SEEEEeeeeeGAA!! ( SEGA holds a Pre-E3 First Look!)

E3 is on its way, promising to bring us everything it always does: big announcements, new info on old announcements, a bunch of weird new devices and ideas in the smaller halls, fresh pictures of cosplay great and terrible, and of course booth babes!

But for many of the major developers E3, as massive as it is, isn’t enough. They want the press to have a slightly more informed opinion of their games if they can manage it. It’s not out of an altruistic trend of giving you the truth, but rather just a practical concern.  It’s frakking hard to coalesce a single thought amid the noise of the circus and the ogling of the ladies that comes with E3 proper, it’s best to have as much stuff as possible covered beforehand.

As a result, many of these developers hold pre-E3 press junkets and reveals. One such event was held last Wednesday by Sega at the beautiful Fairmont Hotel in downtown Santa Monica. Both I and your Grand Master Geekscapist gamer Josh Jackson were on hand! We did it for you, our loyal readers. There’s no need to thank us, but if you insist, make all checks out to cash and send them our way.

Of course there’s some stuff we can’t talk about quite yet, not until during or after the big show starts anyway. Otherwise the microbombs that Sonic Team implanted into our necks will explode. So this will probably be the first in a two-parter. That being said, here are Geekscape’s first impressions on a few games coming from the house that the hedgehog built:

Sonic Generations –

 Xbox 360, Playstation 3. For Holiday Release 2011

Adam’s Impressions:

This last April, Sega’s unveiled an initial glimpse of the first serious attempt by Sonic Team to apologize for the last decade.  It’s a game that seemingly has something for everyone from the best bits of Sonic the Hedgehog. You have traditional 2D levels ripped straight out of the original Genesis era featuring the “classic” version of the character, and the 3D-esque/Camera-behind-the-blue-furred-speedster segments of the Dreamcast versions of our favorite “platforming protagonist with attitude”. But does it truly succeed at combining two great tastes that taste great together?

Visually, very much so! The levels, character models and animations are gorgeous renditions that really bring a lot of colorful life to the screen, truly popping. Plus the demo levels on display were running smoother than a well-oiled baby’s bottom (not sure why you’d want to do that though).

But there is a fatal flaw. It’s a weird thing that you wouldn’t think would impact it as much as it does, but the effect is there: Sonic is too small.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the chili-dog lovin’ Hog needs to be gigantic or anything, but here he seems tiny compared to enemies we’ve all fought before.  At first this just seems a bit odd, but then you realize that the game is running on two different scales, and that it actually effects gameplay VERY negatively.

Basically, the camera (in the 2D levels) is positioned so that Sonic’s traditional screen ratio from the Genesis games is preserved, but the levels (and enemies) feel too large. It’s almost like in the Mario Bros 3 level where all the Goombas are gigantic, but not quite as extreme. This means that as you run through levels faster than the speed of sound, you have less reaction time to react to changing terrain or incoming enemies since they take up more screen space. Pulling back the camera a bit would fix this, but then Sonic himself would appear teeny. It’s a weird problem, and relatively easily fixed, but it leads to both a more incoherent playing through of a level and just hampers the “feel” of the game from truly capturing the classic approach they’re going for here. Hopefully it’s rectified by the time of release, but something tells me that it won’t be, and then we’re just going to have another Sonic 4, Episode 1, a solid attempt at greatness, but missing the key components to make it work the way it should.

Josh’s Impressions:

While the scale of the characters didn’t affect my opinion of the game as much as it did Adam, it was pretty distracting during the 2D sections. Speeding through the classic Green Hill Zone might have taken me back to a time where Sonic was… what’s that word? Oh yeah, good. Sorry, it’s been awhile since “Sonic” and “Good” went together. But something did feel off. The physics are much closer to the originals than Sonic 4, but I don’t know if it was the scale, or if it felt different to play… but it didn’t completely capture the feel of the old games like it’s trying to do. Not that it didn’t stop me from having a blast during the short time I had with it, but if they’re going for a Genesis feel, something needs to be tweaked.

My biggest concerns so far are in the 3D stages. Anyone who has played Unleashed on 360 or Sonic Colors on Wii last year knows what to expect. The newer Sonic with the long spikes and plenty of attitude sped across a 3D modeled Green Hill Zone, with the perspective switching from 3D to 2D. It played really well, so well that I almost forgot about 3D Sonic’s biggest flaw, which was trial and error game play that had you running so fast, you’d crash into hazards and run off cliffs faster than you can say Sonic 06. Colors had warning signs that gave you a hint that certain doom was upon you, but that was nowhere to be seen here. Oh, on a side note, sliding under obstacles brought the hedgehog to a slow grind which screwed up the pace, but I was assured that some of these problems would be fixed by the time the final release.

