New Releases for The Week of Shaking and Falling

CB Droege 2 Sep, 2009 at 2:14am ET Article published in Gaming

AaaaaAAaaaAAA-aaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity

For the PC this week, we get the unique AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. BASE Jumping Sim is not a common genre; so uncommon, in fact, that I have no real basis of comparison here. How does it work? Jump off of buildings and stuff in first person. Try to keep from opening your ‘chute as long as possible, and hit targets and perform stunts on the way down for a high score. If you see any people watching you on your way down, make sure to hit the ‘rude gesture’ button for some bonus points.

3-2-1 Rattle Battle

Downloadable to your Wii this week is 3-2-1 Rattle Battle. This party game is filled with mini-games that all follow a very clear mechanic: shake the WiiMote. Some games need to you to shake at a certain pace, while others ask for as much shaking as possible, and still others ask you to shake only when you receive the correct visual cue.

Champions Online

If not technically part of the same franchise, Champions Online for the PC is certainly the spiritual brother of City of Heroes. In this new MMORPG, based on the “Champions” table-top gaming IP, players build their own super-powered hero much like in CoH. Here, however, players have the entire Champions world to explore, and the combat, while still very much rooted in the RPG genre, is controlled more like a fighting game, with a gamepad recommended as the optimal interface. This project comes out of the work which had originally been done on the (now canceled)  Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online, so expect the controls and character advancement to show at least some common roots with the Marvel franchise.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

In the Icrontic Spotlight this week, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is one of the most attractive looking games to come out for the Wii since Twilight Princess. In this 2D platformer/fighter, players choose a Samurai  or a Kunoichi, and follow that hand-drawn character through a branching plotline in Genroku Era Japan, attempting to collect cursed swords before an evil Shogun can get to them. This game features a broad cast of character and optional challenge stages and mini-games to improve replayability. In addition, players will be able to choose between a character advancement based play mode, called Unmatched Mode, and a action based mode called Carnage Mode. A third, more difficult mode will open after the game is defeated.

Following is a list of this week’s announced releases for North America:

PC

• AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
• Champions Online
• Zodiac Online

PS3

• Guitar Hero 5
• Madden NFL 10
• NBA 2K10: Draft Combine
• SuperCar Challenge

PSP

• Fate/Unlimited Codes
• SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny

Wii

• Madden NFL 10
• Cruise Ship Vacation Games
• Guitar Hero 5
• Metroid Prime Trilogy
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade
• NBA 2K10: Draft Combine
• Reel Fishing: Angler’s Dream
• 3-2-1 Rattle Battle (WiiWare)
• Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay (WiiWare)
• Phantasy Star (VC – Master System)
• Super Empire Strikes Back (VC – SNES)

DS

• Emergency Room: Real Life Rescues
• The Bigs 2
• The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks
• Puzzle League Express (DSiWare)

XBox360

• Colotristar
• Guitar Hero 5
• Madden NFL 10
• Ninja Guardian
• Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment
• Defense Grid: The Awakening (Arcade)
• Yo-Ho Kablammo (Arcade)
• NBA2k10 Draft Combine

Comments

1. 
   2 Sep 2009 ~ 9:31am Cliff_Forster I can't believe Muramasa was not even on my radar. Looks like the kind of old school experience I enjoy from time to time. It seems to showcase brilliant 2D visuals, looks like the action is very arcade like, fast moving, looks like it may have been inspired by some of the SNK Neo Geo classics.
   
   I'm definitely going to check that one out.
2. 
   2 Sep 2009 ~ 11:06am mertesn Metroid Prime Trilogy came out last week in the US, but it's still one to get. The series is great!
3. 
   2 Sep 2009 ~ 11:16am Cliff_Forster mertesn,
   
   I always felt like I was missing out on something with the Metroid Prime series. If I were to list my twenty or so favorite games of all time, Super Metroid from the SNES would likely make the cut. For some reason the backtracking, the exploration in 3D, the stopping to check things with the visor, the occasionally clunky controller feel in comparison to other more refined FPS games, it was a letdown for me. Not saying its a bad game, I just felt like I was missing the brilliance that everyone else saw in the game, so much that I have not touched the other two.
   
   Still $50 for all three on the wii is tempting, I feel like I should be giving it a 2nd chance. How did you feel about the 2nd and 3rd chapter in relation to the 1st? Did you find that they got progressively better? Wii control on the 3rd, did it improve over the sluggish gamecube mechanics?
4. 
   2 Sep 2009 ~ 12:00pm kryyst Metroid Til is an excellent game. Metroid corruption was actually my first real exposure to Metroid I really enjoyed it. But I personally like the back tracking, exploration and scanning portions of the game. I got pretty far into it, but never finished it. I got stuck on one boss battle and it frustrated me to know end and I quite playing.
   
   I think that the wiimote additions to the original controls feels good, but I have no basis for comparison.
5. 
   2 Sep 2009 ~ 2:54pm primesuspect Cliff, the Metroid Prime trilogy is incredible. I highly recommend it.
6. 
   2 Sep 2009 ~ 3:40pm Cliff_Forster I've always felt like I was missing something special. Like I said, the first Metroid Prime game just did not grab me and propel me to want to continue to play. I got about 2/3 of the way into it and quit. I am such a fan of Super Metroid, it was shocking to me that I did not fall immediately in love with Prime, but there was just something off with the pacing and often times I would feel a little bewildered about where to go next. In 2D that was never that big of an issue, I would recall different things, the backtracking never felt like a big put off, but in the larger scale 3D world it just turned me off for some reason.
   
