Sonic the Hedgehog is back with a game of his own! After the success of Street Fighter 4, Sega is hopeful about releasing a new Sonic game base on the old 2D platformer concept. Being a fan of the Sonic series, I am quite excited about this new game. I had previously played Sonic 1, 2,3 and Sonic and Knuckles on my Sega Genesis way back in the 90s. It has been my favourite game on Sega Genesis ever since. Each new Sonic game introduced new and interesting features. In Sonic 2, you can dash (yes dashing is an exciting feature, you can’t do it in Sonic 1 -_-“) and it supports multiplayer! Ok not that kind of online multiplayer games that we see today. For the young people out there, Sega Genesis do not have an internet connection…oh man…do we even have internet at that time? Ok anyway, the second player can get to control an invincible Tails(an orange two-tail fox). He never dies and will just keep getting respawned after he dies.
And in Sonic 3, the playable sidekick Tails can even fly and give Sonic a lift! We just love Tails…and did I mention he never dies? And in “Sonic and Knuckles”, you get to control a new character Knuckles, who can glide in the air and even scale walls. Ok so I was eagerly anticipating this game but wait, Tails and Knuckles are not in the game?!??! Unfortunately Sonic is the only playable character! It is like going back to square one! I tried my hand on the demo today and somehow feel that Sonic 4 is more of a HD remake of the Sonic 1. Enemies remain very similar to that of Sonic 1. Maybe this is what Sega associate brand manager Ken Balough mean by ‘staying true to its root‘. To me, however, Sonic’s movement feels sluggish. The only thing that I like is the new ‘homing’ feature where Sonic will home onto a target.
Bosses from this game are also taken from the previous Sonic games. Overall, the graphic certainly improved, but hey, 16-bit Sega Genesis VS PS3, Xbox 360? It just isn’t fair. This game is also facing possible Boycotting from Fans according to 1up.com. And I will be joining them too. Somehow over the years, I now prefer Sonic in a go-Kart, or Sonic with a tennis racket.
I remember watching a funny clip on Sonic and Mario from CollegeHumour. Enjoy the video below:)
The new Xbox 360 landed on singapore shores mid-July this year. One would ask: What’s new about it? Well first thing you’ll notice is its slick new design. Its slimmer and comes in a glossy black finish. Its absolutely gorgeous. That green glow of the power button against that glossy black finish makes you think its powered by kryptonite. Its really quite a looker and will send a gamer’s heart a flutter, especially an Xbox 360 owner. Microsoft should have made this glossy black finish standard on the old (read:original) Xbox 360. I’m sure there are a lot of original Xbox 360s out there that are now more of the color beige than white.
The new Xbox 360 is more than a looker. It now comes with a 250GB hard drive. That’s more than enough for downloading and storing games, game add-ons and more. The new Xbox 360 is also “whisper quiet” as stated in their ad. I don’t know about you but I don’t really find the original Xbox 360 noisy unless its right beside when you’re playing. You couldn’t here it over the sound of gunfire (in a video game that is haha). Anyway quiet is good.
Now you’re wondering is that it? Of course not. I think one of the more exciting things about the new Xbox 360 besides its looks is that it now has a built-in Wi-Fi. Yeeeeeey!!! No more wires! When connecting to Xbox Live that is. But what puts the “new” in the new Xbox 360 is that it’s Kinect ready.
Kinect ready? Yup, Kinect ready. It basically transforms your body movement into game play. It’s similar to the Wii and Playstation Move. But what makes the Kinect different is you don’t use any controllers. YOU ARE the controller. More specifically your body movements control the game. Isn’t that exciting?! Sure you’ll feel a little silly at first. It will feel like the first time you talked on you’re mobile phone using a bluetooth headset. But hey, that means no controllers flying out of your hands and hitting someone or your much loved TV. The Kinect device is sold separately and will be available in November with a slew of kinect games of course.
Editor’s note: For those who don’t know Kinect, check out the video on kinect below.
One major thing missing with this new Xbox 360 is a blu-ray drive. I would have thought they would have incorporated this already with the new Xbox. The Playstation had this for quite some time now. Anyway it still is primarily a gaming device, and blu-ray has not catched-up with the masses yet. Besides, a blu-ray drive will certainly up the price of the new Xbox 360.
Now that you’re familiar with the new Xbox360, the question is should I buy one? The simple answer is no. This still feels like the old Xbox 360 but with the bells and whistles. That’s why the name remains the same, except with the word “new”. You can still play the new games with your old Xbox 360, even the new Kinect games, but you’ll need a separate power supply for the Kinect device. But if you want to jump in to motion-controlled gaming or your Xbox 360 really feels old, by all means yes. I just wonder if you bought one, after a year would you still call it the “new” Xbox 360? hmmm….
