Omni gets an early look at a bunch of stuff Nintendo has in the pipes.

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Nintendo: Hello, Gaming!

A Look at Nintendo's Upcoming Games (With a Special Appearance by Capcom)

It didn’t strike me right away since I was practically brought to my knees by the sudden realization I was in a room with more than five GameCube debug units running Resident Evil Ø, Dinosaur Planet, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda. It was enough to turn any Nintendo fan into a quivering gelatinous blob – and enough to turn a non-believer into a fan. Attempting to get my objectivity under control has never been so difficult.

And if a “fanboy” attitude creeps into this look at what’s coming from Nintendo (and a peek from Capcom) in the coming months, please forgive my blubbering.

First, the players: Lesley Short, Nintendo PR rep extraordinaire, and good-natured Nate, Capcom PR rep on his first trip to Canada. And of course, me. After the preliminary introductions and beverage offering, we got right down to business.

I began my journey with Resident Evil Ø and worked clockwise around the room over the scheduled hour with my mind in “sponge” mode – soaking up everything – which meant my ability to form a coherent sentence went on stand-by. Also on stand-by was my ability to get my fingers working as my Resident Evil Ø foray proved.

Although Resident Evil Ø uses the same engine as Resident Evil (RE) for GameCube (GC), it has been refined with the addition of better lighting effects and more emphasis on the small touches which combine to present a Resident Evil game like we’ve never seen before. The first part of the game takes place on train and everything that should be moving is moving. Loose crates, chains, etc. all sway they way they should. The basics haven’t been changed though – the “look” is instantly familiar and inventory management is along the lines of the other RE games. If you’ve played the other RE games, you’ll be right at home. However, the wrinkle is that you control two characters – individually and together. Switching between Rebecca, a rookie cop with Racoon City, and Billy, “a framed convict on the run” is only a button press away and is essential to solving the game’s puzzles. (Be warned: if you leave a character in a zombie-filled room, you leave them open for annihilation.) When the duo are on-screen together you completely control one character with limited control over the other using the C-stick to aim. (Nate mimed a demonstration of this in the middle of the room. The man is enthusiastic!) In situations like this the character under limited control uses the ammo of the other character – like some kind of leech. The two characters can also easily share items and leave items randomly dropped around the landscape for later pick-up. This offers the chance to create makeshift storerooms. We’ll be living through more zombie-filled horror this November – and having fun along the way. (And watch for the demo coming soon!)

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After managing to have zombies eat Rebecca’s brain in record time, Nate popped in Capcom vs. SNK 2: EO – finally, a fighting game where even I might have a chance of beating an opponent.

Instead of mapping out the moves using all the buttons on the control the emphasis has been placed firmly onto the C-stick. The left and right shoulder buttons are used slightly but only for relatively minor attacks.

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The C-stick does everything else – at least in the special GameCube mode. Basically it means even most inept of us will be able to put up some kind of competition against experienced players. Although I’m sure Nate could have wiped me off the map, there was only one Wavebird so I got to feel smug beating up the AI opponents. This emphasis on the C-stick is sure to draw fire from purists that love the technical side of things, but fun factor is a lot higher when I can win (or at least come close). Graphically, everything moves at great clip and is smooth, smooth, smooth, if a little pixilated.

After that brief taste, it was onto the next station for a look at Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. I got the obligatory, “What’s up with Rare?” question out of the way first. (This happened to be the only question I managed to squeak out.) Lesley parried that with what seems to be party line, “It’s business as usual with Rare” and apparently there are no announcements. In my mind this can mean two things. 1) Rare is about to sever ties with Nintendo (or vice versa). Or 2) Around Christmas one or two of the following games will be released with much fanfare and a massive surge of demand: a Perfect Dark sequel or a Banjo-Kazooie game. It might happen… but it is strange that everything is being kept so top-secret… maybe to coincide with the release of the Platinum GC bundle with Mario Sunshine in November… I’m being entirely speculative. Anyway, I sat down to Dinosaur Planet…

Classic Star Fox action – that’s about all I can really say. Control seems to be rock solid from my brief exposure. The section I played had a furry being riding the back of a pterodactyl tasked with blasting a heavily armed airship out of the sky – basically it was a boss battle. After damaging it enough said furry being leaps aboard to investigate the ship further. Unfortunately the master villain of Dinosaur Planet happens to be aboard, some tense words are exchanged, and the little furry being is thrown overboard. The amount of effort that went into the graphics is very evident. Smooth and, I hesitate to use the word, lovely. Although I didn’t get to any melee combat, the control seemed as solid as we’ve all come to expect from Rare. I can’t remember the audio aspect at all, although the word “organic” sticks in my mind for some reason.

