Amber: But while you were off covering sci-fi FPS's. I was at the Nintendo booth checking out PokéPark, an adventure game on the Wii where you play as Pikachu and other Pokémon. It's obviously skewed a bit younger than any of the other games I looked at, but as I am a fan of the core Pokémon games, I had to check it out.
PokéPark combines quests with minigames and a huge Pokémon cast. Most of the quests find Pikachu challenged to a minigame or a straight-up realtime Pokémon battle with other Pokémon. Success results in Pikachu gaining friends, who then lend their powers to the yellow mouse's advancement through the adventure. The various minigames can also be played separately outside the adventure mode, so PokéPark doubles as a party game. It was rather fun, if simple, and I won't lie—I'll probably give it a rental at least. Kids will likely eat it up. My only complaint was the game, or the demo at least, only used the Remote, so Pikachu was controlled with the d-pad. This resulted in it controlling a bit like a tank, especially since Pikachu has a lot of inertia when it runs.
Matt: Allright, so, I think that was about it for the games we didn't get a chance to cover in full, but wanted to say something about. Let's wrap up our little wrap-up here with that time-honored tradition: naming our best in show. This year I actually had a bit of a tough time with second and third place—just deciding which went where. I eventually settled on Ghost Trick in my #2 slot, and Kirby's Epic Yarn in my #3 slot, but even now I think they're pretty interchangeable. Both games impressed me on every level, from how they looked to how they played. Ghost Trick might have had the edge just because it made me laugh so much. The script alone is just fantastically entertaining.
So that just leaves #1, which is—as readers of our coverage thus far probably already know—Hudson's Lost in Shadow. This game is fantastic. I love what it's doing, I dig the aesthetic, and it just seems like it has so much potential that I don't even know about yet. Everything about it just felt right. You had some thoughts about it to share, Amber, after I dragged you over to play it at Konami's booth on Thursday, bubbling over as I was?
Amber: Yes, Lost in Shadow is a game I've followed ever since seeing the first trailer for it. It was an intriguing concept and I'm glad the demo didn't disappoint. Actually, this is a game I should put on my 2D revival list. Since you play as a shadow, your world is inherently two-dimensional. And yet, the game also incorporates the 3D world, since the key to advancing through the environments is manipulating real world objects, thus changing the shadows those objects cast. It holds a great deal of promise for lateral-thinking puzzles.
As for the question of game of show, that's a really tough one this year. Nothing stood out to me. That's not to say nothing was really good, but rather, lots of things were really good but everything more or less plateaued out at the same level. Nothing rose above the crowd, not even Zelda—or, sadly, Metroid. As such, I don't have any games ranked as such. I just have one game to highlight, because I had the most fun with its demo, and that would be Kirby's Epic Yarn. I'm also making it my pick because it uses a unique art style that isn't just for show, but is key to the gameplay. It is very much like Paper Mario in that way, which makes for excellent company.
Matt: Kirby's been picking up some awards already, I've seen. I certainly can't argue with anyone who decides to give that game special love. It definitely deserves it.
And that's the show. We had a lot of fun this year, played a bunch of games, and dreaded the glut that is no doubt going to make our backlogs continue to be uncomfortable. We hope you've liked our show coverage this year; stick our feed in your reader if you'd like to read what we think when we get our hands on the finished products later this year. Thanks for reading!
PokéPark combines quests with minigames and a huge Pokémon cast. Most of the quests find Pikachu challenged to a minigame or a straight-up realtime Pokémon battle with other Pokémon. Success results in Pikachu gaining friends, who then lend their powers to the yellow mouse's advancement through the adventure. The various minigames can also be played separately outside the adventure mode, so PokéPark doubles as a party game. It was rather fun, if simple, and I won't lie—I'll probably give it a rental at least. Kids will likely eat it up. My only complaint was the game, or the demo at least, only used the Remote, so Pikachu was controlled with the d-pad. This resulted in it controlling a bit like a tank, especially since Pikachu has a lot of inertia when it runs.
Matt: Allright, so, I think that was about it for the games we didn't get a chance to cover in full, but wanted to say something about. Let's wrap up our little wrap-up here with that time-honored tradition: naming our best in show. This year I actually had a bit of a tough time with second and third place—just deciding which went where. I eventually settled on Ghost Trick in my #2 slot, and Kirby's Epic Yarn in my #3 slot, but even now I think they're pretty interchangeable. Both games impressed me on every level, from how they looked to how they played. Ghost Trick might have had the edge just because it made me laugh so much. The script alone is just fantastically entertaining.
So that just leaves #1, which is—as readers of our coverage thus far probably already know—Hudson's Lost in Shadow. This game is fantastic. I love what it's doing, I dig the aesthetic, and it just seems like it has so much potential that I don't even know about yet. Everything about it just felt right. You had some thoughts about it to share, Amber, after I dragged you over to play it at Konami's booth on Thursday, bubbling over as I was?
Amber: Yes, Lost in Shadow is a game I've followed ever since seeing the first trailer for it. It was an intriguing concept and I'm glad the demo didn't disappoint. Actually, this is a game I should put on my 2D revival list. Since you play as a shadow, your world is inherently two-dimensional. And yet, the game also incorporates the 3D world, since the key to advancing through the environments is manipulating real world objects, thus changing the shadows those objects cast. It holds a great deal of promise for lateral-thinking puzzles.
As for the question of game of show, that's a really tough one this year. Nothing stood out to me. That's not to say nothing was really good, but rather, lots of things were really good but everything more or less plateaued out at the same level. Nothing rose above the crowd, not even Zelda—or, sadly, Metroid. As such, I don't have any games ranked as such. I just have one game to highlight, because I had the most fun with its demo, and that would be Kirby's Epic Yarn. I'm also making it my pick because it uses a unique art style that isn't just for show, but is key to the gameplay. It is very much like Paper Mario in that way, which makes for excellent company.
Matt: Kirby's been picking up some awards already, I've seen. I certainly can't argue with anyone who decides to give that game special love. It definitely deserves it.
And that's the show. We had a lot of fun this year, played a bunch of games, and dreaded the glut that is no doubt going to make our backlogs continue to be uncomfortable. We hope you've liked our show coverage this year; stick our feed in your reader if you'd like to read what we think when we get our hands on the finished products later this year. Thanks for reading!