Three Player Co-Op 04.01.09: Ninja Gaiden 2, Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS), OnLive, More

Posted by Drew Robbins on 04.01.2009

This week, the 3PC investigates the going-ons of GDC, including more hilarious antics from Hideo Kojima, Link riding a train, and a "magical" device which allows you to play games on your PC regardless of system requirements!



Welcome to Three Player Co-Op, and as I've ran out of ideas for introductions, lets just get right to the excitement!

Player One – Drew Robbins - A hero to chumps and chumpettes across the world, Drew Robbins takes upon himself a variety of important tasks: to protect the world from devastation, to unite all people within our nation, to announce the evils of truth and love, to extend our reach to the stars above! Aside from that, he puts together this delectable column, which now comes fully featured with…ummm…well we have Johnny Richardson this week! He writes almost as well as me, though, writing better than me is impossible.

Player Two –Rod Oracheski - Rod is appearing in back-to-back Three Player Co-Ops, the reason for this is a rather boring story that I'm not going to share, but for the sake of discussion, Rod killed every writer ahead of him in line for this week's 3PC, so I was left with no choice but to welcome him back in.

In all seriousness, though, special thanks to Rod for filling in at the last second.

Player Three – Trace Aber - Another newbie (they are everywhere!), Trace Aber, writer of Living Live, is now making his second appearance in Three Player Co-Op. You must commend the man, as the fact that his first appearance in this column didn't destroy him baffles me, like it has so many others. I mean, have you seen James McGee since he appeared in the column? Word has it that he exploded upon realizing that he had taken part in this masterpiece.

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Three Player Co-Op – Week 9

Topic #1: GDC time is upon us and Nintendo has delivered various exciting announcements, depending on what you deem exciting. Do things such as Zelda: Spirit Tracks and a storage solution for the Wii fill your heart with glee?

Drew Robbins - To begin with Zelda: Spirit Tracks, I couldn't be more apathetic. Phantom Hourglass was a good game but it just didn't suit my tastes, and I tired of it rather quickly. Spirit Tracks looks pretty similar but…umm, I guess you have a train now? Not a big fan of trains, I'll probably just let this game pass, but I'm sure for just about everyone else this announcement is incredibly thrilling.

Storage solutions also don't get my heart pumping, because I never even came close to having storage problems on my Wii. I have at least 10 virtual console games, but I am pretty anal about organization and free space so I delete most of them off my system after I've finished. Even with this new solution I doubt I'll find myself downloading them again, the only VC games I tend to play are F-Zero and Punch-Out!! Once again I realize I'm in the minority, but memory space was never that big of a deal for me.

Rod Oracheski - The Zelda announcement fell flat with me. I was hoping to see something that would make me bring out the Wii again after running through (and subsequently getting tired of) Madworld, and a new Zelda game might have done that. A DS title though, just not my thing. I don't use my PSP these days either, though the newly finished Earthbound 2 translation might change that.

The storage solution is a real step forward though. It's a shame it took them this long to finally do it, but at least it's here. I would say that it doesn't exactly fill me with 'glee' though. Firmware updates like this, unless they add major new functionality, really don't do that much for me. Hey great, you finally fixed a problem that should have been obvious - and was to almost every gamer out there - from the start. Game and DLC announcements, those excite me.

GDC's not really the place for that, though companies have been using it that way in recent years. It's a developers conference, and the most interesting thing that comes out of there is the stuff on development - like BioWare's walkthrough on their creation cycle, for example. A look behind the curtain is almost always interesting, but is that a source of 'glee' though? Not really.

