What happened in the 7th generation of video games

Now that E3 is all done with, and since I only gave you 4 video game reviews, I would like to get back to reviewing video games. But right now you caught me in the middle of going through the Fable series (currently a triology, but that will change within a year), and once I go through the side quests and achievements that I want, I will be ready to give them a proper review. Until then, to hold you over, I'd like to discuss an observation I made while watching E3. I was watching E3 over the Internet through GameTrailers.com. On the side of the streamming video was a chat where viewers could input comments. As XBox was introducing Kinect games, and Play Station was introducing Move games I saw comments that said, "Kinect is ruining XBox" and "Move is ruining PlayStation." The easy way to dismiss these comments is that they from fanboys of the other consoles, just wanting to get the upper hand on the fanboys of other consoles. But I did see more generic comments on how there is too much focus, maybe even the term "dependancy," on motion control. People are complaining about the new use of motion controls, crying out to go back to the 2 analog stick, 4 shoulder buttons and 4 face button method. I believe they fail to see not only the technological advances , but also the advances in gaming itself. So I'm going to spend this blog justifying motion control as an important movement in video games. Where should we start? We could technically start all the way back to the 1st generation of consoles, but we'll keep it simple for those who do not know the whole history of video games. Let's start with the last generation, the 6th generation.

But before I go into that, we're going to need to define a definition, and then separate into to categories. The term is "gamer." The term "gamer" arose when when we realized the term "nerd" no longer worked. The stereotype that people who play a lot of video gamers were nerds was simply not always true. Someone could always play video games and not be a nerd, and someone could be a nerd and not play video games, or only play video games a little. So the term "gamer" arose to describe someone who played a lot of video games (besides, it has a more positive connotation than "nerd"). But still, the term is too broad. How do we differ the guy who can play any Halo game on the highest difficulty with all the skulls from the 3-year old kid who is playing Sesame Street and Disney Land on Kinect? How do we separate the Level 85 World of Warcraft player from the middle-aged woman who plays Solitaire and Hearts on her computer during her lunch break? How do we differentiate between the person who can play all instruments on expert for both Guitar Hero and Rock Band from the elderly man who is playing Wii Sports for the "exercise" class at his retirement home? So we categorize the term "gamer" into two categories with two news terms and two new definitions. You have your "casual gamers" and your "hardcore gamers" (which I've seen shortened to "core gamers"). Your casual gamers are your the kids playing Sesame Street and Disneyland, the middle-aged playing your basic computer games during lunch break, and your elderly playing fitness games, and many other such examples. Your casual gamers are the ones who are playing merely and purely for entertainment reasons. They are not into keeping track, earning achievements/trophies, or improving. Playing video games is more of a social thing, something you do when people get together. They play video games in the "spare time of their spare time," if there is such a thing. It's not a top prioroity, and they put other hobbies before it. On the other hand, you have your hardcore gamers, or your core gamers. While they still play for entertainment, they take a more serious approach to their entertainment. They do want to improve themselves, so they can play at the highest difficulty. So they do keep track of how well they are doing, and push themselves to do their best. So it is typical of them to be concerned about achievements or trophies. Video games are the first thing they do with free time, even making free time just for video games. Because they have played so much and push themselves to do better, they will be the ones who have the highest level character(s) in RPG games, they will be the sharp-shooters and snipers in FPS games, and they will be the ones who can play any instrument on expert when it comes to Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Now that we know these terms, everything else will make sense.

Now we can take our step back to the 6th generation. The 6th generation of video game consoles began with Sega taking the lead with the Sega Dreamcast. The Sega Dreamcast set the standard for the 6th generation, display graphics and gameplay that was new for the time. But the Dreamcast's glory would be short-lived. Sony's PlayStation 2 entered soon after and overshadowed the Dreamcast. That, and Microsoft entering the video game race with the XBox, not only killed the Dreamcast, but also brought to an end Sega's long run at being a first-party, console-making developer. Nintendo, seeing this, knew they would receive the same fate if they did not keep up. Behind in the scenes, they were working on a motion-control system, which we know today as the Wii, but at the time, it wasn't ready. The Nintendo 64 was outdated compared to the XBox and PlayStation 2, and wouldn't last much. So Nintendo released the GameCube, a system with a controller similar to the other systems, but different in everything from graphics to disc size. This system was merely meant to hold Nintendo over until the production of the Wii came to fruition. Although Nintendo did later on admit this, no one needed to say it because everyone knew it. Because of this, Nintendo lost many of its core gamers. All their core gamers went to either PlayStation 2 or XBox. The only hardcore gamers that remained were Nintendo fanboys, who clinged on the Nintendo franchises of old, like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong and Kirby. Nintendo would not die out, but it would fall behind in the console race, with the XBox and PlayStation 2 neck and neck for the lead.

Then came the current generation of gaming, the 7th generation. Microsoft took the lead by quickly ditching its original XBox console with a short life and introducing the XBox 360 in November 2005. Sony would respond to their archrivals in exactly a year with the PlayStation 3. The PS3 rivaled the XBox in many ways, yet had some unique features of its. Still, neither system got a tight grip on the hardcore gamer base. Each fanboy just stuck to the same first party developer of their last system. Then a week after PS3 release, Nintendo joined in the 7th generation with their new system, the Wii. Unlike the PS3, the Wii did not concentrate on matching its rivals. One could tell because a lot of aspects of the new console, from graphics capabilities to hard drive capacity, lacked greatly from the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360. Instead, it took the industry in a whole new direction. They introduced the video game world to motion controls. And then the console race went from there.

So where did go from there? Well, Nintendo was ridiculed. A lot of people, from Microsoft and Sony, to the XBox and PlayStation fanboys, from the critics and to the hardcore gamers, pointed and laughed at the Wii. Even third party developers pointed and laughed, followed by them walking out, deciding not to make their third party games for the Wii. It would seem that the Wii would fall even further behind in the console wars, even maybe dying out like the Dreamcast. So it would seem. But that wasn't the case. You have to remember that video gaems have been called everything from entertainment to art, in the end, the video game industry is ultimately a business. And as true with all businesses, it comes down to the income and the profits, in short, the money. Within 2 years, the Wii would sell more than the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 combined. When it came the numbers, both in consoles sold and income, Wii was the leader. There were a lot of reasons for this. Probably because the new technology the Wii offered wowed everyone. It's also possible it sold so well because it was the most affordable of the 3 consoles. But I believe the biggest reason was because Nintendo knew who its target market was: the casual gamer. Nintendo knew it became first party developer for the casual gamer. So it asked itself, "What could Nintendo do to reach more casual gamers, and even make people who aren't gamers casual gamers?" The result was the Wii, and it's all thanks to the Wii motion controls. Since the motion controls were new technology and a new way to game, everyone had to learn how to use them and adapt them, even the hardcore gamers. So this put everyone, even the hardcore gamers, on an equal level. And so Nintendo strengthened its casual gamer audience by turning new gamers to casual gamers. This led to the hardcore gamers to cling to an even stronger allegiance to the other consoles.

Let me best explain this by using a metaphor. Remember high school? Remember in high school there was the popular group, the cool kids, the in-crowd? Now with the title "popular," you would think that means that this group would be the biggest group. But that's not true. In fact, it was usually the smallest group, only containing about 1-2% of the your class's student body (maybe 5% if you had a small, private school). There might have been bigger groups of friends, but they weren't the popular ones. That was that small group of cool kids, the in-crowd. They were the ones who said what was cool or not. Even if the majority of students liked it, if the in-crowd shot it down, it was uncool. Even though the popular group was the minority, they had a voice like they were the majority. That's what happened with the 7th generation gaming consoles. The hardcore gamers, both the XBox 360 fanboys and PlayStation 3 fanboys, were the cool kids/in-group/popular group. Even though there were the less XBox 360 gamers and PS3 gamers, they got control of the third party developers and became the voice of power. And they harshly ridiculed and criticized the Wii. The casual gamers of the Wii, although the majority, were picked on and pushed around, as if they were a minority. And as the Wii casual gamers grew in number, and possible strength, the XBox360 and PS3 hardcore took a harder grip on the on their power, throwing more criticisms. Even the critics joined, hardly paying attention to the Wii.

This isn't the end, though. This is where it gets interesting. What happened next was jealousy. Wii got jealous of the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Although leading in hardware sales and financial income, the Wii wanted to be like the XBox360 and PS3, being popular with the critics and third party developers. XBox and PlayStation got jealous of Wii. Although having the third party developers and critics standing behind them and supporting them with power, they wanted to be like the Wii, in numbers sold and income earned. Here's a better way to look at it. Wii became jealous of XBox and PlayStation because they had the hardcore gamers, and Nintendo wanted the hardcore gamers, too. PlayStation and XBox got jealous of Wii because it had the large audience that is the casual gamers, and they wanted the casual gamers, too.

