TGS was this past week
For those of you who don’t know TGS stands for Tokyo Game Show and is probably the second biggest gaming convention of the year next to E3. It took place last week and had many announcements most of which I will include below as this Weekly Wrap Up is all about TGS which you probably could have guessed from the title.
Kid Icarus delayed until 2012
The first major game showed off for the 3DS, one that most people assumed would be fairly close to launch so that people would have a reason to buy the system has been delayed until sometime in 2012. I have to say that I find this quite surprising especially since as you will see below, games that were only announced at this year’s E3 are already set to come out this year and Kid Icarus has been showing off gameplay footage for a much longer period. This is the only game I can think of for the 3DS that seems different, rather than a remake/port or another in a long series of games. The fact that it won’t be available this holiday season when the 3DS is trying to get back on its feet, which it will have to do quickly with the Vita on its way does not bode well for the system.
Super Mario 3D Land release date
Nintendo’s most iconic franchise is making its way to the 3DS on November 13. This is a completely new Mario adventure (with the exception of the familiar story of course) designed for the 3DS specifically and is hoping to be its first system seller that didn’t come from the N64. Nintendo has previously said that Miyamoto has been wanting to do a 3D Mario ever since they first designed the Virtual Boy which came out back in ’95. With a claim like that I want to see if Miyamoto can make a game that utilizes the 3D in a way that enriches the gaming experience, after all he ahas had over a decade and a half to think about it. He won’t however because while he is very talented, there’s no denying that, 3D has never been anything more than a gimmick and it never will be. It won’t change the game the way 3D rendering did with Super Mario 64.
Mario Kart 3DS this holiday season
The seventh game in the series is now looking to change things up by adding the ability to drive under water and hang-glide after taking a jump to soar over opponents. These features kind of remind of Diddy Kong Racing except combining them all into one race rather than having one race in a plane the other in a boat and another in a car. I don’t how much variety they will add to the game since they will all control the same way but I certainly think that they are welcome additions. Also you can now customize the look of your vehicles which should have been in the Wii and DS versions since racing games have been doing that for years now.
FFX HD on its way
Final Fantasy X is my favourite in the series and it is now coming to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in the form of an HD remake. I have to say that when it comes to porting older games to handhelds it’s pretty impressive now that we are getting PS2 games with improved visuals to play on the go. The only issue I have is this; how many people want a game as massive as FFX on the go? I mean for plane trips and maybe long car rides I would love to have something like that to immerse myself in but those would be the only real times. I guess it doesn’t really matter since they are at least putting quality content on their system, which I feel has lacked a lot in the past with handhelds.
FFXIII-2 release date announced
In more Final Fantasy news, the upcoming FFXIII-2 will hit store shelves on January 31 2012. The game looks quite interesting, it is still turn based but it’s adding some new mechanics to give it some things that you have never seen before in a turn-based RPG. Plus I enjoyed XIII quite a bit personally so I’ll probably try this one as well. Hopefully they decrease the amount of grinding you have to do at the end to beat the final boss that every JRPG makes you do.
DOA5 trailer looks promising
Dead or Alive is finally returning to what it does best, fighting games instead of boob bouncing sims on the beach. I know that for a lot of people DOA isn’t their favourite fighting series but I have no idea why, I mean haven’t they played it. My first time with the series was on the original Xbox with DOA 3 which I got back in 2002. The game blew me away and has been getting better ever since with Dead or Alive Ultimate 2 and DOA 4. I’ve played Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and many others but none have ever been as fun, intense and just plain good as DOA which is why I am so happy to see this trailer. Speaking of the trailer which was shot in pre-alpha stage meaning that the game is still a while away, the combat looked great and the new even more interactive environments makes me want this game so badly.