Trace Aber - Honestly, and I feel like I may get some flack for this, but I have never been all that big into Zelda. I know, I know, that might not make me a "true" gamer but I found the games to just be your typical game, nothing too special. That being said, I do think it is great for Nintendo to be announcing a new Zelda game because I am clearly in the minority of gamers who do not like nor love Zelda. Pretty much every Zelda game has been praised highly (well, the CD-i ones not so much) and sold either fairly well to simply amazing, so this announcement is probably huge to most video game players. I think, as far as video game announcements go, the only thing they could have done that would have topped a Zelda announcement would have been to announce a new Mario game. As for the storage solution, the only access to a Wii that I have is that of my girlfriend's but we're usually busy playing the Xbox 360 so it doesn't get much love. That being said, I'm not all that aware of a storage problem for the Wii but it's good that Nintendo is addressing such concerns. Overall, while my heart has only a few drops of glee in it (just because I find the words "Spirit Tracks" to be a hilarious combination), I do think GDC went well for Nintendo and I'm pretty sure there are quite a few people who have their entire hearts filled with nothing but glee - so well played Nintendo.

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Topic #2: Hideo Kojima delighted the hearts of many when he took the stage at GDC. Many looked in awe as he made an announcement. This announcement was that…he was going to…make another announcement, at E3! Oh Kojima, you dirty tease. He promises romance and action, do you expect good things from this next announcement?

Drew Robbins - Darn it Kojima, when you aren't crafting ridiculous convoluted plots and directing hour-long cutscenes, you are mercilessly teasing the fans. Metal Gear Solid 4 may not have satisfied me with its ending, but for the most part I found the game to be enjoyable. With the promise of romance and action I expect…wait that sounds like another Metal Gear Solid. Well, only one Metal Gear Solid has been "bad" by my counts, so naturally I shall expect great things from Kojima, even though those great things will probably be muddled by several hour long cutscenes with a terrible ending that trashes everything interesting about the game's plot.

Rod Oracheski - An announcement that was hyped by a previous announcement? What could go wrong. Oh wait, there was that whole Metal Gear on the iPhone thing... Hopefully they learned a bit from that and this 'big announcement' isn't going to be another dud. From the looks of it he'll be announcing yet another game in the Metal Gear Solid series, a series you might remember that he's been done with twice now, so anything could conceivably happen.

Trace Aber - Hideo Kojima is a man who has played the voice of God before - of course I expect good things. All joking aside, I'm not really sure what to except but I am pretty sure it's going to be brilliant. I trust that for Kojima to make an announcement promoting another announcement that the final announcement is going to be something worth waiting for, although I have no idea how action and romance will be involved. Well, I should rephrase that. Most action games have romance in them to a degree, but since it was brought up so prominently I want to believe that he is going to utilize romance in a way that has never been done in video games before - whatever that may mean. I do feel like the people who went to GDC kind of got jipped though since this "announcement" has to be one of the biggest video game teases in a while, and was a let-down for many I'm sure. That being said, I also believe that Kojima will not disappoint and make those disappointed forget they were disappointed to begin with. That, or he's going to piss a lot of people off.

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Topic #3: More Nintendo news, with the launch of Wii Virtual Console Arcade. Which brings us to this week's top three list, give me your top three Arcade games that you want to see on this service, I command it!

Drew Robbins - #3 NBA Jam: After all this time, how do we still not have a Midway basketball game on the virtual console? If Jam doesn't make a special guest appearance, we riot!

#2 Simpsons Arcade: It won't happen, but darn it, a man can dream, can't he?

#1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Making another appearance on one of my nostalgia lists, this game is too awesome not to make its way to the Wii. Best of all, it is actually possible; in fact, I'd go as far as saying it is probable. Think about it, the original game is on the NES, so the license isn't a big problem. Then, factor in that Xbox Live already got the game, so the rights for this one shouldn't be that hard to snatch up! Do it Nintendo!

Rod Oracheski - As straight ports - The Simpsons arcade game, Gauntlet, and Track and Field. If they can 'Wii-ify' them up, I'd like to see what they'd do with Dragon's Lair. I don't understand why this got its own channel though - why couldn't these games, which really aren't much more than the titles going up on the existing Shop, simply have been added there? I guess that wouldn't have necessitated its own press release though.

