Comic Con has never been a place to make new announcements or unveil any big surprises, but its still a nice little convention that gives the public (along with the press) access to early builds of games usually presented at E3 first.
I was fortunate enough to meet up with the 1up crew (thanks for the invite, Tina!) on Saturday and they got me into the sold-out event to try out a few upcoming titles:
Street Fighter 4
Capcom’s latest in the Street Fighter series seems a bit confused: it updates the visuals to a beautiful cel-shaded look but scales back the complexity introduced in the Street Fighter III games. Regardless, I sat down with with the arcade version of the fighter and won a match against 1up’s Tina Sanchez…which she claims happened because she answered a phone call. By “claims,” I mean she actually received a call.
Judging by the one match I played, fans will be happy with the game as the characters animate well and and the graphics add a welcoming sheen to the experience. It might feel like a nod to Street Fighter II, but I came away impressed with the brief demonstration.
Soulcalibur 4
I tried the game out on Saturday (and beat Tina with the maybe-cheap Yoda), but it’s already out so its kind of meaningless to give impressions of a game available now. So go ahead, buy the game and stay tuned to Kezins’s review of the game shortly.
Mega Man 9
The theme with the upcoming Mega Man game seems to be “retro devolved” in that the title is presented in graphics reminiscent of the 8-bit era. Yes, they didn’t even go with the just-as-retro 16-bit visuals. Regardless, trying out the two levels at Comic Con reminded me just how fun the gameplay still is for the revered series.
Makes me want to bust out my copy of Mega Man: Powered Up and Mega Man Collection to play and ready up for the incoming DLC game. It might have ancient 8-bit stylings, but the game appears to be just as hard and fun as you remember it to be.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
The line to this game seriously tested my patience but it was all worth it. I played what seemed like the first level of the game as Darth Vader knights his “Secret Apprentice,” and sends him out on his first mission.
From my playthrough, the force powers were well-implemented and could be used freely until your “force meter” winds down. Enemies, doors, hinges, barrels, etc. can all be manipulated and flung around at will. I had tons of fun pulling out bars where X-Wing fighters were zooming past and exploding right into my little “speed bump.”
Afro Samurai
This game based on the popular Spike TV show, Afro Samurai, which features the foul-mouth Samuel L. Jackson follows the American-anime’s art style perfectly. Plenty of dark colors and Japanese huts abound while you take down enemies in the streets.
While the controls made use of simple commands such as a slow-down, kick, and punch button the number of enemies forced me to vary up my combos a bit. The gameplay is said to be influenced by the soundtrack, but Comic Con’s noisy setting wasn’t ideal for experiencing this. So far, so good, though.
Dark Void
I got to play this game only briefly, but judging by that I noticed that the framerate wasn’t too good. Which isn’t a big deal, because the framerate is the final thing to get optimized in a game’s development.
Other than that, it played a bit like Gears of War with less gruesome kills and animations. I’ll be taking a wait-and-see approach with this game.
Castle Crashers
The full extent of how much I played the game can be wrapped up with this: I got my hands on the demo’s Xbox 360 controller and…that was it. The demo had been crowded up by 3 other players already and their wayward friend came up to me and ask “If I’d mind.”
I did mind, but decided to not be a jerk and gave up the controller, letting him experience the game with his friends. Eww. The game’s out August 27 on XBLA, though, so no biggie.
Well, that’s about all I played. Everything else was either really crowded or comic book-related; sadly, I had very little knowledge on them “graphic novels” to appreciate that aspect of the convention. I might just read up for next year’s show.
I blogged. Tina blogged. Check out the posts and comment, if you will.
written by Carlos Macias
\\ tags: Afro, bit, call, Con, Con Comic, event, Fighter, Force, framerate, fun, game, Gameplay, man, match, Samuel L. Jackson, Saturday, series, Street, Tina
Drink plenty of beer and light a sparkler or two…
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