When the news that Phoenix Wright was coming to the Wii was released, most gaming sites ran articles with obvious puns, like “More Phoenix Wright? No objections here!” Ho ho ho. That wasn’t the case with GameCola, mainly because we didn’t cover that news story. However, we did come up with a list of two things Capcom would have to do in order to make the GBA-to-DS-to-Wii port run smoothly:

1. Add gimmicky Wii controls.
2. Make sure it doesn’t look horrible.

The gimmicky controls for this game are both completely obvious and completely awesome. You can control the game by pressing buttons…or you can present evidence by doing the objection finger point. I repeat, you get to do the objection finger point. Doing the Phoenix Wright finger point while hearing Phoenix shout “Objection!” out of the Wii-mote microphone is enough to make any Phoenix Wright fan die happy.

So the controls are awesome. What about the graphics?

…Sadly, the graphics made it through the process completely unchanged. The GBA graphics are stretched to fit the size of the TV, and depending on how big your TV is, you might see a lot of pixellation. As in, a lot . Even on my junky TV that’s older than I am, the graphics look pretty bad. So bad, in fact, that I am hereby forced to retract my earlier statements about remakes; it is 100% OK with me to give an old game a graphics rehaul for a remake if the original graphics look horrible on the new system.

Here’s a screenshot taken off my TV. You can see what I mean about the pixellation, right?

If you’re like me, and you have the original DS game, the Wii-Ware version doesn’t have anything to offer besides the new controls and two additional save slots; everything else is completely unchanged. Also, the Wii version doesn’t have the DS-exclusive fifth case, which means you get nine or so less hours of gameplay. Bummer! I mean, I’m pretty sure that the top-secret DLC that will be revealed in May is the DS-exclusive case, but it’s still a bummer.

However, if you’re not like me, and you don’t have this game on the DS, then you are definitely the target audience for this release. The original DS game is pretty hard to find today, and eBay says that the price is somewhere between $30 to $70. Getting the same game on the Wii for only $10 is a major money-saver.

As for the actual game itself, let me try to summarize it in one paragraph, ’cause I’m at the end of this review. In this game, you star as Phoenix Wright, a new defense lawyer who is determined to become an ace attorney. With the guidance of his mentor/girlfriend Mia Fey, and the help of her quirky-but-cute younger sister Maya, Phoenix fights his way through four different murder trials, going up against such formidable foes as Winston “The Rookie Killer” Payne, Phoenix’s former friend Miles Edgeworth, and the austere Manfred von Karma. The game/series is highly praised for its good storytelling, as well as its ability to mix the seriousness of murder investigation with some hilarious jokes. Personally, I like the series a lot…but not enough to buy a game on the Wii when I already have the exact same game on the DS.

Or maybe I should say controllers, because we now see the device comes with two parts: a controller, and a wirelessly-connected nunchuck. The controller has a bright neon sensor ball on the end, so the PS3 will be able to locate where it is at all times. This will allow for more precise, fully-3D movement. It is all highly technical, and it also looks somewhat ridiculous.

The PlayStation Move’s design is based off the North Pole.

There were ten or so different games that you could play using the Move, and I would give you my hands-on impressions, only I wasn’t there because I was at home watching Days of our Lives. Thirty-six companies have already pledged to support this peripheral, and over twenty games that use the Move will be released within one year from now. It costs “under $100″ and will be released in Australia this spring. Isn’t it spring already, though?

Final Thoughts on the PlayStation Move: Sony is making a “move” on Nintendo. Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

Other topics of interest are…

• The release date for Rock Band: Green Day was officially announced. It’s June 8th. You might remember that we covered that story a few weeks ago.
• The release date for OnLive (June 17) is fast approaching, and they showed off how cool they are.
• Nicole finally made a reappearance on Days of our Lives, after a few months of being off the show. She’s still in jail, and today, we got to see her get in a fight with her cellmate.
• One of the Microsoft people gave a lecture on how they’re designing Fable III. I don’t know about this series, but the screenshots were pretty awesome.
• Previews of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse were shown.
• And also, there was video footage of the new Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands game, along with much hooplah about how it is done in the “classic” Prince of Persia style. It seems a little too early to treat the Sands games as clasics, seeing as they only made one PoP game between the last Sands game and now, but everyone is still super-excited.

More things are going to happen on Day Four of GDC. Most likely, the mysteriously-quiet Nintendo will make its appearance.

So here’s my challenge: If you have ever read anything on GameCola (including this post), rate this post and leave a comment. I don’t care if you give this post one star and your comment just says, “Socks!” I’m genuinely interested in knowing who’s registered and how many people are reading.