Trace Aber - This one might be a bit hard for me since I never really played a lot of games in the arcade and most of the ones I want I already own on the 360. With that warning, I think the game we all want to see is Battletoads. Just a classic beat 'em up that might even be well served for a slight upgrade in graphics and added features (maybe have the ability to switch between updated and classic like in R-Type dimensions). I don't think Nintendo could go wrong with putting that up for sale. Another game that I feel is too often ignored is the old Simpsons Arcade game. My local pizza place still has an original cabinet for it and sometimes I go down there just to play it with a friend. It's a fun game that isn't too impossible (like some arcade games *cough*Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*cough*) and who doesn't like kicking ass as Homer Simpson? Nobody, that's who. But, the game that needs to be re-released, and has been talked about, is Marvel Vs. Capcom. I don't care if it's one, two, or if they make a new one - that game simply needs to be put out. Imagine playing that online or even having something crazy where each human player controls one of the six fighters - now we're talking mayhem. Of course, I don't expect to see any HUGE titles to be released right away, but given a month or two and we'll see some great arcade games released and Nintendo will make millions off of it. Bastards.

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Topic #4: Tecmo made good on the promise of announcing something awesome, with the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 2 on the PS3. But that isn't the awesome part! Co-Op, Ninjas, Gaiden? Three words that are together at last! Discuss.

Drew Robbins - When Tecmo declared that they were announcing something great, I wasn't sure how to take it. How am I supposed to take such a grand claim seriously from a company that used to pride itself on making games in which scantily clad women roamed a beach resort? Well bravo Tecmo, you proved me wrong, co-operative Ninja Gaiden? That's it, all I need to know, you can have my money.

Rod Oracheski - I'd like to know how it's going to work first. What they should do is just have the second player be spectating with their camera locked so it's looking behind the first player, so they can tell the other guy when something's coming up on them. Or they could fix the camera issues that continue to plague the series, but with Itagaki (and other key members of the team) apparently all gone for good, I don't see that happening.

Ninja Gaiden might be too much crazy action for a good co-op teamup. Someone should try it with Tenchu, a far more sedately paced ninja game, instead.

Seriously though, before this announcement I would have sworn Tecmo was dead. They're still around?

Trace Aber - If Tecmo had stopped at saying Ninja Gaiden 2 was going to be released then I think most people would be content with that. But that wasn't enough for Tecmo, they wanted to raise the bar and throw in co-op ninjas and, God-damnit, all I have to say is why didn't they do this sooner? No more will I have to wait for my friends (who suck at Ninja Gaiden, by the way) to stumble through levels and fall in the same trap over and over again and wait my turn. Now I can die with them and we can laugh together. Ninja Gaiden was a good game but it was lacking something and hopefully co-op, along with the other obvious updates and upgrades to the game, will be more than enough to make this a great game. I guess the real concern now is making sure the co-op works smoothly and goes according to plan, because sometimes co-op does more harm than good. Nonetheless, I have faith that Tecmo will do the co-op right the first time and not require an update two weeks after the game is released. Man that irritates me.

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Topic #5: Unless you've been living under a rock, or some other cliché about being disconnected from society, you have probably at least heard of OnLive. Basically, this machine, aided by any computer and a broadband connection, will stream PC games for you to play regardless of your PC's graphics capabilities. If it works, how big…no, huge is this?

Drew Robbins - My inner-cynic refuses to believe that this could ever work, but my optimistic side almost shed tears of joy when he read this. The main reason I play most games on consoles is because they don't have system requirements, I don't have to do extensive research to find out if Uncharted 2 will work on my PS3, or if my Wii can handle MadWorld. But if you could find some way to work around system requirements, that would be tremendous. You would deserve a Nobel Peace Prize in...brilliance.

Rod Oracheski - If it works on a technical level, and see my post in the forums for how much doubt I have on that front, it could be huge. Playing games at 720p, 60 frames per second, at the highest settings and special effects...on nothing but a monitor and basic PC? That would open up PC gaming to a huge new audience*.

