411 Games Fact or Fiction 04.06.09: Virtual Boy, Zelda DS, Shadow of Colossus and More

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 04.06.2009

Will the latest Zelda for the Nintendo DS be more enjoyable? Would you be salivating at the thought of a Shadow of Colossus sequel for the PS3? How about that new OnLive service - will it be successful? All these topics and more tangled by Mark and Adam on this week's FoF.



Ok here we go with this week's Fact or Fiction. This time around, we're joined by Mark Salmela, currently reviewing Wanted: Weapons of Fate for the PS3 and frequen participant in our various columns. He'll be going head to head against Adam Larck who recently previewed the upcoming Chronicles of Riddick for the Xbox 360. I know they've wanted to get on each others' throats so let's do this!



1. You think the train conducting in the newly announced Zelda title for the DS will be more enjoyable than sailing the seas.

Adam Larck: FACT - I say fact, but I still think it's a needless point in a Zelda game. It seems like it's going to be more of a rail shooter during these parts, which is fine with me. Although it was fun to be able to plot out your course however you wanted to in the last DS Zelda, it was kind of pointless since all you needed to do was get from Point A to B. The train system seems to be set up for this reason, so hopefully there won't be as much wasted time getting from action to more action. Still, what happened to Epona, or something like the horse? Is horse riding now beneath Link?

Mark Salmela: FICTION - I'm not the most qualified person to speak on this issue since Zelda is not my cup of tea, but I don't see what makes a train so special. Sailing the open seas is one thing, but riding on a train seems like a downgrade to me. Like Adam said, what's wrong with riding a horse? A train is basically a car that can't move freely. Will the next Zelda game feature racecars? Also, since trains cannot be freely moved *they must follow a set of tracks*, I do see the train sections as being a rail shooter. I have absolutely no faith in Nintendo to make an entertaining rail shooter section in a Zelda game, especially when it already looks so kiddy.

Score: 0 for 1

2. You would salivate at the thought of a new Shadow of the Colossus for the PS3.



Adam Larck: FICTION - It's hard to salivate for something I never bought for PS2. I played a demo and I liked it, but the game just seemed repetitive to me in a full version. Run up a monster; stab his weak point, rinse and repeat. Sure the graphics were nice, and I'm sure they would continue to be nice on the PS3, but graphics only get a game so far. Games still need good gameplay that won't bore you after one boss fight. If they would add some new parts that would vary the game up, I may get an interest in it, but for now I'm passing.

Mark Salmela: FACT - Permission to punch Adam, boss man? Joking aside Shadow of the Colossus was a terrific game, only held down by the PS2's limitations. Shadow of the Colossus was such an atmospheric game that I can't even begin to imagine how much better it'd have been with the PS3's power. The only reason that I can see as to why one wouldn't want a new Shadow of the Colossus game for PS3 is that one wants Team Ico to keep making new, original games. Team Ico is extremely creative, and part of me wants to see what Team Ico has up their sleeve next, rather than improving upon their last idea.

Score: 0 for 2 - Permission granted Mark!

3. The next generation of consoles won't offer much of a graphical improvement. Instead, they will offer something completely new to your experience such as gameplay mechanics.



Adam Larck: FACT - There's only so much you can do to make games look better. I think it's about time that consoles and developers will leave graphics where they are right now (which is pretty good in my book) and focus more on new changes to draw players in. I use Nintendo as a good example. They left graphics alone (which still look around the PS2 generation for most games) and focused on a new mechanic. While it may seem like it came off very gimmicky, it's still selling huge and has dominated the 360 and PS3. I look for both Microsoft and Sony to take a page from them in their next consoles and try to find a new mechanic of their own that's unique.

