which I thought was impressive on a conceptual level since day one.

    Though I will admit that with the smaller DS screen(s), we won’t have those wonderful vistas from DQ8, which was the best things about it…

    As for the change in gameplay, yeah, that is pretty bold. But since I personally enjoy Action PRGs more than traditional turn-based affairs, I can’t complain too much. But in the end…

    I’m afraid that DQ9 might just be an “experiment” of some sort, in the same way Final Fantasy IX was as well, before it went back to basics and “was born anew” in Final Fantasy X. And I shudder to think what a Dragon Quest X will be like if its all high-res and next gen looking on the PS3, at least hearing about it from the zombies over at the Gaming Age Forums.

  • http://www.gamersquarter.com Shapermc

    ?Though I?m still interested in Every Extend Extra, Gunpey, Exit, WipeOut? I used to have a hard on for Ridge Racers ? still curious to see what a train-wreck Katamari 3 is? what little of Loco Rocco I played was pretty disappointing ? I still want to play Mega Man Powered Up, Ultimate Ghouls and Ghosts??

    Do you like EE for the PC? Yeah? Ok, well EEE is for you. Seriously, it?s ?more of the same? but not in a bad way or anything. The most offensive thing about the game is that the game creation credit in the credits goes to someone on Q? staff not the creator of the original game. Listen to djtiesto on this game.

    Gunpey? doesn?t work for me on a basic level so I won?t get it.

    Exit, as a reminder, is a platform based puzzle game. It is not a fast game: it is in fact very slow. It is also only $10 at Best Buy stores and it may be a good idea to grab it before you can?t find it for that price.

    WipeOut is? well WipeOut.

    Ridge Racers is very good for Ridge Racing on the go. It?s like a greatest hits CD only in game form.

    Katamari 3? you?re on your own with that.

    Loco Rocco is entertaining but not overly so. It?s pretty vapid but easy on the eyes. It?s also very easy, even for getting close to 100%. It?s kind of like Wind Waker in those respects ;)

    Megaman Powered Up is easily the best MM game since X4 (or if you liked it, X5). Then again, I really liked ZX… so take that as you will.

    Ultimate GnG is really the only direction the game could have taken. I like it quite a bit and I am a large fan of the series. It makes up for the ?no checkpoint? thing in many different and interesting ways. You?d probably enjoy it if you?re hard for the series.

    THAT SAID? the PSP still isn?t worth anything more than $100. You hit on three of the best games for the system (no, Lumines isn?t good? well not after the first 5 hours with it, when it goes from neat to monotonous to tedious), and of all of them none are worth the entry fee. They will be worth the eventually cheap entry fee a year or two down the road, but I still can?t be anything but angry at my unwillingness to hold off on buying a PSP shortly after launch. The only benefit of getting mine around launch is that it?s pretty well retained it?s value.

    Oh, and it?s nice to actually see Radio Allergy on the O3 website. Initially when they announced it the game was coming out at the end of November but they never put it on their site. It?s up now, so I actually have hope. You know that Radio Allergy is the name of the first track on the OST for the game in Japan, which is also what the main character has (an allergy to radio waves). So? that?s what the fuck. (yeah, someone learned me that info too, so don’t feel dumb)

  • J

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