411 Games Fact or Fiction 10.01.07: Halo 3's Legacy, Ninja Gaiden's Ability To Fight Off The ESRB, Nights On The Wii, Online Smash Bros. Brawl, & More!
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 10.02.2007
411's Morakoth Tang and Dan Owen tell us what they think about the historical significance of Halo 3, the chances that we'll see gory dismemberment in Ninja Gaiden II, a Wii Nights game without motion control, unranked battles in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the DualShock 3's new rumble features, and whether putting Kingdom Hearts games on the PSP instead of on a console is a good idea in this edition of Fact or Fiction Games.
Welcome back to another rumble-free edition of Fact or Fiction. Here to give us the 411 on some of the weeks most important issues are the ever popular Dan Owen and Morakoth Tang. Let's take a look at what they do before we get going -
Every Monday Dan recaps all of the NFL action you may have missed on Sunday with 411's NFL Monday Morning Hangover. Kansas City vs. Minnesota? Green Bay vs. San Diego? New England vs. Buffalo? It's all there.
1. The day that Halo 3 drops will be a historic day that will be talked about for years to come.
Morakoth Tang: Fiction
It will only be remembered by Halo fans, Microsoft, and the chain video game store managers that will have to open at midnight to cater to the crazy hardcore fans. The launch day is nothing big to other people. Hell, I forgot when this game is coming out. Soon, right? Or has it? Yes, Halo will set all kinds of records and receive all great praising scores, but the day and date that it launches won't be remembered a year, a month, or even a few weeks from now. It's no big deal unless there's a great shortage of the game that rivals the 30's depression and I can't see that happening. We have mass production for DVDs down and we can easily walk into any Circuit City or Best Buy and find a copy if your Gamestop is out. Guaranteed!
Dan Owen: Fact
By now, it's come and gone, and we can tell that it was a huge day for sales. While I don't think the experience will last, except amongst the Halo fans who were at the midnight release, I can almost guarantee that in the next 5 years or so, every time a game big on hype comes out and stores hold a midnight release, the Halo 3 Launch will come up. Every time a game starts to sell big, you will invariably see an article talking about the great sellers of the past, such as Super Mario Bros., Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and yes… Halo.
Score: 0 for 1
2. Severed heads, chopped off arms, and legs that are no longer attached to the body - gamers will actually see these elements in Ninja Gaiden II when it is released.
Morakoth Tang: Fiction
Severed heads… Sure why not?!?! Tecmo showed bouncing boobies and made a whole game dedicated to bombshell females that kick high. (DOA commercial reference here, watch out!) Why set the limits at chopped limbs? But seriously, if Manhunt got flagged for its crazy death scenes and gory game play elements, Tecmo will have to tone it down if they want to release an M-rated game. The ESRB will kick that thing back to their HQ faster than you can say RYU! Now, if the game doesn't have humans that are being cut apart then maybe we'll see the severed heads and chopped off arms… if they do it zombie style!
Dan Owen: Fiction
Are you kidding me? After the whole Manhunt controversy, there is no, and I mean NO, way that a game would make it to the shelves with that kind of violence. Well, the game could come out with an Adults Only rating, but that could very well end up as a killer for the franchise. So no, you will not see that degree of violence, not even close.
Score: 1 for 2
3. A Nights game on the Wii does not need motion control.
Morakoth Tang: Fiction
Nights is the perfect game to have the Wii motion sensing abilities exploited. Don't get me wrong - the game doesn't have to be 100 percent motion control, but I wish it did have a little more depth with the controlling then the current scheme they have with a traditional set up. I mean, it's on the Wii for goodness sake! Try to do something interesting and original.
Dan Owen: Fiction
While I'm relatively unfamiliar with the Nights series, I am familiar with the Wii. At this point in the console's life, games need to have the motion sensing controls. Earlier, as in the case of Super Paper Mario, games could get by without the motion controls because they were games originally planned for the Gamecube. By now, the gamer expects their games to be at least in part motion controlled, and it would take an amazing game to change that. Besides, I have trouble imagining a game that would be better without the great motion sensing capabilities of the Wii.
