The Negative Edge News Report 03.19.08

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 03.19.2008

Bad ways to use motion control, making Mario Kart Wii more fun, Crackdown syndrome, making a sequel to a long game even longer, and Nintendo's E3 surprise. Plus, this week's releases, music that makes you glad that you stuck around until the end, and More!



I dusted off my PS3 this week to play some Folklore since I was able to snag a new copy on the cheap. The game is pretty enjoyable save for the tacked-on SIXAXIS motion control soul-stealing move. Yanking a controller up might be cool in a Harvest Moon game when you're pulling radishes out of the ground, but in an action RPG where you need things to work on command, it's really cumbersome. If something can be done with a simple button press, why torture players by making them do awkward things instead? Note to future game developers - you don't have to use motion control in your games if it isn't necessary. Well... not unless someone is forcing you to.

Let's go -


The Music Box

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One thing that all RPG fans can appreciate is when developers mix things up when it comes to battle music. Unfortunately, those changes usually only occur when you're fighting a special enemy or a boss. I have yet to play an RPG in which the music changes depending on location (say if you're in a different town, mountain area, forest, continent, world, etc.). It's true that special fights are more special if they get their own songs, but it still would be nice to get some variety outside of boss battles, especially in long games. This week's song can only be heard during one of the later boss battles. It's one of the best songs in the game, and considering the fact that the soundtrack is one of its high points, that's saying a lot. The fight takes over an hour to finish, so I'm glad that they saved it for the end, though part of me wishes that it was used for regular battles as well. It might have made the 100 hours I spent beating the game more enjoyable.


The News As I See It

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original image by can be downloaded here
Nintendo's Big Surprise
In a recent interview with GameTrailers.com, Reggie Fils-Aime hinted that Nintendo will make an announcement for a big game during E3 this year that gamers will be excited about. When asked to explain himself, Reggie shied away, satisfied with the fact that he'd given news reporters and fanboys more than enough to argue about for the next few months.

I can't really think of any of Nintendo's key franchises that haven't been mined for the Wii at this point. The only things that I'd get excited about would a 2D Mario, Metroid, or Zelda game for the Wii (not the DS damnit!), mostly because those are three things that will never see the light of day. Well... a real Star Fox game would be nice too. What about you? What could Nintendo possibly announce at E3 that would get you excited at this point?

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1.5x the size of P3? Noooooooo!
A few Persona 4 scans from the latest Famitsu have been posted at Akayuki. The scans reveal that the game will come out in Japan on the 10th of July, will feature multiple endings, and will be 1.5 times as large as Persona 3.

The scans show that the game looks a lot like Persona 3, which really isn't a bad thing. The only thing that worries me is the length of the game. If it took me 100 hours to beat Persona 3, then it could take me as much as 150 hours to complete this one if it truly is as large as they say it is. I'm getting too old for games that are that long.

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Nintendo removes snaking... and finally makes Mario Kart Wii worth buying
According to the Official Nintendo Magazine (in the UK), the carpel-tunnel-inducing snaking technique can no longer be done in Mario Kart Wii. Instead, drivers will now have to skillfully slide their way to victory ala Mario Kart on the SNES. (credit: Aussie-Nintendo via Evil Avatar)

I can still remember the first time I went online with Mario Kart DS - before I learned about the sinister technique known as snaking. Those were innocent times, when I believed that perfectly sliding around corners was THE way to win a match. In my first game online, I rounded the first corner, feeling good about myself since I was ahead, when suddenly two of the other racer sped right past me. I thought - "that's ok, I'll catch up." Unfortunately, much to my dismay, their lead grew even larger... on a straightaway. WTF? Only later did I figure out what was going on. I eventually learned how to snake as well, but honestly, snaking in order to win is not fun at all (it requires too much work). In fact, that is exactly why I got rid of my copy of Mario Kart DS in the first place. Before this announcement, I had absolutely no interest in Mario Kart Wii. Now, I'm definitely looking forward to it. Good job Nintendo, it took you long enough!

