Author Archive

E3 2011: Dragon’s Crown

June 9th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

1Up interviewed Vanillaware’s George Kamitani about their upcoming PS3 PSVita title Dragon’s Crown.

The game is shaping up to be a spiritual successor of sorts to Capcom’s Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom arcade game–a game George worked on during his days at Capcom.

Gameplay is in a similar vein to Golden Axe, and those classic D&D arcade games. Players will battle their way through large monster and treasure laden mazes in the lush 2D watercolor like art style Vanillaware is know for (i.e. Odin Sphere, and Muramasa: The Demon Blade). The game won’t be a standard hack ‘n slasher as George hinted at RPG elements such as weapon durability, and players needing to decide if their party is leveled up enough to take on a boss. He described a scenario in which a red dragon boss is asleep atop a massive mound of treasure. Players can attempt to steal the treasure, causing the dragon to awaken and battle it there, or the team to try to escape to a bridge that can’t support the dragon’s weight causing it to fall. His idea is to have different ways to handle boss characters; even if the team as a whole isn’t strong enough to deal with the boss in a heads-up fight.

George didn’t go into detail about everything about the game, as details are still being worked out. The game is going to be for Playstation3 and PSVita (with cross play) with a launch set only as Spring 2012. Check out the E3 trailer on YouTube.

It is games like this that pay homage to the classic 2D gameplay that I remember so fondly that I crave. I can’t wait to play this game.

Image from 1Up.com.

E3 2011: Renegade Ops

June 8th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

Anyone remember an old Konami arcade game called Jackal? One or two players took control of armed jeeps to rescue prisoners of war. Well the folks at Avalanche Studios must, because they showed a 4 player HD-fied version of that core gameplay at E3. The game is called Renegade Ops, and is being published by Sega. The game will be a downloadable title hitting PC, PSN, and XBLA sometime this year. GameTrailers has gameplay footage of the sharp looking game.

Image from Gamertell.com

E3 2011: Asura’s Wrath

June 7th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

The more I see of this game, the more hyped I am for it. Capcom is handling the publishing rights, while the wizards at CyberConnect2 (creators of the fantastic Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series) bring this new IP to life. Awesome looking combat, planet sized bosses, and protagonist who makes Kratos look mild mannered–sign me up. Check out these video trailers from Siliconera.com’s site.

Image from Aeropause.com

E3 2011: Ninja Gaiden 3

June 7th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

Gameplay of Ninja Gaiden 3 was shown today. I’ve watched the footage on GameTrailers, as well as the hands on demo on G4’s coverage. While I’m happy to see latest episode in what I think is the greatest action series ever I have to temper my excitement with some skepticism.

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E3 2011: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

June 7th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

Namco Bandai Games dropped a new trailer for their Project Aces developed game Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. Seems Tom Clancey-ish, but looks great all the same. You’ll be able to take to the skies on your PS3 and XB360 on October 11th, 2011. Click the GameTrailers jump.

E3 2011: Warhammer 40K: Space Marine

June 7th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

Publisher THQ unveiled a trailer for Relic developed Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Its a visceral 3rd person shooter/action game that looks pretty good. Release date is September 6th, 2011 for PC, PS3 and XB360. Click the GameTrailers link for all the troll giblet goodness.

E3 Presser Impressions: Nintendo

June 7th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

Nintendo’s press event was a very familiar one in the beginning. A lot of must have Nintendo franchises will be making appearances on Nintendo’s portable systems, and Wii. Most notably, Zelda’s 25 Anniversary is being celebrated with 4 Swords for DSi, Ocarina of Time 3D for 3DS, and Skyward Sword for Wii.

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E3 Presser Impressions: Microsoft

June 7th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

With Microsoft’s conference, Kinect took center stage. Kinect voice and motion technology was showcased in some impressive games. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Mass Effect 3, and Forza 4 showed some interesting aspects as to how dialogue choices, squad commands, and driver viewpoints could increase immersion experiences in hardcore games with Kinect.

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E3 Presser Impressions: Sony

June 6th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

Sony’s press conference was an interesting one. To begin with, they didn’t hide from, as Jack put it, “the elephant in the room.” Both Jack and Kaz addressed the PSN outage well. They thanked those that make these multi-billion corporations successful–us. I’m sure there are many who will say that they should have spent more time talking about it, but I think the subject got the appropriate amount of attention. Doing anymore would have taken the focus off of the point of the E3 press event–the products.

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Retro Review: Night Stalker

May 27th, 2011
By: ShoNuff71

E3 is literally around the corner, and news (other than the PSN outage) has been pretty slow for a while, since the big guns are going to be revealed at the big event. I personally am more excited for this E3 than I have been in prior years, as I’m expecting to hear more info about the type of games I enjoy, and Sony and Nintendo will be dropping info on new systems.

As with most old folks, excitement for new things brings up nostalgia for old things, and this excitement I’m feeling this year sparked excitement to revisit my gaming roots. So, I decided to do a short series of retro reviews of some classic gaming gems that are near and dear to me. The images are from games in my library.

The game to chose to kick this thing off was an easy decision. It was the game that first got me ridiculously excited about gaming at home. That game was Night Stalker.

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