Score: 2 for 3
4. Keeping online play unranked in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a bad decision on Nintendo's part.
Dan Owen: Fiction
I don't think this is such a bad decision. At least in one sense of the term "unranked." Nintendo's push is to appeal to the casual gamer, which has so far worked very well. The casual gamer is not going to care what rank they are. He just wants to have fun. The people who would care are the hardcore gamers, but they aren't going to boycott the game due to no ranking system. If there was a ranking system in the game, the people who cared about it would end up quitting the games they were about to lose. We've seen it before in games, so I have little doubt it wouldn't happen. It would ruin the game for the casual gamers, which is exactly what Nintendo doesn't want.
Now, I said Fiction in one sense of the term. What I do want in terms of ranking is an invisible one that let's you get matched up with people of equal skill level when getting randomly paired up. If there isn't such a system… Well, the same thing that I talked about applies - the casual gamers will get frustrated.
Morakoth Tang: Fiction
Yeah… I don't really care for ranking. After all, Nintendo doesn't even have a solid online plan with leaderboards and such. Keeping track of people's ranks would be useless at this point. However, I hoped that this would be the game in which Nintendo introduced their complete online strategy and something that could rival Xbox Live. Oh well. As long as there is online play I'm happy. Now, about that VOIP… Let's make it happen Nintendo! Predetermined messages are lame… Doesn't the DS already have a headset?
Score: 3 for 4
5. You are impressed with the DualShock 3's new rumble features.
Dan Owen: Fiction
Mainly because I could care less about what Sony does, as I don't own any of their products, nor do I plan on owning any in the foreseeable future. I'm also a little confused by this move. Is Sony abandoning the SIXAXIS? That was supposed to be a big feature of their console. While I didn't see it mentioned in the article I read, I assume the controller will have to have the same motion detector the SIXAXIS does. Either way, I think this is Sony's way of admitting that they made a mistake in the first place by not having rumble in their first controller.
Morakoth Tang: Fact
I'm super impressed by this feature. Sony engineers finally wrapped their heads around how to include vibration into their motion sensing controller! Didn't a spokesperson for Sony about a year ago say that it was impossible to have vibration with motion sensing? The answer to that is YES. They threw their engineers to the dogs and basically called them idiots in front of the whole world. Kudos to you Sony by settling that lawsuit… I mean, by finally figuring out how to put vibration into the SIXAXIS controller. Now, where did I put my Wii Remote?
Score: 3 for 5
6. It is a mistake for SquareEnix to put Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep on the PSP instead of on a console.
Dan Owen: Fact
I've never really gotten into this series, although friends have urged me to. I never had the money to pick it up when it was a "hot game." I'm not saying Fact because the PSP is portable. The DS has enough of a following to make it a viable option for a game like Kingdom Hearts. But the PSP's considerably smaller owner base probably will not be able to draw in a large enough amount of buyers to equal what the game could get on a console.
Morakoth Tang: Fact
The PSP is dieing, right? I know I might get some flak for this, but hey - I call it how I see it. The DS, PS2, Wii, and even the Xbox 360 are perfect consoles to release Kingdom Hearts on. Why? Because they have a bigger install base and because the PSP battery life is not that great. Kingdom Hearts is an RPG that will require players to play for hours on end and if I have to stay plugged into the wall to play on a portable system you can count me out. I'll just wait for the DS version, and I really hope that that one is not like Chain of Memories.
Score: 4 for 6
We have a final score of 4 for 6. Don't forget to come back this Friday for more Fact or Fiction! And why should you make it a priority? Well... It is rumored that returning for more helps to improve your wrench swing. That's great, since you never know when you might be forced to use the mighty wrench as your primary weapon.
