The Negative Edge News Report 06.04.08

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 06.04.2008

Paying for the right to play demos, movie-quality video game introductions, and the prospect of playing the original Fallouts. Plus, the one thing Super Smash Bros. Brawl does better than any other fighting game that came before it, recent game releases, and more!



We're at a point where there isn't a lot of game-related news that I feel like discussing. Someone told me that we're in the lull before MGS4 and E3 (I hope that that's the case, or else this column is going to die soon). Because of the sheer lack of anything interesting to talk about, I decided to take a break from surfing game-related web sites and instead vegged in front of the idiot box. Fortunately, something good resulted from my little adventure into TV land - I got to see a Bruce Willis movie called Hostage. The movie itself wasn't really that great, but it did have an intro that I thought was pretty interesting. Check it out down below.


FYI, this movie came out in 2005.
Doesn't it look familiar? Or is it just my imagination?

Let's get to the good stuff -


The Music Box

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This week's song comes from the first in Capcom's long list of quality Disney-related titles on the NES. Unlike the games that came after, it was the only one that wasn't developed by Capcom itself. The Japanese version was based on Alice in Wonderland and had Mickey and Minnie chucking stars at innocent creatures as they attempted to rescue Alice from mental problems. In the US version, the emphasis on Alice in Wonderland was scrapped and a more diverse cast featuring baddies from The Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and other Disney properties was used instead. Another change from the Japanese version saw Mickey refilling his health gauge by picking up diamonds instead of Donald Duck heads. I guess Capcom thought that picking up beheaded ducks for power wasn't something that we could handle. Regardless, the game was awesome, no matter how the enemies and power-ups looked. Still, if this title ever comes out on the Wii VC (doubtful since too many licenses are involved), it would be cool if they included both versions of the game. It's not like there were a lot of words in the game anyway. If I remember correctly, the only text in the game was in a speech bubble bubble that contained "help!"


The News As I See It

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Don't have a Gold account? Too bad!
According to Major Nelson, the Ninja Gaiden II demo is available for download everywhere except for a few countries that don't really matter right now. Those hapless countries happen to include Canada, Germany, and the U.S. Fortunately, I have a Japanese account that I could use to download Japanese demos...

Right about now I'd be telling you more about the game, but unfortunately, I couldn't download the demo. It would appear that only Gold members are allowed to check it out at this moment. This is the first time that I've cared enough to try a demo early. Likewise, this is the first time that I've experienced Microsoft's tiered downloading rights bullshit. I'm sure that most of you have a Gold account, so you don't know how much this sucks ass. I was actually considering buying the game right when it was released, something that I rarely do for full-priced console games. Now, since I can't sample the demo, I'll have to put it on the back burner ($60 is a lot for a game that I don't know much about). By the time Silver members are allowed to check it out, it's quite possible that I will have moved on to a certain PS3 game that's coming out in a few weeks. It's fine, since I still have a lot of unopened games that I still need to check out in the meantime, but still - I was looking forward to playing a hardcore action game right now.

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Sony also thinks that charging for the hottest demos is ok
Wired.com is reporting that Qore, Sony's new interactive online magazine on PSN, will be the only place to play some of the PS3's more high-profile demos. The price of admission for experiencing the awesome will be $3 a month or $25 for a year subscription.

I feel sorry for the publishers that are forced to put their demos on Qore. How the hell is word supposed to get out about a game if half of one's prospective buyers can't experience it first-hand? Like the whole Gold vs. Silver membership mess on Xbox Live, this is total bullshit.

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Gametap will make Fallout 1 and 2 work on your computer. Now you don't have to downgrade!
GameTap was the only digital distribution service that was savvy enough to bring the original Fallout games to the masses in order to capitalize on the release of Fallout 3 later this year. It is rumored that Bob's ultra-secret recipe for iguana-on-a-stick will be sent out to the first hundred gamers who download the game.

Credit: Next Generation

For many of us, the original games are pretty hard to play on our current rigs, mostly because our computers are way too powerful. I've never used GameTap so I don't know for sure, but I'd assume that the service would find a way to make the early Fallouts playable at their original speeds when using modern systems and operating systems. If that's the case, then this is great news, especially for those of us who missed the originals when they first came out.

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GGPO - Now with more Street Fighter!
A newer version of GGPO was released a few weeks back. Along with a slick new interface, it comes with support for Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Samurai Shodown 2, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and King of Fighters 2002. It's a dream come true for 2D fighting fans. Unfortunately, it looks like 3rd Strike will be removed in the next build, so if you've ever wanted to play an arcade perfect version of SFIII online, make sure that you check this out while you still can!

