Sleeper Warning - Muramasa: The Demon Blade

As much as I would love to see Vanillaware's latest work of art, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, on a "real" console, I will settle for the Wii. After all, the 2007 release of Vanillaware's Odin Sphere was on a similarly powerful machine(PS2), and it was still one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen. And much like Odin Sphere, I'm sure screen-shots and streaming video don't do this game justice.

Here is a trailer anyway:


Also like Odin Sphere, I expect the game to offer some deep and interesting gameplay. While Muramasa may look like a standard side scrolling action game, realize that this studio does not usually dabble within the realms of "standard". While I still have a hard time classifying just what the hell Odin Sphere is (side scrolling brawler action rpg or something?), in 2007 Vanillaware also released Grim Grimoire, a completely side-scrolling RTS for the PS2. So to expect some strange twist in the gameplay of Muramasa is far from a stretch.

The game looks to move a lot faster than, the often clunky,Odin Sphere as well. It also appears that the girl pictured above will be playable. Best of all, the game seems to be ditching the strange, sphere-like level style of Odin Sphere. My concern though, lies in Wiimote functionality. I really hope Vanillaware will be allowed to ignore waggle completely. The NDS has great touch screen games(Elite Beat Agents, Kirby's Canvas) and superb games that don't use the touch screen at all(Advance Wars, New Super Mario Bros, Castlevania); I really hope Nintendo realizes the Wii can be the same way. This is one of the many games I hope David will get some hands on with at TGS this year.

Spread the word. Don't let this game become some under-appreciated cult hit that ends up on Ebay for 3 times its value.

Some screens (CLICK TO ENLARGE):





Thanks to corvus and school for finding some of these pics and keeping the forum users informed on the game.

Brad

JTV Complications

Sorry to everyone who tuned in to watch me play Silent Hill. JTV appears to have to gone down temporarily. Do not fret, I found a save point and stopped playing for now. I will pick up again later tonight assuming they have the site up and running again. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for all of the support. If JTV is working, expect me to pick up Silent Hill Homecoming again tonight at 10pm central time.

Thanks,
Nick

What Do You Mean?

I have to say, I'm not a big fan of Brian Crecente these days. I don't hate him or anything. I just took a picture with him once at PAX. But since then there was the Xbox Pure Fiasco and how he responded I think was totally unprofessional. I think people who blog about the news and their opinions have a lot of influence on the community. I think there's a responsibility to report their opinions but also make sure that people know where your opinions are coming from.

So, today I was in the Press Room posting the two pictures I took from early in the morning. There was some free food lying around. So I snagged a few cookies and some lemonade. On my way out, I noticed some small packages called Gamer Grub. Unfamiliar with the product, I looked over the flavors. Action Pizza, Racing Wasabi, Strategy Chocolate, and Sports PB&J. I more recently overcame my dislike of wasabi, so I decided to use that as my choice to test the product. There was quite a big risk since Wasabi was involved but that was the biggest question mark, so I had to go for it. I munched down the bag and found it surprisingly good, so I went to inquire about the product at the booth they had set up downstairs.

On the showroom floor I had a chance to speak with Keith Mullin the President of the Company. It was his first time unveiling the product to the public. We discussed why we started the company, what his goals were in making the products, and his plans for the future. He seemed to me like an excited entrepreneur and a pretty nice guy. I told him a wrote for a blog and that I liked his product so he gave me some samples, which I'll have snackmaster Brad try live during this weeks show.

So back to Brian Crecente, I went back later to do some research about the company. I found out, just a day earlier, Mr. Crecente had posted about Gamer Grub becoming the World Cyber Games Official Food, in which he called the flavors atrocious. I'm not sure if because they were called "bottled" food, that he thought they were in liquid form, in which he found atrocious. Or possibly that he had a bad childhood experience with Peanut Butter & Jelly. But I certainly didn't find them atrocious. They're just snack foods you eat using a canister instead of reaching your greasy hands in a bag and then getting all the crumbs on your keyboard. Having tried them today, I'd like to stick up for them. I think because of Mr. Crecente's negative post a lot of his readers have jumped on this, "it's cool to make fun of something I don't understand or know much about" bandwagon and honestly I think it's a bit irresponsible. [Kotaku Post]

Final Thoughts, Who knows what would have happened had I read his post before I tried them? Maybe I would have laughed and joined in making fun of this "canned gaming performance" food. I can't be 100% sure what my reactions would have been, so I'm not going to say that I'm guilt free. But it will make me think twice before I open my mouth about something I'm not too sure about.

