Brawl [r]

Smash Brothers Brawl is pretty good. At first the game appears to be little different from the previous installment. The controls and mechanics are the same, in fact you can play with a GameCube controller. The canon of characters, moves, and levels has been preserved but with quite a few additions.



I imagine the first thing people look for is motion control, as it is synonymous with the Wii. There is none. And that is as much a relief as it is a disappointment. I dreaded the possibility of a difficult control scheme (and I don't doubt the developers experimented with more than a few) simply to exploit the Wii's trademark feature. I expected something simplistic like shaking the controller to perform an attack, as in Mario Universe. But the controls are 100% old school and that adds some approachability to the game.

Brawl highlights one major drawback to the nunchuk controller scheme; it's difficult to be consistent with the analog stick. The game requires momentary up/up-left/up-right/... thrusts but this is hard to do reliably since the nunchuk is detached. In contrast, the Cube controller is held and steadied with two hands so 'up' is always the same direction. A great many unnecessary falls can be attributed to this, but (for me) not enough to warrant using wired controllers.



The most important gameplay change is that they restored some of the flow that was lost between the original and the sequel. The original Smash Brothers featured slow, fluidic motion. In Melee the character movements became very jerky, perhaps because opponents' movement was very easy to anticipate in the previous game. But this diminished controllability - even a seasoned veteran could accidentally double tap the stick and run off a cliff. Brawl is somewhere between the two, less frustrating than the Cube version, less predictable than the N64 game.



True to the series, most of the game content is unlockable. I was gratified to find that characters, levels, soundtracks, and such could be opened just by playing multiplayer skirmishes. The new unlockable characters include Ike (Fire Emblem), Pit (Kid Icarus), Snake (Metal Gear Solid), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog). It's a refreshing contrast to the traditional cast of goofy Nintendo creations. If Smash Brothers were a five on the nostalgia-mometer and Melee were a seven, Brawl would be sending glass shards and mercury all over the place. Everything from the characters, items, and levels to soundtrack revivals and remixes is an acid trip to the past. Good memories (except for anything involving Luigi).

Game modes...

• Versus: The fighting game staple. Humans or AIs, online or offline.
• Classic: Haven't played it yet, I'm guessing this is either tournament style or a remake of Melee's platforming segment.
• Subspace Emmissary: An entertaining solo or co-op platformer. Offers some brief and amusing cinemas, varied levels, and a Metroid-style world to explore.
  
• Events: Lots of brief scenarios for one or two players. Some original content here, not just instances of normal gameplay.
  
• Level Builder: Haven't tried it yet, but eager.
  

The visuals are a definite step up from the last game. Sure I'll always wish for the Wii to have hd and better hardware, but it'd be a crime to say the game looks anything short of first rate. The levels are colorful, active, and not nearly as treacherous as in Melee. There seems to be an enormous wealth of detail to every frame.

Consoles and cars [p]

2007Q1 console sales:
Wii: 1,000,000
X360: 720,000
PS3: 500,000
(With DS outselling every system and PS2 outselling X360 and PS3.)

It's nice Sony and Microsoft are getting theirs. To paraphrase the past few years of trash talk:

• Motion control? That's a gimmick.
  
• Motion control? That can't fit the paradigm of modern games.
• Motion control? We invented it! We call it Sixaxis.
• The Cell processor basically gives Playstation 3 the power of a supercomputer.
  
• We're going to change the way people interact with games. X360 will create an environment where gameplay is driven by human energy.
• We're not in competition with Nintendo, they sell childrens' games.
• Playstation 3 will launch this November to compete with X360.
• The next generation doesn't start until we say it does.
  
• When Playstation 3 launches next Christmas, Halo 3 will be there to steal all the attention.
• The reports that we're implementing the Miis are lies and we will no longer talk to Kotaku... Okay we'll talk to Kotaku again.

That said, I have a fever for a racing game. And the only prescription is a Gran Turismo or Forza. If there's one group that's as annoying as the trash talking SCEA and X360 brass, it's Polyphony. Extraordinary delays, repeated feature sets, and the greatest sin of all: almost charging for content on a re-release. They were the best, and then stopped trying. I believe the verb is 'to EA'.

History indicates the second Forza will follow the Halo series and be the same game with more polygons. It'd be nice to see some innovation, but that's just not going to happen with Microsoft so worried about taking risks with their franchise titles.