Oh - If you need some 3rd Strike tips, check out the "How to get better at Street Fighter 3 Third Strike" guide here. I finally learned what Kara Throwing is thanks to this guide. Maybe you can learn something too...

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Just remember that this game was made by Takara.
Looking forward to Tatsunoko vs. Capcom? Here's a taste of things to come.
Insert Credit tipped me off to this little gem that was released in 2000. While the game is complete crap, it at least gives us an idea of which other Tatsunoko characters we can expect to see in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom later this year. If that video scares you, just take a look at these Famitsu pics or check out the official web site here. Don't you feel better now?

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Red Alert 3 looks like it might actually be good. I'm surprised too.
I liked playing as the Soviets in the first two Red Alerts, mostly because it's always fun being the bad guy. Unfortunately, they were never the team to use if you wanted to win in a multi-player game. So imagine my surprise when EA released this 15 minute video which gives us a glimpse of some of the things that the Soviets can do in RA3. We still don't know if they're going to be gimped in the final game, but for now, things are looking bright. Now, as far as the look and feel of the game, from what I've heard from this video, it seems like a lot of the voice-overs and sound-effects were lifted straight out of Red Alert 2. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as those sounds are part of what made the Soviets so great. I do find it disturbing that EA is recycling the music from Red Alert 2 though. That makes it pretty clear that they didn't get Frank Klepacki to help them out. The music that he wrote for this series is pretty memorable, and it would have been great to hear another update to Hell March. Graphics-wise, the game looks exactly how I would have liked a Red Alert sequel to look, but I'm pretty sure that graphics-whores will have a field day once they take a look at it. There are still a lot of things that can go wrong before the release, but for now, I'm mildly optimistic.

On a related note, it looks like Gina Carano will be playing someone named Natasha in RA3's cut-scenes. Maybe she's the Soviet equivalent of Tanya. Speaking of which, who the hell is going to play as Tanya?



The Little Things

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While they may not seem like much individually, taken together, the little things that developers include in their games help to make your gaming experience much more memorable. With this section, I hope to draw your attention to just some of the little gems out there.


Yeah, that's me kicking the punching bag's ass!
You should always have something to do while waiting
Over the years, I've taken almost every Live-enabled fighting game online at one point or another. After playing all of those games, I can safely say that there is one constant - a few months after a fighting game has been released (sometimes a few weeks after if the netcode sucks), finding other people to play against takes forever. Actually, there's another one - none of the fighting games will give you anything to do while you wait. After all these years, it's still true. Well... it would be, if Super Smash Bros. Brawl didn't come along. It's like the developers of that game have actually tried playing fighting games online and figured out what fighting game fans have known since Capcom vs. SNK 2 came out on the original Xbox - watching blinking text on the screen for 10 to 30 minutes just isn't fun. With Brawl, I've had situations where I had to wait 10 minutes to start a game. Because I was able to mess around with the punching bag, that time just flew by. One can only hope that Capcom, SNK, Arc System Works, and any other company that decides to bring their games online will outdo what Nintendo was able to do with Brawl. Wouldn't it be pathetic if they couldn't?


The Release List

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There are several noteworthy games coming out this week, including Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 (PSP), Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (everything!), and of course, Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox 360). Others include -


Summon Night: Twin Age (DS)
There isn't much info on this action-RPG for some reason, but from what I was able to gather, it looks like you do not need to have played the previous games in the series before picking this up. Much of the game is stylus-driven, which is usually nice when playing RPGs. This might be worth a look if you're in need of an RPG for your DS.

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Beatmania IIDX 14 Gold (PS2 Import)
Were you paying attention a few months back when I told you that the US version of Beatmania with the controller was going for $20 at Toys "R" Us? Well, if you were and if you have a way to play imports, get ready for the next game in this long-running series. It looks like this one has about 90 songs in it, which means that there will be 5-10 songs that I actually like. Isn't that great?

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Battle Fantasia (PS3 and Xbox 360 Import)
Here's a decent fighting game that uses a fairly unique art style. I downloaded the demo off of the Japanese PSN and I must say that it was pretty fun to play. As far as I can tell, this is the first fighting game that is worth importing from Japan for play on the region-free PS3. The idea is pretty exciting. When does Street Fighter IV come out?


To Be Continued...

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That's all I have for this week.

Just a minute ago I saw a schoolgirl and someone in green armor fighting in the middle of a herd of dinosaurs. If I can confirm that I am not going crazy, I'll be back next week.