At E3 in 2010, the big 3 first party developres went out to appease the others' audience. Nintendo went to appeal to the hardcore gamers, and XBox and PlayStation went to to appeal to the casual gamers. It wasn't pretty. Both XBox and PlayStation realized that it was Wii's motion controls that pulled it in the casual gamer audience, so both made their own motion control, both the hardware and the software. And where the one excelled the other one hurted, for XBox had good hardware, but bad software, and PlayStation had good software, but bad hardware. Let me explain. XBox's Kinect clearly was the best hardware. They made a sensor with cameras and a microphone, so there was no need for a controller. Clearly a technological advance for the modern day. The software, however, lacked. Most of their games seemed to be a form of a Wii game (for example, instead of "Wii Sports," there was "Kinect Sports"). All their Kinect games did reach to the casual gamer, but in return, they neglected their hardcore gamer for them. At E3 2009, XBox did introduce hardcore games for the hardcore gamer, but they were your standard controller, with no change. XBox had accidently created a dicotomy in their company. It was either casual gamers with Kinect, or hardcore gamers with a controller, but it could never be both. There was a clear, distinctive barrier between the casual gamers and the hardcore gamers of XBox, and the decider was either the controller or the Kinect. That's what I mean when I say XBox had the hardware, but not the software. PlayStation had the opposite problem. They knew how to naturally incorporate the new Move into the software they had. On the day it was released, you could get updates to many old games to include Move. Altogether, the smartest move (no put intended) PlayStation made was making motion control in their games optional. If you want to use motion control, go ahead, but if you like the classic PlayStation controller, stick with it. Yet the hardware lacked because, let's face it, the PlayStation Move controller is virtually the Wii's controllers except with more buttons and colorful bulb at the end. Heck, I have a habit of accidently calling the PlayStation Move Navigator a Nunchuck because they look and act so much the same. With the Wii clone games, you're pretty much playing an HD Wii. Will someone be willing to $100-200 more dollars to simply play Wii with HD graphics? Probably not. But maybe we're looking at this in hindsight. Maybe if we look at it in the bigger picture, as if it were only the first small steps forward, we'd get a better idea.

At E3 2010, Nintendo didn't do any better. They wanted to reach out to the hardcore gamers, but their idea of reaching out to hardcore gamers was just reaching out to the Nintendo fanboys, whether it be strengthened their relationship to the fanboys they still had, or winning back the old fanboys they lost during the GameCube and Wii fiasco. So what did we see? We saw another Mario games, another Donkey Kong game, another Zelda game, another Metroid game, another Kirby game, another Star Fox game, and they even reached far back as Kid Icarus for the 3DS. While this would technically somewhat count for the hardcore gamer, it is really the hardcore Nintendo fanboy gamer, which is a small fraction of hardcore gamers. What Nintendo needed to do was secure the third party developers on their side (and not just Activision). But I will say it again, look at the bigger picture, instead of the hindsight of back then. This may have been a small step in the big picture.

That's why I was so psyched and excited for E3 this year. All 3 first party developers were now making the big steps to what they wanted to achieve. This year at E3, XBox shrunk the gap between hardcore gamers on controller and casual gamers on Kinect. The best examples are Mass Effect 3, Forza 4 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. All these games are labeled "Better with Kinect" because while they don't require Kinect, Kinect does enhance the playing experience. In Mass Effect 3, a player can choose dialogue by speaking it and a player can command his CPU allies with voice commands. In Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, weapon customization, both the creating and testing, can be done through Kinect. With Forza 4, a player still drives with a standard controller or a wheel controller, but he looks at his mirrors by turning his head, using Kinect. Maybe "Better with Kinect" is the way XBox needs to go, as PlayStation Move did. But hold on before I more onto PlayStation Move. There are games that do look promising that require Kinect. E3 showed us Dance Central 2, Kinect Star Wars, Ryse, Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking and Fable: The Journey. But if you look at XBox's website, there's more. Check out Rise of Nightmare and Gunstringer, both games that are Kinect-required, but look like some pretty good story, gameplay and graphics. Kinect definitely has a future, for games that both require Kinect and games that Kinect makes better. PlayStation also took a step forward by closing the gap between casual gamers and hardcore gamers with Move. With Move in their hardcore games, they are introducing more cinematic games to the casual gamer. At the same time, for the hardcore gamer, they keep their PlayStation Six-axis controller for the hardcore gamer who is not comfortable with the Move.

At E3 in 2010, Nintendo made the right step towards getting back the hardcore gamers with the Wii U. They knew they were missing the hardcore gamers, and they knew why they were missing them. First, hardcore gamers like good graphics. Nintendo's Wii U has 1080p graphic capabilities. Second, hardcore gamers like the standard controller. While at first glace we might all see the new Wii U controller as an iPad with buttons and knobs, it is virtually the same as XBox and PS's Six-axis controller, except it has a good-sized touch screen in the middle. Just like the XBox controller and PS Six-Axis, it has 2 analog sticks, 4 face buttons and 4 shoulder buttons. Third, hardcore gamers like third party games. Nintendo knew that there was too reasons the third party developers were not interested in Nintendo: the Wii lacked the graphic capabilities and the online abilities. As I said before, Nintendo's Wii U has 1080p graphics. They also did fix the online capabilites. Once all of that was said and done, Nintendo gladly showed us 10 big name third party developers behind the Wii U, and all these game developers already had game ideas. When the Wii U is released, I believe the hardcore gamers will cautiously and slowly return to Nintendo.

In conclusion, in the beginnning of the 7th generation of video games, Nintendo introduced motion control and introduced new people to gaming as casual gamers. In response, XBox and PlayStation strengthened their relationship with the hardcore gamers. A few years into the 7th generation, each console got jealous of the opposite side, wanting to expand their audience into the other gamer population. This produced XBox 360 Kinect, PlayStation 3 Move and Nintendo Wii U. While rocky at first, all 3 are learning to utilize their new technology to their audience. Kinect is not ruining XBox 360 and Move is not ruining PlayStation 3. Instead, it will improve their systems once utilized correctly. In fact, I would say that XBox 360 Kinect and PlayStation 3 Move is like a half generation, like the 7 1/2 generation. It's not a new system, but a hardware addition to the current system that brings it more up-to-date. Kinect and Move is the future of the XBox and PlayStation, respectively. In a CNN interview after E3, Sony told CNN they were committed to the PS3 to at least 2013-2014, and Microsoft said they were committed to XBox360 until 2015-2016. I think the introduction of Move and Kinect prove this. So hardcore gamers who complain about motion controls will learn to adapt with to the new controls, just like they learned to adapt to 4 analog sticks and 4 shoulder buttons. Heck, I believe if were in some alternative universe where touch screens, voice commands and motion controllers came before analog sticks and buttons, we'd hear the hardcore gamers complain, "Analog sticks and buttons are ruining gaming!" Besides, I seriously doubt these hardcore gamers will completely stop playing video games if it was all motion control. As for Nintendo's Wii U, we'll have to wait and see at E3 2012 if it is just half generation step into the 7 1/2 generation, or if it is a true next generation console for the 8th generation of gaming. That will also determine the fate of Nintendo. It will either bring back the hardcore gamer, or it will be forever branded the console of casual gamers.

Alright, back to reviews for "The Spoiler Review." As promised, we'll start the Fable series with, of course, the original Fable for the original XBox.

E3 2011 Review and Response

It was about this time last week that the 2011 E3 Conference. There were press conferences. Four were Monday, one was on Tuesday. They were the 3 console makers, and 2 software companies: EA and Ubisoft. Many other game developers were present, and for the rest of week, they, along with press conference presenters, showed off their new software and new hardware. A lot of developers gave new ideas, improved old ideas, and even a few presented some serious new hardware. Let's start off with talking about the first part developers, the ones with the gaming systems. Instead of the typical star rating, let's give the 3 system studios medals: gold, silver and bronze.

XBox: Going into the XBox Press Conference, we all knew what XBox needed to do. They needed to proove that Kinect was not just a gimmick, but the new direction XBox was going with their games. They didn't exactly do that the first year, with only about twenty games. In fact, the problem XBox had last year was that they segregated their Kinect games from their mainstream games. XBox really did this as they spent most of their time demonstrating their Kinect used in real, mainstream games. Let's start with the Kinect updates on the dashboard. The biggest (which still is yet to come) is now Kinect can track fingers individually. While this may be a good line for making jokes about giving Kinect the finger, it really will help gameplay. For example, in shooters, you will be able to actually make the motion of shooting a gun. On the Kinect hub, a window called "Fun Labs" is added. In Fun Labs, you can buy gadgets that show off the Kinect's power. One gadget scans your body and then makes an avatar out of it for a photo shoot. Another took your avatar and made it into a bobble head. But these gadgets weren't only about you. There were 2 gadgets that scanned objects, like stuffed animals, and brought them to life. This is great for the XBox because you can see what Kinect can do through these little things. Also, they were all free add-ons!

But let's go back to the games for Kinect. As I said, most of the game were to show that Kinect was the future of XBox gaming. The first game they showed this off on was Mass Effect 3. In Mass Effect 3, a player can use the Kinect for 2 functions. First, it can be used for dialect choices. The screen shows you appropriate replies, and you choose them by simply speaking. The only problem I saw with this is that protangonist Shepherd says something different than what you say. So it feels more like you're whispering suggestions into his ear. I would have liked it to be more like you're talking directly to him. But the cooler function was the second part, which is controlling your allies with voice commands. You can say to one teammate, "Cover the right side," for example. But then came on Tom Clansey's latest Ghost Recon game, and that made Kinect even greater. In the new Ghost Recon, guns are completely customizable, allowing over 2 million possibilities for guns. How can you control gun customization? By either Kinect hand motions or Kinect voice control. Even cooler is when you test your new creation. With your one hand, you hold your gun. With you other hand, you shoot by opening your palm, and stop shooting with closing your fist (this is where the finger update will be helpful, since Kinect only can recognize open palms and close fists, this is what shooters would be). I looked this up on the official XBox website, and these games were labeled "Better with Kinect" instead of "Requires Kinect." So Kinect sounds optional, but on what level? Some games that say "Better with Kinect" mean that most of the game mainly is regular control, while only a minigame on the side uses Kinect. So I'm wondering if Ghost Recon only uses Kinect in the gun creator, but the rest of the game is regular shooter. While this would please the Mass Effect fanboys and the Ghost Recon fanboys who claim that Kinect is ruining these games, I would disagree. The new gameplay has got me interested in these games. But those are just shooters for the shooter fanboy. For the athletes who likes sports games, EA sports came on the XBox press conference briefly to announce that 3 EA Sports games will feature Kinect: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012, FIFA 12, and Madden 12. This has got me excited for sports games on XBox, especially playing football with Madden. If you don't consider racing a sport, but like racing games, then you'll want to check out Forza Motorsport 4. You still drive with a regular controller or a steering wheel controller, but you check your mirrors by moving your head, picked up by the connect sensor bar. But this is just including Kinect into these games. We still need to see some serious, full Kinect games. And they do have them.

