Rick Powers just called in from the Gamers Summit with an update on what was playable and what was shown on video today. 13 new titles playable! Super quick impressions inside…
Here’s a few notes on what Rick had to say about some of the games and hardware that were either shown on video, playable, or demonstrated. Expect full impressions later. For now, let this whet your appetite!
Shown on Video:
Super Mario Sunshine: About 30 seconds of video shown, mainly the levels surrounding the screens that were released over the weekend. It graphically looks like an upgrade of Mario 64. There’s smoother animation, and increased polygons in Super Mario Sunshine than Mario 64. The textures are low-res, but possibly are placeholder textures. The game looks to be 60 fps, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Metroid Prime: Looks much better in motion. The game looks absolutely incredible. The grapple, and the ball roll was shown. When Samus rolls in a ball, the camera pulls back, making Samus’s head translucent until the camera gets out of her head. The camera continues to pull back into 3rd person mode, and then Samus rolls up and takes off. When Samus uses the grapple beam, the camera remains in first person mode, showing some head movements. Very well done.
Starfox Adventures: Not much new shown. Still looks as pretty as ever.
Playable software or hardware:
The Wave Bird Controller: Nintendo is truly downplaying how far away you’ll be able to use the Wave Bird. Rick still estimates you’ll be able to play from 40 feet away, even behind a wall or an obstacle. The Wave Bird is very responsive, yet the controller will still not have the rumble feature.
Card-E reader: Demonstrated with Animal Crossing. Slide the card through, and you get a password you can use in Animal Crossing that will give your player items.
Eternal Darkness: Quick impressions already on the site. Adding to those, the insanity effects they have seen so far are unreal, crazy, cool, and well…insane.
MX Superfly: No comments yet
Lost Kingdoms (Rune): Japanese version playable. Graphically looks stunning.
Spiderman The Movie: Looks decent, yet still an early build.
Bomberman Generations: No comments yet
Wrestlemania X8: Only 5 players able to be played with. The animation looks a lot smoother than RAW for Xbox. According to the THQ PR rep, the game is pretty much finished and ready to go.
Burnout: No comments yet
Animal Crossing (Animal Forest +): Bill Trinen (Lead Translator for NOA) helped people play through the Japanese version of Animal Forest +. Bill said that Animal Crossing has 5 times the content of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Virtua Striker 3: No comments yet
FIFA World Cup 2002: No comments yet
BloodRayne: Looks very cool, but also shown a little prematurely.
Black and Bruised: Majesco’s new cel-shaded boxer was probably too early to be shown. The cel-shading is very nicely done. Picture Ready 2 Rumble lightly cel-shaded, and there you have Black and Brused.
Resident Evil Japanese version playable. No comments yet.
More complete impressions and news coming later tonight, live from Seattle, Washington!