The remake will be in the same vein as last year’s GameCola award-winning MI1 remake, with fancy new art and fancy new voice-acting, and the ability to switch, on the fly, between the version of the game with fancy new art and fancy new voice-acting, and the old-school, pixelated, extreme hardcore edition of Monkey Island II.

But that’s not all! Since this is an adventure game, and since it’s not the 90s anymore (back when developers knew better than to do this), LucasArts is adding a new control scheme to this game.

According to Craig Derrick, LucasArts’ project lead on all Monkey Island products: “In addition to the point-and-click interface, we’ve added the ability to move Guybrush around, so you feel more connected to him” (via Joystiq). They better actually mean “we added the ability,” rather than “we’ve completely replaced the classic control style,” because fans of the original game will have a riot. And by fans, I mean me. And by riot, I…no, I still mean riot.

But THAT’s not all, either! According to a post on Adventure Gamers, the remake will include a few more new features:

1) In-game developers’ commentary! It’ll be like watching a Let’s Play video on YouTube, except that the people talking will actually know what they’re talking about. Plus, you’ll be the one playing.
2) The ability to play the game with the old-school graphics plus the new-school voice acting. This will give you the best of both worlds, if you’re a fanboy of the original game and a member of the “Dominic Armato is a Love Machine” group on Facebook.

Since last year’s remake was successful enough to warrant another, this begs the question: will they be remaking Curse of Monkey Island, as well, to complete the trilogy of old-school MI games that we still talk about in good terms? And if they do that—will they actually remake the game, or will they just re-release it? Personally, I’d be OK with nothing more than an HD-enabled re-release of that game. And by OK, I mean they better not do any goddamn thing to ruin Curse, or else I will write nasty things about them on the Internets.

…Hey, wait. If I’m fired, does that mean…I won’t have to write about seminars anymore?

It does? Score! I’m ending my article right now!

…

…

Dang, the ankle bracelets still aren’t deactivated. I guess that means I have to write another article for this website. *Sigh*

This is how most people get stuck writing for GameCola.

Two summits that were held in the morning were the iPhone Summit and the Casual Games Summit. It’s interesting that the two would be separated, seeing as they both seem to focus on what developers would consider “untapped” market groups. For example, the iPhone Summit had a seminar on the success of the Diner Dash series (the original game was on the iPhone’s Top 100 Paid Games List for over nine months), which surprised people because over 90% of the people who bought the game are female, a non-standard target audience. The Casual Games Summit had a few seminars on Facebook/MySpace/social network games in general, which also focused on selling games to non-standard target audiences.

So the target audience for games is expanding. Apparently, the world of gaming is now becoming more socially acceptable, just like the world of comics. Is this good or bad for gaming? It means more games in the world, which is good. On the other hand, even my mom has become a casual gamer, which is definitely not good, because she refuses to let anyone else use the computer when she’s playing ICT Slots: Texas Tea. My younger sister, who is a teenager and therefore can’t go five minutes without using AIM, constantly complains about this whenever I visit.

Other summits were the AI Summit and the Serious Games Summit, which focused on more technical aspects of developing videogames. Unfortunately, due to poor planning, the people from the Serious Games Summit wound up in the same room as the people from the Casual Games Summit, and a fight broke out over whether New Super Mario Bros. Wii is better than Modern Warfare 2. Over fifty people were hospitalized, and one person had to undergo immediate surgery in the Trauma Center, because a Wii-mote was shoved up his nose.

Critics agree: puppies are cute.

The other summits included the Independent Games Summit, GDC Mobile/Handheld Lecture and IGDA Education Summit, which I can’t tell you about because I’m allergic to research they were so fascinating I can’t describe them in one paragraph. There were also more seminars being directly sponsored by GDC, such as Building a Blockbuster Franchise starring Geoff Keighley and friends, Mythbusting with the Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts, and the Intel Game Performance Workshop (Presented by Intel), which was run by (surprise!) guys from Intel and showed off all their new computers and graphics tools.

It was all very fascinating, and on Day Three, the summits end and the conference will move onto other things, like demos of upcoming games. We’re going to hear from the audio team behind Final Fantasy XIII, the AI team behind BioShock 2, and my mom will give a speech entitled “Where Did I Go Wrong?—My Son Is Twenty-Four, And He Still Writes About Videogames.” Should be interesting!

Day One started out with Nintendo’s big presentation, which involved a showing of Super Mario Galaxy 2—ha ha! I’m just kidding! Day One was super boring, as it contained the “conference” part of GDC. There were over 60 lectures/seminars, where you got to sit in a room and hear someone talk about a fascinating topic, such as “Investing in New Game Companies” or “Standardizing the Localization Process.”