Thanks for listening,
David

PS - Jessica from All Games let me have some of her Action Pizza that she was eating. She and I both agreed that they were pretty good. Sorry, Curtis.

Final Thoughts From E For All

I didn't really know what to expect from E For All today. I knew it wasn't going to get the support or the crowd that PAX got. It was a Friday, so I'm sure a lot of people had work or school.

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by the game turnout. The only real games that were shown here was Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, and End War. Everything else was already out. You had a lot of Rock Band and Guitar Hero going on, which honestly is getting kinda annoying. There were also a lot of kiosks with games already out like Madden and Braid.

I don't know what is in store for E For All in the future. Davethezombie told me it was smaller than last year. Just by walking around the convention center, there was a lot of unused space. It was far more spacious than PAX, but that may have been because of the lack of people. The worst thing in the show had to have been the Target "booth" in the center of the show room. It was basically just a retail video game store sitting in the middle of everything. I don't understand the point of having a store in the middle of a convention you pay money to get into, just so you can buy games at the regular price as they are out on the street.

I did get to meet and talk to a few tournament players, like Triforce, Kuubu, and Justin Wong. But the highlight of the day had to be when I met Steve Wiebe. He's just like he is in the movie. He's kind of a shy guy and doesn't really talk too much. He just kind of does his thing. I was actually at the All Games Booth today when he broke 1 Million points in Donkey Kong and reached the kill screen, so hopefully he'll have a good weekend and take back the record. If there's one thing I'd like to say to him it's that, "With or without the record, I think he's a great guy and a good role model for people to look up to." I think he's taken a lot of crap from people, but he's always been a classy guy and sometimes maybe too nice or a guy. During the show today, I saw a show host (who I won't mention) and Walter Day (From Twin Galaxies) go back and forth calling Steve by the name Billy for half an hour. I'm not sure if anyone found it funny, but I found it a little sick. I have no problem with Walter Day and I've heard that he's a great wonderful guy. But honestly, he comes off to me as a little bit of a Billy Mitchell worshipper, and I truely believe, as nice as he is, that he would not be very happy if Steve Wiebe took back the Donkey Kong Record.

In the end, the most fun I had today was hanging out at the All Games booth. They're a bunch of fun people set up like a family and I enjoyed talking to every one there. I'd like to thank all of them for their hospitality today. Thanks April, Norman, Mandy, Ted, Jessica, Patra and Derrick.
I hope to be able to keep in contact with them and possibly meet up at one of the future events. Also thanks to DavetheZombie for meeting up with me today. I think he was a little intimidated by how tall I was in person. Brad is taller, by the way.

I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow for a wedding,
David

Thoughts About The Nintendo Announcements

First off, Sin & Punishment 2 doesn't look that amazing visually, but it's wonderful that the game is coming out at all. I'm just wondering how it will actually play.

Cave Story coming out for the Wii. Fantastic. It sucks that all these games which are already made as indie PC games are coming out for consoles. It also sucks that they are going to have to be subject to corporate pricing, but it is nice that these games are finally being noticed. I've loved the music from Cave Story, we used it as our opening a few times, and it's great that we'll be able to go out a buy a copy which we'll be able to play on the ease of a console with a controller.

The DSi, I don't know about this one. I'm fairly tired of rebuying systems I already own. I understand this is a way for Nintendo to reach a new market and that not everyone is the hardcore game buyer that buys all the systems at launch. Brad seems pretty excited/bummed about the new bigger screen. But what I'm more worried about is if the games being made for the system are going to change. I'd hate to have games that are going to be exclusive to the new system because of certain technological advantages. That's always a quick way to piss off people, make them feel like they lost out by buying the system early.

Mario & Luigi 3. Awesome announcement. Looks like I'll be holding off of Sonic Chronicles.