Edit: Silly me. I didn't realize that not everyone knows what snaking is. I've posted a description from Wikipedia down below along with the video that I used to learn how to snake (it's easier to show it than to describe it).

"The execution of several consecutive mini-turbos, by drifting back and forth across a straightaway, is a technique known as "snaking", but is officially called a "Mini-Turbo". Snaking was originally known as performing "Straight-Stretch Mini-Turbos" in the Mario Kart 64 era."

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Crackdown Commando 3 and the HD Remix beta
Suckers who purchase Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 will get a chance to test out the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta for a few weeks this Spring. They will only be able to play on one stage as Ken or Ryu. This beta will allow Capcom to test out their netcode so that it isn't as laggy as previous 2D online fighters have been.

Well, they already got me, so I'm one of those suckers. I've noticed most gamers tend to always pick Ken and Ryu anyway, so this is pretty much how you can expect things to play out when the full game is released. If you don't feel like wasting $10 on this, why not try GGPO?


The NCSX Quote of the Week - The Haisha Edition

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FYI - I don't get paid for this, even though I should...


This week's dose of awesome comes from the description for Simple DS Series Vol. 34: The Haisha -

"If you're a dental school dropout who nevertheless wants to practice dentistry, you'll have a chance to ply your skills in D3P's The Haisha. By using the stylus, players get to drill into innocent teeth, fill cavities, and install crowns on hapless patients - all on the touch screen of the Nintendo DS. If your skill is palpable and the anaesthesia is working, the patient will experience little or no discomfort during a procedure. She might even smile after it's all over. However, if you're a butcher without any sense of tactile precision, the patient's pained expressions will be a testament to his/her anguish as he/she experiences mortal pain, cries out for mama, and vows vengeance upon your entire bloodline."

I was actually interested in this game when I first read about it on another site. A Trauma Center-like game with a focus on dentistry might be cool, but then again, this is a Simple Series game, so you can't really expect much. Still, a lot of people like to inflict pain on others. If that's how you roll, then this game is probably right up your alley.


The Release List (For the weeks of March 10 and 17)

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It's a pretty good week as far as releases go. The more noteworthy titles include Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3), Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection (PS2), and, of course, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS). Last week's notables include Nanostray 2 (DS), Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (DS), and Wild ARMs XF (PSP). Here are some other notables -


Sega Superstars Tennis (everything but the PSP and PC)
It's cool that we get to play with a lot of Sega's lesser known characters. However, if this is Sega's answer to Smash Bros., then they really need to try harder. Still, the concept is cool, though their execution leaves much to be desired. I'm sure that most of the people that are old enough to appreciate the characters in this game are at least in their twenties by now, so using a watered-down version of the Virtua Tennis engine was a pretty bad idea. For once I'd like to see a mashup like this that caters to the people that would actually be interested (i.e. the older crowd). Seriously, a good tennis game with cool characters would have been so much better than a kiddified one.

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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360 and PS3)
I've never played any of the games in this series, but a co-worker of mine says that co-op in the previous ones is fantastic. Since he doesn't really talk about games that much, that must mean something, right?

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Bangai-O Spirits (DS Import)
The DC version was a fun "shooter" and the writing was pretty funny. This incarnation has 160 levels to play through. The localized version is supposed to have more features that were not included in this week's Japanese release, so you might want to hold off on getting it. But, if you were hardcore into this game back in the day (or if you don't have anything else to play), this might be worth a try. The American version comes out in Q2 2008.

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Chou Nekketsu Koukou Kunio-Kun Dodge Ball Bu (DS Import)
The company that put this game together is made up of former Technos employees, so this can be considered an unoffcial sequel to Super Dodge Ball. There's a US version in the pipe, but no release date has been announced.

