Today went spent a great deal of time once agin playing some of the hottest upcoming titles, but we also demoed some smaller games that wouldn’t normally see the light of day in the bigger publication. Below you will find some of our day three highlights and the awards we gave out.
‘Best of Portable’ Nominee: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call
While I’m not one to spend much time on the mobile side of gaming (I leave that to the talent C. Butcher) we did stop by the SquareEnix booth and spend some time with their upcoming 3DS lineup.
Final Fantasy Curtain Call was some of the most fun we’ve had with a portable in a long time. Being music lovers, we really appreciated the choices of music from the Final Fantasy series that we got to play with. Yes, this is a rhythm game, but it does feature some cool little additions that keep you on your toes.
The music is what you are going to be coming back for time and time again. The score we played was from the Final Fantasy movie and through the headphones on hand provided for an amazing feat of sound. I found myself tapping my foot along with the beat the entire demo and when it was all said and done wanted to play more.
This isn’t a meaty RPG or adventure game, but it has enough charm to keep a player interested. If you are a Final Fantasy fan or a fan of epics music, you’ll do well to keep this one on your watch list.
‘Most Impressive Mobile Game’ Award: Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for iOS
For having some of the latest phones come int to the office for use and review, we here at GAMbIT do very little gaming on the platform. When you’re in the business that we are, your phone becomes a pseudo laptop keeping our hectic lives in order. After spending some time with Capcom playing some Street Fighter and Monster Hunter on 3DS, we noticed Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for iOS tucked away behind everything.
What we saw though was quite impressive for a mobile game. Freedom Unite was being shown off with a custom joypad (these come in many flavors from many companies) to not only give a full and unobstructed view of the game, but also allowing for more precise controls, the kind that are nearly impossible without physical buttons. We don’t know how Freedom Unite plays without the use of an attached joypad on a small iOS screen, we did see it run on a iOS tablet and it worked well enough. If you have a comparable joypad your phone will do just fine, but if you don’t, then we suggest playing it on your iPad.
‘Coolest Display’ Award: World of Tanks
There are a number of impressive displays on the show floor this year. Some are over the top, while others are more subtle. This World of Tanks display fall in the latter category. There are few things as impressive in person as a tank. While we all know what they look like in movies and television, seeing one up close is always a surprise.
Wargamming.net pulled out all the stops setting up right outside the main entrance with this beast. Not satisfied with just bringing a tank, Wargaming set it up crushing a taxi cab. The display was of course accompanied with booth babes, but we were more focused on our debate. Did the tact cab come pre-crushed, or did the tank run it over just before the door opened?
The ‘Kinect Is Still Totally A Thing’ Award: Fantasia Music Evolved
Fantasia Music Evolved was the only new Kinect game that we saw on the entire show floor. This does not bode well the once touted Kinect add on/not add on/add on once again. We found the game over at the Disney Interactive booth and (as far as we could tell) not at the Xbox booth. Sure, you can expect a plethora of Kinect based games with ‘Dance’ somewhere in the title, Music Evolved is the only original IP of the bunch.
While the game does try and take steps to add some variety to what you are doing (the music manipulation aspects are to be commended) it falls prey to the problem most Kinect games face. That being that you look like a complete tool waving your arms around like a crazy person. You really could swap the name on the display and your motions wouldn’t change all that much.
We are glad that, while you still look odd playing, you are more involved with the game than simply matching silly dance moves. I fear that no matter how fun Fantasia Music Evolved is, the Kinect is far too dead of a platform to see it excel. If the game would have launched alongside the Xbox One we think it would have done a lot to help legitimize the add-on.
‘Best Party’ Award: Nvidia Tent
After walking around for hours on end, talking with developers from all over the world you are going to want to find time to just sit down and relax. Nvidia comes to the rescue with their big tent right across the street from the convention center. Not only can you stop by and grab some free energy drinks, water (alcohol is unhand for the adults), and food, you can also get some time on many of the new games on the floor as well. Sure, we love getting free swag to help decorate the office with, but we love it even more when we can grab some free water and find a place to rest our weary legs. Playing all the games is hard!
Not only did we get to relax, but we also got to demo the Nvidia Shield controller with a new game. The Shield was set up in conjunction with a real life track and had you controlling balls across an arena via the unit. You can think of it like a very tame and safe Battle Bots style of game.
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