High Definition is about to get Stranger
Yet another game is getting the HD remake treatment but unlike most of the others you may not have heard of this one before. It’s Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath which came out in early 2005 and kind of got over shadowed by the fact that everyone with an Xbox was still playing Halo 2, and everyone was talking about Resident Evil 4 which had just come out. I enjoyed the game but I have to say it is surprising to see it coming back since there isn’t a new Oddworld around the corner to promote and it came out at the end of the Xbox’s life cycle so it still looks pretty good. Another surprise is the fact that it is coming to the PSN, which should make it cheaper than most of these HD remakes but is strange since it was an Xbox exclusive and now it’s a PS3 and Vita only title.
Ridge Racer goes portable
Apparently a lunch window just isn’t the same without a racing game that nobody asked for, which is why the Vita is getting one. I haven’t cared about this franchise since Ridge Racer 64 and that is all I have to say on the subject.
Ninja Gaiden 3 trailer has me interested
Ninja Gaiden 3 is looking very promising judging from this new trailer. It’s a story based trailer which is great since it means that this one will actually have a story and looks like it might even have a somewhat deep one to my surprise. The trailer discusses the consequences associated with taking a life and looks to me like Ryu’s arm will be somehow made into a gameplay mechanic similar to Shinobi on the PS2 where you have to keep killing enemies to feed your sword. I think some refined controls and a real story could make this one of the best action adventure games of 2012.
New Soul Calibur 5 trailer
I’m not a real fan of the Soul Calibur series; I mean the games aren’t bad or anything but just not great. So I’m not very excited for the new game but for those of you out there that are the new trailer shows off some new characters that will be introduced this time around.
Arkham gets Deadshot
It wouldn’t be a convention unless something new about Arkham City was released. Yet another villain has been added to the expansive array of lunatics you will face in one of my most anticipated games of the year. Deadshot will be one the many enemies you will have to take down and I think it marks his first appearance in a Batman game or at least his first major appearance (if I’m wrong please correct me below). I’m looking forward to fighting Deadshot because unlike the rest of Batman’s villains he is best at long range which will make his fight very different from all the rest.
Katamari Damacy to roll on the go
Katamari Damacy is going portable on the Vita and will make use of both the front and back touch screens for controlling the ball which should be quite interesting. To be honest the front touch screen makes sense to me for a lot of games but the back just seems like a weird idea.
Square Enix entering a new market
Square Enix unveiled their new Square Enix Market for Android devices which will be launching in Japan later this year. With it you will now be able to play games like FFI & II, Chrono Trigger and many more on the go. Like I pointed out earlier in regards to FFX HD on the Vita, playing RPGs is great but in a portable setting you can’t get as much time as you would like and I feel that this is way more pronounced on phones than on designated portable gaming devices.
Vita external battery
The PlayStation Vita will have an external battery that you can purchase which will offer between 6 and 10 hours of gameplay which is supposed to be twice as much as the Vita’s standard battery life. Which means that the Vita has a pretty crummy battery life but I suppose running HD games of that quality along with the gyroscope and two touch screens is somewhat of a challenge for the battery.
MGS and ZoE Collections coming to the Vita
The highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid and Zone of Enders HD collections will not only be going to the PS3 and Xbox 360 but the Vita as well. I assume that the Vita and PS3 will make use of Kojima’s new transfarring system so you can import/export your saved games from one system to the other. On a side note does anyone else find it funny that they redesigned the controls for Peace Walker so it would work on a home console and now it is going to a portable one? Another side note I hate the word “transfarring”, don’t new?
UMvsC3 launch title for vita
Yet another PS Vita game was announced, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will be a launch title for the Vita which is something that the other games in this article haven’t confirmed yet. So if you want an even harder time trying to figure out all the crazy stuff happening on screen you might want this version of the game. I hope this isn’t the one good launch title for the Vita like Street Fighter IV was for the 3DS.
Kirby’s return to the Wii
There is a new Kirby game on its way to the Wii next month called Kirby’s Return to Dreamland and it has a new trailer. I love the part where it refers to him as “A superhero with super abilities” because as we all know only the occasional superhero has super abilities.
Vita release date announced
That’s right the Vita has a release date of Dec 17… in Japan. There is still no word on when we will see the system in North America which is kind of a bummer. My money’s on sometime in March, how about you?
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