Suddenly, being denied a press pass to this event doesn’t look so bad!

Popular topics—that is, topics that were discussed at multiple panels—include:

We also saw some combinations of these topics, such as AI and Interactive Storytelling, which is one of the few conferences that actually sounds somewhat interesting. And of course, there were 50 other conferences I didn’t tell you about. Day Two is also nothing but seminars, so you can…er, look forward to my report on that.

Some pesky podcasters have infested our lovely channel on YouTube and I need your help to listen to them!

These podcasters are real dumb. They just sit around, talking to themselves about licensed games. If they reach a topic they can’t comment on, like the PS3 price cut, they’ll just turn things over to someone else who’s not even listening to what they’re saying…

Use the embedded videos that you find lying around this post to move the number of views to a wacky point where Matt Jonas, Elizabeth Medina-Gray, yours truly, and my faithful helpers Sideshow Franzen and Corporal Gray are ready to become Internet celebrities!

Good luck…!

Taking advantage of the PSP’s region-free functionality (amongst other things)? You bloody well should be. Some of my favourite games were released in Japan exclusively, or at least much earlier than in other regions. Imagine how hard it would have been for me to wait those three years for Tenchu: Time of the Assassins to get released in Europe. I’d have probably gone nutso and done something regretful.

Japan, oh boy, they’re still years ahead of us. Speaking of robotics, one particular piece of robotic-sounding synthesized voice software is receiving the love down in Tokyo town. Vocaloid is very much THE BIG THING right now.

The first second-generation Vocaloid released was “Miku Hatsune,” and people swoon over her. She has long blue hair and wears an incredibly impractical outfit, inspired by the traditional Seifuku.

WARNING! JAPANESE WORDS ALERT!

Why school uniforms? Oh wait, this is the Japanese we’re talking about.

Of course, although Miku Hatsune is a schoolgirl, she is also a robot and/or computer. Despite this, many NEETs still desire to put their 5¼-inch floppy disks into her universal serial bus. There is a collective hard-on amongst Hikikomori for the virtual idol and her other digital friends, as a quick unmoderated Google Image Search will confirm.

Pirate Miku. She's a CUT above the other LASSes.

The Vocaloid series is incredibly popular, thanks to a video site named NicoNicoDouga (hailed as the Japanese YouTube). Because of growing popularity, Miku Hatsune has appeared in a slew of videogames, mangas and anime series.

One such videogame is Project Diva, a PSP exclusive rhythm-action title that acts as a block of unadulterated fanservice for all those who love robots, panchira and videogames with excellent soundtracks.

Let’s break Project Diva down for those who don’t follow Japanese trends:

• Fantastic gameplay reminiscent of Parappa the Rapper.

Oh wait, that’s it. You see, for those who are not drawn to this game because it is Japanese, cute, or perverted, then Project Diva doesn’t have much else to offer besides its very good gameplay. Naturally, if you don’t enjoy Japanese things, you won’t enjoy this game, even though the gameplay is superb.

However, if you’re into Japanese things, then read on, my new significant other.

As this game was released exclusively in Japan, it makes sense that the majority of its menus are in complete moonspeak. This comes at a cost for many who cannot navigate them. I’m always worried I might be deleting all my data by accident, but it is not that easy to make this mistake in Project Diva.

The fully featured song editor, included in the game, is very difficult to traverse without a good guide, but if you follow one, it’s a whole lot of fun to use.

Those who enjoy a little of the “poke-and-hope” approach will find their new home within the overcomplicated menus. Luckily, although the menus are pretty complicated, it’s still rather easy to throw yourself into gameplay—so it seems that the more you put into this game, the more you get out of it, though you’ll get a lot out of it regardless.

All of the songs are composed or arranged in Japanese, with the occasional English lyric. Hearing Miku Hatsune sing English lyrics makes me shiver all the way down my spine. They’re all very good songs when it comes to their construction, a merry mix of Japanese pop-styles that will appeal to the Japanophile deep within your soul.

The songlist consists of older Vocaloid songs, but also a great deal of new songs, too. Without “Burning Like A Volcano,” though, this game is missing the best Vocaloid song of all time. However, that argument is easily brought to a halt with the words “song editor.” Can this game even get any better!?

Miku's Swingin' Report Show! Stay tuned!

There are more outfits, Vocaloids, and songs that you can unlock by performing well on songs and generally by passing them. Doing so is difficult at first, especially when you’re not familiar with the controls, concept or music tracks. But as time passes, you become zoned into the game almost completely. Also, it’s impossible to play any song on Hard straight away—that privilege has to be unlocked by getting a Great or Perfect on the song in Normal difficulty.

