NINTENDO - E3 2002

Historically, over the past few years, Nintendo has in my opinion been catering to the junior market of gamers.  I do not know why some companies kiss ass and proclaim the cell-shaded Zelda as the messiah.  If that is what you've wanted the evolution of modern gaming to come to, fine, to each their own.  I personally do not like the direction Nintendo is headed with the majority of their games.  The vision that Miyamoto once had seems to be running out of steam.  Way too many Nintendo games have a 'baby like' quality to them that is truly catering to the youngsters out there.  Everything is cutesy and usually some derivative of a cuddly animal.  As a hardcore gaming veteran, I feel as if Nintendo has given up on me, as a late twenty something gamer.  A lot of the games they had were decent, but could be so much better.  As a side note, F-Zero was showing on a monitor.  Not playable, but the little footage they showed ended up attracting more attention than Nintendo thought it would and it created a traffic jam.  The game looked inspired by the previous versions but ran liquid smooth.

Mario Sunshine - Mario is in a resort town when the adventure begins.  This game has a very strong Mario 64 flavor.  Controls are nearly the same with the addition of the water gun/water jetpack.  There are camera problems, like before.  If you were able to deal with it in Mario 64, then you'll be alright, if you weren't, then...sorry.  The game is very colorful and was fun.  Besides the spinning camera and blind views getting stuck behind a wall, the only minor complaint is the complete lack of anti-aliasing in the game.  Every polygon appears to have a jagged edge and it makes me wonder if the designers think we won't notice.  Other than that, it will likely be a solid game.

Zelda - When the Gamecube could clearly make link look like this, why in the hell would they make him look like he is special?  Cell shading technology looks fine depending on what you are trying to do. The environment actually isn't that bad, but link looks like a reject, and I don't want to play the game because of that.  The game played similar to the N64 Zelda games, but everything had a really cartoony look to it.  While not bad, it is not unique either.  For some reason, some people love it, but I am part of a large group that dislikes it.   Sorry Nintendo.

Metroid Prime - I was a Metroid fan back in the day, playing and beating the original on the NES.  Nintendo decided to go 3D with their most recent version of the game.  After playing the game for just a little while I felt like it was a very typical 3D shooter.  Graphics were average and game play was also average.  Nothing wrong with it, but it certainly is not unique. Maybe it's just me, but FPS games are better on PCs.  If you could compare this to Doom 3, you would get a good laugh.  Die hard fans will likely have fun with it, otherwise I'd pass.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - At first glance I thought it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the Resident Evil mansion.  Apparently there are different times you visit while exploring and fighting undead monsters. You were able to cut off the head, then the arms of skeletons and they would keep coming until you 'finished them' with a spear maneuver.  Later I saw a Roman soldier in a crypt exploring as well.  Graphics were very gothic and dark, but good overall, so it will appeal to a nitch audience.  The game play seemed a little dry, but the game was pretty, so I figured I'd include it in my report.