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Dramatic Dungeon: Sakura Taisen (DS Import)
This could be the first Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) game to make it to the US. If Sega can release Shiren the Wanderer, a roguelike which features a wondering warrior and his pet weasel, they should be able to release a dungeon crawler that features a female task force, right? Then again, the Sakura Wars anime and manga have already been licensed in the US by different companies, so maybe there's some legal stuff that's preventing them from bringing Sakura over.

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Super R-Type (Wii VC)
This can be considered the bastard child of R-Type 1 and 2 since it is essentially a mashup of the two. So, as far as story goes, let's just say that the Bydo Empire needs an ass kicking and you and your Force pod are the only things that can get the job done. I had fun with this game back in the day, but I distinctly remember that, in addition to having to dodge enemies left and right, players also had to navigate through some of the worst slowdown found in a side-scrolling shooter. Not cool. Since SNES games come to us unmodified on the Wii VC, expect Matrix-like slowdown when you see a bunch of enemies on the screen. Looked cool in that movie, right? Sorry, it isn't cool when it happens in this game...

If you have a PS3, I'd suggest that you wait for Sony to bring R-Type Delta to the PSN store. Or, just download it from the Japanese PSN store. It's worth it if you're into these types of games.

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World Heroes Anthology (PS2)
AKA World Heroes Geogeous in Japan - a much cooler name, but clearly not manly enough for American audiences. Out of all of the fighting game series on the Neo Geo, this is probably the one that is the most Street Fighter-like. It's a little sad that this game wasn't even on a lot of the lists that I use to put this section together. The only reason that I knew about its release was because I just happened to randomly pass by SNK's official site right after the press release was posted. With Brawl just coming out, this is one of the worst times to release a fighting game. Is it possible that someone at SNK actually thought that a World Heroes compilation could go toe to toe with Brawl?

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Puyo Puyo 2: Tsu (Wii VC)
Apparently, the arcade version of Puyo Puyo Tsu was bigger than Street Fighter II in Japan when it came out in the 90s. That is pretty impressive, especially for a puzzle game. If you enjoyed Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine or Kirby's Avalanche, this should be a no-brainer.

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Kage Densetsu: The Legend of Kage 2 (DS Import)
This looks to be a pretty sweet side-scroller that takes advantage of both screens. It being a side-scrolling platformer and all, you can probably get by without having to read any of the dialog.


actual gameplay is shown towards the end of the video

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Baroque (Wii Import)
The English version just got a 3 out of 10 from Nintendo Power. In a recent interview with Atlus' Aram Jabbari, Baroque was described as "a pure hardcore RPG experience and doesn't apologize for being so." Is it possible that all those casual games they've been subjected to have softened Nintendo Power's reviewers? Oh well. I've been waiting for a difficult RPG experience on the Wii. Despite the low score, I still hope that this is what I've been looking for. The localized version will be coming out next month.


The Anime Circle

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I was going to post my Type-Moon rundown this week, which would have included both Fate/stay night and Tsukihime along with their respective games (Fate/tiger colosseum, Fate: Unlimited Codes, Melty Blood, etc.), but I just got my hands on the Fate/stay night visual novel, so I will save it for next week so that I can include impressions on that as well. I actually finished the first scenario on Saturday, which took me forever since there really is a lot to read (the "novel" in visual novel is not a misnomer), so I thought that I was done. However, the next day, the translation for the 2nd scenario was released by Mirror Moon. Cool? Of course, but it did cause me to put a hold on my plans for this week. And if you must ask - yes, the visual novel does have some sex and nudity, but there is more to it than that. Honest! Don't worry - I work for the adult industry so I can handle it.

Side note: If you happen to have a DS flash cart and would like to try out an abridged port of the Fate/stay night demo, you can take a look at Desert Dog's page here. (credit: insert credit) He also has one for Fate/hollow ataraxia Prologue here.


To Be Continued...

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That's all I have for this week. I'll have the Type-Moon rundown next week for sure. But right now...

I just met some girl with a fishing pole and backpack who says that she wants to kick the Bionic Commando's ass. If I can figure out why she is being so hateful, I'll be back next week.