A Game Boy?

Hey so I've been stupidly busy over the past week playing Street Fighter IV (Joke, university work more like!) My design group has a name (Powerhouse Games) and a Mod title of Bug Company. Take a gander at our developer blog.

http://powerhousegames.blogspot.com/

Apart from my design group I don't have a whole lot to talk about at the minute. Heres a list of what's keeping me sane at the moment.

* Street Fighter IV (Online 1 on 1 fighting perfection)

* Steven Fry In America on DVD

* Homemade chocolate chip muffins (thanks Robert Dyer!)

* My animals Starbuck (Rabbit) and Charlie (Dog)

Anyway notice the silly Game Boy man picture? check out this page on ign.com about Nintendo's past and present handheld systems!

http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/956/956642p1.html

See ya!

I need this game! and I don't really know why!

I just came across a trailer for the Japanese PSP game Yuushu 30. From the looks of things its a traditional JRPG but one that does away will all that dull/ slow gameplay. The game looks amazing with its intentionally oversized character sprites and uber fast Warioware-ish gameplay. (I know a bit weird as I've never played it I WANT IT). Check out the trailer below to see what I'm talking about (Thanks Gametrailers.com). Yuushu 30 is due to hit Japanese stores in May, heres hoping for a western release!

Been so busy!

Hey sorry I've not been posting on Shoryu Reppa over the past week (and if anyone even reads this, get a life! lol). I've been so busy with university work/ meetings. Right now ( 10am saturday morning) is my first free time since monday. So I'm a producer for my Design 4 class. It's funny because hotmail is fast becoming my best friend, I'm always emailing something out! It's fun so far I'm in a group of 10 students tasked with creating an Unreal Mod in 12 weeks. Aside from university life we have a new dog named Charlie! He's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and is about 9 weeks old. I've never had a dog so its completely a learning experience.

As for the crazy world of video games I've not seen/ played much. I noticed the PSN downloadable title "Flower" on the Playstation store so I might give that a go. I was surprised by the review scores floating around for Capcom's Street Fighter 4 (Ign US gave it 9.5) Its starting to look like I'll pick it up at the end of this month. My only concern is that i have numerous Street Fighter games already and is this one "that" much different? I love the Alpha series, especially Street Fighter Alpha 3 so hopefully Street Fighter 4 is just as fun. Anyway I'll post again later today. As for games on the horizon its looking rather bleak, Killzone 2's demo didn't exactly reinvent the wheel and Resident Evil 5 appears to be Resident Evil 4 in HD, which while thats a good thing I didn't play anything new to make me part with £40 come March

Early E3 predictions part one - Nintendo

Last years E3 wasn't the kindest for loyal Nintendo fans around the world. The complete lack of "hardcore" titles hit home as soon as Shaun White stood on the stage. The Big problem with Nintendo at the moment isn't Nintendo's problem. let me explain Nintendo is a business and at the end of the day their bottom lines are all that matter. Sony would kill to be in Nintendo's shoes because in comparison their company is sinking. Nintendo wants peoples money they don't care if Animal Crossing Wii is essentially Gamecube Animal Crossing from 8 years ago. They knew It would sell to the casual market because they don't even know the Gamecube version existed! Its the same with Pikmin's re-release on Wii. This is an 8 year old game also yet to many Wii owners is not! This brings me nicely into E3 2009. Will Nintendo tailor a few games to their faithful fans who held their hands through the dark Nintendo 64/ Gamecube times?

Its unclear at this point if fan will even care come the end of next year. With publications widely condemning Nintendo for dropping fans for cash these publications forget one thing, Nintendo fans are very loyal dogs! Teasing a new Zelda or Mario title keeps the fans in line yet Zelda even compared to Mario is in dire need of a re-boot. The series needs some innovation so it would be understandable if Zelda is on show this year with a complete re-design to tailor to new and old fans. Super Mario Galaxy was a fantastic title, a true successor to Super Mario 64. The chance of a new Mario game at E3 is something that being speculated all over the internet. My own opinion is that E3 will bring a sequel to Galaxy with more crazy in-space gravity defying platforming antics. So Mario and Zelda wouldn't be surprises at E3 but what else? heres two games that should be next to Link and Mario at E3!

Pilotwings Wii - This is long overdue! the last title was Pilotwings on the Nintendo 64 over a decade ago. The series skipped gamecube and one of the early Wii demo video's showed a young boy using the wii remote to control a airplane (looking very pilotwings). Given the Wii's audience it would sell well so it makes perfect business sense to revive the series with motion controls and Wii online connectivity such as allowing two pilots to fly together.

