Today Nintendo put a release date on Super Paper Mario for the Wii. It’ll hit shelves on April 9th, and I am starting to get excited about it. It looks fun and could provide some very unique gameplay with the whole 2D/3D crossover type stuff. Now I hate to admit it, but I have never played a Paper Mario or even a Mario RPG game in great detail. This could be why I am excited. A lot of people seem bored with the Paper Mario series, when really I never got into it. SPM started as a Gamecube project, so don’t expect to see any amazing motion controls implemented for it. In fact, Nintendo hasn’t said anything about controls. Word on the tubes is that we will be using some sideways NES-style action, with some random motion quirks thrown in for good measure. What I really like about SPM could even be the same reason some people hate it. I think the art direction looks cool. Also, just as SPM will blend 2D and 3D perspectives, it will also be a blend of platformer and Action RPG. It hard to say for sure if something is genuinely fun from only looking at a trailer. But I do think SPM looks fun. I Guess I will wait for some reviews before I make a rash decision, but I am looking forward to its release.

Press Release

Alas, I am sick this weekend. What ever could fill my time until I get better? … I got it! Video Games! I have some video games I’ve been meaning to play, and one that just came out on Thursday. So, without further adieu, here’s what my weekend is looking like.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
You may remember seeing this on my Nintendo DS holiday buying guide. I have been looking forward to it for some time, since I am such a huge Castlevania fan. I pre-ordered my copy about a month ago, and Thursday I received it and what I think to be the greatest pre-order bonus ever. You see, every now and again, the developing company of a game will throw in a little promotional items to increase your chances of pre-ordering and rewarding the faithful. Some of my favorites have been my Chrono Cross clock, my Lunar Ghalleon Punching Doll, and other various T-shirts and soundtracks. Well, Konami topped everyone this year to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Castlevania. With the Portrait of Ruin pre-order, I received a 20th anniversary music CD with selections from almost all of the Castlevania games (37 tracks!), an art booklet showing design art from all the games, a mini-poster and time line of the series, a commemorative Castlevania stylus, and a Castlevania 2 game cartridge holder. How much was all of this stuff you ask. Nothing, it was free with a pre-order! Here’s a nice picture of all the stuff I got. Now I know, this stuff doesn’t matter much if the game stinks, but so far, I am really loving it. I have put a couple of hours in, and they added a lot to the series. First of all, it has a new two character simultaneous action and non-simultaneous strategy mechanic. It sounds complicated, but it works very well. You can choose who to control (Johnathan or Charlotte), and whether the other person is present or not. You can also tell the other the stay in a certain area, usually for puzzles, and you can combine powers for special attacks. So far it works very well, and I am really enjoying it.

Resident Evil 4
Say what you will, but I still haven’t played this game. I mean really played it. When it came out, I was in school and didn’t have time for it. And then I waited on playing it so I could play it on the Wii, in all it’s 480p component glory. So, now I will finally guide Leon through some crazy town, in the hopes to save the president’s daughter, or something like that. Bear with me, because I’m only speaking on first impressions here, but that has to be the worst way to start a story. I mean “kidnapped president’s daughter”? Wasn’t that done in Time Criss, and that was a rails shooter, when was the last time you were playing a light gun game and questioned you motivation? Here’s your motivation, you have a gun, shoot stuff. OK, OK, I’m just poking some jabs at Resident Evil. I have heard a lot of people say 4 is the best. Guess we’ll find out if I agree with them.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
This one’s a rental, but pretty fun. I liked Super Monkey Ball for the Gamecube, just not enough to purchase it. Even though this newest one for the Wii looks good, I still can’t bring myself to drop $50 for what feels like a really fun mini-game. Being sick means I can’t invite other people over to play, which kind of makes the huge party game feature useless. I’ll invite some friends over when I get better. So far what I like the most is the control. Basically you just hold the remote and tilt it in the direction you want the monkey to roll. Kind of like you are holding the playfield. The controls are very responsive and work very well, it just can be hard sometimes to be dexterous enough to beat some of the levels, which progressively get more difficult very fast. If one complaint can be made, it may be that the levels get too difficult too quickly. The first world you are just cruising along, and then boom, the levels get really tough. It is fun though, so you won’t immediately throw your controller in disgust (don’t forget the safety strap). If it is worth writing about, I may put up something more about multi-player Monkey Ball, once all my Monkey Friends are able to come over.

Gitaroo Man
For some reason I have been seeing this game randomly plugged on Kotaku recently. I think one of the contributers loves this game, and I see a lot of people talking about it, so I figured I’d try it. It’s definitely different. It is a rhythm game, where you move your joystick and press buttons in time. I know that sounds like PaRappa or UmJammy Lammy. And it also has a simple yet cute animation style with ridiculous stories that feel like a mixture of drugs and something lost in translation. Once again, just like Parappa/Lammy. However, the game mechanic is completely different. Basically each stage is some sort of fight, usually against some strange creature, robot, or robot creature. You must use the joystick to properly follow a line, while hitting and releasing the O button at the right time to build strength and attack. Then you must press one of the four action buttons at the right time to block your opponents attack. The game mechanic works very well, and is very fun. But quickly proves to be difficult (I probably just suck at it). The music is great, and catchy, but there are a couple of minor annoyances about the game. First of all it has one of the worst menu interfaces I have ever seen. After saving your game, when you turn the game back on to play, you must go to the options screen and then load data, then go back and click play game. I thought we were past this. This was what we had to do in the PS1 days, then someone came up with auto save, or at the very least “Continue Game” in the main menu. Another thing I hate is that you can’t pause your game. If you press start, the song stops and you can restart it, or exit to the menu. Anyway, fun game, but just not sure if it deserves all the attention. I think it’s just a good game that most people don’t know about, so they force it into cult status. But my friend, this is no classic.