Hard difficulty is when the game really kicks up into challenge-gear, but even then it doesn’t get “Expert on DDR” hard, and it doesn’t get “9 Button H on Pop’n'Music” hard; there are just a few more button presses thrown in. While I was writing this review, a sequel to Project Diva was announced (via a Famitsu leak), and I’m pleased to confirm the next game will include harder difficulties.

There is also one of these “pervert modes” ala all Japan-exclusive games. As if the motion-captured thirteen-year-old girl wasn’t already sick enough to meet your approval, you may pick any Vocaloid of your choice and get them to strut around a virtual room, while they listen to music, read a book or generally stare at the wall. This is well worth spending your time to unlock everything for; oh yes, I can’t think of any game that doesn’t need one of these modes.

Funnily enough, the unlockable trash you can fill Miku’s new virtual home with includes various Sega hardware, including a Genesis, Master System and even a Sega Game 1000! Of course, little Sega flourishes are always a win-win situation with me, such as the unlockable Space Channel 5 and Valkyria Chronicles costumes in this game.

This is the closest I will ever get to playing the real Valkyria Chronicles.

The appeal of Project Diva is all down to how much of an affection you have for Japanese music and robot girls (and your skill level at rhythm games). It’s the license of this game, sadly, that both helps and hinders it. If it were any other license, it would be likely to get some kind of release outside of Japan—but Japanese fads are appreciated by few outside of the land of the rising sun.

That there, Sega—that there was a hint, that was. You should consider a localisation, something like Sonic & Sega All-Stars Cheerleading with Miku Hatsune.

Back to reality (shucks!), if you want to follow Vocaloid, a good place to start would be the Vocaloid Wiki. As for getting hold of this game, import sites are your best hope. Or if you’re just a pervert, there’s always Sankaku Complex, I guess.

And…oh yes…there’s that sequel on the way, July 29th. Mark that date in your Lucky Star-themed calendar.

]]> http://gamecola.net/2010/03/hatsune-miku-project-diva-psp/feed/ 0 http://gamecola.net/2010/03/new-videogame-releases-for-the-week-of-march-8th-2010/ http://gamecola.net/2010/03/new-videogame-releases-for-the-week-of-march-8th-2010/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:22:50 +0000 Paul Franzen http://gamecola.net/?p=5539 Source: videogamesblogger.com

Monday:
4 Travellers – Play Spanish (DSi Shop)
Dracula – Undead Awakening (Wii Shop)
Dracula – Undead Awakening (DSi Shop)
Elemental Masters (DSi Shop)
Final Fantasy II (Wii Shop)
Flips: The Bubonic Builders (DSi Shop)
Max & the Magic Marker (Wii Shop)

Tuesday:
Assassin’s Creed II (PC)
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (PSP)
Calling (Wii)
Chocolatier (DS)
Dream Chronicles (DS)
Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360)
Foto Showdown (DS)
Project Runway (PC)
Racquet Sports with Camera (Wii)
Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (Xbox 360, PS3)
Sam & Max 2: Beyond Time and Space (Wii, PC)
The Daring Game for Girls (DS, Wii)
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising (PC)
Winter Blast: Snow and Ice Games (Wii)

Wednesday:
Scrap Metal (Xbox Live Arcade)

Over 8 million people purchased Halo 3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sold a whopping 12 million. And Nintendo can’t defecate out Pokémon and “Wii Insert Random Thing To Do Here” games fast enough to completely satisfy the masses. But with all these amazing successes, there have been numerous games and even complete series that have fallen to the wayside. Remember: for every Super Mario Bros., there’s a Shutokou Battle 2: Drift King Keichii Tsuchiya & Masaaki Bandoh. As a proud gamer, I feel that it is my privilege—nay, my duty—to take some time and offer a brief glimpse at many of the games that disappeared into bargain bins and trash bins alike due to overshadowing from more prominent titles, as well as titles that will forever remain sequestered within one region of the world. You’d better be prepared to be educated a little, because there is much that you haven’t seen.

MARCH 2010: Asmik-kun Land

OH, SO YOU CAME BACK.

Sure, I did! What made you think I wouldn’t come back?

NOBODY LIKED LAST MONTH’S ARTICLE EITHER. YOU’RE DEAD WEIGHT AROUND HERE. LET MICHAEL GRAY TAKE OVER.

You’re quite negative, Ominous Voice. Besides, Mr. Gray is a very busy man and has no time for obscure games. You know, I don’t think he even has time to say hello!