In some opinions, when Kinect was released last year, the only serious game meant for hardcore gamers was Dance Central. So naturally this year's leader in serious Kinect games would be Dance Central 2. I was surprised that a Dance Central 2 was coming in a year. After all, Harmonix is not one to release sequels on an annual schedule. But this is worth it, as they improved everything that needed to be improved. First improvement was the Break It Down. No longer do you have do learn the whole dance over just to practice one move. It can be done individually. Second improvement is the multiplayer because it is true multiplayer. Instead of taking turns, going in and out, 2 dancers dance side-by-side. The second player can even jump in and out. Third improvement is Dance Central 2 has a more distinct story mode (if it did have a story mode in the first place). And the best thing about it all is it is typical Harmonix, allowing Dance Central 1 and DLC to be both be playable in Dance Central 2. I like Dance Central 1, but I can tell I will love Dance Central 2, which shoots it to that top of my list. Another game that is near the top of my list is Kinect Star Wars. Last E3 were only a video clip of a possible idea. This time we saw actual gameplay, using the force and a lightsaber with your own hands. This game can really make you feel like a Jedi. From sci-fi to fantasy, Kinect welcomes Fable with Fable Journey. I didn't put this with "Kinect convert games" because it sounds like this game is taking a slightly different direction. From the sound of things, the game is a direct sequel because you're no longer following the royal hero family. Instead of heroes being born, heroes are made. More importantly is the gameplay here. Your mode of transportation is a horse and buggy, steered by your actual hands holding the reins. The game play demo showed using magic with your hands. It was very cool. I hope they keep swords and guns, and have you use the same Kinect game play. Your sports and fitness games are back with Kinect Sports Season 2 and Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012. These games, however, did not impress me. They seem to be just simple additions to the original game. Kinect Sports Season 2 is the funnier one because it was closer to Wii Sports than its first game was. And to quickly this out of the way, I will mention that coming to Kinect is a Sesame Street game and a Disneyland game. I heard people watching E3 complain this, but get over it! This game is not marketed for us! Couldn't you tell by the 3 year old playing Sesame Street and 6 and 10 year old playing Disneyland? So stop complaining because it's not intended for us! But the best game of the press conference was not only a Kinect game, but an original Kinect game with an original story. The game is called Ryse. It takes place in ancient Rome, where a power change and a power struggle takes place. The gameplay, to simply put it, is the Gladiator game from PS Move's Sports Champions put into a full story game. See, this is the type of game XBox needs to show its players that Kinect is serious.

Speaking of PlayStation rip offs, another one is Fruit Ninja, originally for PlayStation's move, but will soon be on XBox. But more amazing, it will be on the Live Arcade. Fruit Ninja was featured in to make a bigger announcement: Kinect games will be in the Arcade, too. I think this is the perfect oppurtunity to allow indy companies to make Kinect games and show us for its true power.

For those gamers who aren't as into Kinect, there were your basic controller games. The first game, which was the game to start off the conference, was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. Of course it received the most applause, and it is probably the most popularly anticipated game from this year's E3. They decided to show the opening sequence, but that really wasn't the best choice. It was mostly a cinematic cutscene, there was very little player action, and it left the watcher confused on what was happening. The newest Tomb Raider was also shown. You would think with a "butcher" looking Lara, she would be tougher, but instead, she seemed scared and whiny all the time. This is not the Lara we know. Gears of War 3 was introduced with Ice T. And last but not least, Microsoft XBox went back to its biggest franchise and announced 2 new games. The first one was an XBox 360 remake of the orignal Halo: Combat Evolved for its 10th anniversary. The second one was Halo 4. This one game was really announced as 3 games, for it was called "the start of a new trilogy." So expect Halo 4, 5 and 6.

Overall, the Microsoft Conference had its positives and negatives. As I said above, it did what it needed to do with Kinect: demonstrate Kinect was the real deal that could be used in real games. Kinect is used in full games, both with original ideas and sequels, even putting it in franchises as optional or on the side is good. While this year's press conference brought the two sides of XBox 360 closer together, that gap is still too far apart. Last year they focused too much on normal controller games and too little on Kinect games. This year they focused too much on Kinect games, and not enough on the controller. For both sides, there were great new games, but you never heard about during the press conference. You had to see the E3 floor trailer for it.


XBox360 Press Conference
+Positives+: Brought gap between Kinect games and controller games closer, Kinect integration into franchise games, bigger Kinect library, reaches more broadly to the causual gamer and families, dashboard/software improvements
-Negatives-: Still a gap between Kinect games and controller games, relied too heavily sequels from old franchises, sports/fitness games for Kinect showed nothing new
=Top 3 Games=: Dance Central 2, Kinect Star Wars, Ryse
*Medal*: Silver

PlayStation: I predicted this opening right, but as the presented said, it was "the elephant in the room." He apologized not only to the fans, but also third party developers who lost money in the Network's halt. Luckily he wasn't received with negative reaction. Another prediction I made was the popularity of the idea of "collections," or old games on old systems being brought to PS3 and updated with PS3. Sure enough there was a lot of them, but I'm sad to say my prediction was right. I wish it wasn't. It was just like what Nintendo did last year. It went back to old franchises, but this was worst. They could have at least made it a new game in an old franchise, but no, it was old games from old franchises, but now just prettier. There was the Metal Gear Solid collection, Silent Hill collection, God of War collection, Ico and Shadows of the Colossus collection, Zone of the Enders collection, Mega Man collection, and on and on. And don't get me wrong, there were new sequels to the old franchises, but the fact still remains it was heavily depended on old franchises. There was anpther Uncharted sequel, another Ratchet & Clank sequel, another Sly Cooper sequel, another Resistance sequel and another Bioshock sequel. Don't get me wrong, some of these games will be great individually. But just like Nintendo last year, it depended heavily on its fanboys with new sequels to old franchises, and worse than Nintendo last year, some of those were old games from old franchises. There was was just too much of it. Speaking of too much of it, the other thing there was too much of was 3D. Every game that had it, you knew the game had because they would mention it over and over. I saw the spectators had to keep putting their 3D glasses on for the trailers and taking them off for the speakers. They even introduced a new TV, made by PlayStation, to feature the 3D gaming The coolest thing I saw with the 3D was that 2 gamers can look at this PlayStation TV and see two different things, eliminating the need for split-screen multiplayer. But I've been told the technology alreasy exists, so it's nothing big. But that does put PS3 as leader of the graphics race. After hearing too much about collections, too much about sequels and too much about 3D, what I didn't hear enough about was Move. PlayStation, when it first debuted Move, did a great job connecting the hardware with the software. Instead of showing its capabilities and maximum potential, it would show its use in gameplay. While PlayStation continues to do this, it didn't take a lot of time with that. The biggest one was Bioshock Infinite. The surprising and exciting news was that Bioshock Infinite would allow Move controls for its new game. The other games showcased with Move was NBA 2k12 and Medieval Moves, but really, it was only Medieval Moves. NBA 2k12 had an epic fail with Move. When I hear a basketball game has Move, I'm thinking your acting out dribbling, passing, shooting, blocking and stealing with the motion control. That's not true according to NBA 2k12. To them, using Move is using the Move pointer to point to the player you want to pass to. But you just then press the square button for pass. But I guess I shouldn't blame PlayStation for 2k Sport's inability to use Move well.

But we all know the PS3 was only to show off new software, and all we all know the new hardware to show off was the next generation handheld. During the press conference, the name was revealed. Sony ditched the PlayStation Portable, PSP for short (or at least ditched the name), and went with the new name "PlayStation Vita." "Vita" means life, for PlayStation tells us this next generation handheld will be the life of the player. Just like the PSP, the player will be able to look at photos, listen to music, watch movies, and so on, but so much more. And all that so much more can be summed up in my prediction: "expect it to be an imitation of the 3DS." First, there's 2 touch screens, or better worded, a touch screen and a touch panal. The second touch panal is on the back, for what Sony calls a "reverse touch screen." Second, the PS Vita is just like the 3DS in having two surround speakers. Third, just like a 3DS, it has a front and back camera, for taking pictures of the self and taking pictures of other people and things. Now the 3DS wins with 3 cameras (2 in the outside for 3D pictures and 1 on the inside), while the PS Vita only has 2, so it's more like the DSi, which also had two cameras. Just like the 3DS, it has a microphone. Just like the 3DS, its games are put on a flash card and an SD card slot for expandable memory. And for the perfect transition, just like the 3DS, the PS Vita has the gyroscrope for motion sensing. I say it's the perfect transition because it's gyroscope sensor is really the six-axis motion control from the PS3. Just as I predicted, the PS Vita also greatly resembles the PS3 controller. Just like the PS3, it has six-axis motion, and just like the PS3 controller, it has 2 analog sticks. It is truly a cross between the PS3 controller and the 3DS. While we might be quick to point fingers and call it a copycat, and thus make it fun of it for doing so, it's for the better to improve the gaming experience. Speaking of gaming experience, an array of games was introduced for the PS Vita. Such games were ModNation Racer, Little Big Planet, and Street Fighter X Tekken. But the best demo by far was Uncharted: Golden Abyss. This game showed that players can use both traditional PS3 controls or use the new controls, which feature using the touch screens. The price for this new system? $250-$300. Even though it is near the price of 3DS, it's capabilities nowhere near the 3DS does not justify the price. So why so high? The PS Vita has many online feature, from web surfing to even talking to other PS Vita people. So it definitely needs Wi-Fi capabilities. But Sony thought it would be better if it had 3G. So who did they team up with? Apparently they didn't get Apple's opinion because they teammed up with AT&T. Then I got the reaction I was expecting with PlayStation's opening: a third of the crowd applauded, a third booed, and a third just laughed. Apparently we haven't learned this lesson from the iPhone. The Wi-Fi only PS Vita will cost $250 and the PS Vita with both Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G will be $300.