Hey, as long as Sonic doesn’t fall in love with a human girl again, I think we’re A-OK.

Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games – 

Nintendo Wii. Release date TBA.

Adam’s Impressions:

This entry from Sega is a perfect example of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy. We have the huge cast of characters you would expect from both the Mario and Sonic franchises preforming in a bunch of fun Olympic events. Of course you do get a few oddball characters most would rather forget about showing up here (like Silver and Shadow the Hedgehog . . . ugh) but if they have to exist, I’d rather they keep Waluigi company in party game land than ever show up in another “real” game. 

I got to try my hand at horse-riding, Badminton and canoeing, and what can I say? All of them played great, kept a cheery, casual air about them, and were just plain fun! The equestrian event was easily the most complicated of the three, requiring a good sense of timing to accomplish as your horse goes through a routine, but it worked well and I couldn’t help myself from cracking a smile or two. The paddling section was perhaps a bit too easy to accomplish (just get into a simple rhythm of sharp waggles) and didn’t have much too it, but hey what are you expecting here.

Talking to Sega PR, it seems a serious attempt was made to include as many new events as they could, and excise any previous events that could be considered boring. To this end, they’re also including a bunch of “Dream Events” that are perfectly suited to four-player couch-based partying, at the cost of shall we say . . . accuracy?  Not that there can be too much Olympic Accuracy when you’ve got anthropomorphic marsupials competing against fire breathing dragons and mushroom men, but these events decide to just go into the realm of “we don’t give a **** as long as it’s fun!”

The couple on display succeeded on this score rather well, but I have to have something for Josh to talk about, so take it away J-Man!

Josh’s Impressions :

I pretty much agree with everything you said, Adam. The effort to cut out the boring events showed, so gone are the exciting matches consisting of pressing A once every three seconds until one of the two pass out from boredom.

On the Wii, I got a chance to try out Badminton and the two dream events on display, Discus and the Long Jump. Badminton worked well, but was might as well have been renamed Wii Sports Tennis, since it played very similarly. The real excitement came from the dream events, which brought a Mario Party feel. Which is good since it was more Mario Party 4 and less Mario Party 8. Discus had the characters flying on giant discs while trying to slow down their opponents in a type of race, where as the long jump had the characters jumping off of smiling clouds while trying to sabotage the other contestants and become the last man, (or animal,) standing. I’m hoping these get a lot of attention, because lets face it. Mario and Sonic are known for power stars and robots powered by woodland creatures, not horse riding, (which still feels weird. You know… watching an animal ride another animal…)

(Editor’s Note: if you think that’s weird, I’m going to warn you away from Bibbiani’s porn collection)

Not to miss a great opportunity, the game was also playable for the 3DS. Remember all that good stuff we said about the Wii version? The 3DS took all of that and decided it wasn’t necessary. These games sell millions anyway, right? Not to say it was all bad, but some of the events like rubbing the screen in rhythm to power walk were pretty shallow. The more memorable events used the features of the 3DS quite well, like tilting the system for the balance beam events and controlling your breathing during the breaststroke event. Other features like Streetpass and Mii support aren’t finalized yet, but more details should surface during the event. At the very least, it’s the closest most of us will get to Knuckles Chaotix.

Guardian Heroes & SEGA Rally Online Arcade –

Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, Fall Release for 2011 (for GH) and OUT NOW (for SROA)

Adam’s Impressions :

Not content with just bringing back “classic” Sonic, Sega is bringing some more hardcore nostalgia back to the fold with two originally-on-the-Saturn downloadable releases later this year: Guardian Heroes and Sega Rally.

One thing they probably won’t bring back: Guardian Heroes’ unfortunate cover art:

Yeah. About that . . .

Now both were pretty much what you would expect of them, Sega Rally Online Arcade was well, Sega Rally. It’s going to feature the standard modern updates you would expect, like updated graphics and online multiplayer and . . . oh hey. It looks like it’s already out actually! You can go and check out the demo, and know for yourself! Oh and it does have the one thing we all remember Sega Rally for:

“GAAAAMMEE OVAH YEEEEEEEAAAAAAaaaHhhh!!”

Guardian Heroes on the other hand . . . this was a bit more interesting, mostly because Treasure, the original developers themselves were in charge of this port. If the name Treasure doesn’t mean anything to you, I’m sorry, you’ve been missing out on some of the world’s best and most unique 2D gaming! Guardian Heroes is one of their better and more bizarre efforts, and this version looks to retain everything the original had with few changes, for better or worse. This adherence to the original is probably best seen in the game’s classic mode which keeps in the pixilation of the Saturn version! Of course if you’d rather have your 2D sprites smoothed out a bit, you can just turn that on thankfully.

