GDC Amazingness!

Not being a "professional" blogger has its downsides, to be sure. One of them is that I don't get invites to industry events such as this week's Game Developer's Conference. *sigh* On the upside, however, I, like any of you, can access most of the news that comes from such a conference, from the convenience of my desk at home, without the fuss, muss and expense of travel!

Yesterday and today have been fairly significant news days for Nintendo at GDC, with several key announcements being made and Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote speech this morning. A major highlight of the whole thing, to me, is the new video footage of Super Mario Galaxy that was shown during the keynote, and is now viewable at GameTrailers.com, among others. Here are a couple of stills:
This first shot, with Mario nearly dead-center, zooming through space as he seems to do a lot in the game, shows just how vastly, hugely, big and enormous the environments are! I also like the variety of objects Nintendo has put in the space, and the sweet franchise-themed items, such as the Dr. Mario pill and Yoshi egg...I put this second still up because as I was watching the trailer, there was just a momentary flicker in the background of the awesome airships you see here. They really grabbed my attention, even though we've seen them in some E3 footage, because in this shot you can see them in their entirety and from a distance. Also, is Mario running on a Martini Shaker? Is this a hint of a new non-game coming from Nintendo... Mario Bartender?Lastly, this shot, which doesn't really do the video justice. Mario is in the blue bubble, center screen (I forgot that he's always center-screen, which eliminates camera problems!) These are those crazy bubbles that you point at to make them grab Mario in a kind of force-field, and then carry him along. Here the mini-suns are spewing out fireballs and flares, which Mario has to navigate between without getting burned!

I guess I'm pretty jazzed about this, because I never post more than one screenshot with my entries! In any event, click on over to GameTrailers and check out the footage!

Spidey the Third

I am a big fan of NBC's Heroes, and my wife and I curl up every Monday to find out what events have transpired with Peter Petrelli and company. This week's episode was no disappointment, which is a darn good thing, since there won't be another new episode for over a month (poop).

But sweetening the pie even more is the fact that Sony saw fit to reveal some new Spiderman 3 footage during the show, and still more footage at NBC.com during this 24 hour period.

I don't want to ruin anything for you, so let's just say that the new footage is very character development-oriented, in addition to having just a touch of... venom. If you want to see more, you'll have to wait and see!

Blurring Definitions

I picked up SSX Blur yesterday, like many other people, and I am really hooked. What's interesting about this game is the huge disparity between different reviews. The game has scored everything from a 5 to an 8 out of 10, and reviewers (as is often the case with Wii games) seem to have wildly varying opinions concerning the controls in particular.

GoNintendo's Raw Meat Cowboy has a great write-up about this crazy gulf between reviews, and I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with him; SSX, like many Wii titles, has a bit of a learning curve, but mastering the controls is very rewarding and makes the game that much more worthwhile. If you have a chance to pick it up, I highly recommend it!

So, that brings me to my review! That's right, I am going to start reviewing games myself, but since there is such a wealth of reviews out there already, I am going to try a different approach. Rather than a lengthy write-up, I thought I would simply put down a couple of impressions about the game, then why I think it's worth picking up or not! So, without further ado, here goes...

SSX Blur
- Control scheme: solid, steep learning curve, especially on Uber-tricks.
- Visuals: great! Some of the best thus far on the Wii, and looks good enough to eat!
- Gameplay: again, very solid, but with some challenging aspects.
- Design: very nice. I especially like the music and the menu interface.

Pick Up? Absolutely! I am not a past SSX fan, although I do enjoy the games somewhat. Blur takes a tried-and-true game genre and draws you into the game even more with the immersive controls. Heck, I like just carving snow to enjoy the sensation of tilting the nunchuck and watching my character lean into curves, trailing a wake of powder behind them.