Overall, the PlayStation press conference was lackluster in some points, but strong in others. It could be reflected in the way they did their press conference. Starting sixteen minutes late, the show start off weak, but ending with the new hardware, the show ended strong. PlayStation continued to show off its hardware, from the old console hardware, like 3D and Move, to the new handheld all around. The software presentation was lacking. There was too much emphasis on old franchises, on both the console and handheld, but moreso on the handheld. Most of the unique games, like Journey and The Last Guardian were not mentioned during the press conference; they were only showed off on the show floor. Even Twisted Metal, an old but good series for the PlayStation was limited to the show floor. In short, the high points were the PS Vita and the low points were the PS3.


PlayStation (PS3 & PS Vita)
+Positives+: PS Vita rivals the 3DS in hardware, PS Vita has good titles for same-day release as the PS Vita, PS Vita has good socal connection capabilities, PS Vita's new menu, PS Vita has good future potential connection with PS3 (in short, PS Vita is the positive of the press conference)
-Negatives-: PS3 depended too much on old franchises with collections, PS3 depended too much on old franchises by introducing new sequels, PS3 focused too much on 3D, PS3 focused too little on Move (in short, PS3 is negative of the press conference)
=Top 3 Games for PS3=: Bioshock Infinite, Medieval Move, NBA 2k12
=Top 3 Games for PS Vita=: Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Little Big Planet, ModNation Racer
*Medal*: Bronze

Nintendo: We all knew about the Nintendo's new console for a while, and it wasn't until the last minute we finally found it's name: Wii U (more on that later). Of course to build suspense, Wii U was held to the end, that was expected. Surprisingly, the first game talked about was for the Wii. The show opened with an orchestra playing the soundtrack to many familar songs of the Zelda series. This is because this year is the Zelda series is celebrating its 25th century anniversary. So with Zelda's 25th anniversary, there were a lot of games coming out to celebrate the anniversary. What better way to start with Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. If anyone is keeping track, this Skyward Sword's third appearance at E3. At E3 2009, we were shown a concept art for the game, with a small taste of what the story and game play will be like. At E3 2010, we were shown the game play mechanics with Wii Motion plus, but given little to no information about the story. And it seemed like with every passing month, the release date for the game was pushed back another season. Now that they fished out all the glitches, the game will be relased around holiday 2011 (even Iwata said "finally"). But that's it we heard from the Wii. The press conference perfectly transitioned into the 3DS, as the other celebrations games for the Zelda 25th anniversary will be two games for the 3DS. One will be a regular game, the other will be DLC. The regular 3DS game is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and the DLC game is Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. The crowd was in awe when this game was announced to be a free download.

As I predicted, the games and other software was mostly in the 3DS section. As I also predicted, most games were repeat sequels to old franchises. As stated above, we saw Link and Zelda again in Ocarina of Time 3D and Four Swords (may I mention these are both remakes?). We saw again in Super Mario 3D, Paper Mario 3D and Super Mario Kart 3D. We saw Luigi again in Luigi's Mansion 2. Star Fox again in Star Fox 3D. We saw Pit again in Kid Icarius: Uprising. We saw Animal Crossing again in Animal Crossing 3D. But while these are repeated games in old franchises, you really can't complain too much because each one is bringing new aspects, besides 3D graphics. Legend of Zelda Four Swords will allow that four player multiplayer with needing to be connected by one big TV and console. Super Mario 3D is a cross between Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros., bringing in the best of the best worlds. It also is going bring back features from Super Mario Bros. 3, which will appease to fanboys. Paper Mario 3D is going to incorporate the 3D screen with moving between 2D world and 3D world. Super Mario Kart 3D is going to have complete kart customization. In racing, the kart will transform into a glider for air movement and an underwater scooter for the underwater movement. Star Fox 3D has greatly vamped up the multiplayer, including having your friends tracked with their face. Animal Crossing 3D uses the 3DS Street Pass to make a true MMO. Kid Icarus: Uprising isn't your simply Kid Icarus from the third generation console. It has everything that next generation games have: good graphics, good gameplay, good story, good character development and good cutscenes. Luigi's Mansion 2 isn't just a remake of an old game for a new handheld. It is legit new game, with everything a new game needs. If anyone thought the 3DS lacked good titles this past year, this next year will prove you wrong. If you don't have a 3DS yet because you think there is no good games for the 3DS, after seeing this E3, you will get a 3DS in anticipation of the new 3DS games coming out this year.

Before, I go on, even though Reggie did not go into deep detail with this, he did mention that Nintendo is not going into only developing 3DS games. They will continue to produce DS games, ones that will work on the original DS model, the DS Lite, the original DSi model, and the DSi XL. He didn't go into details about these new titles, but they are there on the show floor, with E3 trailers. Titles included Kirby Mass Attack, Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2, and Rhythm Heaven 2.

Now we are ready to talk Wii U. Of course Nintendo had to drag it out by starting to talk about its long-term vision. While it may seem boring, it was worth listening to. When Nintendo started their long-term vision, they said they wanted to go "deeper and wider" (and yes, all Christians now have the Christian children's song "Deep and Wide" stick in their head). What this meant is that Nintendo wanted to wider by expanded their users by introducing new people to gaming to become (what we call) casual gamers, and to go deeper by giving (what we call) hardcore gamers and better gaming experience. The say that the Wii was to do the first part by introducing a new style of game play that leveled all gamers, both casual and hardcore, to the same level. And now, because of them, everyon wants to play video games, from children to the elderly, all around the family. Now the new system was focused on the deeper part, giving the hardcore gamer a better gaming experience. This is where the name comes in. If the "Wii" in "Nintendo Wii" means "we, the large, majority population of gamers," then the "U" in "Wii U" means "you, the serious gamer." In short, the Wii U is intended for the serious, hardcore gamer. But enough about the name, let's talk about the console itself.

The introduction trailer opens with a man playing a game on the TV screen, most likely New Super Mario Bros. Mii. His male roommate enters and says, "Alright, time for baseball," and turns the TV screen to the baseball channel. It's no problem for gamer. The trailer cuts to him picking up what looks like iPad with buttons and knobs and continues playing his game on there. As I was watching this online, I immediately see comments on the side spring up saying, "OMG is the new 'system' just a controller?" No, it is not, but it is need the new controller. The new controller is about 8 inches in length, with a 6-inch touch screen in the middle. To the left of the touch screen is a circle pad, similar to the one on the 3DS, and a control D-pad. On the right is another circle pad, and 4 letter buttons: A, B, X, Y (just like 3DS again). Below the touch screen is your + button and - button, represented start and select, as well as the home button. All 3 buttons are representative of the Wiimote buttons. On top of the touch screen is a camera and a microphone. On the back of the controller are 4 buttons: L, R, Z-L, Z-R. Yes, just like XBox and PlayStation, Nintendo now has bumper and trigger buttons. Inside, it has motion sensor gyroscope and rumble pack. So I was right in predicting Nintendo would make their console like the handheld DS. But just to be clear the Wii U is not another handheld. The Wii U controller cannot be used no further away from the console than 20-25 feet. But games can be played exclusively on the Wii U, as well as become a second screen for a home console.

They didn't give us much detail at the press conference about the actual console itself. Later, Reggie would comment on GameTrailers.com that the console is just a box. But for those concerned about the box, he did give a few specs. The box is like a rounded Wii with bigger buttons. The graphics card is 1080p. They demonstrated that with a short animated clip during the press conference. The discs they will be using is the optimal discs. I was wrong in my prediction and disappointed with that. But they did say these will be more of a HD Optimal discs, which is bigger and better. No mention on hard drive size, but there will be a slot for SD card memory expansion again. There will most likely be backwards combatability with Wii games, but less likely for GameCube games. The Wii U will be compatibile with not just the Wii U controller, but the Wiimote, the Nunchuck, the Wii Classic Controller, the Classic Controller Pro and the Balance Board. The question I have left is how they plan to incorporate this all. Is it a total abandonment of motion control, is motion control being pushed off to the side, or is it still full motion control? The best part is the online capabilities. No more friend codes. Now it's going to be more like XBox's gamertag.

