Warner Bros. only had two games at their booth for me to check out, but they were both time sinks and worth the visit.
Aragorn’s Quest (Wii/DS)
Developer: Headstrong Games TT Games
Release date: September 14, 2010
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
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I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Lord of the Rings fan since I’ve only seen the movies and haven’t trudged my way through the books. Even though I haven’t read the books, I did enjoy the movies quite a bit.
When I was waiting my turn to play the game, the first thing that caught my eye about the game was the fact it actually looks good. I’m not talking about that whole, “looks good for a Wii game” either garbage, but it to me looked legitimately great in action. I could hardly detect any jaggies or rough spots. It was also extremely vibrant and colorful through meadows and woods.
Finally my turn arrived and I opted for Gandalf instead of Aragorn simply because I have always thought of Gandalf as a wizard badass. The game is controlled with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk. To navigate, you use the stick on the Nunchuk, while aiming attacks, such as spells were done with the Wii Remote. While I had no problem picking it up and playing, the person who was playing Aragorn had no real experience with playing a Wii game and struggled for a bit. This is important to note due to the nature of the way this game is being presented, in a family context. So training might be required to get some familiar with the ways of movement and battle.
In case you’re wondering about the rest of the Fellowship, I was told you do meet them all eventually on your way. During my playtime I did run into Boromir, before he ended up with a few arrows through his chest.
By the time I was done playing I was actually pleasantly surprised by the game. I expected at first to not have all that much fun roaming around killing orcs and whatnot, but it turned out to be enjoyable. Definitely a game that is on my radar that wasn’t before.
Super Scribblenauts (DS)
Developer: 5th Cell
Release date: October 12, 2010
ESRB Rating: E10+
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I sadly haven’t had a chance to play the first Scribblenauts, so I’m unfamiliar with most of the gripes folks had when playing through. Strangely, I still haven’t played Super Scribblenauts either, mostly due to the fact that I was instead being shown the new adjective system that 5th Cell seems extremely proud of.
Since I was new to the game, I watched the demonstrator type a few words into the pad that came to life such as a giant flesh eating zombie. The amusement came into it when he’d come up with two objects that would interact with one another like a tree and a lumberjack. This made my imagination go wild and I was able to try out one object before the stylus was taken away so I could see more from their mind.
Unfortunately this was practically the extent of what I was able to sample of the game. It however sparked my mind into wanting to come up with crazy combinations, just to see how the game would react to them.
Obviously there’s more to the game than just making objects appear and dance on screen for you, but honestly if it were just that, I think I would be satisfied with messing around with it all day.
