E3 2005: Standouts and Wallflowers - Features

Interview: Eiji Aonuma (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

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E3 2005 Part II: Standouts and Wallflowers

As I walked off the LA Metro train at Pico Station by the LA Convention Center, I noticed another fellow wearing a Nintendo shirt. Being completely lost, with only some crumbled up print outs of the train schedule, I asked him, "By that shirt, I can tell you must be going to E3." Indeed, he was. He asked, "Is this your first one?" Indeed, it was. He told me his first E3 was when the GameCube was unveiled. New hardware launches are supposed to be the most exciting time for the industry, right? After being led to the badge pick-up line and getting my holder, I waited impatiently for the doors to open at 10 AM. And then it began.

I was initially somewhat unimpressed with the Xbox 360 after that MTV special – the producers were clearly marketing towards the average gamer and not to people who actually wanted technical specs or information about the games. What they had on display was something of a mixed bag – games that only looked and ran vaguely better than on a regular Xbox. Only two games really stood out – Electronic Arts' new Need for

Speed and Rare's Kameo. Both of them suffered from some major framerate issues, but I was assued that these were running on pre-alpha hardware utilizing 30% of the full power of the 360, and everything should be much smoother when everything is finalized.

Still, at least Microsoft has something to show. Sony had some great videos, but its quality seemed almost too good, raising questions to the dubiousness of Sony's claims that yes, this is what a PS3 can do. The system itself looks like a second model 3DO, except shinier, which seems pretty silly to me. The boomerang controller design may possibly change, which alleviated any of my worries.

Nintendo had almost nothing but hot air regarding the Revolution – you would almost think they were just ignoring their competitors. They did unveil their new Gameboy Micro, but given the extremely tiny size of this thing, I think it's more about fashion chic than actually anything to play games on. Reggie was bragging that it's the best screen Nintendo has used in a portable – who cares that it's too small to see anything on?

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As much as some people begin to think that the new systems are coming too soon, and what we have still has some life in them, some of the games shown of the floor definitely seemed to be showing their age, especially the PS2 games. Capcom's Okami, starring a wolf and drawn like a painting, looked amazing but had lots of draw-in and combat slowed down a lot. Similarly, Sony's Shadow of the Collusus got incredibly framey during the fight scenes. Even Nintendo's Zelda: Twinlight Princess looked relatively unimpressive when put next to the absolutely gorgeous Kameo.

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So the next generation wars probably won't start in earnest until next year, after the 360 has been around for awhile and, theoretically, Sony should just be spreading its wings. The games on the floor weren't too bad. I found myself most impressed by Gunstar Super Heroes for the Gameboy Advance, as well as Burnout Legends for the PSP. Castlevania: Dawn of Souls for the Nintendo DS looks about as nice as the legendary Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and its level showed some imagination that's been lacking in recent games in the series. It's been awhile since there have been any worthwhile portable games, outside of Zelda: Minish Cap, but these are all shaping up nicely.

It's looking to be an iffy year for RPGs, with Bioware showing absolutely nothing new and Square's booth being littered with medicore titles like Radiata spinoffs of Final Fantasy 7. They did have several kiosks with Kingdom Hearts, and fans will drool after

new party members like Auron (from Final Fantasy X) and Jack Sparrow (from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, of all things), but those who didn't like the original probably won't be converted. The Final Fantasy XII videos were still only pre-rendered, with no gameplay footage, and as nice as Dragon Quest VIII looks, it's still the same old boring game that it was on the NES. The only bastion seems to be Atlus and Nippon Ichi, stowed away from the show floor in a meeting room, with the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei sequel Digital Devil Saga 2, the gorgeous Korean RPG Magna Carta, and mind boggling deep strategy RPG Makai Kingdom. The Atlus staff seemed to be grumbling that Dragon Quest 8 was awarded "Best RPG of E3" by 1UP, apparently the appointed be-all, know-all judge of the show. Atlus had a right to be miffed – everything they were showing was far, far better.

One of the biggest surprises was the new Incredible Hulk game, featuring a huge free roaming landscape when you can smash practically everything and dash through the sky and run up skyscrapes with the greatest of ease. I never would've thought I'd be looking forward to a comic book game so much. Starcraft: Ghost was also playable, and while it

wasn't knockdown amazing, it was still pretty fun - think of Splinter Cell, but faster and with a bigger emphasis on action, and you'll get a good idea what it was like. SNK also had a video of a new Twinkle Star Sprites game (the original was an absolutely amazing shooter/puzzle game released for the Neo Geo), although no information about it.

I was honestly a little disappointed in the demo of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Want to know what it was like? Go drag out your N64 and play Ocarina of Time. Now imagine prettier graphics and you've pretty much experienced Twilight Princess. Being an adventure title, it's not exactly conducive to play with time limits, but it would've been nice to see this new dark area we've been hearing about, or experience Link turning into a werewolf.

As for other disappointments: Shadow the Hedgehog is approximately as bad as it looks, playing just like the Sonic Adventure titles except you can get guns, which look bizarrely realistic when placed in the hands of cartoony characters. Phantasy Star Universe was tragically awful, following the suit of the Online games instead of the true RPG I keep pining for. On the other hand, the action-RPG Shining Force Neo, while not a strategy game like the rest of the series, was turning out to be pretty good. King of Fighters Neowave seemed like a rehash of KoF 2002, and a big step backwards for the series – where's Neo Geo Battle Coliseum when we need it?

The Namco booth was pretty disappointing, offering a gorgeous Soul Calibur 3 castle with statues of the new characters, but the demo was paltry, only offering one of the new faces to play around with. We Love Katamari drew huge crowds, but once again, it's pretty much just the same as the first game, although there are were some pretty creative levels and even more amusing dialogue. There was absolutely no sign of anything regarding Namco X Capcom, which broke my heart. Namco was more about putting on big shows with their booth babes. They seemed to be having a rivalry with Tecmo as to who had the best girls. Namco certainly had a bigger area and was certainly flashier, but their black get-ups looked generic next to the Tecmo ladies, who dressed up as characters from Dead or Alive 4 and Ninja Gaiden. Other than that, almost all of the booth babes were inhabiting booths for MMORPGs or for small companies that really, desperately wanted attention.

The swag was relatively light, other than some random buttons, keychains, and mobile screen cleaners (Square had girls dressed as the Turks literally throwing them at people, promoting the awful cell phone game Final Fantasy 7: Before Crisis.) SNK had character artist Falcoon signing some incredibly awesome posters of Mai Shiranui, and the Penny Arcade kids drew a huge crowd in the Ubisoft booth, signing their limited edition comic book. And by far the coolest company was Nippon Ichi, who gave me an artbook for their upcoming Makai Kingdom. Being a big fan of their games – I own and cherish all of the Marl Kingdom titles, including their sole English release, Rhapsody for the PSOne – so this was incredibly awesome. I love seeing companies like them and Atlus bringing more obscure, niche titles to America, so they get my undying respect right there.

While most jaded veterans found E3 to be somewhat disappointing, I still had a blast, even if it exhausted me beyond comprehension. When you have to choose between (A) getting food and resting or (B) playing Gunstar Super Heroes for another twenty minutes. In a position like mine, I ended up choosing option B pretty often. The long lines for food and scant offerings in the media room didn't help either. The result was me, vaguely jet lagged from the three-hour time difference and running straight off the energy of pure video game essence, wandering throughout the convention center, overtired and over-hungry. It was exhausting, yes, but getting to talk to developers and seeing what the industry will be like for the whole next year is too exciting to pass up.

- Kurt Kalata

(May 29, 2005)