Nintendo admitted it knew why third party developers were not on board with the Wii. First, it lacked the graphics capabilities. Second, it lacked the online capacity. Nintendo knew both problems. While we thought it turned its head and looked the other way, Nintendo actually did the opposite and confronted them in the new console and fixed them. When Nintendo displayed it back to the third party developers, Nintendo won them over. Already it been announced that Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, and Tekken. Even now rumors of Bioshock Infinite and Battlefront 3 are circulating. Yes, these will technically be late releases of games already out, but the point is that third party developers are already on board with the Wii U, which Nintendo needed to get the hardcore gamers back. On top of that, Nintendo promises it will be releases new titles from its franchises, which is expected of Nintendo :P. One will be Super Mario Bros. Mii, where your Mii gets to be in the New Super Mario Bros. game. But the big announcement, the big surprise, and probably the most anticipated one for Nintendo, is a new Super Smash Bros. game will be the debut game for this new system. The new feature will be linking with the 3DS, so it also brought an announcement for a Super Smash Bros. game for the 3DS.

The conference closed out with the big screen showing 4 logos: Wii, WiiU, DS, 3DS. Reggie concluded with promising for the next year Nintendo would continue supporting all 4. The conference clearly showed that with the 3DS and the WiiU, but what about the other two, Wii and DS? Not so as much. None of the new DS games were mentioned, such as Kirby Mass Attack, Dragon Quest Monster: Joker 2, and Rhythm Heaven 2. The only Wii game mentioned was Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but that wasn't the only game coming out for the present Wii. Did you know there is a new Kirby for the Wii? It's not the Epic Yarn crap either, it's a legit right-back-atcha Kirby game. Yet this was only on showcase floor. There's also a 9th Mario Party coming out for the current Wii, but I only found out about that on my Wii at home. So I'm not convinced Nintendo is going to support all 4. I feel like they've moved on to the WiiU for console and 3DS for handheld. But Nintendo came in and did what it had to do to win hardcore gamers back. Nintedo had to do three things to win over hardcore gamers. First, it had to produce a home console that featured hardware rivaling the XBox360 and PS3. Its new controller did, giving them all the buttons they wanted, plus a screen in the middle. Second, it had to give its handheld software that fully used its hardware's potential. It did that by giving it serious games, from reliable franchises, that were up-to-date to this generation of gaming. Third, Nintendo had to show it had third party developers backing in both the home console and the handheld. Sure enough, they do now, with the new graphics and new online capabilities. We already seen that from the lineup of third party games for the WiiU, to Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid on the 3DS. I believe the WiiU is truly for hardcore gamers, and if call yourself a hardcore gamer and won't give WiiU a shot, then you're not a hardcore gamer, just an XBox360/PS3 fanboy.

Nintendo Press Conference

+Positives+: WiiU's new controller, WiiU's 1080p graphics, WiiU's easier online access, 3DS game library, 3DS DLC, third party backing, well-balanced presentation, Nintendo reaches out to hardcore gamers
-Negatives-: Too much focus on WiiU controller and not enough on console specs, not enough coverage on games for current Wii and regular DS, still relying too much on older franchises
=Top 2 Games for WiiU=: Super Smash Bros. for WiiU, New Super Mario Bros. Wii
=Top 3 Games for 3DS=: Mario Kart 3D, Super Mario 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising
~Medal~: Gold

Now let's move onto the third party software developers. These are the companies that don't the consoles, but makes the games for the consoles. There were big names there, such as 2k Games, Activision, Atlus, Bethesda, Capcom, Crytek, Deep Silver, Electronic Arts (EA), Konami, Lionheart Studios, Namco Bandai, Natsume, Sega, Square Enix, THQ, Tecmo, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Most of these companies only had the floor to showcase their new games. The only two developers that got press time were EA and Ubisoft. But that didn't stop Konami from having their own the Friday before. It would take forever to review each developer and each game they had. After all, it just took a while to go hunt down each game's E3 trailer individually. So let's just look at the those who did have press conferences. I'll even throw in Konami to make it an even 3, so we can rate them with gold, silver and bronze medals again.

Konami: Konami started out by playing pity card, thanking everyone for their support with the Japan earthquakes and tsunami. Konami spent most of their press conference highlighting chunks of their the big franchises. Their biggest franchise was of course Metal Gear Solid, so the press conference began with Metal Gear Solid, and Metal Gear Solid took up the most time. The big game everyone was waiting to hear about from last year's E3 was Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater. It was exciting to see a big franchise of a third party developer come to the 3DS and use its full potential. Some parts of the game used the gyroscope to score down enemies. Camaflogue was made using pictures taken with the camera. The touch screen was used to make buttons for fast-action buttons. And the graphics were amazing. On top of that, they announced Metal Gear Solid collection, an HD version of 3 games: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This is not just to update graphics. This game has been announced for both the PS3 and XBox360. So first, it updates the PS2 game to the PS3, which is beneficial because the PS3 cannot play the PS2 games. Second, Konami, who has typically been a PlayStation developer, is now extending to the XBox360, expanding its audience. Now the Metal Gear series is really expanding to all 3 first party developers.

This is the perfect transition to talk about another big Konami franchise, who also made a collection: Silent Hill. The opening to the Silent Hill section did not start on video games. Instead, it brought us to Canada for the filming of Silent Hill: Revelation, the 3D sequel to the Silent Hill movie. The characters in the movie talked about how special Silent Hill was. But enough about the movie. Let's get to the new game. E3 2010 gave us a preview of this game, but in E3 2011 did not really add more to this. It seemed like the same trailer. I don't feel like I know more about the game than I did before. I found tghat quite disappointing. The other addition to the Silent Hill series is actually a re-make to the earlier Silent Hill games. Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 have updated visually for the next generation console. The Silent Hill Collection will definitely be available for the PS3, but it's uncertain for the XBox 360. Rumors keep bouncing back between yes and no. Perhaps the disappointment of new Silent Hills will be negated by going back to the digitally remastered classics.

But it wasn't just old classics for Konami. They introduced a new game called NeverDead. As the title insinuates, the game centered around the idea that the player can't die. Of course, for story reasons, the immoraltality is a curse. It's the usual "guy lost a loved one and now wants to die in order to be re-uninted with love one." It's definitely a new and different game idea. I am cautious to a game where you can't die. If there is not death, what is the risk? If there is not ddeath, is it possible to get a Game Over, or it a one play through? But then again, with today's games, when your health regenerates on its own for not being hit for a while, when your death just results in spawning at the nearby checkpoint, it may not have a difference.

Other games were mentioned, but they were mentioned briefly. Such games included No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, Deca Sports Extreme and Frogger 3D. Yes, the ancient Frogger series is coming to the most recent handheld. Konami did not end its press conference with a game. Instead, it ended with the utilization of a new software for the PlayStation hardware. When I heard this on the Friday press conference, I was wondering if Konami jumped the gun by not allowing PlayStation to talk about it. But it was worth since PlayStation did not mention it. The new feature is called "transfarring," an obvious combination of "transferring" and "far." What transfarring will do is allow for PS3 games to be played on the PS Vita and PS Vita games to be played on the PS3 with wireless transfer of data. This will allow gamers to play PS3 games away from their console. Furthermore, now PS2 games can be transfarred to the PS3. This will be great considering PS2 games cannot be played on the PS3. This is also great in light of the vast Collections coming out this year. With this technology, you can see why WiiU went the direction it already did.


Konami Press Conference
+Positives+: Figuring out what to do with PS2 games. Transfarring will allow PS2 data to jump up to the PS3 and Collections will allow PS2 games to be updated to PS3 standards.
-Negatives-: Spent way too much time on certain games, and not enough time on others. There was too much reliance on old franchises, mainly Metal Gear and Silent Hill.
=Top 3 Games=: Silent Hill Collection, Silent Hill Downpour, Frogger 3D
~Medal~: Bronze

Electronic Arts (EA): After watching a flashy Microsoft press conference, from Kinect demos to celebrity endorsements, it was EA's time to take the stage. First thing EA said it would not do is use celebrity endorsements, but just simply show the games as they were. We'll see about that later. EA started off its press conference with Mass Effect 3. We didn't see any Kinect this time. This time we saw a cutscene with a rail shooter. Perhaps there was no Kinect because they felt like it was already done at the Microsoft Press Conference. Perhaps it was because they wanted to reach to the PS3 players as much as the XBox players. Either, I still wasn't satisfied with this. It was more watch than actual do. If I saw the EA demo of Mass Effect 3 instead of the Microsoft one, I wouldn't really be excited about it. EA made up with a more action-packed demo of Need for Speed: The Run. If you are keeping track, we're up to 17 Need for Speed games. But this one is different, though. In this game, there is some running. Suppose your car breaks down, or you get caught, or whatever. You need a new car. To get to that new car, you have to run to it, either break in or steal it, and then drive off. They demoed this in real gameplay, and it was action-packed, with the protagonist jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The only problem I had with it was that it seemed like it was more like button-mashing cutscene. Viritually, the player was pressing the triangle button at points to simply not die. But it was definitely something new.

For the social gamer, there were 2 games offered at the EA press conference. First off was the other highly anticipated Star Wars game: Star Wars: The Old Republic, and MMORPG. Now to talk about this one, I will go a little bit deeper than what was revealed at the EA conference. From what I can tell, the game is about the Sith Empire going to subdue a sector of the galaxy which still claims to be in allegiance with the Old Repbulic. Let me tell you, this game is full of Star Wars fan service, as well as fan service to other video games. The smuggler, the "Han Solo character," not only looks like John Marston from Red Dead Redemption, but he also sounds like him, talks like, and even acts like him. This game has characters wielding one lightsaber, wielding two lightsabers, wield a double blade lightsaber, and even at one point, wielding a double bladed lighsaber and a regular lightsaber, which is technically a triple lightsaber. I think this game is full of gimmicks that will make true Star Wars fans cringe. On the plus side of social gaming, The Sims will be coming to Facebook! The presenter joked that people are probably bored at playing with Farm animals (a cheapshot at Farmville) and would warmly welcome a new Facebook. I would agree. The question is whether or not it will have a cost.

