The Negative Edge News Report 09.19.07
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 09.19.2007
This week I'll be talking about what Microsoft's "YouTube for games" means to you, what's next on the agenda for Izuna (everyone's favorite pink-haired Ninja), why unranked battles in Super Smash Bros. Brawl are good, and More!
Over the weekend, ItsJustSomeRandomGuy over at YouTube uploaded the next episode in his Marvel/DC: After Hours series. His videos center on characters from the Mavel and DC universes and shows how they would interact with each other in our world. A lot of the discussions that the characters have revolve around how the characters' respective movies are treated by movie studios. If you haven't already, you should check out parts one, two, three, four, five, and the first half of part six before watching the video down below. I know that most of you don't have a lot of time to waste, so here's my quick summary - Superman has gone missing and the good guys are trying to figure out what's going on. At the same time, Lex Luthor, not happy with the way DC movies have turned out in recent years, is beginning to put a plan in motion that he believes will set things straight.
"I didn't defeat you Superman.
In the end, I didn't have to.
Irrelevance did it for me."
The dialog that Lex has with Superman contains some of the most well written exchanges that I've witnessed in media this year. It's definitely better than what I've heard in the movies that these videos mock. Sad but true. Free content by fans for fans that's actually entertaining is what helped to make YouTube one of the most visited sites on the net. Its success at allowing creative people to show off their talent is one of the main reasons that I always pay attention to any news pertaining to Microsoft's push to create a "YouTube for video games." While Chris Satchell, the head of Microsoft's Game Developer Group, confirmed in a recent interview that Microsoft is working on a way to make a similar service available through the Xbox 360, I personally don't believe that they'll be able to pull it off for at least a few years. There are simply way too many restrictions and excuses that they will inevitably come up with. But don't let their failure stop you from enjoying the good stuff right now. There are already a lot of Flash-based game sites out there that you can peruse (Newgrounds for instance). Sure, like YouTube, there is a lot of crap mixed in with the good stuff, but if you look hard enough, you will eventually spot some gems. If Flash isn't your thing, there are other sites that you can look at that feature independent freeware games, like this site that I just found with a simple Google search. If all else fails, there's always Cave Story to fall back on. A "YouTube for games" would be great, but don't stand still waiting for one. There are plenty of independently made games out there that are ready to be enjoyed.
The news as I see it
Because being a side character isn't good enough
The official site for the second Izuna game (Gouma Reifu Den Izuna Ni) went live late last month. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough info available at the time so I didn't bother to talk about it. This week, however, there were some changes to the site that indicate that more info will be provided at TGS. So far, the only things that I know are that the game will be an RPG (I'm not sure if it's still a roguelike) and players will be able to switch between Izuna and Shino this time around. In theory, this will allow players to last twice as long in the dungeons. However, if the game is as hard as its predecessor, it probably won't make much of a difference.
Now, even though the first game didn't exactly set the world on fire, I'm still hoping that Atlus will be nice enough to localize this title after it gets released in Japan in November. For some odd reason, I enjoyed getting my ass kicked (sometimes) in the first game and I look forward to going through a similar experience in the next one.
A better way to play online fighters
This week Smash Bros. DOJO!! finally confirmed that Super Smash Bros. Brawl will support online play. There are two main modes - fights against friends and fights against everyone else in the world. While online fighters are nothing new, there are a few things that were revealed in the announcement that have never been implemented in a console online fighter as far as I can remember. First is the fact that fights against anyone other than your friends are completely anonymous. You won't know the other person's name. In fact, you won't know anything about him or her since no records of the battles that you fight are recorded. Sure, Street Fighter II had Quarter Matches, but most people played in ranked matches so there was never anyone around in that mode. This time unranked is the only option. I hate playing ranked matches against rank-whores who do nothing but pick the same guys and use the same cheap-ass strats over and over. In CVS2, for example, I always found myself on the receiving end of lots of crouching-fierces from Sagat and Blanca, ratting, and all the other crap that made me hate playing online. I just want to play games with people that are there to have fun, not to increase some score that nobody will care about in a few years. Other companies need to follow suit as I feel that this option will make things more fun for more people. Plus, I am positive that the lack of ranked matches means that there will be more variety as far as character selection goes. Fighting against the same characters over and over and over is not fun. The other notable option that this game gives players is the ability to do something while waiting for a match to start. I can't tell you how boring it is to wait forever just to get into a match. How hard is it to create a temporary match against the CPU so that players have something to do while waiting? While practicing against the CPU would have been better, a punching bag is still a nice distraction and is much better than watching some words blink on the screen. Overall, I'm impressed with what Nintendo is doing. Unranked battles won't go over too well with a lot of gamers, but since those are probably the same people that I hate playing against in the first place, it's all good.
