This year, Hudson’s selection of games seemed a bit sparse. Games ranged in variety and didn’t seem to focus on one particular market. Those few games that I did go hands-on with kept me occupied for the full duration of my appointment.
Lost in Shadow (Wii)
The concept of this game is quite simple, use the shadows to roam around as a boy. In reality, it’s can be difficult to get your brain to cooperate and forget about the pesky foreground.
Lost in Shadow is about a boy who’s lost his body and has become a shadow. Moving him around is done with the Nunchuk. Attacks are performed with B while jumping can be done with A. Although the boy can’t affect objects directly, with the help of Spangle, a winged sylph, he’s able to use her to move objects. Discovering hidden objects with Spangle is easy as pointing the Wii Remote at the screen and holding down B to search the screen. He also has a health bar and can lose health by a variety of situations, such as falling a good distance.
The difficulty at first eases you into the game and provides a good starting ground since you’ll need to adjust your brain to moving the boy around in the background and not the objects presented in the foreground. This can prove irritating if you don’t have the patience for puzzle elements. To advance through levels, you’ll need to collect three objects scattered around. Without gathering these, you’ll run into the end of the level where a wall of shadow will meet you. Running into this will deplete some of the boy’s life. Later on during the game, the boy can use a sword. The usages of this range from defeating enemies, to using switches to solve puzzles.
When it comes to the art style, it’s one that I can’t put my finger on, but it invokes a few feelings. Loneliness, wonder, and curiosity are a few. Hudson has done a great job visually for this game. Unfortunately since it was loud on the show floor, I couldn’t get a decent idea about the audio.
After playing this for about 15 minutes straight, the game has been put on my radar. The clever use of objects to create shadows for the boy to interact with is refreshing.
Deca Sports 3 (Wii)
Deca Sports is back once again and this time the sports include Indoor Volleyball, Racquetball, Air Racing, Kayaking, Lacrosse, Fencing, Halfpipe (Snowboarding), Giant Slalom (Skiing), Springboard Diving, and Logging. The menu system looks like it has been overhauled and given style. Navigating to each event and setting it up is just as easy as it was before, so it’s quick to get right into a game.
As for the games themselves, the few that I sampled were fun. While trying the Logging, I found I wasn’t cut out to be a lumberjack. Fencing proved to be better, to strike all you need to do is make a poking motion with the Wii Remote while the opponent has an opening.
The sports are there, but new to Deca Sports 3 is usage of Wii MotionPlus. When I first tried the Air Racing, I had to use the B button to make the plane turn in the appropriate direction. When the Wii MotionPlus was engaged, it felt much more natural and the old control scheme dated. Instead of hit a button to turn and turn, all you would do is turn the Wii Remote to the direction you’d like the plane to turn.
I haven’t played too much of the previous Deca Sports, but I can see where the appeal is. It seems there’s more value to be had especially with the Wii MotionPlus support and four sports that can be played online.
Oops! Prank Party (Wii)
Prank Party is yet another party game for Wii. The game feels like a mixture of Deca Sports meets Mario Party. Players will compete in random games for fun or compete for victory playing the board game mode. There are 100 different games to try that involve puzzle solving, to brain teasing and even a few reflex games.
The mode I played with the demonstrator was the board game and we had 3 players, including one computer, but the game supports up to 4. To being, there’s a mini-game that decides who goes first. Whomever grabs and pulls the rope first gets to roll the dice. Once your turn begins you’ll need to point the Wii Remote at the screen and hit the dice with your cursor. It can be a pain on occasion to locate your pointer, so parents may need to help little ones with not much coordination with this.
Once the dice is spinning, you’ll need to hit it again to get it to stop. Your character then proceeds to advance across the board with whatever number you rolled. On the board, this becomes very similar to Mario Party in nature, certain squares have behaviors including pulling everyone into a mini-game.
The mini-games I ended up mostly playing had to do with math. They all seemed to be whomever could enter in the correct answer to the query. Quickly the demonstrator and I found that math isn’t our strong suit while trying to enter in answers accurately. We also found that the computer player can be quite harsh and unfortunately there’s no way to tune down how the CPU player plays.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Oops! Prank Party. When my friends come over, we generally go for a few of the party games and with the way this is shaping up, it may become apart of our fun.
Beyblade Metal Fusion (Wii)
Beyblade is based on the cartoon of the same name. In this game, you’ll be controlling a spinning top. Although that may not sound exciting, the game is affected by the parts in which you can buy and equip for your Beyblade. So instead of a plain game involving physics can evolve into strategy and placement as well.
The mode I was shown was a battle royal in which you can choose how many fighters you’ll go against, including computer opponents. Launching the top is done by pressing A then pulling back on the Wii Remote to simulate the way the real Beyblade launches. Once in battle, you’ll be able to control your top to a certain degree. To move in greater motion, it’s best to go with the flow of what direction you’re going in, instead of fighting it. Knocking out or dropping your opponent’s stamina bar is the goal. Attacks are performed with A while in the vicinity of the enemy.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Deca Sports engine while playing due to point accumulation and flow of menus. While the graphics don’t look anything like the sports game, they look fine for the purposes. It is worth noting that sometimes when there’s a ton of action on the screen, you can lose track of your top due to how quickly the game goes.
Overall I could see the appeal of the game. Once you get over the slight learning curve, it’s fun to try and knock your opponent out. With upgrades available for customization, this game has the potential to provide hours of fun for many people.