It has an odd control scheme considering modern controllers (no button to jump, just press up on the stick) and a crazy 2D brawler with a 3D element of switching between parallax planes. It also has some simple RPG elements which were WAY ahead of its time, and in some ways still are. When was the last time you played a 2D brawler that had multiple paths and branching story decisions complete with a plethora of endings? Oh wait, that’s right. NEVER.

If you’re a fan of the original but lost the disc, or your Saturn finally breathed its last breath, well fret no further! If you’ve never heard of this game, but have enjoyed other 2D brawlers in the past, check it out when it hits this fall! If you refuse to give Guardian Heroes a shot, then at least check out some other Treasure games, like Mischief Makers or Gunstar Heroes, or Ikaruga, or Bangai-O! If you refuse to check out any of those . . . I’m revoking your right to call yourself a gamer. 

Josh’s Impressions :

Seeing both of these titles were pretty surprising to me. I thought Sega Rally had all but been abandoned, but there it was in all its updated, muddy glory. My time with it was arcade racing at its finest, with gorgeous graphics and tight controls to match the terrain effects on the cars. I was expecting to have to pay a pretty penny for a game with such high production values… until Sega PR told me it was an arcade game and was just released the day before on Xbox Live for $10. Seriously, do yourself a favor and download the demo like Adam said. Or… you can stay tuned to Geekscape for our upcoming review! /shameless plug.

Guardian Heroes was just what you would expect from a Treasure game. Simple on the outside, deep on the inside and so much going on, you’ll be like dude, can’t handle it. Outdated Sheen quotes aside, the game uses quite a bit of strategy, which showed since during my short time with the demo, I had to reallocate stats for my warrior and choose different paths that would affect the outcome of the story. The multi-tiered battlefields abilities and the variety of enemy types put some of today’s games to shame, which is impressive considering the game is over a decade old and a 2D sidescroller. But that’s Treasure for you. I’m already calling it, this will be one of the XBLA and PSN downloads of the year… assuming PSN doesn’t get hacked again.

CRUSH 3D –

Adam’s Impressions:

Actually . . . I kind of missed this one when I was there. Too busy checking out Ris– GAAAHH!

Ow! These microbombs actually shock you if you even attempt to mention one of the games I can’t talk about yet. Huh. Good to know.

Well, you got to play this some, right Josh?

Josh’s Impressions :

Wow… I was wondering why they needed to “inject” us with our “badges” when we arrived. Anyway, yes, I got quite a bit of time with it! CRUSH 3D is a puzzle platformer that is a spiritual successor to the original CRUSH on the PSP. Never heard of it? Well, don’t feel bad, neither did I.

The concept surrounds a boy who is a test subject for a mad doctor and his new device, (hmm… sounds like those microbombs.) Traversing the inner sanctum of the character’s mind, he has the simple task of collecting enough pick ups to open the exit and move on to the next stage. What’s so special about that? I’m glad you asked, because in order to move on, players need to “crush” the environment.

By manipulating the environment, the stage can be shifted from 3D to 2D. So if there’s nowhere to walk but there’s a platform in the background, switch it to 2D and everything in the foreground and background will fall into place. Never has rotating the camera been so important, because depending on the view, the platforms will fall into place differently and might even open up paths to secret items that will boost your rank.

If that explanation sucked, you try doing better! Seriously though, the game is really unique, and is one of those games that need to be seen to fully get. Sega promised to have a type of level trading feature through Streetpass, so the game’s on track to be in your 3D handheld for a long time. I even overheard some of the other people trying it say that the puzzle solving reminded them of Portal, which is a pretty high compliment in this Geekscapist’s eyes. Even the dialogue was pretty funny! I can’t wait until it spawns T-shirts and Internet catch phrases. “The CRUSH is a lie…”

Please Josh I hope not. I think I’ve pretty much had my fill of cake.

As have most. But CRUSH 3D (not going for “3DS”? I marvel at the restraint) sorta seems like the last Paper Mario or possibly the long awaited Fez. Which, by the way, it that game isn’t out soon I am officially dubbing “Fezever”. . .  Because it’s taking a long time for it to come out. Like forever. That was a joke.

Oy, this comedy is hard. Anyways, that should just about cover it for us. I really, really, really want to geek out and talk about some of the “other stuff” we saw. Things that included some sort of “American” in a position that you would normally associate with boating . . . or crunchberries, but alas, we cannot! The threat goes beyond just our heads exploding, we are could get turned into a hit series slowly ground down to our barest bits and turning less and less profit as time goes on, as nostalgic fans desperately cling to us, wanting to return to a time when we were great, but hating every subsequent attempt that keeps straying further and further from what made us great originally, until we’re forced to reboot in what some would call a desperate last gamble to return us to relevance !

Considering it’s Sega that we’re dealing with here, I ‘m taking that threat seriously. So anyway, until the big show starts:

I’m Adam.

And I’m Josh.

And we’re signing off for now Geekscapists!