I'm not sure people are ready to pay for gaming like they pay for satellite or cable, however. When you quit subscribing to OnLive, you have nothing to show for it - even if you bought the game via the service, something they say they'll support. If you get some kind of copy of it from them when you drop the sub...you still wouldn't have a PC to run it, right? I just don't see people being willing to accept pay-for-gaming like this, no matter how similar the cable/satellite comparison may be.

OnLive has potential, but a huge number of hurdles to jump - both technological and psychological. I'm not sure they've got the answers for either. I think the best chance for widespread adoption is with the MMO crowd. If you give people the ability to play WoW, Warhammer, or Age of Conan at maxed-out settings on just any computer available in any location they happen to be in, with no performance hit in huge crowds and raids - and do that with a minimal cost over and above their existing subscription - it'd be absolutely huge, and absolutely kill productivity around the world.

Otherwise this is years off from being a reality.

* - people that have a burning desire to play new games at bleeding-edge settings, but have only a crap PC and a superfast Internet connection with no bandwidth cap...a huge audience indeed.

Trace Aber - In theory, this is a great idea and is more than enough to get people excited. Of course, that's all in theory. The only problem with OnLive is that right now it just doesn't seem feasible. They store and run the games on their computers and stream the games to you, and as long as you have a computer than can run video you can play any game you want. In order for that to work you would need a dedicated line for each and every individual playing a game at once, and I can't imagine ISP's to be willing to dedicate so much of their broadband to this service. In short - it seems highly improbable that you will be able to get a worthwhile experience because there will be so much lag. Right now the service is in a closed beta and the problems might not be so apparent, but once the thing goes live and if it does indeed become popular then its own popularity would be its downfall. Another big problem with the service is that, at the time, there seems to be little in the way of modding your games. To me, if I buy a PC game (which I haven't done in a while since I only have a laptop that is not a gaming laptop), I want to be able to mod it as much as I want. The only reasonable way to fix this is if they were to download every mod for every game they support, but that doesn't seem reasonable for them to achieve nor for us to even expect that. And, within just a while of announcing the service two competitors have already announced similar products, so this thing might be dead before it even got off the ground.

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Topic #6: You play games, I play games, we all play games! So tell me what you are playing, inquiring minds would like to know.

Drew Robbins - For review purposes I have been playing Legends of Wrestlemania which I have enjoyed, even though, once again, Yukes made the poor choice of forcing you to grind out experience points for your created wrestlers. Games are supposed to be fun, so why go out of your way to make a portion of the game that nobody will really enjoy, I demand the ability to play as my created character as soon as I make him, without the worries of getting my ass kicked. Is this really too much to ask?

Other than that, not much to speak of other than some old-school Mario Party. You can talk crap about the Gamecube versions or the paltry Wii version, but the N64 versions were straight up ballin'.

Rod Oracheski - Just got Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Ninja Blade, so that's what I will be playing shortly. Hoping Sacred 2 shows up at some point here, as that's one I'm looking forward to.

As for what I've been playing, it's been more of the backlog - burning through ShellShock 2 over the course of a couple days.

Interesting game, but not one I'd recommend people buy. There are levels that are amazing - the jungle levels look awesome with the lighting and fog effects, see the video below, and the mansion is probably one of the most tense levels I've played in a while, but they keep throwing away that good will with terrible sections. Cheap deaths being shot by guys you can't even see, getting flooded by enemies in areas with next to no ammo - there are so many frustrating parts to the game that it overwhelms the few really good bits.

It's really short and gives you a good chunk of Achievements, so Achievement Whores might want to rent it. Otherwise, I'd say leave it on the shelf until you've played all the games you really want to try - then give it a whirl.

Also played a bit of Naruto: The Broken Bond. I'm not really sure why I play these 'open world' style Naruto games, having never watched the anime at all. The look and feel of the world exploration is awesome, but I don't really care to follow the story at all and the fighting itself is a bit cheap at times. Fans of the anime should definitely check this one out though.

