E3 Impressions: More Sega
After my behind-doors meeting with Sega to see two of their biggest projects, I hit the show floor to see what else Sega had to show this year. My first look was at a Dreamcast revival title.
Everyone’s favorite flat-faced maraca-shaking monkey (let’s face it, there aren’t many) is returning to video games on the Nintendo Wii in Samba de Amigo, using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk (or two Wii Remotes, if you prefer) to simulate the original maraca controllers. The gameplay is pretty simple: shake the controllers as they’re pointed at the correct one of six circles on screen, in time to the music. Giving it a try myself, I was a wee bit surprised to find you wouldn’t actually point to any circles, but you’d tilt the controller up, down, or keep it level to choose your circle, which takes a minute to get used to but works alright. In this E3 build, the shake detection felt a little bit off, and though I say the same thing about released Guitar Hero games when I’m losing, there were several instances where just moving my controller to a new circle seemed to set off a "shake", messing up my score a little bit. There are also some issues with rumbling regarding multiple successive notes that doesn’t make it feel quite right; hopefully these bugs will be worked out. Overall, the gameplay seems to be holding up pretty nicely, and when combined with an impressive soundtrack, downloadable bonus songs, online leaderboards, and several multiplayer modes, Samba de Amigo could be a hit when it gets released on September 23, 2008.
The next game was Dinosaur King, a licensed DS RPG aimed toward youngsters. I got to talk to one of the game’s producers in a taxi on the way to the E3 conference, and the battle system is a rock-paper-scissors-style battle system; each player has three attacks, certain ones trumping others. If this sounds like totally random Alex Kidd battles to you, Sega has done a bit more with it than that. Basically, you can hear your opponent muttering under his breath about how he’s trying to anticipate your move, so you’ll have a bit of a guide as to what move you should next; this may make the game a bit too simple, being told what attacks to use, but considering that this game is aimed at a rather younger crowd, I’m not horribly upset about that, and I think Sega will be shaking things up a little, adding more to the gameplay outside the battles. From what I could see, outside of battles, Dinosaur King is very much based on traditional RPGs, looking and feeling quite similar, so I get the sense this game could be a good RPG introduction to young 4Kids anime fans when it hits stores this September. Interesting note: this game was shown on a DS Phat, the only one I saw anywhere at E3.
The last title I got to play was one of the more anticipated titles, that being Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood, being developed by RPG masters BioWare. This game intends to feature a rather epic storyline that will link together and explain many previous Sonic games, and if anyone can do it, I think they can. As far as gameplay goes, they’ve implemented a turn-based system that encourages player interaction to ramp up attacks, sort of like Elite Beat Agents meets Mario and Luigi; in attacking or defending, you’ll be prompted to tap circles on screen, or drag your stylus across a certain path; I had trouble doing so the first several times, but I was told the characters were levled up to a point they’d be at near the end of the game, so difficulty would be expected. The party seemed well-balanced; some support characters, some attack characters, etc.; it feels like BioWare is doing a good job of balancing the RPG elements of the game with action elements. The overworld also feels a bit like Sonic and a bit like RPG, with some quick running about and visible, avoidable encounters. I’d need some more face time with the game to give a proper verdict, like a whole chapter, but so far the game is getting along well.
Sega seems to have a pretty good lineup going into the fall and holiday seasons, and I’m sure their fall releases will tide people over until the major titles hit stores later in the year.
