Wii love Suda

and Suda51 loves Nintendo. Sure it's probably a business strategy for Grasshopper Manufacture to develop games for Nintendo given its relatively low development cost and large user base but over the years, Nintendo has played host to some of Suda's finest work.

killer7, Suda's US debut was originally meant to be a Gamecube exclusive before Capcom started with their multiplatform strategy but the Gamecube version remained as arguably the definitive version of Suda's debut. No More Heroes, a sort of spiritual sequel to killer7 is Nintendo Wii exclusive and still reigns as one of the finest third party action games on the platform. Fatal Frame VI, another love child of Suda and Nintendo collaboration was recently released in Japan to favourable reviews.

Now, the Nintendo DS is about to play host to another Suda game, Flower, Sun and Rain, a Playstation2 title originally available only in Japan, completely remade from the ground up for Nintendo's popular handheld.I have seen the demo of the game and frankly, the 3D engine for the DS version looks like an early PSOne game it certainly looks like the developers are taking a lot of constraints in shrinking this Playstion2 title to the Nintendo DS. It still looks mighty enticing and being a Nintendo fan, it looks like i'm going to have to get used to being compromised as the Wii developers at Capcom are apparently facing major hurdles too in bringing Dead Rising to Nintendo Wii.

In My Restless Dreams...

My latest Play stuff, came in on saturday while i was home a pretty nice surprise seeing i'm usually at work when the postie arrives. While it may seem like random purchases, i actually have these in mind for some time now. I recently saw an akira yamaoka retrospective on the Silent Hill series which remind me i have yet to add Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams to my collection. I still remember shopping for this game at Sim Lim Plaza and having to choose between the two-disc PAL edition and the Japanese release of Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams. It was a hard choice naturally but ultimately i couldn't resist having the 2-disc set,what with it's sexy cardboard digipak packaging. This may not be the original release of Restless Dreams from those years back but it will do just nicely...

The Gamecube memory card is another essential purchase that i have been putting off for far too long, you see i have been using the memory card that came with Biohazard 0 all this long and while it's suffice, it's been subjected to a long of wear and tear seeing that i don't usually leave the card at it's port. So having this memory card allows me to back-up my saves to free up some much needed space so i can get on with playing the other games in my collection namely PN03, Twilight Princess, killer7...etc.

Something old, something new, something doubled

Every year around this time, i will be away in Singapore to visit my relatives during the festive Chinese New Year. I will also find the time to dropby some of my favourite game stores (assuming they are opened for business) to pick up some games. This year is no different, my haul this trip consist of well, games that i have mainly played/owned already but decided nevertheless to upgrade my current existing copy. I got myself a Gamecube version of Suda51's cult classic killer7, having already beaten the game sometime back on my playstation2. This is basically to drum up some excitement for Suda's newest Wii game No More Heroes as well as to own the definitive version of this game as many have commented the Gamecube version is far superior to the playstation2 version. Not much of a surprise seeing that the game was originally announced as a Gamecube exclusive and development on the platform was well underway before Capcom decided to announce the game on the playstation2 platform. If you never played killer7, it's basically a surreal action-adventure with a lot of style and quirky memorable characters, which seems to be a prevalent style of Suda's now. The game received a lot of criticism back then for it's over-simplistic gameplay but kept fans and critics guessing with it's convoluted storyline and characters. In fact from what i seen of No More Heroes so far, a lot of the criticism for killer7 seems to be addressed in NMH as it looks like a gamey version of killer7 with the same blend of quirky off-beat characters. Speaking of No More Heroes, i did do some fair searching about for the game despite hearing rumours that the game was reportedly banned in Singapore for its violence. Heck i even tried asked some retailers just to see what kinda of response or reaction i will get. Amusingly enough, when asked most of the retailers just response in a whisperly voice "oh we don't have the game or no more stock" like it's a taboo to even talk about it in the open.

