With E3 having come and gone now, I do miss it a little. By all means, it was no walk in the park. Driving around busy downtown LA looking for parking, wading through crowds of gamers, and sitting in lines for upwards of an hour just to try a game for ten minutes; it’s a lot of work. And yet somehow I feel like I came back too soon. Sure, it was fun to try out a lot of cool games before they release, but there was also an energy in the air that I miss being a part of.

At any rate, I must give sincere thanks to Capcom, especially Joveth “jgonzo” Gonzales. Due to my large involvement with The Mega Man Network, and promoting Mega Man in general, they offered me a pass as a way of saying thanks for the support. I am very humbled to know how much they appreciate the work I do, which has never struck me as anything incredible. Still, it’s unfortunate that none of Capcom’s announcements pertained to Mega Man… but I’m thankful all the same! Above is me on Capcom*Unity’s E3 stream with jgonzo and Noah, another Capcom fan. Sadly, I don’t recall what was said to make jgonzo produce such an awful expression.

Also deserving of thanks is my good pal Cheston, who accompanied me and helped out with some of the expenses, and more of the driving around. He also acted as our eyes as assistant media coordinator and took many of the photos we’ve used here in our reports. Cheston is getting married next month, so this may have been our last big adventure. But who knows! Couldn’t have done it without you, man. Congrats on tying the knot.

Finally, I guess I should thank the WingDamage crew for giving me a podium to express my experiences, since they wouldn’t really fit on TMMN. But having gotten to know Jesse and Jonah… yeah, I dunno. They’re sketchy to me. Anyway, enough sentimental crap. To close things up, I’m taking a look at Hard Corps: Uprising, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Metroid: Other M, Dead Rising 2, and Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Hard Corps: Uprising

Contra is a fun series, but man is it tough. I think the only one I’ve legitimately beaten is Contra ReBirth, which is arguably easier than a lot of previous installments. While not Contra in name, Hard Corps: Uprising serves as a prequel to the old Sega Genesis game, Contra: Hard Corps, which was thankfully more forgiving by giving you a life bar and unlimited continues (well, at least the Japanese version did).

The demo, in fact, was extremely forgiving, as it offered us six-unit life bars. I’m uncertain if you can expand your life with game items, or if it’s something you can just set at the beginning. Besides that, it’s your typical run-and-gun Contra game, supporting two player co-op. By collecting power-ups from flying pods, you could change your weapon type, although from what I recall these didn’t appear very frequently. And of course, there’s lots and lots of enemy soldiers to gun down.

The visual style is very impressive, using 3D environments and anime-ish, hand drawn character graphics (although some of the large bosses were also modeled in 3D). Truth be told, the enemy forces were so animated and unique looking, I sometimes felt like I was playing Metal Slug instead, a run-and-gun known for its animated and humorous characters. I mean, the enemy soldiers all had big, floppy red masks pulled over their heads, and some would float down on big umbrellas. A mid-boss had one of them driving a drilling contraption, operating it with two big, cartoony levers. For being connected to Contra, the game has a lot more of a lighthearted feeling, but I enjoyed it all the same.

But don’t let the toony nature fool you; this is still a pretty tough game. The other player and I still died many times before finishing the stage. I was pretty satisfied with the game, and the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are definitely in need of more good action games like this.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

It’s pretty tough for me to evaluate this game. First of all, I’m not really a big Zelda fan, and while all the games offer something unique and interesting, I’ve never finished a single one (especially a lot of the more recent titles, which tend to get tedious and annoying at points). Second, because of the great interest in this title, people could only demo it for ten minutes, with the game simply ending after the time elapsed.

The big draw this time are the Motion Plus enhancements which, among other things, promise one-to-one swordplay. Swinging the sword around did feel pretty accurate. However, the demo used a lot of enemies that required you to swing the sword in specific ways to fell them, and I tended to have trouble with these. It seemed as though if you were too close to enemies, the game had some trouble reading the accuracy of your movement. The Nintendo rep at one point said I should stand back a little more when attacking. If given more than ten minutes, I feel like I could have overcome this learning curve.

I also tried the bomb and slingshot sub weapons, and these felt just fine to use. It’s great being able to roll the bomb like a bowling ball, and you don’t see that a lot in other games. The inventory system is also much more convenient now — you simply hold down B and then select from the list of items that appear. There was also a separate inventory window for potions, which let Link drink them instantly (though I don’t recall how this was accessed).

The game’s visual style is of great interest to many people, for whatever reason. Even the Nintendo rep asked me what I thought about the graphics after playing. Truthfully, I don’t consider graphics a whole lot when I play games, but Skyward Sword’s graphics are fine. I am glad that the game is a lot more colorful than Twilight Princess was, but other than that I don’t suppose the graphics were better or worse than anything else. They got the job done.

Truthfully, what would be most meaningful to me in a new Zelda is a greater focus on action and much less on puzzles and mundane tasks. Unfortunately, the ten minute demo didn’t give any decisive indication on what kind of game this will ultimately end up being. But it seems like a promising start, and I look forward to more.

Metroid: Other M

I’m really scratching my head over this one. I really want to like this game, but the direction Nintendo is taking it is just so strange. I mean, I can see what they’re trying to do with it. But in the past Metroid games I’ve played, I cared about Samus’ feelings and emotions about as much as I cared about Mario’s, Kirby’s, or Mega Man’s (read: none). What I love so much about action games is that they make me feel like the hero. I’m the one doing the awesome stuff, not the character on the screen. But Nintendo would sooner want Metroid: Other M to be more of a soap opera than a game.