From there I scooted over to Super Mario Sunshine. While I didn’t exactly giggle like a schoolgirl I came darn close. (Nate and Lesley might have a different opinion but I digress.) Mario Sunshine is the game I’ve been waiting for since I met up with Yoshi in Super Mario 64. That’s a long, long time and it sure looks like the wait will have been worth it. Screenshots do not do this game justice. Obviously, it’s the best-looking Mario game yet and it’s classic Mario action (accented by a few improvements). Mario Sunshine pits Mario against evil forces that have framed him for befouling a seaside resort. He has to clear his name and with the help of his multi-use water pack he sets out. From what I can gather, gameplay boils down to washing off graffiti and clearing up oil slicks but you can be sure there will be plenty of mini-games too. Control, although I hadn’t mastered it in the 9 or so minutes I had with Mario Sunshine, is straightforward. There are once again one thousand ways to jump – diving, triple jumps, somersault jump, jumping off walls, etc. – but the real star is the water pack. It’s used to clear up any messes found along the way and access further areas. It is very clear that if you enjoyed other Mario games, you should be first in line when it’s release late August 27^th.

Then it was on to Metroid, another character not heard from in quite some time. The game absolutely oozes style and a genuine sense of place. The environments I went through were all claustrophobic, made more so by the fact you play from inside Samus’s helmet with all the necessary information displayed on the inside of the faceplate. It succeeds in putting the gamer into a character. Jumping elicits a soft grunt that sounds like it would inside a helmet. (Put a fishbowl over your head and grunt and you’ll get the picture.) There is loads of detail and I didn’t experience any problems with slowdown. Mind you, I didn’t fight any really big bosses. Control is surprisingly easy to pick up. A big part of the gameplay looks to be investigating and interacting with various information panels that can activate and deactivate systems. Switching weapons and toggling the different HUDs is easy. And rolling into a ball is tons of fun. It alleviated some of the claustrophobia to have an outside view and, like previous Metroid games, is sure to have some important uses later on besides just rolling through tight areas. All too soon, it was over and I had to move onto The Legend of Zelda.

Everyone seems to have a strong opinion of the look of Link’s latest incarnation. Once again, the screenshots don’t do this title justice. Mr. Miyamoto (Mario and Zelda creator) describes it as “playing a cartoon.” He’s totally correct. The pictures make this game look almost one-dimensional but the game in action proves otherwise. Gamers who took on Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask will have absolutely no problem grasping the control since it’s almost a direct carry-over from the N64. The camera seemed to be a little loose but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the brief hands-on, battling some kind of huge fire-breathing skeletal centipede. Thankfully the camera control responds extremely well via the C-stick, so when the camera does get flipped around it’s easy enough to right it. The version I played was the demo version shown at this year’s E3, but if Legend of Zelda doesn’t sell a zillion copies, there’s something seriously wrong with gamers. He may have a new look, but it sure works. The release date has been pushed back to February 2003 but I’m confident the extra wait will be worth it.

Then I moved on to some of Gameboy Advance’s (GBA) offerings and suddenly it struck me. Nintendo started as a playing card company and now things have gone full-circle with the new E-Reader for GBA. The E-Reader concept has potential to really go places. The reader plunks into the game slot of the GBA, the cards swiped and a plethora of mini games played. (The cards themselves are identical in size and shape to regular trading cards, but with added strips of dots that the E-Reader translates into readable data.) It wasn’t finalized as to how many E-Reader cards will come in a pack or how much each pack will retail for – but they won’t come with gum. And some of the applications make GBA (coupled with the GC) one of the most wide-open gaming platforms ever (aside from the PC, of course). We’ll see a lot more of the E-Reader when Animal Crossing is released.

All too soon my time was over. There were other games, such as Wario World, that were available but time didn’t permit me take them for a spin. As it was, I went five minutes over my time.

Final thoughts? My mind is still racing. The next little while for Nintendo bodes well. With the string of strong first party titles acting as a backbone to attract 3^rd Parties, like Capcom showing some wicked looking Resident Evil action, ‘Cube owners have a lot to look forward to (besides some of the sterling games available now).

Now if only Nintendo would pack gum with the E-Reader cards…

- Omni

(August 1, 2002)


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