Following up a very successful year in Leipzig, Germany, it looks like those of us in North America can look forward to the Games Convention in the future. CEO Wolfgang Marzin has announced that they're now planning on bringing the show to North America, likely looking to pick up the slack left in the wake of E3 practically going the way of the dodo.
"The concept is flexible and the network of the global games industry permits us to be active at different locations," said Marzin. "After the Southeast Asian Games Convention, we are now focusing on the North American market." With a record 203,000 attendees this year, it seems like an easy decision to bring the show to one of the largest gaming markets in the world.
During an interview with VGChartz, Nintendo's resident wrist-hurting, Shaun White-introducing marketing lady, Cammie Dunaway, commented that Nintendo's E3 showing was a bit of a disappointment. You don't say?
"I would say the message is we were disappointed with our performance at E3," commented Dunaway. "There were titles like Wario which we think will be really fun titles that we should have show cased." Yes, we'd have to agree. It was certainly the best game we played at the show. But what about this Pikmin 3 business?
"We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming," she said. "It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage. But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo."
Backbone Entertainment's Monster Lab, published by Eidos, seems better every time I see it. I don't think that this is a function of improvements being made to the game so much as it is a matter of me understanding it a little better and getting more into the gameplay. I hope this game doesn't end up as overlooked as I think it will!
My demo at E3 took me through most of the steps to monster-fighting success: creating parts, building a creature, and fighting. Parts for the monster are made in minigames, and come in three categories of mad science: mechanical, alchemical, and biological. Mechanical parts range from gear-covered steampunk-looking stuff to futuristic robot parts; biological parts are your basic gross monster stuff, and alchemical parts are magic-themed.
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is a big game. The first thing that I noticed was just how large the game world is. You aren't restricted to just one farm, instead able to spread many a seed across many a land. Aside from that, the game very much feels like all of the other Harvest Moon titles, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether you're a fan of the series or not.
Reggie recently sat down for a little chat with Stephen Totilo from MTV Multiplayer to discuss what's on everyone's mind. No, not the company's showing at E3, but rather the storage issues of the console.
He said that "from an Americas-centric perspective," the Wii's storage limitations are becoming a "mainstream" problem. Again, he reiterates that the company is working on a solution, but isn't ready to reveal any specifics yet.
Seriously, Nintendo, how long are you going to wait? Each week, more Virtual Console and WiiWare content releases and gamers can't download because they have no space!
Majesco had a solid line-up of games at E3. Cooking Mama: World Kitchen looks promising and, until I got my hands on it, Major Minor's Majestic March also looked very good. Suffice it to say I was kind of shocked at just how lackluster Our House is, considering it was next to these games at Majesco's booth.
Our House is going to need a lot of renovations before it's ready for a final inspection.
Wii Music was the big news at E3 in terms of Wii games about pretending you were playing a fake instrument (in contrast to games like Guitar Hero, in which you actually play a fake instrument). But it wasn't the only game in town: Disney's Ultimate Band also features the Wiimote and Nunchuk subbing in for guitar, bass, and drums. Except, instead of MIDI versions of your public domain favorites, Ultimate Band has you playing along to abhorrent covers of recent pop/rock hits. Also, unlike Wii Music's freeform nature, Ultimate Band is a game with, like, goals and points and stuff.
Aside from knowing the game exists, I didn't have anything else to go on when I came across Guinness World Records: The Videogame at my closed-door session in the back of the Warner Bros. meeting room at E3. When the game was revealed, I figured it would just be another cookie-cutter mini-game compilation that didn't hold much value. Actually, I was wrong, as Guiness World Records is a pretty fun title.
Our operative (me) couldn't even get through the Plug Man level featured in the E3 Mega Man 9demo. The heroes at Gamersyde, however, succeeded in that task, and recorded the event as well. That means a whole level of Mega Man 9 for your viewing pleasure, in only slightly shaky cam-vision. Or at least as much of a level as was available: the bosses were not present in the demo, with only a "Coming Soon" window in their place.
We can't embed the video, but we think seeing Mega Man 9 in action is worth having to click on a link.