YEAH, THAT’S WHY HE DOESN’T PAY ANY ATTENTION. ALL RIGHT, WHAT MONSTROSITY DID YOU BRING THIS MONTH? WAIT—LET ME GUESS: AN OBSCURE GAME STARRING BARNEY THE DINOSAUR.

Not quite, but you’re on the right track, dear annoyant! Actually, this game does star a purple dinosaur, but it’s not the one that American kids were brainwashed by. This month’s feature title is Asmik-kun Land for the Famicom (or the Japanese version of the NES, for those not in the know). It actually stars a purplish dragon named Asmik-kun, occasionally known as Boomer overseas. And unlike our one-fingered friend Barnard the Dinosaur, you can’t see Asmik-kun’s zipper.

AM I INTRIGUED YET? NO.

Ah, but I haven’t even told you anything about this game. Only after that can you declare your intrigue or lack thereof. In this very colourful game, you star as Asmik-kun (uncreatively named after the publisher, Asmik), whose goal is to scoot around the (also undesirably named) Asmik Land and collect six fragments to awaken the Dragon King, who will then bring joy and harmony to the land. That’s pretty much it. If you expected a stronger story, go play Blaster Master. So Asmik-ku shuffles around a map and visits different themed areas to collect those fragments: earth, water, silver, wood, rock, and…white poplar?! Huh. Well, leave it to Asmik-kun to boast that he’s got wood.

I’LL BET THIS PIECE OF CRAP PLAYS LIKE A RIGOR MORTIS RACCOON.

Good call. Actually, this game plays really slowly compared to most other platformers, which makes relatively short levels appear to take practically forever to complete. He’s made of molasses and runs like slightly jarred constipation. That is to say, it’s not efficient travel. He even swims as quickly as he runs—who does that?! And his main attack is a kick that fires what appears to be either a round cloud or an unlit light bulb from his anus. Those familiar with the game will say it’s a tail kick, but I argue otherwise. If you defeat an enemy, it will typically drop an egg. When you reach the end of a level, a sign falls on Asmik-kun that reads “NEXT,” and he goes on to a second level afterward, just to rub it in. Luckily, the map is very open-ended, so you can tackle the levels in any order you wish.

I’LL BET THE BOSSES ARE PRETTY DAMN TOUGH TO KILL WITH JUST A RECTAL VAPOUR CLOUD. …THERE ARE BOSS FIGHTS, RIGHT?

Yes and no. Actually, the developers took a page from Alex Kidd, which is a huge mistake for anybody. That series is terrible, and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle is what I consider to be the worst of the bunch, which is exactly where they went with this game. After each pair of levels, you do meet up with a boss who challenges you…to a chintzy game of Rock/Paper/Scissors! You and the foe are trying to get to opposite ends of a winding maze, so you are basically running along until you meet up with the enemy. When you do, you have to beat him at that game of choice, and whoever loses gets pushed back a distance. Here’s a friendly hint: just choose Scissors every time, because every boss has an extremely strong tendency to select Paper all the time. It’s just like the friend you know who always picks Rock. Nothing beats Rock, right? Also, if you lose the little duel, your total egg count from the previous two levels drops by a bit—and when you hit zero, you’re sent back to the previous level to traverse it again. And you don’t have six hours to spare, so it’s best to win the boss “fight” on the first try. When you win, you will also get one of the fragments plus an opportunity to shop for cool goods, such as Haste, which (thankfully) makes you faster (though this should always be true), and Bird Form, which allows you to fly around for a bit. That’s as wonderful as it can get.

DOES THIS GAME HAVE ANYTHING GOOD GOING FOR IT?

Well…the graphics are interesting. Do you see the way that they just decided to make everything all pastel and absolutely random? Isn’t that awesome?

NO. DO I EVEN WANT THIS GAME?

Probably not, but if you’re a collector, it’s definitely something different. Though for the less ambitious purchaser who doesn’t have a Famicom, you’re somewhat in luck—the Game Boy semi-sequel, Boomer’s Adventures in ASMIK World, was released overseas, courtesy of Asmik Corporation of America (which no longer exists, probably because they thought we wanted an Asmik-kun game really badly…and we didn’t). Asmik-kun Land actually could have been a good platformer if the character didn’t run at the speed of tumor growth, and if Rock/Paper/Scissors play wasn’t mandatory. But as it stands, it’s just a oft-forgotten memory in the minds of Japanese gamers. I hear Expedia has a decent rate for traveling to Asmik Land, though. Don’t take it.

UGH…YOU’D BETTER DELIVER SOMETHING DECENT NEXT MONTH, OR I’LL SKEWER YOU.

I make no promises. And a skewering sounds delightful.