As far as the action goes, those parts are pretty fun. It does seem a little faster paced, and even Samus’ running around is pretty speedy. You’ll often find yourself running into rooms filled with enemies. Since it’s a 3D game (albeit with a pseudo-2D fixed perspective), Samus’ gun auto locks onto enemies, so you merely need to fire wildly and stay out of their way. It’s a bit simplistic, but it is fun. You can also point the remote at the screen to go into visor mode, letting you scan objects and fire missiles (so long as Adam permits it).

The cut scenes, however, are the essential definition of lame, and even become intrusive. Samus’ voice acting is dreadful, and she often gives long, narrative soliloquies on things nobody cares about. When meeting with her former federation crew, for example, one of the characters would say a single line, to which Samus would immediately mentally narrate at length (presumably while everyone is standing around wondering what the heck Samus is thinking of). Cut scenes also interrupted the boss battle at the end of the demo, giving me blunt instructions on how to beat the boss, making it much less fun. And I absolutely cannot tolerate a game telling me that the main character has decided not to use some of her weapons until she’s told it’s okay. You’ll see what I mean should you decide to pick this up.

Imagine you bought New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Then imagine that after every stage you beat, Mario gave a woeful narration, wondering if Princess Peach is okay and how much longer he’d have to keep fighting Bowser. It would seem absolutely ridiculous. And yet somehow, throwing that stuff into Metroid doesn’t seem ridiculous? I don’t know. Certainly what I played was the very beginning of the game, and it may pick up and becomes much more action focused. But this game is going to have to kick a lot of butt if it wants to wash out the bad taste the demo has already left in my mouth.

Dead Rising 2

The first time I tried out Dead Rising 2 was at Capcom’s specially themed Dead Rising 2 party the night before E3. While I’ve not played Dead Rising previously, the premise of it did interest me somewhat. And after playing Dead Rising 2 at the party, and later at E3, I think I’m rather sold on it.

The game plays a bit like a much slower version of Sengoku Basara, but instead of Japanese warriors, you’re fighting zombies. They’re relatively harmless unless you let one of them grab onto you. What the game boasts is the sheer number of zombies that can be present at one time (to my understanding, it’s in the thousands). You’re free to deal with the zombies by any means you like, and there are all sorts of items lying around that become improvised weapons. Some are virtually useless, like foam hands and spray paint. Then you have your standard arsenal, like hammers, wrenches, and crowbars. Then you get into the ridiculous, like trash cans, bowling balls, and shopping carts. I even managed to assault zombies with a swarm of angry bees.

What’s more, this game offers you the ability to combine objects to make even zanier weapons. While watching people play, it wasn’t uncommon to see a bucket with power drills pushed into it that could be thrown over a zombie’s head, or a kayak paddle that had chainsaws tied to either end, or a rake that became electrified by having a car battery attached to it. I even saw a guy take out zombies by wailing on an electric guitar. The game also has a variety of guns, but these seem a lot less fun to use compared to the improvised melee weapons.

Granted, I can imagine the novelty of using all kinds of objects as weapons could wear off rather fast, making you stick to just what’s most useful. But I can really appreciate Dead Rising 2 as being a zombie game that focuses more on fun and craziness rather than atmosphere and mood. Also, while having no bearing on how good the game is, Capcom’s “zombie rights activists” stunt at E3 was pretty amusing.

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds

If you suck at fighting games, I have good news for you. Come out and find me, because I tremendously suck at fighting games. I’ll help make you feel better about yourself. That being said, I had no interest in even trying Marvel vs Capcom 3 until my friend Cheston egged me into it. Fortunately, Cheston isn’t much better. We played two matches, both losing and winning, and while I really didn’t know what the heck happened, it felt exhilarating.

The demo offered the ten fighters revealed so far: Wolverine, The Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, and Deadpool on the Marvel side, and Ryu, Morrigan, Felicia, Dante, and Chris Redfield on the Capcom side. I really couldn’t tell you the nuances and skills of each character, but I can tell you that Wolverine and Dante best suited my mashing-all-buttons-while-jumping-up-and-down fighting technique.

What I can also tell you is that the game looks very stunning. While using 3D models, the characters have a very crisp, comic book appearance. Their movements also have a lot of fine details, and yet none of this slows the game down — it’s a very fast paced fighter. I also enjoyed the scenery (which I got to pay better attention to when I wasn’t playing). One of my favorite stages of course has to be Cattelox Island of Mega Man Legends fame, which featured the Bonne family in the background. There was also a cool Macey’s Thanksgiving Day Parade themed stage, with big floats of various Marvel and Capcom characters in the background. I also really liked this one rooftop stage, because there was this frantic photographer snapping pictures of the fight. Even when the fighters leaped 50 feet into the air, he leaped up with them! I love that guy!

I’m never going to be a fighting game pro, but there was something pretty addicting about this game. I can’t think of many other games where I’ve had fun without knowing what I was doing at all. I doubt I have to sell this one to the Marvel vs Capcom fanatics, but for myself, it’s one I want to keep my eye on.

———-

Whoo, well, that’s all of it. Those are all the games I got to get my greasy hands on it. Truth be told, I don’t even consider myself a big-time gamer. But E3 left me craving more games than I’ve wanted to play in a very long while. I hope you’ve enjoyed my coverage of E3 as much as I’ve enjoyed delivering it — so, about averagely at best. ‘Course you’ll get to hear me talk about E3 a bit more on tomorrow’s Barrel Roll podcast, but after that, I swear I’m done talking about E3!

Tags: capcom, Dead Rising 2, E3, E3 2010, hands-on impressions, Hard Corps: Uprising, Konami, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Metroid: Other M, Nintendo, Playstation 3, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Wii, Xbox 360

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