The first thing I did at E3 this year after the Nintendo Media Briefing was tour the booth of Graffiti, a small publisher representing some fascinating titles. Ok, actually I started E3 this year by grabbing a giant, inflatable Nyko Wand, but right after that I went to the Graffiti booth.
The first game I saw was C.O.R.E. It’s a first-person shooter exclusively for the DS using the proven Metroid Prime: Hunters control scheme. Initially, I wasn’t that impressed, but after a few minutes of gameplay (and killing myself with exploding barrels), I actually started to really get into it. I could nit pick about the fine points of the single-player, but I think it’s actually pretty solid. The really exciting part, though, is the inclusion of 4 man multiplayer that allows games to be loaded onto multiple systems from a single cartridge. In this mode, unlike many other single-cart multiplayers, includes all maps, all weapons and all character colors. Hopefully we’ll be able to review this title soon.
Black Sigil was the next game I demoed, and was pretty much the polar opposite of C.O.R.E. Black Sigil is an RPG made to hearken back to the early days of SNES gaming. Apparently many news sources have received review copies of this game already and have been showering it with praise for it’s distinctly nostalgic feel. According to the game’s site, it includes over 100 skills, over 100 weapons and over 200 pieces of armor. It also says the game provides 40-50 hours of gameplay, and the guy at the booth explained that even at his fastest run through, the game took him 35 hours.
Along with these titles, three kids games based on TV programs were also shown at the Graffiti booth. Moomin: The Great Autumn Party and Moomin: The Mysterious Howling are both PC/DS games based on a Swedish show that should soon me coming to American TV. Jakers! Let’s Explore for Wii and PC is based on the PBS show Jakers: The Adventures of Piggley Winks, and will be available along with the Moomin titles later this year.