While cruising around Konami's booth at E3, I saw Lost in Blue: Shipwreckedand, honestly, wasn't too excited to play it. Once the demo person showed me exactly what was up with the demo (a variety of minigames and the main Survivor mode), the title grew on me a tad, but, overall, failed to leave me with the impression that it could provide a lengthy, worthwhile experience.
Geoff Keighley, you have bigger stones than us. The GameTrailers TV presenter grabbed super-sized Nintendo executive Reggie Fils-Aime immediately after he left stage at Nintendo's infamous E3 2008 keynote, and subsequently gave him a grilling that Paxman would be proud of.
While Reggie was mostly gracious about Keighley's constant enquiries into the new Mario and Zelda titles, he did show the odd sign of irritation, at one point protesting, "Geoff, you keep trying to date me, you know. My girlfriend's going to get upset. You keep trying to date me. You can't do that." Protip, Geoff: when the vein starts bulging in the side of Reggie's head, that's the time to stop asking about Mario and Zelda.
In a totally different interview, Reggie's conference co-presenter Cammie "Smiler" Dunaway has defended herself from (rather absurd, if you ask us) accusations that she was feigning enthusiasm during Nintendo's keynote. "Tell your blog that I'm really a genuinely smiley, nice person," she instructed Wired's Chris Kohler. "Because people think I'm fake, smiling up there. I'm just not! It's just me! I am who I am."
Ah, the hard-hitting drama of the post-E3 analysis!
[Reggie carefully concealing his annoyance here, via videogaming247] [Cammie Dunaway defending her right to smile here]
Ever since it's been rumored, the whole team has been patiently awaiting PaRappa creator Masaya Matsuura's next project. Once it was revealed, I found myself puzzled as to what to expect. Would it be as good as PaRappa? Has Matsuura lost it? Well, that confusion is gone now that I've had time to play the game at E3.
I should preface this by saying I'm not a huge Cooking Mama fan. Sure, she's great and all, but preparing fake food often held a spot in my heart next to making real food. I'm just no good at either activity. But, that isn't to say that Cooking Mama: World Kitchen isn't better by leaps and bounds than its predecessor.
Watch out, E3! According to Wedbush Morgan analyst and man Michael Pachter, you could soon be heading the way of the Dodo, the Quagga, and decent Sonic games. In a note to investors titled "Entertainment Software: E3 2008 Review: The Bad, The Great, and the BORING!," the famously quotable analyst concluded that the latest E3 was a crushing disappointment, and described the event as "ill-timed," "boring," and "headed for extinction." Oh, Pachty, you sure know how to make a major industry event down on its luck feel special!
The show, which has been criticized by other industry figures of late, isn't beyond saving itself, but Pachter thinks it should be pulled back to no later than early June, and that "the spectacle should be restored by increasing the size of the show space."
To give this piece of news a Nintendo slant, we'll add that Pachter deemed Nintendo's presentation to be "just right", but did note the grumblings from core gamers that not enough announcements were made for them.
When I showed up at the Warner Bros. meeting room to demo LEGO Batman, I was excited, but also kind of reluctant. You see, the formula of these LEGO titles had started to show its age, as reviews of LEGO Indiana Jones weren't the most favorable. I was a tad bit worried that LEGO Batman would not be the game I was hoping it to be. Thankfully, my fears were never justified.
E3 2008 was a pretty big deal. We had lots of hands-on impressions, as well as new screens and video to talk about. Check out our live impressions from Nintendo's keynote here, as well as some of the big news right here.
Reggie recently sat down for a little chat with Stephen Totilo from MTV Multiplayer to discuss what's on everyone's mind. No, not the company's showing at E3, but rather the storage issues of the console.
Watch out, E3! According to Wedbush Morgan analyst and man Michael Pachter, you could soon be heading the way of the Dodo, the Quagga, and decent Sonic games. In a note to investors titled "Entertainment Software: E3 2008 Review: The Bad, The Great, and the BORING!," the famously quotable analyst concluded that the latest E3 was a crushing disappointment, and described the event as "ill-timed," "boring," and "headed for extinction." Oh, Pachty, you sure know how to make a major industry event down on its luck feel special!
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