The new Punch-Out is an interesting idea. But the chance for failure is huge. Point One, all the characters shown so far are the same. It would be nice to have a non remake game on the Wii. Point Two, motion controls, which I'm sure they're going to use, will not work with a game like this. If they plan to keep the game play tight, fast paced, and twitch based, Wii Motion Plus better be amazing. Third Point, What's the price going to be? And how long will the game last? I don't see them putting a good versus mode or online play in. So for 50 bucks how much is game is there going to be?

I heard Club Nintendo is coming to the states finally. Too bad it won't be nearly as cool as the Japanese one. Club Nintendo in Japan has DS games you can only get from being a Club Member. I don't see that happening here. And even if it does, Japan will just get some sort of super limited edition to make ours look like crap again.

Finally the biggest excitement and disappointment. Pikmin for the Wii will be a remake. I'm trying to keep positive about this one guys. Pikmin is one of my favorite games of all time. But unless the Wii Controls are amazing, I don't see this one taking over.

I'm running out of batteries so I'm out for now,
David

Hello From E For All

Hey Guys,

Here are the first two pictures I took from E For All.

Sorry Curtis....


Billy Mitchell is here too, but I didn't ask him for a picture.


Wish You Were Here,
David

E For All

Today is the first day for E For All at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It should be an interesting day as I expect it to be much different than PAX. It seems to be a much smaller convention and a little more corporately run. It'll also be my first game convention with a media pass, so we'll see how much sway that actually pulls me. Hopefully I'll be able to meet Steve Wiebe and possibly davethezombie from chat.

Here's to a good day,
David

Bayonetta Makes Its First Public Appearance

I love you Platinum Games. Your studio is absolutely overflowing with fun and style. Today, the first in game footage of Bayonetta was revealed to the world. The video is not embeddable so you will have to follow the link below to see it yourself. The video is just a minor clip of what is sure to be the first full trailer which will undoubtedly be revealed at TGS.

Click here to check out the Pre TGS Footage!

For those who are unfamiliar with Platinum Games, let me school you for a moment. Remember Okami? That incredible moving painting that was one of the most charming and unique platformers to hit the PS2... ever!? That game was developed by Clover Studios (also known for games such as God Hand and Viewtiful Joe) but was unfortunately closed down because not enough people bought the game... despite good reviews. I don't know why, maybe it was too deep or as Brad would say, Artsy Fartsy, for most "gamers" to embrace. Platinum Games was founded shortly there after by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil), Atsushi Inaba, and other key members of the Clover Studio team. The studio started as "Seeds, Inc." but was later changed to Platinum Games. "Platinum Games" went on to announce several ambitous future projects such as the ultra violent "Mad World" for the Wii and of course "Bayonetta" for the PS3 and 360. What is so great about this studio is that they are definitely not afraid of trying new things and avoiding the norm. So lets talk Bayonetta for a second.


As you can see, Bayonetta takes some obvious influence from Devil May Cry in terms of environmental design and over the top action. This is probably a direct result of Hideki Kamiya involvement with the project. The game stars Bayonetta, a female warrior with guns on her shoes and lethal hair that can be used to attack foes. Sounds over top? Thats because it most certainly is. The story is still under wraps but from what I have heard from journalists who got a look at the game behind closed doors, the game will definitely be impressive. I can't help but notice her walk as well. The game will definitely feature some sexual undertones and scantily clad characters, a trend that is common among Japanese games. I personally can't stop watching her walk...

So let the ass jokes begin.

I have my eye on this game and I can't wait to hear what David has to say about the game when he returns from TGS!

-Nick

Little Big Planet Beta Highlights

The sheer amount of content available has reinforced my belief that Little Big Planet is worthy of purchase even if the creation tools remain untouched. I will spend more time with the tutorials, but I've spent hours and hours this week just playing user created levels online. This game is insanely addicting. There also seems to be immeasurable depth with the creation tools, and I have no doubt some extremely talented people will make Little Big Planet one of the best games this year. I really hope some of those people come from the 4player Podcast community.

Here are some clips from me playing LBP earlier in the week.












Brad

New Comic Thursday

I'm off to Los Angeles for a wedding and E For All. I'm back Monday evening and then off to Japan on Tuesday. I'll try to keep up with blog posts and look for a dinner time podcast Monday before Japan.

Since it's Thursday and thecosmicfly is a comic genius, here's this week's Comic.

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

To view the other Comics, click here.

See you soon,
David