More Ninja Gaiden DS details
Wow, it's certainly been a busy month for Team Ninja. I don't recall either of the original Ninja Gaiden games or Sigma enjoying this much hype. CVG has a nice interview with Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki up. It answers all the basic questions you'd hope for - Timeline, controls etc etc.
Now, CVG doesn't seem to be very accessible at the moment (as usual), so I'm just going to link to Cubed3's summary of the interview:
-Ninja Gaiden for DS takes place six months after the original Xbox game.
-The storyline focuses on "what exactly were the foes that Hayabusa fought in the Vigoor Empire, who created them, and for what purpose? These and other mysteries will be revealed."
-Players hold the DS vertically to get a good grip on the DS. Much of the action uses the touch screen. The game can be flipped for left handed gamers.
-Players can use the stylus to point at Hayabusa, enemies or envionments for speedy control.
-The game won't be as difficult as the console edition, but instead seeks to give everyone the chance to try out the new control scheme.
-The team has found increased abilities with the DS, instead of limitations. The stylus has come in handy to be used as a quick means of control. "If you use the stylus to slice side-to-side over an enemy, Hayabusa will slash him with his sword, and you can change the type of slash by varying the angle of your slice. You can jump if you want to, of course, and you can wall jump using the environment."
-Dragon Sword is due for release in Autumn.
Still not sold on this one. Part of this is because, of late I've come to realize that there are a ton of sucky DS games out there ... honestly, there are a fair number of good ones, but majority of them just suck really bad. It looks like developers (again, mostly Western devs) still don't get the DS and how to make games appropriate for it.
7 comments:
All good news a side, you raise an interesting point with the sucky software.
Now, in total agreement, the DS and lets chuck in the Wii have some poor software, hell they have a lot of poor software. But, if we take the PS2 which hatched many a classic game, would this also be true? What is a console's "Shit to Shine" percentage (I'm copyrighting that phrase right now! :) )?
Ahh, Jelster ... you're at least half the reason I drag myself out of bed every morning to update FWA. I quite like the debates we partake in on a near daily basis. (In a completely non-gay way of course)
"Shit to Shine" is an awesome term. That definitely deserves to be copyrighted. That said, I grabbed the opportunity to look up the Shit-to-Shine ratio for PS2 and DS games so far on Metacritic. Here's what I found:
PS2:
Total games: 1428
Games rated at/higher than 70: 718
Games rated lower than 70: 718
Strange as it may seem, it seems to be a 50:50 ratio in the case of the PS2. Although, the system is several years old now.
Xbox 360
Total games: 173
Games rated at/higher than 70: 102
Games rated lower than 70: 71
Keep in mind that most of those games rated above 70 on the 360 are either shooters, XBLA titles or sports games.
DS:
Total games: 222
Games rated at/higher than 70: 81
Games rated lower than 70: 141
Huge difference there, as you can see. The DS doesn't seem to be doing very well at this point in time as far as actual game quality is concerned. But in all fairness, the DS was in the "experimental" phase for a fairly long time, and only now is it really starting to see its potential being used.
What do you think?
The PS2 50:50 shocks me, actually all but the DS shocks me! Although, to be honest, you'd be hard pressed to get me out of bed to play a 70 rated game. Really I'd sit at around 85% unless I'd had first hand experience of the game.
I reran the figures Google Spreadsheet and last gen (PS2, xbox and Gcube) all sat at around the same percentage. However the PS2 got an average of 5 titles out every month over 80% where as the xbox had 4 and the GC only 2.
PSP and DS are pretty much neck and neck although the PSP is slightly stronger at 80% plus and considerably in the lead when between 70% and 80%. Realistically you're looking at 1 good game a month for both though.
Next/Current Gen is harder to call but the PS3 is looking like the winner as far as percentages go. Wii is totally dropping the ball on quality and the 360 is just finding its first birthday wind.
Still these ballpark numbers do indicate that a systems popularity could affect the number of good games released for it, although in relation to the total releases most systems average out to the same Shite to Shine ratio.
Wow, that spreadsheet must have taken some effort to throw together. Nicely done.
OK, agreed. 70 is a bit too low ... with the rising costs and the number of games that release on a monthly basis, you'd be hardpressed to even find time to play all those titles.
I just included the 70s in there because some of those games have their own little niche market.
Moving on, what I find shocking is that there really isn't much of a difference between the DS and the PSP ... this seems to be a case of how the two products are being marketed and, of course, the difference in pricing. The DS has a considerable number of good games on it, but I've yet to see anything (save perhaps Hotel Dusk and Metroid Prime) that has truly blown me away.
I expect the Wii to go the same way as the DS ... no decent games initially, then a whole bunch of games suddenly landing up in retail when developers decide that the console's install base is too large to ignore. After that, support will probably die down again, and take a while to pick up.
As for the PS3, I think we're guaranteed to see some really cool stuff come 2008. I think '07 is going to be a slow year for the PS3 for the most part. Maybe things will start to look better during the holiday season, but it won't be until '08 that we really see the system take off. The same goes for the Wii, really.
I'll think that 718 + 718 = 1436 ;) Anyway more than 700 titles on the PS2 are more than worth playing? That's just WoW, I'm lucky if I can come up with more than 30.
81 above 70 isn't that bad either I highly doubt that there will be a lot of people who going to own 81 DS titles. (Here too I've really got my doubts, 81 seems a bit on the high side.) But true some DS game worse than the average flash game. I've spend an half hour with Cars, and honestly they should give that game away with a bag of chips. A game like that really pulls on the quality average and sure there more (over at gamesspot cars for the DS has gotten a 6.5, a 0.5 would be more honest.)
Anyone tried Metroid Pinball yet? I've heard that it one of the most slept on game on the DS, I'm dying to know how a boss fight works in a pinball game.
I haven't played a portable pinball game since Pokemon Pinball...damn, th at was a fun game. Oh, and thanks for correcting that calculation error. I didn't bother adding myself. I just took the Metacritic numbers and pasted them in here. Weird...they might have missed a few titles.
Also, yea ... 81 isn't too bad. Just that not all 81 of those games are actually any fun to play. I have no idea how Super Mario 64 DS got rated as high as it did. The controls for that game are just so badly botched up. I couldn't bring myself to play it for more than twenty minutes.
Really I don't think Nintendo does "Blown Away". Even massive hits seem to sedately draw you and entertain rather than jump up and scream how great they are. This seems to be both the problem and the attraction to Nintendo, perhaps it's why they have such a polar image.
I'd also say that this feeds back on itself, giving developers a perceived lower expectation to WOW audiences. Erm, where words fail I'll draw a weak analogy.
Nintendo = Indie/Foreign Film
Sony = Emmerich/Cameron/Bay
Microsoft = Hollywood in general
So, Nintendo can break existing formats, come from different angles and isn't afraid to pace however they want to make their point. However along the way a bunch of arses will produce pompous crap that they too say is great but is actually bumhole.
Sony, glitz and glamour, peak of technology. Regardless of the actually quality many titles are viewed as great due to the superficial appeal of the effects rather than the actual movie.
Microsoft, can pull out some good titles but looks to hammer the mainstream with whatever marketing report is in favour this quarter. Look forward to sequels and lots of idea recycling covered in a nice coating off glamour.
Really if I get one good title a month it'll probably be too much for me to keep up with. I also think that the system with the largest install base will get a bigger chunk of the fodder titles and so score a good title more often.
Oh and I need to share this. Shakira & Beyonce Video I can only say Phwoar!
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