Electronic Arts just isn't EA with EA Sports. 3 games were mentioned: SSX, FIFA 12 and Madden 12. For these games being all big among the "video game athletes," EA Sports did a terrible job of introducing them. No demos were given, and brief trailer were shown, but that was it. For SSX, they talked about 3 ways to play this game, and that was it. For FIFA 12, they talked about a new game mode and an improved physics program for player-to-player contact, and that was it. For Madden 12, they brought 3 NFL players to introduce 3 new gaming aspects (Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was for improved defense mechanisms, Cleveland Browns Running Back Payton Hillis for the box cover art and the clutch scenarios, and Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was for dynasty mode), and that was it. Now if you remember, during the XBox presentation, EA themselves mentioned use of Kinect, but in both press conferences, they failed to show it off. This is true for both FIFA 12 and Madden 12. It was very disappointing. It was like EA Sports was saying, "We know the Madden fanboys and FIFA fanboys are going to buy the new version with updated rosters anyway, so we might as well just announce, and that will do." Come on, EA Sports, you're better than that.

But EA's press conference wasn't just about old stuff. They had some new titles available. The first one was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. This game is going to be an RPG. You can tell it's made by the same people as the Elder Scroll series because it has that feeling. The other game was called Overstrike. There was no demo of it; only a trailer was shown. It was a pretty funny trailer, but this seemed just like another shooter, most likely FPS. But I'm glad to see a big third party developer producing new ideas.

And as Microsoft opened with the biggest hype of E3, EA closed with the 2nd biggest hype and probably the 2nd most anticipated game of E3 2011. The game was Battlefield 3, another game in the Battlefield series. I know a lot fanboys are hyped with this new game, but to be honest with you, it looked like just another FPS games, just another war game, and just another Battlefield game.


Electronic Arts (EA) Press Conference
+Positives+: It reached out to gamers of all genres, Need for Speed had something new gameplay wise, new titles Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Overstrike
-Negatives-: There was a great lack of demos. Kinect was not demonstrated on the EA Sports games or Mass Effect 3. New games did not show gameplay, but only cinematic trailers. EA relied too heavily on franchise names again!
=Top 3 Games=: Madden 12, FIFA 12, Mass Effect 3
~Medal~: Silver

Ubisoft: Ubisoft was the last to present overall. They surrounded their press conference with Ubisoft's 25th anniversary. Ubisoft did this with making jokes about what their games would have looked like 25 years. There was 8-bit renditions of their games, as well as text based adventures. The presenter was Mr. Caffeine, someone who cracked jokes and made it interesting. Mr. Caffeine definitely made this the most entertaining one to watch.

Ubisoft began their presentation with the game Rayman Origins. No this is not another Raying Rabbids game, that comes later ;). This is legit Rayman game. As the name hints, it is a prequel to Rayman's story. The gameplay looked fun, especially a cooperature multiplayer. Later on they did show a Raving Rabbids game called Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking. The game is for the XBox360 Kinect and features augmented reality. Augmented reality is whben a camera make a computer-generated image of what it is taking a picture of and editing it with viritual things. Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking did this by putting the Raving Rabbids right in your TV room with the magic of Kinect. But that's not all. Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking goes back to the old Raving Rabbids game style by having mini games that fully utilize the Kinect feature. This is one of the best uses of Kinect from a third party developer I've seen! It really makes me want to get it.

For racing games, Ubisoft produced Driver: San Francisco. This racing had both plot and game play. For the plot, the driver Tanner from Driv3r survived the crash in Istanbul and has now fled to San Francisco. For gameplay, players can jump between cars. This provides extra excitement for multiplayer. For more casual racer for the casual gamer, there's TrackMania 2: Canyon. This game is awesome because it combines the racing genre and the social genre perfectly. The highlight of this game is the customization, from racecars to racetracks.

Then Ubisoft went into a shooter mode. The next three games were all FPS games: Far Cry 3, Brothers in Arms: Furious 4, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. On the bright side, what Ubisoft did do right is show not only cinematic trailers, but also real game play. But when you have cinematic trailers and real gameply of 3 shooter games in a row, you realize all how similar shooters are, especially the first person ones. While these games had some interesting characters, they all seemed like the same, with the same gameplay and same general plot. It made me groan, "Oh look, another First Person shooter." The worst had to be Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. It was the 2nd longest Ubisoft Presentation, at 10 minutes. In this ten minutes of showing cutscenes and gameplay, they failed to demonstrate on their own the Kinect capabilities. Maybe they thought in unneccesary because XBox already did, but it would have been nice to see them again. After XBox won me over for this game, Ubisoft did the opposite. The only positive feature out of this was Ghost Recon's new online capabilities, which will rival Call of Duty's online multiplayer.

When Guitar Hero went on hiatus and Rock Band was dropped by media mongul Viacomm, many people assumed the music video game fad was dying, if not dead. Well, Ubisoft never got that announcement as they produced two music video games. The first one was Rocksmith. Rocksmith claims to teach you how to play real guitar. Yeah, I know this sounds like what Power Gig promised and failed epically, but this is serious. First, any guitar is usable. You just pluck the amp prong into your guitar's amp jack, the USB prong into your PS3 or XBox360, and you're ready to play. The guitar lane is in more of a 3D setting, using square windows that come down the note highway. In the trailer, people claimed they learned a real song in 10 days. Watching many trailers and testimonials, I believe this game is legit. It will definitely beat Power Gig, and it might even beat Rock Band's pro mode. As for Dancing, Ubisoft's Just Dance became a triology with Just Dance 3. The cool thing about Just Dance 3 is it is no longer exclusively on the Wii. It is now on the PlayStation 3, using Move, and XBox 360, using Kinect. If you want to know what it looks like on Kinect, remember the Michael Jackson: The Experience was their dancing game for the XBox360 Kinect. I liked both of these games and they shot up to my top 2 favorites of Ubisoft's press conference.

Ubisoft also pulled the last for best. It was the much anticipated Assassin's Creed: Revelation. This was biggest presentation and the longest, 13 minutes. It was definitely a good presentation. It had both cutscene and action playing. It look place in Constantinople, what we know as present-day Istanbul, Turkey. You saw that you could play all 3 characters. Assassin's Creed was definitely worth the wait. It was a big game that wasn't first person shooter



Ubisoft Press Conference
+Positives+: Featured many gaming genres, reached out to both casual gamer and hardcore games, big name titles, entertaining yet informative press conference, Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking utilizing Kinect
-Negative-: Too much focus on shooter games, too much time on Assassin's Creed
=Top 3 Games=: Rocksmith, Just Dance 3, Raving Rabbids Alive and Kicking
~Medal~: Gold

Altogether, I would say this year was a good conference. There was more new game titles and new game ideas than there were last year. The FPS and TPS were not overbearing as they were last year. New game ideas were introduced. All the latest technologies were used, from Kinect to Move, from 3D to touch screen. I really enjoyed the excitement of the new hardware, the new software and the entertaining presentations for them. I look forward to see how the year plays when we really play these games.

E3 2011 Preview and Predictions

Ah, it's the most exciting time for gamers, as well as the game industry. It's June, which means it's time for Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3. It's where the the big video game announcements are made, from console makers, like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, to the third part video game developres, such as Activision, EA and Ubisoft. I see this as the New Year of the video game universe because we hear about everything upcoming for video games for the next twelve months. This year the convention will be taking place the week of June 5, with the press conferences on Monday, June 6 and Tuesday, June 7, and the show floor continuing into Wednesday and Thursday, June 8 and 9. That means it starts tomorrow. We've already heard about Konami, but I want to wait on commenting about them until all is said and done this week. I have been previewing around what is being shown off this week, and so I have a few predictions myself on what is going to happen. Let's begin with the console makers, then we'll move onto the third party developers.

Let's start off with Nintendo, not only because they are the oldest around, but because they have the biggest announcement because it is a hardware announcement. While the Wii has been leading in sales, it has been falling behind in support from the third party developer, mainly due to the poor graphics card. Thus, while the Wii is leading in the numbers, it is disrespected by the serious gamers because of what it is lacking. So this new Nintendo system, code name everything from "Project Cafe" to "Feel," we'll just call the "New Nintendo" while I make predictions about it. For starters, as mentioned above, it needs a really powerful graphics card, one to rival the PlayStation 3 and XBox360, so definitely the most recent graphics card. To accommodate with this, the New Nintendo is going to have update to something better than the "Wii Optimal Disc," which is really just and slight advanced CD-ROM. It will most likely be a DVD, like the XBox360, but it could be like the PlayStation 3 and use Blu-Ray disc. Along with that notion, it will be curious to see if the new Nintendo system will play movies on a disc, whether it be a DVD or Blu Ray. While the past 2 generations of XBox and PlayStation had the capabilities of playing DVDs, and even the PS3 playing Blu Ray, Nintendo's past 2 systems has not. Now it seems like the future of video watching will come from streaming, like Netflix, Zune and Hulu Plus. So adding that feature now might be irrelevent. At the same time, streaming can be still slow and pixilated. So I would say most likely the new Nintendo will be able to play DVDs, but there is also a chance for Blu Ray. Obviously, since the motion control is what put the Wii ahead of the other systems, this one will have it. I think it will have Wiimotion Plus in a controller that is two-thirds the original Wiimote size. I think it will have built in both a speaker and a mic, for both recording sounds and playing sounds. Just like PlayStation, the second half, or nunchuck half, will be like the first half, almost like holding two controllers for one player. This will allow both half of controllers to be sensed by the sensor, as well as fix the lack of buttons. Speaking of the sensor, I think Nintendo will go the same route the Move and the Kinect will go and use a camera for a sensor. Yet I don't think it will go the route of Kinect by having no controller at all. I highly doubt there will be backwards compatability for GameCube games anymore, and it's even a possibility that it won't be backwards compatability with the Wii. There are already some games for the Wii that require Wiimotion Plus, Wii games that don't require it that won't function properly with it. But these are only mere guesses from a vague announcement. Who knows? Maybe they will try to bring in ideas from their new handheld, the 3DS, such as 3D capabilities and a touch screen on the controller. But like I said, mainly guesses which are based on comparisons with the 3DS, XBox360 and the PS3. And I bet that the announcement at this year's E3 will only be a general annoucements, and it won't be until E3 2012 that we will really start to hear about the system because I can't imagine a release date until Fall or Winter 2012 since there is still so much in line for the Wii. Since a new system is on the horizon, most of the games we will hear about will be for the fairly new 3DS. But I'm not going into them too much because you can expect the regular franchises to be repeated: Mario, Star Fox, Zelda, Kid Icarus and Animal Crossing.

