I was glad to be at Capcom’s booth this year, since not only is it Capcom, but it was closed off to the general public and most anyone who didn’t have an appointment, meaning it was much less crowded and easier to get an impression of what was going on. This made it much easier to get lots of time with the three titles I played, and my impressions of them probably improved as a result. Read on to see what I tried out.
The first Wii title available to me was Spyborgs, a side-scrolling beat-’em-up which was announced quite some time ago. At the booth, I was able to pick one of three characters, then was sent into battle against a large amount of robotic enemies. The controls are pretty simple; you have jump, block, light attack, heavy attack, and not much else, so it’s easy to pick up and play. There are varying difficulty levels, though, so don’t worry about a challenge. The gameplay itself is pretty samey and straightforward; you’ll run into enemies, and then you will beat them up. Like many other games in this genre, though, it works out fine; the controls work well enough that you won’t get bored doing what you’re doing, or at least not for the length of time it takes to play an E3 demo. The other gameplay mechanic available to you is the ability to find hidden objects by pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, though during general gameplay this can get a little tricky. Overall the game seems solid at this point, but I don’t feel like I played it quite enough to say for sure. The presence of co-op play, though, is promising.
Next up was Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, which is meant to complete the alternate storyline that followed alongside the first several Resident Evil titles. Like Umbrella Chronicles, this is a rail shooter, but unlike most rail shooters, this isn’t one where you’re going to have a lot of time to line up your shots. Your character’s head is constantly moving around in a realistic fashion, meaning that your targets are constantly moving about on the screen; in this game, you’re just going to have to shoot and hope for the best, so it’s fortunate that your standard handgun has infinite ammo.
I played this one with a Capcom rep on the second controller, and it ended up being plenty of fun taking out hordes of zombies. On several occasions, it struck with me the correct tone for a horror game, that being "OH GOD THERE ARE ZOMBIES RIGHT THERE WHERE IS MY MACHINE GUN AAAAAAAAAAAA". The inability to consistently headshot frustrated me a little bit, since that’s something I do like to do, but it’s not a deal-breaker by any means. RE:DC also has implemented a useful weaponry and inventory management system, wherein two players can share weapons or items and assign different guns to different directions on the directional pad for easy access (though remembering where the machine gun was and where my grenades were wasn’t always easy). I have to give this one my tentative seal of approval, for making me want to play more once I was done with the demo level.
The last game I got to was a 2D fighter entitled Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. At the time, I had no idea what Tatsunoko was, though looking it up later, it’s an animation company responsible for such animes as the Macross/Robotech series and Neon Genesis Evangelion, which should intrigue some of you already. I ended up trying this title out for about 15 minutes, even though I am indescribably bad at 2D fighters that don’t begin with the words Super Smash Bros., but I actually had a lot of fun when all was said and done; going with the team of Morrigan and Viewtiful Joe, I eventually made it far enough to say I had achieved rudimentary competence. This seems like a highly competitive fighter, with a large number of combos (none of which I mastered) and a myriad of attacks, but it managed to keep my interest; one thing that I greatly appreciated was the presence of a move that allowed me to fling my attackers backward, in order to avoid being relentlessly combo’d. As with many other team fighters, there are team attacks and special attacks and anything else you would really expect; the only thing I never figured out was how to switch characters, which would have really helped me out somewhere along the line. Overall, though, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is a 2D fighter that I actually enjoyed playing, which means that anyone who plays these games regularly should take note. Keep an eye out for this one.
I found Capcom’s Wii offerings this year to be overall very pleasing, and I’ve written a few more titles down on my list of "games to watch". Keep watching NintendoGal for more updates this week, because I’m only about halfway done with my E3 impressions.