It's time to bring people together
insert credit is reporting that Chaos Wars will be brought to the US by a company called O3. This is yet another SRPG that came out for the PS2 last year in Japan. Of special note is the fact that the game features characters from franchises that are owned by four companies, including Atlus, Azure, Idea Factory, and RED Entertainment. According to Wikipedia, the games from which characters will be pulled include "Aruze's Shadow Hearts, Atlus's Growlanser, Idea Factory's Blazing Souls, Gakuen Toshi Vara Noir, Spectral Force, Spectral Souls and Hametsu no Mars, and RED Entertainment's Gungrave and Samurai Police/Shinsengumi Gunrouden."
Having a game with Growlanser and Shadow Hearts characters might be cool. I don't know about the other franchises though. I've heard of Gungrave and Spectral Force before, but the others? Still, I like it when mashups like this are made. It gives cool characters from crappy games a chance to shine.
Don't you want to choose your own music?
Last week Aspyr Media and Activision announced that Guitar Hero III will be making an appearance on the PC. In a later interview with GameDaily, it was confirmed that the game will ship with a Gibson Guitar Hero guitar. Normally, I don't pay attention when a console game gets ported over to the PC. This is different though. The first thing that I thought about was StepMania and how it allows DDR fans to use their own songs while getting their groove on. It's true that tech-savvy gamers are already using simple converters to get their PS2 guitars to work on PCs. However, having an official guitar would make projects such as Frets On Fire (and maybe Freetar) accessible to more gamers. That is always a good thing. Personally, I'd prefer to use my own songs and the original artists when playing these types of games, so anything that helps to build the Frets on Fire community is welcome.
The Week In Releases
A lot of games are being released this week. It's like all of the publishers are trying to get their games out before next week. Is something big coming up?
MySims (Wii)
I'll admit it - EA got me with the first trailer that they released. And I'm not even a Sims fan. In fact, I haven't played more than ten minutes of a Sims game ever. I've only watched my niece and nephew play. So, if EA's purpose was to get people interested in the franchise, mission accomplished. I'm disappointed that the game doesn't have any online multiplayer option though, but I'm sure that they're saving that for one of the many sequels.
I've been looking forward to this since the demo came out. I like the combat system, especially the light and dark aspects. I also like seeing colors in my Xbox 360 games.
Side note: It would appear that PS3 owners will be treated to an upgraded version of Eternal Sonata some time soon. Is it worth waiting for? Who knows? Just keep that in mind if you happen to own or plan to own both systems.
Damn! Look at all the extras! Atlus seems to be trying to outdo Working Designs' release of Growlanser Generations Deluxe. I'm not complaining though. That's awesome.
As far as gameplay is concerned, I've never played a Growlanser game since they're so hard to find at a reasonable price. Working Designs did too good of a job making their titles collectors' items. The game scored a 25/40 (7/6/6/6) in Famitsu, so...
Earlier this year, I gave a link to the official site for this game because there were rumors that this was going to be a sequel to Izuna (that game that I am still in the process of reviewing). Izuna does make an appearance, but she is not the main character.
Itsuwari no Rinbukyoku is Strategy RPG that includes characters from other Success games such as Izuna and Cotton. We'll have to wait until the game is localized (you are going to localize it, right Atlus?) before we can get any more meaningful information on it. You can take a look at some scans here if you're interested.
Side note: I'm happy that this game isn't a sequel to Izuna since if it were, she would only be a side character. She deserves more than that!
Namco Museum DS
This one sort of slipped under the radar. This compilation contains Pac-Man, Pac-Man VS, Galaga, Xevious, Dig Dug II, Galaxian, Mappy, and The Tower of Druaga. The only game that really stands out is Pac-Man VS. I don't think that the whole package is worth the $20 budget price even with the one cart four-player option for VS. Still, you might want to keep an eye out for a price drop. You know it's going to happen within the next few months.
Here are some of the minor characters from Cave Story. You haven't played Cave Story yet? WTF not?
The Anime Circle
I'm taking another week off from this section. In the meantime, you might want to get up to speed with Claymore since the series ends next week. I'll have a rant up about it in my next column. Let's just say that it diverges greatly from the Manga at episodes 22 and 23. We'll hopefuly find out this week whether or not the changes are good. Get it here while you still can!
To be continued...
That's it for this week. Through no fault of my own, I somehow managed to eat a red flower. If I can keep my wits about me, I'll be back next week.