I think they’ve come full circle with the name Xbox 360 (pun intended). If you do intend to buy the new Xbox 360 and the Kinect device, just a word of caution, don’t let the neighbors see you when you’re playing 😀
5313 km away an exciting party for gamers is ending today. It is the Tokyo Game Show 2010 which runs from 16 September to 19 September . Like a child left out of a party, I cannot get first hand news from the TGS 2010 and had to look through the net for any updates. Some interesting upcoming games were showcased at the show. I will now provide a run through of these titles:)
1. Ni no Kuni
This game is a team-up between Studio Ghibli producer and Level-5, a Japan based game developer. There is a PS3 as well as a Nintendo DS version for this game. Studio Ghibli is well known for creating wonderful animated films such as Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. Ni No Kuni has a rather sad story line. It follows the adventure of a 13-year old boy who mother died suddenly. In order to revive her, he heeds the advice of a fairy and enter a parallel world called “Ninokuni”. For any who had watched Ghibli Studio’s production, the scene of the game has an uncanny resemblance to other Studio Ghibli’s film. As a matter of fact, the studio has been employing computer 3D graphic technology in some scenes of their animated film for some years. This may explain why some of the scenes of Ni no Kuni has flavours of Studio Ghibli’s animated film. The DS version is scheduled to be released this holiday season while the PS version will only be out next year.
2. The Last Guardian
This beautiful game about the friendship between a boy and a giant creature (that looks like a dog and eagle) named Trico is set to warm the heart of the player. Hmmm, but I do wonder what kind of game can the developer made that surround just these two characters. While it is announced that this game is going to be an action-adventure puzzle game, I hope that this game will not just be a level of puzzle after another. We will have to wait till late 2011 for this game to be released.
3. Metal Gear Solid Rising
Snake has retired but can Raiden bring new life to the MGS series? In MGS: Rising we get to slash enemies playing as ‘Ninja’ Raiden. The ‘free slicing’ mode allows the player to cut through space freely. The physics seen in the video above is really cool! For all you MGS fans out that, this game is due 2011 on Xbox 360 and PS3.
4. Deus ex:Human Revolution
For those who prefer the English version, here is the link.
This game is the third part of the action game series Deus Ex by British video game developer Eidos Interactive (it was later bought over by Square-Enix). Just watching the video makes me wonder whether this is a game or movie. This title is available on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
5. Final Fantasy Versus XIII
This is a video leak from TGS 2010 for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. In this video, we can only have a very vague idea of what this Action-RPG game is going to be like. A scene of the player slashing a behemoth was shown in this trailer. It gives us a rough idea of the kind of slash and kill game play that FF versus XIII is going to be. Instead of the usual turn-based attack of FFXIII, now I really get to cut down a real behemoth! Cool!
6. God of War: Ghost of Sparta
GOW is now on PSP! We don’t have to wait long for this one, it is going to be released this coming year end holiday.
7. Gran Turismo 5
More video released for TGS 2010. Get ready to be blown off by the new stunning visual effects! GT5 is out end of this year.
8. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
A revive of the Castlevania franchise, this new title has Hideo Kojima’s input as an advisor. Looking to be a cross between Devil May Cry and God Of War, we will see soon whether this game can indeed revive the Castlevania series around October of this year when it is released.
Going 3D?
Sony who is pushing for 3D gaming in TGS 2010 even had a 3D panel at TGS 2010. Currently, Xbox 360 is unable to serve 3D content to players unlike PS3. But wearing a pair of glasses and the need to burn a hole in your pocket to get that 3D TV may put off players who are thinking of going into 3D gaming. Especially with the ‘glasses-less’ Nintendo 3Ds coming out probably before next April, players will be spoilt. Wearing glasses to play game? No way! Well, it might be still too early to see whether 3D gaming to kick off. But until the price of 3D TV drops, it is likely to be a barrier for most gamers to go 3D.
So that’s it. A round-up of the games featured in TGS 2010. Of course there are games that I have not covered. Among them we have, Asura’s Wrath, Yakuza: Of the End, Fable III, Killzone III, Monster Hunter Portable, Patapon 3, Tokyo Jungle, Dance Evolution and many more. Darn…they should have a Singapore Game Show too. I guess our gaming industry is just not matured enough.
I remember watching a funny clip on Sonic and Mario from CollegeHumour. Enjoy the video below:)
