Lost in Shadow could be very special

With platforming titles such as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Epic Yarn and Disney Epic Mikey are all due to release this year, 2010 is a very exciting time for platforming fans. However, amidst this excellent roster of titles is HudsonSoft's less publicised Lost in Shadows, a platformer that is well worth taking note of.

E3 2010 in Review: Who 'Won' at E3?

I don't think there's any question that Nintendo has won the show this year. 3DS has captured the minds of gamers. It's not simply that it can play games in 3D, the quality of the graphics is impressive. Without knowing a price, or when it will be released, every gamer I know plans to get one at launch. If the system is available this holiday season, I will be preordering as soon as the option becomes available. Frankly, I don't believe it will be possible to get the system any other way. It will be 2006 all over again. It took months for the Wii's sales to drop off to the point where they could reliably be found on shelves. I firmly believe the 3DS will follow suit.

That said, I can't really agree with the general assessment that the Move is relegated to third place. Move and Kinect each have their own issues, but I find the Kinect's issues more troubling at present.

The Kinect is a remarkable piece of technology, and Microsoft should be given full credit for trying to innovate in the field of motion control. It's unfortunate that Microsoft, the software company as you say, isn't really doing anything innovative with this product. Yes, you can drive menus with your voice and your hands. This is pretty neat, but as reviewers have discovered, the voice commands aren't particularly sophisticated. The 360 makes no differentiation between two voices. The best I can say is that it's implemented well. It's implemented, perhaps, for the first time on a home console, but we've been able to execute Voice Commands on PC for over 15 years, there is no current evidence that 360 will offer much in the way of calibration or personalization. This is little better than a limited Voice Commands you can perform in some Nintendo DS titles. Controlling the menu system with your hand is a classy feature, but its implementation is really no different than that of a Wiimote. Yes, your hand is being tracked rather than an infrared beam, but similar things were done with the Eye Toy seven years ago on the PlayStation two.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: Update

I have a pre-ordered copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2 waiting for me at home. Quite a brilliant way to start the summer don't you think? I expect that I will be writing impressions and a review within the next few weeks and perhaps, I could well have another addition into my favourite video games of all time list.

Red Steel 2 Review

 This is a quick review of Red Steel 2 that I wrote for my unviversity newspaper that I have been meaning to post of quite some time. Enjoy. 

The original Red Steel was a heavily hyped mess rushed out for Wii’s 2006 launch, one that failed to deliver on all its promises of precise aiming, visceral swordplay, and impressive graphics. But non the less, it happened to become one of the Wii’s best selling third party offerings, and now the completely overhauled sequel is one of the best first person shooters (FPS) on the system and a shocking reminder of how good a Wii-exclusive shooter can be. 

Quick note about blog posts

Hello there, as you may have noticed I don't tend to post here as often as I have previously. Due to my recent commitments with university amongst other things I have been unable to blog as often as I would like. However I intend for this to change once my exams are finished and I have more time to write.

I have been thinking about the best way to go about my blogging, aside from writing articles and reviews which can be time consuming, I have decided that a good percentage of my future posts will be concerning news, primarly Nintendo related. As I am aware that it would be foolhardy to compete with terrific sites such as Gonintendo for news coverage, I hope to post news that I and hopefully others will find particularly interesting, as well as my brief opinions and thoughts on the subject.

Anyway, I have revision and work to get back to. In the next few weeks I plan on posting an improved and more in-depth edit of a review for Red Steel 2 that I wrote for my university newspaper. But until then I hope that the news and opinions that I post are interesting and encourage further procrastination.

ABAHB

Worlds of their own: Pokemon

The Pokemon games were among the first that I ever played. Back then I wasn't interested enough to read magazines and I didn't have many friends who followed gaming. But good Lord, they marketed the hell out of that game. Between ads for the game itself and the anime, my brothers and I were already obsessed before the morning when we opened up that box and saw a translucent Game Boy Pocket with a copy of Pokemon Blue version inside the cartridge slot, and promptly flipped out.

Despite the marketing however, my brothers and I never really watched the show or got into the trading card games that much. We saw the first two movies (and loved them to bits) but beyond that, the majority of my experience with the series comes from the “regular” series of handheld titles: R/B/Y, G/S/C, R/S/E, and P/D/P. Many of my friends played for the pleasure of winning and becoming the new champion, but I played for something else. To explore the strange new world were kids left their home at 10-years-old to traverse around the world, meeting new people, catching new Pokemon and achieve something extraordinary (And maybe save the world while they’re at it, too.)

Fifth Generation Pokemon: Pokemon White/Black to be revealed on April 15th

The first details about the future fifth generation of Pokemon games has emerged. We don't know much as of now, but as previously reported, Joystiq has stated that "every aspect will be reborn innovatively." So it is looking as though this is the series overall that people have been expecting. 

I'm glad that they are reverting back to colours and not more stones. I'm surprised it's for the DS and not the 3DS though. I expecting there to be some kind of 3DS functionality though, as Gamefreak have been in possession of the 3DS dev kits for quite some time now. 

The Wii Gets Its First Black Box, Others Follow.

In Japan, the black box isn't for the specific game, but the game's rating. Japanese Wii games rated 15+ are to be given black boxes. The black box will be an additional warning to parents along with the colour rating on the side and front. Nintendo first announced the change in box color before the release of Zangeki no Reginleiv, an extremely violent Wii game featuring 4-player co-op and limb dismemberment with full blood effects. The game has received a CERO D rating (17+), the first Nintendo game of its kind in Japan since Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube.

Hit the jump for more:

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle – Launch Trailer

As of this moment I have not watched the above video, I have specifically avoided all media and spoliers bar the first trailer released. I fully expect this game to take months of analysis and multiple play-throughs to fully wrap my head around and I plan on being thoroughly suprised and impressed. The first title still makes me laugh, scream, think, and violently "recharge my beam katana"  to this day and I expect this to be no different.

"Entirely New" Pokemon Series Coming This Year. Series rebirth?

Nintendo has announced that Gamefreak is working on a brand-new Pokemon RPG, and it's due out this year in Japan. There are (of course) going to be brand-new Pokemon involved, and the series is going to experience some sort of rebirth. Expect new functionality and play types, according to Nintendo. Just how different will this game be? Only time will tell, I guess, but Nintendo is already confident that it'll be a huge hit.

Along side the promised rebirth of the Zelda series with the Wii iteration, Metroid:Other M and previously Super Mario Galaxy and possibly this new Pokemon title, Nintendo seem to be in the process of rebooting their key franchises this generation. Personally the anticipation of what they will do to these beloved I.P's has me more excited than anything else this upcoming gaming year. Although I hope they don't add too many new Pokemon this generation, because it would be almost impossible for me to catch them all. And people who can obviously cheated, everyone knows you can't catch mew.