Mark Salmela: FACT - If the Wii wouldn't have come out I would have said fiction. I remember a lot of people saying that this current generation of consoles wouldn't be much of an improvement over the PS2/Xbox days, and they proved to be wrong. I still think that there is a lot of room for improvement on games, but because of the Wii's success no console manufacturer will dare to push the limit next time. I'm not saying the next generation of consoles will look worse than they do now, but because of the Wii I don't think we're going to see as much of a graphical jump as we could have. As for what the next generation of consoles will bring, I'm not sure. I'm not sure if Sony or Microsoft knows either. Sony seems to be experimenting with 3D glasses while Microsoft is experimenting with motion controls. Actually, I take part of that statement back, because I know what Nintendo's next console will be. An alternate colored Wii. You thought colored Gameboys were stupid? Just wait until pink and blue Wii's hit the shelves.

Score: 1 for 3

SWITCH!

4. You think the OnLive service will be successful.

Mark Salmela: FACT - My answer's fact, but take that with a grain of salt. Right now there is no way we could have a service like OnLive. The bandwidth speeds that would be required for lag-free gameplay, which is a necessity, just doesn't exist in the US. A lot of people have been saying this over the past week, and I agree with them. OnLive is a great concept that will eventually be the future, but for now it's just a dream. Countries such as Japan have download speeds that would allow for OnLive to work. But sadly in the US we're so screwed up right now we're years off from having the types of internet connections that Japan has. We're too busy trying to cap the amount of data that users can download, instead of improving the infrastructure. In 10 years OnLive will be successful, but not right now.

Adam Larck: FICTION- I agree with some of Salmela's points, but not with his overall answer. Other online services like GameTap are successful because they still allow players to download the games from a central server to their computers to play. As Salmela said, America still doesn't have the speeds needed for lag-free gameplay, and won't for a long time if ever as ISP's are still trying to cap everything now. I look for this to be a good idea that ends up dying out because of expectations being too high.

Score: 1 for 4

5. You fell for one of the many game-related April Fool's jokes on Wed that were everywhere on the net.

Mark Salmela: FICTION - The only thing that fooled me on April Fool's Day was my thought that there'd be something really cool this year. Last year's Legend of Zelda movie trailer from IGN absolutely blew me away. It fooled me for a good half hour and fooled all of my friends that I showed it to. It looked absolutely gorgeous and actually made me wish that it was actually coming out. This year IGN's prank totally sucked, and there wasn't anything else worth noting. I guess I was fooled in that Plants vs. Zombies is an actual game and not an April Fool's joke *maybe, jury is still out on that*, but that's not fooling me in a good way.

Adam Larck: FICTION- Some of the jokes were funny, but as far as anything believable, no. I liked Blizzard's jokes for StarCraft II and Diablo 3, but neither was even close to being able to fool anyone. 411's own joke about MGS 4 has been so overplayed I refuse to believe it, even during non-April Fool's Days (it was well written, I'll give him that much at least). Hopefully, next year can bring about some good quality jokes like Shen Long from the early 1990s, or the Legend of Zelda movie that was put together so well last year.

Score: 2 for 5

6. The Nintendo Virtual Boy could've been successful if the games were in color.



Mark Salmela: FICTION - Have you actually seen the damn Virtual Boy? It's a pair of binoculars on a tripod. The batteries on that sucker don't even last for 2 hours. Yeah there's an AC adapter, but that thing will fall out if you even look at it the wrong way. The Virtual Boy was a disaster to begin with. The fact that it can only display black and red colors is just the icing on the cake, not the sole reason for its failure. I was going to make the argument that the Virtual Boy only had around 2 dozen games, but then again maybe if it was in color people would have developed for it. Either way the Virtual Boy was a failure, and the limited color scheme was only part of it.

Adam Larck: FICTION - Salmela really hit it on the head here (and here I thought all he knew about was Target: Terror). It wasn't just the red and black scheme that made the system bad, it was the system itself. The tripod set-up was terrible, and it either had to have a table at the EXACT right height to play it, or you had to lie on the ground and crane your neck up to the eyepiece. The AC adapter could have been nice, although you had to duct tape it to the Virtual Boy to even get it to stay there. Even Nintendo scrapped plans for the multiplayer because of how bad it was. When your own company abandons the system, you know it's not just a color scheme that would have saved the system. Color games may have gotten a few more games made for it, but the Virtual Boy was doomed from the start.

Final Score: 3 for 6

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