The ultimate power of art style and direction
In my continuing effort to post more articles per month, here is my 6th article… not including that one I posted on SMS before… oh and don’t worry, I’ll give SMS a proper announcement on the anniversary post which will most likely be the next entry.
It was quite awhile ago now, but when the first concept art for “Epic Mickey” was revealed, a lot of people got VERY excited. And how could they not? It wasn’t like anything you would associate with Mickey Mouse… at least not the Mickey we know these days. It was dark, foreboding and very well presented. There were those who believed this art style would go far… until they saw the screenshots which weren’t quite as amazing as the concept art…
Of course, we can’t really talk more about a game that hasn’t even come out yet, so onto the games that have already been released…
Games that should be: Star Wolf
This is the first in the series of “Games that should be” articles, similar to the Game Spotlight articles but focused on games that don’t actually exist… BUT SHOULD!
Around the net, everyone seems to crave another Star Fox game. Well, the truth is, Star Fox sucks… and Star Fox has been sucking for quite a long time, though to be honest I did find Assault to be pretty entertaining in parts… even so, there’s a very good reason why we haven’t seen Star Fox on Wii so far and it’s because Nintendo doesn’t know what they want to do with the series because it just keeps on sucking. I’m sure another game in the series will be revealed eventu– “Can’t let you do that, Star Fox!”
What I’d like to see is Wolf O’Donnell and his crew tear up the screen in their Wolfen in a different kind of adventure.
Cing: When great developers fall under hard times…
This entry is obviously a reaction to the recent news that developer of Another Code/Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk and Little King’s Story, Cing, Inc. has filed for bankruptcy… It’s sad when good developers go through tough times.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is one of my favourite games on the Nintendo DS, it’s up there with the entire Ace Attorney series by Capcom which I also hold in extremely high respect. However, unlike Capcom, Cing is a developer with very few games under its belt. A PS2 game, a few Japan-only mobile phone games, a few DS games and a couple of Wii games. Quality over quantity is the way Cing operates, and their recent games on the DS and Wii were all very well made, quality games.
Super Guide: It killed your family and kicked your dog
The Super Guide is your enemy, it has killed, imprisoned and raped your countrymen and will be the cause of the end of civilisation the world over… or at least that’s the kind of melodramatic nonsense some would like you to believe about Nintendo’s newest experimental feature that has made its debut on New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
So what exactly IS the Super Guide and why should you care or not care? In short, the Super Guide is a feature that when activated will play the game for you… and this kind of description is what has put a lot of people up in arms and have condemned the feature outright without them even looking into what it really is.
Put your rage and your conclusions aside and let’s continue on and see what this is really all about…
“It’s like I’m PLAYING a movie!” Cinematic gaming and you
From the title, I know that YOU know which game I’ll be talking about in this article, but I assure you that this won’t be a one game entry. There are a lot of other games out there that aim for a cinematic experience other than Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, though most are nowhere near as effective as what Naughty Dog has pulled off with their PlayStation 3 exclusive.
As the technology used for video games advances, developers gain the abilities to add cinematic elements to their games. There is no single method for this and each game, depending on the developers chosen style, go about this concept in many different ways.