Give Me My Metroid by Timmy Walnuts March 13th, 2009 - 3:33 pm

I was taking a little stroll through the internet today, and when I’m poking around aimlessly, I generally don’t find anything of much interest. But today felt different. First came the most amazingly awesome thing I’ve seen in a long time. This has got to be the best Metroid cosplay ever, if not the best cosplay of all time. Not to mention she’s pretty smokin’. But continuing with this Metroid theme, I became curious to when we could expect another to be released. And wouldn’t you know it? The official Japanese Metroid site has a banner at the bottom of the screen, after the flash intro, that simply states “Another Side Story - Coming Soon” with a picture of a space pirate next to it. Yes, I know this has been posted for about a month now, but I still needs my Metroid.

I just hope that this “side story” doesn’t mean another first person experience (and that its not on the Wii). We need a return to the series roots; a side-scrolling, exploratory adventure to continue where Metroid Fusion left off. I don’t want much. Just a nice, old-school feel with some new features, maybe a new type of beam weapon? Shit, I’ll even take a spin-off that focuses around the space pirates, just give me a classic Metroid game. The Castlevania series continues to garner much success using this formula, one that was created by the original Metroid team.Yet, we haven’t seen a seen a 2D installment for about five years now, and its about damn time for one.

Why not take the graphical success of Street Fighter IV, that 3D look on a 2D plane, and mesh it with the exploratory nature of the Metroid series? The game would look fantastic, and with the right development team, could bring the series back to its Super Metroid glory days. Hopefully some news will surface sooner rather than later; all we have is a dinky little banner that possibly points to the same Metroid Dread that was mentioned in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

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Posted in Commentary, Humor, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii | 1 Comment »

Back to Basics: Rockstar Revisits GTA Series Roots with Chinatown Wars by Danny Internets March 13th, 2009 - 12:20 pm

Some new gameplay footage of Rockstar Games’s upcoming DS title, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, has been released via Gametrailers.com. The new footage features drug dealing and delivering elements of the GTA: CW, which represents one of the few mature games to be released on the platform since its debut in November of 2004.

Chinatown Wars makes necessary stylistic changes from its predecessors due to the graphical restraints imposed by the DS as compared to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, opting for a more animation-like, cell-shaded approach. True fans of the genre shouldn’t feel alienated though, as the visual style and overhead perspective is strikingly similar to the first two games of the GTA series, released on the PC and original Playstation. While neither of the original two games made use of 3D rendering, their bright palette and usage of sprites shares a close resemblance to the look (and feel) of GTA: CW.

Also worth nothing, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars seems to actually make good use of the Nintendo DS stylus, unlike most games featured on the portable unit. While often serving as an inventory screen and HUD, the game also uses the dual screen setup to provide different perspectives of the main character. For instance, in the video we see the top screen featuring the normal gameplay angle, a top-down view, while the bottom screen is in first-person mode, allowing for close-up inspection and manipulation of objects in the immediate vicinity of the character (such as slicing open a secret compartment in a car door to reveal a hidden drug stash).

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Posted in News, Nintendo DS, Previews | No Comments »