Sony is going to start their press conference with an apology to it players for allowing themselves to be hacked, losing all their personal data, the inability to get the network back up for nearly a month and giving lackluster apology for staying with them (the free PlayStation Plus and free games). I'm not sure it will work, though. I'm expecting more them to get booed, just as Roger Goodell got booed at the draft. With the introduction of Move last E3, I believe it is safe to assume we won't see or hear about the PS4 or another console until 2013 or 2014. The only thing about the console I think we'll hear (and this is the only time I will mention Konami because it's close ties to the PlayStation) is about Transfarring, which is the ability to transfer game data between the PSP and PS3, and also between the PS3 and the PS2. This is crucial because the latest edition of the PS3 has no backwards compatability both PS1 and PS2 games. A PS gamer could feel like their investment in their previous games uselss. PlayStation has tried to please their fanboys by making PS1 games downloadable onto the system with a small price. I think transfarring will help add to the game library, fulfilling the fanboy's pleasure. This might be what sets about PlayStation from the rest of systems. I think something else we will see (and we say Konami do a lot of this, too) is we'll see a lot of franchise "collections." That means franchise names from past systems will all be put one one disc and have updated graphics. They've already done it with the Sly Cooper series and Konami announced plans for a Metal Gear Solid Collections and Silent Hill Collections. I can see this happening with other franchises, such as Crash Bandicoot and Ratchet and Clank. I already mentioned handhelds, and I expect that what the majority of Sony's press conference will be mostly on their next generation handheld, the PSP2. Since PlayStation's handhelds keep failing Nintendo's, expect the PSP2 to be an imitation of the 3DS. You're going to see a touch screen, a camera, a microphone and motion sensor. Because of Transfarring and other reasons, the PSP2 will become more like the PS3 controller with 2 analog sticks and Six-axis.

Microsoft's press conference probably won't reveal any XBox360 hardware. It's mainly going to talk about the updates to Kinect, such as the Avatar talk, and other games for the Kinect. We're going to hear more about the software. Since Call of Duty has been a franchise that has helped the XBox360 greatly, a good amount of the press conference will talk about Modern Warfare 3.
But that's just your first person shooter. For the third person shooter, the highly anticipated Gears of War 3 is going to be introduced. We'll see how the series comes to an end. For your racing game, we're going to see Forza talk about Forzo Motorsport 4. This is going to be a great game for the XBox360 because it will work with and without Kinect. Offering both controller and Kinect, but letting the player choose is the ultimate way to use the system fully. Along with that, I hope Microsoft and Forza will share more on their developing Star Wars game for Kinect. I think we'll also be introduced to new game for the XBox Live Arcade. The leader will be the Ms. Splosion Man. Just as the old school Pac-Man needed a Ms. Pac-Man, so the modern-day XBox Live Arcade Splosion Man needs a Ms. Splosion Man.

Now let's go into third party developers.

EA will stick with what they know best with their sports games, such as Madden 12 and Fifa 12. Madden 12 is going to be especially big for the 3DS because it will utilize the most recent technology with 3D graphics and the touch schreen. But that won't be the only thing. We're going to hear a lot about other franchises becoming trilogies, such as Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3. Another big hit is going Star Wars: The Old Republic. You have a huge Star Wars fanbase, and a huge MMORPG fanbase. Put them together, you have magic.

Ubisoft has a lot of big names continuing their series, in all video game genres.The biggest has to be Assassin's Creed continuing its story Assassin's Creed Revelations. With 3 playable characters, we're going to see a lot in the story be fully revealed. A third game in the Call of Jurez series is Ubisoft's lead first person shooter. For your driving game and your sandbox game, you got Driver: San Francisco. For the tatical shooter, Tom Clancey continues his Ghost Recon series with its fourth installment Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Anyone who loves Tom Clancey will love this. Ubisoft will introduce new games into the music genre. Continuing its hit series for Wii, Just Dance will become a trilogy with Just Dance 3. The Just Dance series already has a big fan base, so expect several copies to be sold. But the one I am most excited about is Rocksmith. Rocksmith is a game that claims it teach you how to play with a real guitar. From what I've seen, it looks legit. I think it will be more effective than Rock Band's Pro Guitar. Ubisoft did fairly good with Michael Jackson: The Experience for the music genre, so I can't wait to see Rocksmith.

Capcom is going to come back with all its big name franchises, too. The biggest being the Resident Evil Franchise. For the consoles, we hear about Operation Raccoon City. For the handheld 3DS, we have Revelations. Speaking of the 3DS, Capcom will please its Megaman fanboys by bringing him to 3D with Megaman Legends 3. And also, after its long absence, we have another game in Devil May Cry series. But it's not a sequel, but a prequel. We'll hear a lot about the youn Dante in DmC. And while not announced, I hope to hear more about Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright. 2 hard puzzle games combined is going to equal an epic crossover.

Square Enix is going to continue its rich history in RPGs. And its longest and most famous RPG series, Final Fantasy, will take the lead with the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII. Another famous Square Enix series is the Deus Ex, and this year, you'll hear about the prequel, named Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Also on the consoles, expect the Dungeon Seige series to become a full trilogy with Dungeon Seige 3. For those who want an RPG for the handheld, Kingdom Hearts is going 3D with Dream Drop Distance (yes, can be abbreviated "3D" and yes, they did do that on purpose). But Square Enix is not just for the RPGs. It's also going to continue other non-RPG series. You'll see a fifth Hitman with Hitman: Absolutions and for Tomb Raider, you'll get a ninth game, with a brand new Lara Croft. I know Lara Croft looks different, but I'll be interested to see if she acts differently.

Namco Bandai is going to lead with bringing its "Tales" series back into the light. For the console, there will be Tales of Grace F. From what I've heard, it's going to be a PS3 exclusively. For the handheld, they are re-making PS2's Tales of the Abyss. But this is not for the PSP, it's for the 3DS. Another series coming back into the light is Soul Calibur with Soul Calibur V. I can't wait to hear who the guest characters will be! Finally, we'll hear about Dark Souls, the sequel to Demon Souls. Demon Souls was largely promoted, but was a hit or miss in the eyes of gamers. We'll see how its sequel will do.

2K Games is going to bring out sequels for franchises we haven't heard about in a long time. The one I'm most excited about is Bioshock Infinite. When 2K tried to make a direct sequel to the first Bioshock, it didn't do too well. It was heavily criticized and before you knew it, it was reduced for clearance (Bioshock 2 was even cheaper than Bioshock 1 for a while!). But with Bioshock Infinite, 2K decided to be a sequel in gameplay, but not in story. In short, they are keeping the gameplay mechanics, but starting with a brand new story. This could be the fresh start the Bioshock series needs. Another game we haven't heard about for a while is The Darkness, which came out in 2007. 4 years later, we will be introduced to The Darkness 2. We'll see how many times Jackie dies this time ;-). Last but not least, we're going to see a series resurrected that we thought was dead for sure. 14 years after its development began in 1997, we'll finally hear more about Duke Nukem Forever. The last time Duke was on console, we were in the fifth generation of systems, so we'll see how it takes the update to seventh generation.

And how can we forget Activision, the leading 3rd party developers. One of the reasons they have been leading is because of their Call of Duty series. So expect to hear lots about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. But don't let that overshadow everything. Prototype will have a sequel, obviously named Prototype 2. Spyro the Dragon will be re-introduced after 3 years in an odd way: by being a playable character in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. After the hit game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, we will have a sequel with 2/3 of the returning characters in Spider-Man: Edge of Time. This game is going to widely loved after the success of the last Spider Man game. Besides, everyone loves playing as Spider Man. Hopefully, it will have more Sandbox qualities this time. Activision will also continue working with Marvel in its newest X-Men game X-Men: Destiny. And since I am such a Guitar Hero fanboy, I will predict this: At E3, Activision will clear up what it meant about Guitar Hero's fate. Activision will claim it meant that Guitar Hero is not dead or shut down, but simply it is on hiatus, doing what Rock Band did waiting 2 years to publish a new Guitar Hero game. If they want to convince they are telling the truth, they will give a small and generic tease of the next Guitar Hero game - Guitar Hero: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yes, I know it was just a rumor around the time of Warriors of Rock, and prior to the so-called "shut down" announcement in Februrary, but I believe it's a rumor backed up with good reason. Why else is Rock Band not allowed to transfer 2 Red Hot Chili Peppers songs to Rock Band 3, when it has a whole Red Hot Chilip Peppers CD available for DLC? Also, last year, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock made a big fuss at E3, and went out to outsell Rock Band 3. Something that successful does not shut down easily.