Rounded things out with some Halo Wars. I wasn't super impressed by the single player game which is technically fine and has a few features that I think other games (C&C series, I'm talking about you) would do well to steal, but the multiplayer has really grown on me. There are a number of viable strategies, including a few rushes, and the different leaders give you the ability to mix up your approach. Worth a look for RTS fans, even if you're not down with the Halo universe. I even fired up Universe at War again, after getting the RTS bug back into me.

Also played, for about six hours, Legends of Rentalmania. Oh sorry - that's WRESTLE, Wrestlemania. Once I got through the Wrestlemania tour mode and saw all the great video packages that the WWE team made, I had absolutely zero interest in continuing to play - but I did manage to beat the Legend Killer mode and get that 'finish in under 30 minutes' Achievement. All you have to do is punch repeatedly until they're red, then submit them. Finished the first Tier in 9 minutes and change, and beat the 38 legends one in 26 minutes that way. Definitely rent it to see those videos and live the nostalgia, but don't expect to have much of a game to play when the nostalgia wears thin.



Trace Aber - Just a couple of days ago I bought five games, and all of them have been taking up my time.

I finally gave into temptation and bought Call of Duty: World at War. It was the first COD game I have ever bought (I was never good at FPS until Left 4 Dead came along) and, holy crap, I love it. I have been playing it the most out of the five games I bought and I love how the game does a great job of engrossing you in the experience. I cannot wait to get to play this on a high-definition TV because I imagine it will look awesome. I also love the historical footage they use in the game because it really makes everything, well, more real. Sometimes you freak out because you realize this actually happened.

I also got Legends of Wrestlemania and, being a huge fan of wrestling and wrestling video games, it did not disappoint. A lot of people have been complaining about the Royal Rumble match type because you can't do any "big" moves or whatever, but I think it fits the game perfectly. In fact, I think it is my favorite Royal Rumble in a video game ever. I'm torn on the Hell in the Cell since you start the game on top of the cell, but I do like how they made the cell space around the ring bigger and I hope they will incorporate that into the next Smackdown Vs Raw game. I remember they had a big cell on one of the Gamecube games and I never understood why they couldn't make it bigger on the 360 or PS3. The Relive mode, however, is my favorite portion of the game. I only wish there were more because the Rewrite and Redefine are fun but not all that engrossing. The pre-match movies, however, are excellent and just another example of how great of a production staff WWE has on hand. All of the video packages make the matches look great...it has actually made me go and re-watch the matches.

My third game was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. I've only played about thirty minutes of this but I'm really impressed with the overall presentation of the game. It looks great for a DS title, the storyline has me intrigued, and the controls are smooth and fluid. I also like how you have to break into some cars and hotwire them and the auto-align to the road is terrific for the DS. As I have said, I am not that far into the game but I'm curious has to how the drugs play a role in the game. I know you can collect a bunch of drugs, but I don't know if you sell them or get perks from them or what. Only time will tell.

The other two games I got were downloads from the XBLA. Crystal Defenders, a tower defense game with a Final Fantasy theme is a blast to play even though it's basically a direct port of three cell-phone games. There are 300 waves to deal with and 12 maps, which is more than enough to keep me busy as this is also my first tower defense game. I reviewed it a couple of weeks ago in Living LIVE and if you haven't already - pick it up. My last game is called a Fading Memory and you are a coma patient and the game plays out in your dreams. It's a basic platformer but the one thing I like about it (besides the intriguing and excellent story) is that with every enemy you kill the world becomes brighter and more colorful. I like how some games are taking a different direction with the art so that it plays a major role in the story and flow of the game. I believe it's only 200MP and, while it's kind of short, it's a great game and you won't be disappointed.

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Until Next Time…

And thus concludes another exciting week of Three Player Co-Op action! Make sure to give your opinions on this week's topics in the comments section, or even submit a reader question to be answered next week.

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