Spaceworld Wrap-up: Part 2
Spaceworld has come and gone, and people are still talking about it. More N-Sider editors discuss the goods and bads of Nintendo's latest show off in Part 2 of our Feature.
Eric Topf's Take:
Unlike some, I hadn't put Spaceworld up on a pedestal as a "blowout" of 3rd party info. I had already found out beforehand that two of my favorite developers, Capcom and Konami, were sitting this show out (your guess is as good as mine on that one). However, I was not dissapointed by that at all. For myself, just seeing a new Mario and Zelda plus upgraded demo's of the E3 games was enough to make me salivate for the show.
Well, the evening came where we waited impatiently for screens from the press conference. We knew that Mario Sunshine was shown, and that it was the "true" sequel to the great Mario 64, so that was great news. However, reports were coming in about Zelda and its new "toon shaded" look. At first I didn't know what to think, except to sit back and wait to see a picture of it. Well, the first picture came, and my mind pretty much went "Huh?"
I couldn't believe it, this was what the reporters had gotten all excited about? I kept deliberating a few possibilities of either a joke or an altered screen. I then decided to call it a night and hope for the best when I woke up in the morning. I awoke to movies from both Mario Sunshine and Zelda. Mario intrigued me with its secretive look as Miyamoto has never been one to disclose gameplay. Zelda on the other hand was even more interesting. The animation was rock solid, and the cartoon feel of it was growing on me. Only problem for me was the Link model, it just didn't look right at all. "Chibi Link" as he is reffered to is hopefully just an early placeholder and will be smoothed out as time goes on. Hopefully Link will end up looking more like the Oracle Series artwork than as he is now.
Zelda being shown has turned out as a mixed blessing for Nintendo. One the one hand, it is a new Zelda, gauranteed to sell massive amounts as its predecesors. On the other hand, the negative reaction and debates the new look has spawned has almost made everything else that was shown at Spaceworld seem trivial in comparison. Even worse, the new look of Zelda combined with Iwata's and Main's remarks of "continuing to target the younger demographic" have thrown more wood to the fire of Nintendo being a "kiddie company." Personally I have always thought this argument was completely ludicrous on its face. Nintendo's games appeal to ALL AGES, just as Disney movies used to do (Though Disney has now gone into a rehashed slump). Fortunately for myself, I was not caught up with Zelda's look enough to ignore all the truly wonderful games that were shown at Spaceworld
Luigi's Mansion and Star Fox Adventures by far showed the most improvements since the E3 show. Those who played Luigi at E3 and Spaceworld were impressed with the added gameplay elements that had been removed from the earlier demo (our Impressions of Luigi's Mansion details a few new additions). And those who played Star Fox were stunned as to the graphical enhancements that had been made. Some showgoers believed that SFA had some of the best textures ever in a game
Also, games like Wave Race: Blue Storm and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem had been touched up since their E3 debuts. Wave Race's water effects had been cleared up and new tracks were available to play in the supposed 100% complete version of the game. Eternal Darkness had also been cleaned up a lot. The clipping issues and collision detection problems of E3 have been smoothed out quite a bit, and lighting effects have also been improved (ie. smoke now billows out of the torches).
In closing, I have to say that Spaceworld for me has solidified the excellence I see in Nintendo's first and second party developers. I firmly believe that as time goes on, developers such as Capcom, Konami, Enix, and so forth will eventually come out of hiding and announce their future Gamecube plans. Namco has already become a big partner of the Gamecube with the news of Soul Calibur 2 and Ridge Racer Next now being confirmed as titles. Once the Japanese Launch occurs and we get impressions of the games in their final state, shall we see the brilliance of Nintendo's design. Only 2 more months then, till we get to play for ourselves.