Still if the gameplay is solid I'll unshun Microsoft and pick up their system. The Forza car list has been released. Ultimately the quality of the list depends on how it's used. If you have no business buying 90% of the cars because the other 10% blow their class away, your huge list just became very short.

I'm of course saddened that rally hasn't yet been introduced into the series. But other than that I'm impressed. They have a great sampling from so many generations of motorsports. The multiplicity of a single model exists in having numerous race versions rather than the ten different consumer models. The mid-90's lineup is strong, as are the LeMans GT series cars.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to playing with a wheel. It's been all dual shock for me until now. A precision analog wheel and pedal set should make the experience much more enjoyable.

Some highlights of the list...
2002 M3 GTR / 2006 Corvette C6R / 1964 250 GTO / 2003 Mugen S2000 / 1993 XJ-220 / 2005 Exige / 1998 FTO / 1997 GTO / 2002 Skyline Nur / 2007 Peugot 207 / 1995 911 GT2 / 1998 Tommy Kaira Impreza / 1969 2000GT / 1998 VeilSide Supra / 2001 Tuscan R / 2003 R32

Sadly missing...
Nismo Skyline GTR / Veyron / AMG CL35 / M6 / R10 LMP / R34 / Astra

Call of Duty 3 [r]

This game will have you squatting behind every bush in sight. But hilarious duty jokes aside, COD is a lot of fun.

First and foremost, the controls. You aim and turn by pointing the wiimote, you move with the nunchuk stick. And it works very well. Better than mouselook. The learning curve is quick, and aside from occasionally getting hung on a low-lying obstacle, fluid movement is very easy to achieve.

The other motion control features make for a very intuitive interface; a little jerk with the nunchuk changes weapons, stabbing with the wiimote does exactly what you'd expect, holding the two like a steering wheel drives the occasional jeep.

Even the gimmicky stuff like rowing a boat and planting explosives are amusing and adequately short-lived. If nothing else, they add a little ingenuity and variety to your tasks.

And that's all you need to like this game. Akin to playing Mario or Mario 64 for the first time, the extra degree of freedom is a revelation. I'll play Halo 3 and Army of Two, but I'll sure wish I could swap the joysticks for an aiming device - as my stick-adept cohorts plaster me with Covenant gernades.

Beyond that, COD is lackluster. The graphics are subpar and the ai is pretty weak, aside from the standard set of scripted enemy cleverties like shooting around corners and nading you when you're hunkered behind fortifications. The sound guys need to be fired, which is apparent from the outset when the sarge's useless chiding/instructions loop mercilessly until you crawl under the barbed wire to find your armaments.

It's definitely an okay game turned very good, thanks to the innovative control mechanism.

[Insert forced Wii pun here] [r]

The Wiil deal, Wiimendous fun, I dream of Wiinie. And so forth.

Impressions:
This weekend was a pre-Thanksgiving with the roomies and friends. So the wiimote changed hands many a-time, and I've gotten to play about ninety minutes of Zelda. Alas.

But everyone had a good time, even the girls. It wasn't the intense, violent, Mario Kart battle royale good time that the Cube afforded us. Wii Sports is simple, but that made it easy for everyone to get into.

The software has yet to catch up to the hardware, and that's my biggest worry. Zelda was written for the Cube, so its motion control features are fairly shallow. I hope this won't be the case for new games and cross-platform games. In the case of Wii Sports, you're able to swing your club, throw a punch, etc. either using the real-life motion, or a flick of the wrist.


This leaves the control a bit too sensitive at times. Hopefully future games will have a setting for people who actually want to use the motion control features and a setting for lazy asses.

Outlook:
Wii sold out. In the good way. So did PS3 and x36. But there were a lot more Nintendo units to sell. Does this mean Nintendo has stolen market share from its pricier competitors? Does this mean Wii has established itself as the real deal for the new-gen console war (a.k.a. holiday sales)?

Let's hope so. Not because it might do damage to Sony and MS; the three-front console war has done great things. Let's hope so because if Nintendo sells big, developers will take advantage of the motion-control technology.

The hardware works. And it's the future. It makes pc gamers' precious mouselook seem sluggish and unwieldy. And it has the potential to solve the camera angle problem that has plagued nearly every post-Mario 64 game. I recall hearing rave reviews about the technology from Hideo Kojima - the greatest camera angle perpetrator of all time.

Throwing and ducking punches is very entertaining, and my arms are just a little bit sore.