Capcom shows off their upcoming revisit to the retro days reboot with this nice long look at the redesigned Himalayas stage. By the way, no stupidly cute cartoon bunnies were hurt in this video, the already angry goats got what they deserved and that big and annoying Yeti boss? Well, he was trying to make duck cutlets out of Uncle Scrooge, so he had to go down hard. MORAL: Don’t mess with a rich canard and his fancy cane bouncing skills, folks. All that swimming around in that huge money pool bank vault of his has given him some MEGA strength in that feathered old body. Tough bird, indeed…
Well, this was an interesting surprise to see popping up in the inbox yesterday: An all-new Strider game on the way from busy developer Double Helix headed to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. Of course (throwing my two cents down here)… it would be better to get this out on the Wii U and Vita as well, but we seem to be in the age of publishers only wanting to get games out on platforms where there’s guaranteed interest and bigger initial full-price sales from a larger dedicated install base rather than trying a title out on a platform that may only rack up less than stellar sales figures or just have users saying they’ll wait for a price drop. Which, by the way is dumb on a game that’s no doubt going to be budget-priced. Hopefully.
Of course, for someone like me who’d rather have MORE choice than less and can clearly see this doing decently enough on some systems it’s not (currently) coming to, the news is great but a tad annoying. Sure, development costs no doubt factor into the decision to not bring this to the Wii U or Vita, but I say Capcom should do some sort of outreach into both of those communities and see if there’s interest in buying this one on either platform (I think there is) and perhaps getting those versions out at some point. With a classic like this making a comeback (that actually looks quite good and seems to be quite challenging based on that video above) as a digital-only release, it’s not as if there will be a ton of unsold retail boxes clogging up an inventory somewhere, right?
Oh… and if this doesn’t toss in the original arcade game as an extra, that would be really silly. Make it happen, Capcom.
OK, so that official site looks plainer than a matzoh viewed through a telescope at 500 yards, but Mega Man Revolutions is a really fine little surprise of an indie game that yet again proves that sometimes fans can make better games than the people who own the property. In development on and off for 11 years (!), Mike Crain and a handful of very dedicated Mega Man fanatics have whipped up a really fun and yes, REALLY challenging slice of retro gaming bliss. I could sit here and babble on about how cool it all is, how the classic visuals and soundtrack give off that familiar grin-giving (and grimace-giving in the hard parts) vibe and so forth and so on, but I actually need to complete the game myself. I’m only on the second stage, but poking around YouTube has revealed the game indeed has what it takes to be awesome:
So stop, drop and Roll yourself over to the MMR site, download and play this one. The single player mode is done, there’s some sort of co-op play in the works and if Capcom is smart, they’ll either start throwing out job offers or compile all these really great fan games into some sort of bundle at some point down the road to distribute as freebies on their own site. Wishful thinking, yes… but hard work like this deserves to be taken notice of and rewarded I say…
OK, now I need to unearth my NES and that copy of DuckTales I have buried in a bin somewhere so I can do some comparing. I’d been meaning to do so for a while, but I keep putting it off for assorted reasons. This “duckumentary” did help me decide to finally get off my butt and sit back on my butt once I find everything, so that’s a good thing, right? Alright, I’m not THAT lazy, people! I walked over a mile today already!
So you like to chat it up when no one’s around – I’ll still hang out with you when your game comes out, Jim. Between the solid losers STILL whining about the game because they think it’s a sequel (it’s a PREQUEL, for the thousandth plus time!) and it’s not like LP2 (which really wasn’t that great a solo experience) or just hating it for being developed in the U.S. of A. and not Japan (hooray for blatant gamer racism? Um, nope). Add in those who haven’t played it who seem to be clairvoyant in their predictions about the game or are even comparing this to games like GTA V (Why? I have no idea.) and you get a game that might have some trouble getting noticed by the hard-headed. Hey, Jim! I got your back, man – and I’ll even though your game comes out in late Summer, I’ll be keeping all the windows open, the fans on full blast AND wearing a hat to keep my ears warm in solidarity as I play LP3. Speaking of hats, Say, Jim? didn’t your grandma warn you about stepping outside without one (or a decent scarf)? You’re going to get ice cubes on your ears!
Well, OK… it’s not really that schizophrenic folks. It’s more like say hello to actor Bill Watterson who plays Jim Payton in Capcom’s upcoming sci-fi/action game set for an August release. It’s pretty cool to see that the man not only looks quite like the character he plays in the game, but he also did the motion capture performance for Jim as well. Oh, and by the way, he’s NOT at all related to the Calvin & Hobbes creator (just thought I’d mention that, as I know at least one person out there who’ll read this and get all “a-ha!” so that’s where he’s been!” about this post…
It’s really too bad developer Iron Galaxy didn’t make its version of Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara compatible with Windows XP simply because I’d bet a dollar that people still using that older OS would get a hell of a lot more of a kick from this pair of classic Capcom arcade hit than a chunk of more current OS users filling up the Steam forums with all sorts of complaints about everything from the visuals not being worthy of the system requirements to the game not working properly on certain systems or supporting any other peripheral except an official Xbox 360 controller. Us non-picky oldsters who prefer XP because 90+ percent of the games we run ARE old news to you big-riggers out there (long live gog.com!) would be all over this game like white on rice (or brown on rice is you’re into that variety) and even though we only make up less than 8% of Steam users (according to Steam), that’s almost a potential 8% more people buying and possibly NOT bitching about the graphics and having to use one controller type that works perfectly as soon as it’s plugged in. But I digress…
A stylish and thrilling combination of cinematic elements and action featuring a memorable new character, Remember Me is a grand example of the “shut up and play it!” game. You can be on the sort of clueless “Well, my friend says he heard it’s not like so and so…” side of the fence, or you can step right up, slap your money down and enjoy a well made, always entertaining and somewhat innovative thriller that, while borrowing elements from a few sources, ends up feeling original and refreshing on a few fronts. This is a game that, if you’re in the mood for a good story (save for a slight stumble near the finale) delivers on that promise pretty well. While it may not seem sequel-friendly, the overall experience makes you want to see a second game that features a lot more of the richly detailed 2084 Neo-Paris developer Dontnod Entertainment has created.
And here you go – another piece of the Lost Planet 3 puzzle (multiplayer!) plus a peek at the Best Buy exclusive Assault Pack if you’re one of those folks that goes the pre-order route. The new experience based unlocking system has been done on other shooters, but I think it’ll be nice to see how those LP fans who aren’t wasting time whining about the developer and Capcom doing or not doing this or that without having laid a pinky on a controller take to the game when it launches. I think it will do fine among those who want to see it succeed and will play and enjoy it based on what it gets right as opposed to picking it apart because it’s not the same as the first two installments. Granted, those folks are the ones who still can’t seem to understand this is a p-r-e-q-u-e-l, but I guess they’ll also be the ones missing out on things in a few months…
As someone who’s been looking forward to Lost Planet 3 since a bit of early demo hands-on time last year, I’m glad to see that Capcom rolled out the more recent demo at E3 for some live stream fun. As you can see here, it’s “only” about 50 minutes long if you bypass a lot of exploration in the base and zip through the hidden area quickly after the boss battle without dying, but it’s intriguing overall because Spark is promising even more thrills as the game progresses. Rig upgrades, some big boss battles and a story that should pack in a few surprises (despite the number in the title, it’s a PREQUEL to the first game, kids) might make this one a bit of a sleeper when it finally launches on August 27, 2013.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 