   I understand the 3rd game was more action oriented which may appeal to me today. At $50 to give all three games another chance, it's not a bad deal at all if I fall in love with them.
7. 
   3 Sep 2009 ~ 11:36am kryyst I had a chance to check out Guitar Hero 5. While some of the new play features, the drop-in/out and any instrument mode is a very nice touch and the roadie battles are a nice distraction.....the game blows chunks for a few critical reasons. First of all, like every other GH game it's basically a stand alone game again. You can't import your band you can't play most of your previously downloaded songs or songs from other games (small exception applies) and the new visuals just don't appeal.
   
   But the main reason this game sucks is that the track list is horrible. While that is obviously subject to opinion I found only a handful of songs I looked forward to playing and I think of those some of them were cases of well it's better then playing some other song.
   
   This track list is all over the place. While on one hand it means everyone will find something they like they'll only find a few somethings. More to the point even bands that I like they picked some of the most obscure and often boring songs from them. So yeah largely my comment of the game blowing is entirely based on my personal dislike of the songs.
   
   I also have to comment again on the game being called Guitar Hero then they have heavy electronica songs that aren't really significantly being played by a band. They also have some odd sources. Sure licensing is what's killing them.
   
   Take two songs Superstitious and All along the watchtower. The pick the Steve Wonder version over the god like Steve Ray Vaughn version and they put in the abysmally dull Bod Dylan version of Watchtower instead of the Hendrix version..... Seriously WTF.
   
   Again this is all opinion. Take of it what you will.
8. 
   3 Sep 2009 ~ 3:31pm Cliff_Forster I do like that the entire stock track list is available from the beginning. Unlocking tracks you want by playing tracks you hate is, well it was an epic failure from prior installments.
   
   I'm looking forward to jammin to Rush Spirit of Radio, on guitar and drums of course, my voice is just a little too manly to perfrom Geddy Lee, but with a couple brews in me, I might just try...
9. 
   4 Sep 2009 ~ 3:11am ardichoke /me goes off to play Guitar Hero 2
   
   seriously... from what I've seen the series peaked at 2. I've had no desire to buy any of the ones since.
10. 
    4 Sep 2009 ~ 9:22am kryyst

    Cliff_Forster wrote:

    I do like that the entire stock track list is available from the beginning. Unlocking tracks you want by playing tracks you hate is, well it was an epic failure from prior installments.
    
    I'm looking forward to jammin to Rush Spirit of Radio, on guitar and drums of course, my voice is just a little too manly to perfrom Geddy Lee, but with a couple brews in me, I might just try...

    
    I'm not 100% the whole list is available from the starts. I was reading some track listings and they mentioned a few songs that I couldn't find in the starting available tracks.
    
    I personally have no problems with the unlocking tracks thing the way Rock Band did it, namely because you had way more starting tracks to pick from and way it allowed you to jump around and more selectively unlock tracks.
    
    The guitar hero model though was more painful. However in reality I never found it to be painful to unlock them prior to Guitar Hero 4, which was craptasticall in that respect.
    
    I think Guitar hero peeked form me with GH3. Though GH: Metallica trumps all other rhythm games with one song. Kyuss: Demon Cleaner, playing that song on drumns is like achieving nirvana.
11. 
    5 Sep 2009 ~ 3:38pm Snarkasm When Activision bought GH and started putting Boss Battles in what was just supposed to be a fun rhythm game bringing people to music, I quit and switched to Rock Band with Harmonix. Way to ruin something beautiful again, Activision.
12. 
    5 Sep 2009 ~ 6:59pm mertesn

    Cliff_Forster wrote:

    mertesn,
    
    I always felt like I was missing out on something with the Metroid Prime series. If I were to list my twenty or so favorite games of all time, Super Metroid from the SNES would likely make the cut. For some reason the backtracking, the exploration in 3D, the stopping to check things with the visor, the occasionally clunky controller feel in comparison to other more refined FPS games, it was a letdown for me. Not saying its a bad game, I just felt like I was missing the brilliance that everyone else saw in the game, so much that I have not touched the other two.
    
    Still $50 for all three on the wii is tempting, I feel like I should be giving it a 2nd chance. How did you feel about the 2nd and 3rd chapter in relation to the 1st? Did you find that they got progressively better? Wii control on the 3rd, did it improve over the sluggish gamecube mechanics?

    Corruption is incredible. I have played about 2/3 of Prime 1, and completed corruption 100% on the first try. My only complaint was the lack of difficulty compared to previous entries. The Wii controls are a vast improvement over the GC controls. I CANNOT stand FPS games with a standard controller, but the Wii layout is great for the genre. I'm waiting to play Echoes until completing Prime.
13. 
    8 Sep 2009 ~ 10:12am kryyst

    Snarkasm wrote:

    When Activision bought GH and started putting Boss Battles in what was just supposed to be a fun rhythm game bringing people to music, I quit and switched to Rock Band with Harmonix. Way to ruin something beautiful again, Activision.

    
    I think what won me over to Rock Band (aside from it being first to come out with the 'band') was that they do a much better job of representing what your hearing with what your playing. Far to many GH songs have you happily playing guitar when there is no guitar being played, or drumming to no drums. Moving forward the Rock Band experience continues to develop on itself with an ever expanding track list. It feels like a complete package. Where as GH is just a whole bunch of separate games.