I also happened to pick up another Gamecube exclusive, Resident Evil Zero which i earlier played a pre-owned copy just before tackling Umbrella Chronicles. Call it rash, call it paranoid i just wasn't sure if i was able tofind a non-Player's Choice version of this game at that time and decided not to take any chances. I guess my opinion of the game was that i like it enough to buy a sealed copy to replace my existing copy, now i just have to figure out what to do with the other one....

One thing that wasn't on my list was UMD movie for my PSP, yes i have a PSP for close to two years now but have never used it to watch any movies before. Blame it on Sony's insistence to have region-lock on the UMD movie format, i just wasn't able to find any decent region3 UMD for my PSP up till now. The Gramophone in City Hall had a couple of UMD videos tucked away next to their Blue-ray selections and i thought it was too good of an oppurtunity to pass up. A bit implusive, but i can't wait to see King Kong on my PSP, especially since i haven't watched the movie before.

Finally i thought i closed my recap of my Singapore trip with a cover of the latest EGM issue Singapore edition. That's right, Singapore has a gaming community big enough to warrant a localization of the famous videogame magazine, though if you actually pay attention and read the contents it's hard to tell the difference. i always make it a point to pick up a copy whenever i'm there as a keepsake/momento of my trip and this month edition feature a 11-page on the upcoming Street Fighter IV, keep the faith everyone Capcom will deliver!

No More Battery Power.....

Apparently the Wii-mote batteries aren't even enough to last through an entire game as it just ran out of juice, 10 hours into Umbrella Chronicles. Ouch, the painful feeling of having to spend on batteries for a home console is unbearable, even handheld comes with built-in lithium-ion battery these days! In the wake of this, i decided to go back to playing Resident Evil 4 Gamecube version in anticipation for the Wii edition i ordered recently. Having Leon in his Resident Evil 2 RPD uniform throughout the game (and cutscenes too, take that PS2!) is a nice nostalgic trip back to RE2, I still remember playing it on my beat-up computer years back, unable to view the FMVs properly as my specs were even up to the minimum requirements. I would later beat the game on the Playstation again and even finish the 4th survivor a few times too.

Some games just never, ever gets old....

The Resident Evil 2 Gamecube port just gets more enticing everyday, perhaps i should just order it along with killer7 Gamecube in time for Suda51's latest opus No More Heroes? Aah Capcom, i'm forever a slave to your scheming ways.....

Rail or Not?

When Capcom first announced Umbrella Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii, fans couldn't be more happier. After all it's still a long wait till Resident Evil 5 and the last three Resident Evil games on the Nintendo Gamecube had been great. When they later revealed that it's going to be a shooter game, fans were less than excited about the prospects, since previous attempts to transcend into the shooter territory using the RE license had been less than successful. When it was finally revealed that it's going to be an on-rails shooter much like the gun-games in the arcades, fans just went nuts....have Capcom finally lost it?

Well after playing Umbrella Chronicles for a good six hours, I can safely say that this is probably the best iteration of the Resident Evil Gun Survivor series. Having the game running on rails really creates a lot of tension or atmosphere because you have absolute no control over where to go or which way to look. The biggest difference between games and movies is that games are a form of interactive entertainment which the player actually have to take part in the game in order for the story to progress. The problem is, sometimes gamers feel that by taking away certain abilities like camera movement or in this case player movement, the sense of immersion is reduced and the gameplay experience is compromised. The quality of a good game should not be judged on such merits as it's not what makes a good game great. As much as fans love the level of detail in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, it's not what made the game so memorable. In fact, it actually adds little to the actual game experience apart from allowing you to stray away from the main objective, having fun goofing around.

The point I'm trying to make is that games are as much of an art form as movies and that game developers should be treated with the same degree of respect and allowed the creative freedom to make decision to take away certain level of interactivity from the gamers such as this case. When was the last time you think to yourself, this movie would have been better if only the director/screenwriter did this instead of that? Would killer7 had be a better game if it wasn't running on rails? Probably not, maybe as games become more 'beautiful' and 'immersive', we gamers are becoming more 'possessive' and scoff when things are taken away from us? It's time to leave the reins to the people in-charge, have faith and ultimately they will deliver the best experience possible.... yes, we are looking at you too, mr. Suda.