Well, since I already said "Rock Band" I have to go ahead and talk about Harmonix, I guess :D. Harmonix already made it clear that there will be no Rock Band 4 for at least 2 years past Rock Band 3's release date. But they did say there will be a big announcement. So here's my prediction: The Who RockBand. Hear me out on this. Remember a long time ago, before Rock Band 3, there was an announcement about a Rock Band for the band The Who. And we all thought, "That's ridiculous. The Who already have a full CD for DLC. Why would you need a Rock Band game for The Who?" And we would have been right...back then. But now we have Rock Band 3, with keys and harmonies. The Who is a band that has used piano, organ and keyboard. The Who has had multiple band members sing, which needs harmonies. Now an update is needed for all the Who songs, just like one was needed for Bon Jovi and Queen. This year, I would bet on The Who Rock Band with pro guitar, pro bass, keys (both basic and pro) and harmonies. And yes, all songs will be importable to Rock Band 3. It could possibly be Dance Central 2, but I doubt it. Dance Central 1 is still fairly new, barely comes out with DLC (it's about once a month), and doesn't have as big as a fan base as Rock Band. Besides, I think that would be out of Harmonix's character. I'm going to stick with The Who RockBand as my prediction.

This is a lot, so I'm going to quit for now and see how it plays out. Other titles to look out for are: Batman: Arkham City, Elder Scrolls V, Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, Sonic Generations, Saints Row The Third and Ninja Gaiden 3. These will be the games that people will be talking about for the rest of 2011, and into 2012. But as you can see, most of these games were either sequels or another game to a long series. I hope to see more original games with original stories and original gameplay ideas come worth to bring us new gold. This I saw lack last year, and I hope it doesn't lack this year.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Exclusively for the Nintendo Wii
Rating: 5 stars

When the Wii came out in November 2006, we know it was only a matter of time until Super Smash Bros. would becoming to the Wii. Sure enough, in March 2008, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released for the Wii. Brawl makes the improvements that Melee failed to make, making this an excellent game.

First of all, no one could say this game wasn’t an improvement unless new characters were added, and sure enough, they were. The number of playable characters goes from the 26 in Melee to the 35 in Brawl. But it’s not just simple to say they’ve added 9 characters because Dr. Mario, Pichu, Roy, Young Link and Mewtwo don’t reappear. Is this heartbreaking? I wouldn’t say so. As I said in my review of Melee, Dr. Mario is really just regular Mario, and Pichu is just like Pikachu, so there’s nothing missing out. Truthfully, they are the only ones completely gone. Roy and Mewtwo are replaced by Ike and Lucario respectively, and they virtually have the same attacks and same powers, so it seems to be the same characters with a different look. And I truthfully think that Young Link and Toon Link look the same, act the same, so it’s not really a replacement. It’s just a different name. I liked how Nintendo picked more characters from their already used Franchises, like getting King Dedede from Kirby, Diddy Kong from Donkey Kong and Wolf from Star Fox. I really liked how they went to other franchises like Wario from Warioland and Olimar from Pikmin, but went even further back to Pit from Kid Icarus. But the most impressive was getting third party developers to agree to lease their characters to this fighting game. The headliner characters for this game were Sonic, from Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog series and Snake, from Konami’s Metal Gear Solid series. The abundant choice of characters is enough to make every Brawl you have a new game. But that isn’t the only thing.

Brawl wouldn’t be an improvement without new stages. Brawl has a total of 41 stages. The reason it may have so many is that most of the stages from Melee have transferred over to Brawl. So you won’t be missing out on any of the old stages. A new feature added to Brawl is the stages become interactive with the characters. Some will move around, some will change between day and night, others will float, others can be destroyed, and still others can do a whole slew of things. But even if you don’t like any of those stages, Brawl offers a stage creator, and as its name suggests, you can build your own stages to have Brawls in. With 41 new stages, plus being able to make your own stages, where you battle never becomes stale.

With these new characters on these new stages, you once again have your same Brawl modes. You also have your special brawl, which in a way is the same as Melee, but is also updated. In Melee, you could only choose one special feature, but in Brawl, you can choose multiple features. So if you want a brawl where all the characters are giant, metal, on fire, with a bunny hood, go ahead. Once again, it makes Brawl fights seem newer every time you play.

Items are back in Brawl. You have all your old items returning, as well as have a bunch of new additions. I could go on and on about all the items, but the one most important to game play has to be the Final Smash Orb. This colorful orb that is in the same shape as the Super Smash logo is a slippery one to get, but worth it. Once you have it, all you have to do is press B and your character unleashes a unique attack that packs a powerful punch and is hard to evade. One last thing I will say is items and item quantity is customizable. You can choose for an item often, seldom or not at all. So if you don’t like an item, you can turn it off. But if you want to let the Final Smashes fly, you can select many of those.

But if you don’t have the friends around to play multiplayer, Brawl brings back the 3 solo modes that Melee introduced. Classic mode is back and it hasn’t changed since the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. All-Star mode hasn’t changed since Melee. If there is change, it’s longer because there are more characters. But the best improvement was on Adventure Mode. The Adventure Mode is a legitimate Adventure Mode. It is literally an Adventure. It has a name (“The Subspace Emissary”), a plot, cut scenes, a unique villain with unique henchmen. This is everything a true Adventure mode needs. Sure it made some characters bad guys, and sometimes it was mere platforming, and yes, you virtually have to play through it twice, but it does a good job of meshing the characters together. You do have to play as every character (or at least given the chance to play as every character). The story even provides plot twists here and there. For a story that sometimes seems thrown together, it’s pretty good.

Training mode brings back a few of the training features, updated to the Brawl, but also a new feature in it. First, Target Smash is back, and is updated for the Wii and its new characters. Once again, Home Run Contest is back to see who can hit the sandbag the furthest, now improved, such as Captain Falcon being able to swing. The Multi-Man Brawl is back, yet the characters are updated again, and for the better. In the original, it was polygons. In Melee, it was wire frames. In Brawl, it is alloys, made up of the Wii’s finest graphics. In the old game, the multi-man was limited t 10-man and 100-man. Brawl has not only those 2, but also 3-minute Brawl, 15-minute Brawl, Endless Brawl (you don’t stop until you die) and Cruel Brawl (hardest difficulty, no items). The last training is Boss Battles, taking all the main enemies from the story mode. Even Training mode is new and improved, giving another thing for the player to do.

For the gamer who needs to unlock and collect things, Brawl provides plenty of that for you. Players can unlock characters, trophies, stickers, music, stages, even Virtual Console demos. But some of this can be a pain in the neck. Only half the characters are available for play right away. Same goes with the stages. Only about half the stages are available, and the other half you have to unlock. And some of the unlocking can be crazy. To unlock the rest of the characters, you have to play the solo mode. It can simply be done in the Adventure mode, but that’s still going to a 7-10 hour play through. So you don’t want to bring this game right off the shelf to play with friends. Unlocking trophies and stickers can be found brawling in both solo and group brawls, but it can take a while. Remember how last game had the gumball machine that gave trophies instead of gumballs? In its place, Brawl has made up a minigame where you shoot your earned tokens to hit trophies and stickers to unlock. While it may sound fun, the problem is it is easy to repeat trophies and stickers. At least with the “gumball machine” you didn’t have to worry with repeats to a point. For all the others things that need to be unlocked, there are challenges to be done. Some of them are simple, like playing on a certain stage a number of times, but some of them can be downright ridiculous, such as bringing every character through All-Star mode on the hardest difficulty. This might drive the collecting gamer insane. Well, if they have to do it over time, Brawl has a nice way of sorting this out. Brawl has kept this nice and neat for the player by giving the player a trophies tracker and challenge wall.

Despite the graphics pretty much staying the same from the GameCube to the Wii, the graphical design for Brawl has seemed to improve. As I said before, the generic multi-man brawl going from wire frames to alloys demonstrates this alone. But character design is carefully drawn out. You can see everything in detail, from Zelda’s hair to Mario’s overalls. For characters that have had a continuing role in the Nintendo world, all of them kept up-to-date with their looks. The attacks and explosions can be very colorful experiences, too.

The one thing that does baffle me is the controls. Now Brawl was smart by allowing four possibilities for controllers: Wiimote alone, Wiimote with nunchuck, Wii Classic Controller, and GameCube controller, my personal favorite. They were even smart by allowing customization of buttons. But there’s one thing I don’t get. We all know the Wii for being the frontrunner for the motion controls. Yet no motion controls can be used in this game at all. Heck, you can’t even use the Wiimote pointer to run through the menus. You have to use the control pad or joystick. Yes, I know it’s probably because they wanted to allow other controls without motion censor to be used, but this can be easily fixed by replacing the motion control action with a button. Wii games have done this. The first examples that come to mind are Dragonball Z and Mario Kart Wii. I think the only thing that could have made this game better would be motion controls.

Besides that, I think this is a wonderful game. Brawl made every improvement they needed to make from Melee. This game can be played solo just as much as multiplayer. With a plethora of characters and stages, every game feels new. The avast amount of collectables not only satisfies the collector gamer, but also keeps you playing over and over. Customizations make the game your own. This game was everything Melee was, and more. One last thing I want to mention is this game fully catalogs the Nintendo games and Nintendo franchises. This game is definitely needed in the library of anyone who calls himself a Nintendo fanboy. With a new system on the horizon, it will be interesting to see what new, great improvements the next Super Smash Bros. will have.