5 - Chair!
USA Today let slip yesterday the new name for the Xbox 360 motion camera. It will be called Kinect and official images have been revealed.
Here is a list of games mentioned by the USA Today article:
•Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.
•Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.
•Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.
•Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.
•Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, incorporates immersive, full-body dancing without the need for a controller.
•Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.
Activision will have lots of games on display at E3 2010.
My favorite game at E3 2009 so far has been Scribblenauts. Its a puzzle game or sorts created by 5th Cell (makers of Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest) and published by Warner Bros. There are multiple stages you have to solve by writing something down and using that object to solve the puzzle. For example, you have a whale stuck on the beach. You need to get it back in the water to complete the level. You then write down "train" and a train appears in the level, you get inside and push the whale into the water.
What makes the game so great is you can write down any noun and it will appear in the game and behave the way it should in real life. If you write down Vampire it will show up and attack any human. Zombies will attack people too and turn them into other Zombies. Trampolines make you jump. Wings make you fly. And meteorites destroy the whole level and kill you.
My first time playing I solved some of the puzzles. They were very simple and only took one or two items to solve, but you can solve them anyway you want. The advanced difficulty level requires you to beat each level three times in a row without using the same item twice so you have to get much more creative.
The 2nd and 3rd time I played Scribblenauts I just created stuff on the title screen to see how they interacted. Here is my test to see who is stronger a vampire, a unicorn, or a werewolf.
We also found two things that either weren't in the game or broke it. Laryngoscope, which is a medical device used to look insides someones throat, was not there. The developer was really surprised because 130 other medical devices are in the game. We also tried to attach wings to a motorcycle with some glue and then ride it off a jump. We jumped on the motorcycle the game froze. The developer actually thanked us for breaking it though.
Scribblenauts is one of the most creative and entertaining games I have played in years.
This article was written during E3 but I accidentally saved it as a draft instead of publishing it. Here it is for those readers who asked about Tatsunoko vs Capcom.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom for the Wii was shown at the Capcom booth at E3. The game looked like a very solid 2D fighter and was almost as popular as Marvel vs Capcom 2 if the line to play the game is any indication. I don't know any of the Tatsunoko characters but the all the main Capcom characters are there, Mega Man, Ryu, Chun-Li, and Viewtiful Joe.
The game is a bit jaggy in the background but the action is very fluid. The damage scoring in the game seems a bit ludicrous though. As this picture shows, there was a 4 Hit combo and it dealt 3.5 Billion in damage. Why not make it 3.5 Quadrillion Billion Million?
Below is a video of the game in action.
I found a way to get the pictures from my camera for Muramasa Demon Blade. Below are a couple pictures of the game and the signage at E3.
Muramasa Sign at E3 2009
Muramasa Boss Battle
The first day at E3 is now done and I am back at the hotel relaxing a bit. I will start off with some bad news for our readers and some of the publishers they were interested in. UFO Interactive doesn't have a booth at the show, Xseed and D3 have small meeting rooms but no games on display. Unfortunately I won't be able to give any impressions on these games because they aren't at the show.
I did get to play Muramasa: Demon Blade and was very impressed with it. The art style is beautiful. Each sword has different strengths and unique special attacks. There is also some strategy involved in changing swords. Every time you change swords you automatically attack every enemy on screen with a super attack. You can only change swords at certain times though so you need to use it wisely. I took some pictures of the game in action, but forgot my camera-to-PC so the images will have to wait until I get back.
I didn't get a chance to play the other Ignition games yet, but will leave my impressions as soon get a chance to try them.
On a positive note for VGPC readers. I will have around 4 or 5 extra Muramasa: Demon Blade tote bags. They are all black with the Muramas logo on the back. If anyone wants one, email me with your address. I will ship them to the first people to send me the info.
I will be going to E3 next week which is always fun. Three days of playing games, seeing future releases, getting free stuff thrown at me, and meeting fellow gamers. During all that fun I plan on writing a few blog posts about some games I'm interested in or might be interesting for game collectors. I will also post some short reviews on my twitter account.
Leave a comment below letting me know what games you are interested in. I will try to get to all of the games and consoles you suggest. Take some pictures, maybe some videos, and give my impressions on the blog and twitter.