Pikmin 3 - Its been rumored for years now. With the re-release of Pikmin 1 & 2 this year getting the Wii control treatment this game is a certainty as part of Nintendo's E3 lineup. Controlling the deployment of Pikmin with the IR is proving to fantastic with Pikmin 1 on Wii.

Killzone 2 demo Impressions.. Fanboys unite!

Ok I should first point out that It took me the best part of four hours to download. I'm guessing the servers hosting the 1.2 GB file are getting hammered by not only european Ps3 owners by US owners with a fake EU PSN account. Anyway onto the demo. What can I say that hasn't been said before, well lets see. I played the first Killzone on Ps2 and soon had it down as a poor mans Halo on a system that couldn't technically compete with the then superior original xbox. 

The game was ok, but nothing special when compared to the competition. The PSP outing of Killzone moved from 1st person to 3rd and this proved to be an enjoyable handheld experience. The world of Killzone is a fun place to be but I'm not going to get into the story on Killzone 2 he because it looks like pretty generic sci fi fodder. gameplay is the same over the top solders, big guns, tons of bad guys, nothing we haven't seen before a million times with the FPS genre. Its a real shame that the anticipation of Killzone 2 killed the demo after the first two minutes for me personally. The level of detail in the initial beach environment was impressive graphically but I like to think I'm deeper than that. Stripping away the glitter Killzone 2 appears to be your bog standard FPS in a new dress! I'm going to reserve judgement for the final retail build at the end of the month before i crucify the game for lack of any innovation. I just have one thing to say!

Default weapon zoom assigned to R3? u gotta be joking right, thank god it can be changed to L1!

First few days back at uni

So its arrived the second semester of my course. My classes this semester are 

Design 4

Project Management 4

History And Analysis 4

CVG Technology

Out of these classes I'm looking forward to History And Analysis the most. I enjoy reading between the lines when it comes to the games industry and why games are what they are lol. Its an exciting class and so far I've enjoyed myself immensely. In second year we have to drop one of our options this semester. This was a difficult choice for me because while I enjoyed the 3D creation aspects of Art And Graphics 1 & 2 I feel that my skills are better suited with History And Analysis in the end.

I'll update my blog with uni stuff later in the semester.

High School was never this much fun!

Who says the Playstation 2 is over the hill?

The system which is now marketed at the casual market is still getting one or two gems among dozens of Singstar and Buzz releases. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 released in March 2008 here in the UK from ATLUS turned out to be an excellent role-playing game delivered at the start of what some would call a consoles retirement. The game centers on a Japanese high school student who when transferring to a new school is brought into a twisted story centering on "The Dark Hour". The Dark Hour occurs at midnight each night and only a few are aware of its existence, most of the population become coffins at this time. During The Dark Hour the local high school becomes "Tartarus" a huge tower filled with fiends that prey on the minds of those who remain awake. A group called SEES researches what happens during The Dark Hour. The players character becomes a member and discovers control of  powerful creatures called Persona to help battle the many preying monsters within Tartarus. The story of persona 3 is a refreshing twist on the majority of traditional Japanese role-playing games of recent and past years.

The Gameplay mixes time at the local high school where players need to interact their classmates, pay attention in class and other activities that are actually interesting. Outside of the high school other locations such as shops and cafe's etc make the world feel like it has substance. A polar opposite comes with Tartarus which is a huge maze where players need to take part in exploration and turn based combat. The combat has an exciting twist when summoning a Persona. Characters use an "Evoker" which shows them holding a gun to their head and pulling the trigger. This is a controversial move by the developers which makes each summoning a real sight to behold.

The soundtrack needs to be heard. Its a charming collection of several genres of music. The traditional role-playing melodies of games like Final Fantasy etc are mixed fantastically with some great J-pop tidbits such as the title song "Burn my Dread" The main battle theme is also worth a listen.

Persona 3 overall was a real surprise for me it surpasses most of the role-playing games on the current generation of systems because it does one important thing to keep me interesting in a role-playing game FUN gameplay that only gets more complex and rewarding. This game is a beacon of hope for a genre that is swamped with big budget, flashy games that are bordering on dull.

Square-Enix have recently announced that they plan to publish the next chapter in the series Persona 4 this spring in the UK. If you missed Persona 3 and its expansion Persona 3:FES buy them on Amazon/ Play etc + dont miss Persona 4's release as US and Japanese reviews are more positive than Persona 3's.