Is Mario still a plumber?
Category: Wii
Beatles Rock Band at E3
The era of music games is still going (and going…and going), and now Rock Band has decided to bring in one of the most iconic and well known band in the world: The Beatles.
Like before, there are the quick play options and the career mode. In Career mode you get to follow the Beatles through their career as you get to play their earlier songs such as “I Saw Her Standing There” off of the Please Please Me Album all the way to to end of their career supposedly. We’re still waiting for a definite set list, but the songs demoed for us were “I saw Her Standing There”, “I am the Walrus” and they did announce that “All you Need is Love” will be available as Downloadable Content (DLC) soon after the game was released. It was also mentioned that funds from people purchasing “All you Need is Love” will be be benefiting the Doctors Without Borders foundation!
The backgrounds looked great as the movements were smooth and realistic. The venues were those taken right from the Beatles’ career, all the way from the Cavern Club’s darker setting and small crowd to the Ed Sullivan show and the screaming girls. The cuts of the crowd are something straight out of the old videos, with the screaming and jumping girls that started the trend that still continues on today. Now, some of the later songs aren’t quite something that would fit a normal venue setting, so some…artistic liberties were taken. Now, don’t take this as a bad thing, especially since its something that steals the show. Dreamscapes are colorful, out of this world landscapes that reflect the songs. So while you’re playing “I am the Walrus”, you get to see the band playing in a spinning technicolor like land and a creepy man with a walrus mask. It’s, hard to explain, but imagine The Yellow Submarine movie mixed in with 3D graphics, make it into a music video and you’ve got one of Rock Band’s Dreamscapes.
Ok, no onto the game play. The usual applies here: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Vocals. The catch: you can play with up to SIX people now! With the new three part harmony feature, you can have up to three people on mics, one person on guitar, bass and drums. And like in recent incarnations of the game, you are able to choose different difficulty levels. And with easy mode it’s impossible to fail, so it good if grandma wants to try drums but she’s never played a video game in her life (and if your grandma is like that you have one of the coolest grandma’s ever!).
If you’re a Beatles fan, then you’ll enjoy playing along with the songs. While the Beatles aren’t known for their amazing riffs and quick fingers, the difficulty of the songs seem to be something that will satisfy even some of the more veteran players. So I would have no worries about being bored to death with too many slow, repetitious rhythms. Although I have a hard time seeing Yellow Submarine becoming a song to rival Guitar Hero’s impossible Dragonforce song. I’m sure though that just about any Beatles fan will thoroughly enjoy singing and playing all of the classic songs.
And of course for any hardcore fan, there are special guitars and drums that are coming out for the game. You’re welcome to use the older sets that you’ve got, but for those who are just starting to build up your own home band this could be a place to start. Each controller is designed to be in the likeness of each band member’s favorite instrument. For Sir Paul McCartney, there’s a controller in the likeness of a Hofner Violin Bass. There’s John Lennon’s Rickenbacker 325, George Harrison’s Gretsch Duo Jet guitar and a Ludwig Pearl Finish drum set for Ringo Starr. So the developers spared no detail in creating this game in the honor of the Beatles.
There many music games out there by now. But if you’re a Beatles fans this game is made for you! This game seems to be very true to the Beatles and their music, so it’s worth checking out once it comes out September 9th of this year!
E3 shows Naruto Shippuden for Wii and DS!
There’s been big talk in the Anime world about Naruto Shippuden coming to the US. The show may not be dubbed in English yet, but Tomy is happy to be bringing it to the DS and the Wii! And thanks to E3 we have received a look at the all three games along with screen shots!
For the Wii, Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution is coming with the same flair of the past Clash of the Ninja fighting action, but with some new updates and tweaks.
For starters there are 30+ Characters to choose from in addition to at least 40 different 3D environments that rotate around as the characters fight. Along with the Naruto storyline, each of the characters have grown up, and with age comes wisdom and new jutsu right?
Now moves such as Naruto’s Rasengan, Sakura’s extra strong punches and more are available for use in the game. And best yet, if you choose to you can play as the characters as they were in the original Naruto series.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s Nintendo Wi-Fi compatible? You can now go online and battle people around the world and show off your skills! Plus also you can now “tinker” with the data on the characters to give handy caps to those who are just starting out. Now you can change how much chakra or hp the character has along with a multitude of other stats. Apparently people have been asking for it, and the developer’s have delivered!
Next up on Tommy’s line is Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Council 4 for the DS. This DS title covers the 1st half of the Shippuden story which of course lets you play as the older characters of the Shippuden series. You’re able to customize you three man cell to compliment each other’s techniques. The techniques themselves can even help you progress or access different areas in the level (such as Sakura’s punch: it can break through walls!). And using the DS’s wireless capabilities you are able to battle up to 4 people! And thanks to Tommy I was able to score a copy of the game (which is currently out as of yesterday) and pretty soon I hope to have a full in depth review on the game itself!
Lastly there is Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Destiny 2 for the DS. Now this was an interesting game. the environments are 3D, which is unusual for a DS game, but it sure did look good! Despite the fact that it was high quality graphics on a DS, there was no lag during the game play! Plus this made for some good looking cinematics when the Jutsu’s where initiated.
There are a handful of playable modes that you can go through in the game. One is quest mode which acts as almost a RPG like with stats, random battles and character levels. This lets you choose a character and explore a maze to gather items to help you through out the levels. Secondly there is a survival mode, where all you need to do is survive as many battles as you can. In this mode you can earn extra achivements and unlockables the further and further you get. The gameplay looked fun and definatly was something that is worth checking out when it comes out in September later this year!
Warner Bros Gets Lord of the Rings
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment now has partnered with The Saul Zaentz Company and New Line Productions, for literary and film rights to develop and publish games based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Get ready for tons of new merchandise!
The first game is a third-person action adventure title called The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest. It’ll be available on Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PSP in Fall 2009.
The game is described as:
In The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, preparations are underway in Hobbiton for a great party to welcome Aragorn, King of Gondor, and honor Samwise Gamgee for his service during the War of the Ring. The children of the town are eager to learn more of this great man and so Samwise, now Mayor, embarks on a tale of the revered warrior, Strider—as Aragorn is known in his Ranger days—and his most valiant battles. Players assume the role of Aragorn and embark on his greatest quests from The Lord of the Rings trilogy as they wield his sword, bow or spear on foot and on horseback through an action-packed gameplay experience.
On the Wii platform, two-player co-op gameplay featuring Gandalf will allow kids, families and friends to work together in the heart of the action.
Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage Announced
This holiday 2009 season Shaun White snowboarding is coming back exclusively for the Wii. Continue reading “Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage Announced”
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Finally something that we like. Continue reading “Metroid Prime Trilogy”