Publisher D3 is coming out with a new Ben 10 racing game. This Mario Kart inspired racer puts a lot of variety to a proven formula to keep it interesting. If you squint you can almost see the turtle shells. The graphics/art direction is pretty stock (no Forza here) but considering the cartoon source material it fits pretty well. The designers also copied a few elements from Mario Kart where you can perform aerial tricks to gain power/speed, and if you power slide your vehicle it rewards you with a power charge. These are all good attempts at stirring the pot, but the characters and racetrack are animated in such a way that it can become a little hard to see the turn ahead as the road sometimes blends into the walls a little too well. As far as multiplayer is concerned you and three “Ben 10ites” can play together, locally only. Given the prevalence of online gaming, this has to have been a corporate funding call. Shortcomings aside they are including an all new character that will have his first appearance in an upcoming episode. That plus all the unlockables (25 tracks, 15 characters) this game will surely keep you busy. Obviously fans of the series will have a more vested interest in this galactic grand prix, but there’s still a solid game here for average gamers.

Ninja Gaiden was one of those games that made a huge splash upon its return back in 2004 for the original Xbox. It’s been 7 years and we are taking a look at the third with a new direction and director at its helm. LVLONE got a chance to get hands on with the game at E3 2011 and we’re surprised to find out that some things have changed.

One of the biggest things to note about this is that it is not a sequel to Ninja Gaiden II, it is a new story with some new mechanics to boot. Now I’ve always been a fan of the franchise and could not wait to see what Team Ninja was going to come up with next but as a seasoned player it felt like diving into a new game of sorts? While we didn’t know much about what was going on, we do know that his energy and crazy moves come from the blood/curse that surrounds his right arm.

What the arm allowed us to do was these hard stab techniques that feel like they came out of anime films like Ninja Scroll. Massive amounts of blood spewing from these hard stab then slice moves. We’ve noticed that some of the moves we’ve grown to love are gone like the roll which has been replaced with a slide. The slide is not a big difference as it does nearly the same thing but can possibly be used as an intro to engage enemies with your moves. The other is the Flying Swallow which allowed you to engage multiple enemies, staggering them so they don’t overwhelm you. It took some time to get used to but it came together.

The game is looking good and while some might not like the fast to slow style from the new cut-through-enemies mechanic I actually thought they looked really slick. One thing I didn’t understand was the lack of dismemberment. Throughout the entire demo I was nearly cutting people in half but nothing was flying off, not even heads. While it would seem minor, it was one of the things that made Ninja Gaiden a bad ass.

The game seems to be coming along ok. There is some work and tweaks it can use but graphically has been bumped up a bit. Team Ninja has some time before the games release so promise is definitely something I see here, dismember in the final build? I certainly hope so.

With Nintendo announcing the 3DS at E3 last year it almost didn’t come as a surprise that they unveiled their newest console to be making its way into homes soon. Officially named Wii U, the focus is not on the console itself but on the controller. They had playable tech demos along with some games to be arriving for the consoles launch next year, we got a chance to check out what this new device is all about at Nintendo’s booth at E3.

The controller boasts a 6.2″ touch screen, a gyroscope, accelerometer, microphone and speakers. It has a camera on the front, triggers in the back and standard buttons on each side making the whole thing resemble a tablet. The first thing we noticed was how light it was, weighting in at no heavier then the 360 controller. The idea is to have a seamless interaction between the TV screen and the controllers touch screen. We here at LVLONE played some of the early tech demos showcasing what the controller can do.

Shield Pose
Pirates on a boat are trying to hit you with plunger tipped arrows and the only way to block them is by using your shield at hand. The concept behind this was to show and call out a set of actions on the TV screen which will then be executed while holding the control tablet. The pirate shouts out commands of where he is launching the arrows from at which point you need to place the control tablet in that section to reflect them, all at a timed beat. With the help of the controllers gyroscope you will almost get a 360 degree view of your surroundings which is how it allows you to block the attacks. As you progress it gets faster, harder and even asks you to dance. This showed an array of promise to games that would have you perform actions to neutralize enemy attacks and so forth.

Chase Mii
This demo played like tag giving all the players the task to chase and catch one person. All of them were dressed like toad with mushroom hats, as the one being chased was dressed like mario. The concept here was how five players can play on one console effectively, while not all having the same experience. Everyone played with Wii-motes looking at the 4-player split screen, while I played with the Wii U controller. When I played the character that needed to be caught on the Wii U controller I not only had my own screen but it also had a map of where everyone was. Everyone was to communicate to catch me while I do what I must to stay away and survive. I don’t remember the last time I had five people play a game in my house at the same time if ever!

Battle Mii
This demo had a Metroid style to it and it was a two vs one battle. The people holding the Wii-motes were these Samus styled shooters split screen on the TV, while the one holding the Wii U controller is a spaceship trying to gun them down in the air. Being the shooter on the ground first your able to collect power ups and turn into the ball to navigate around the arena easier while also trying to find the ship to shoot down. Being the ship with the Wii U controller felt a little awkward as you had to use the accelerometer to control the ships navigation. I got somewhat used to it but still felt clunky at the end.

Since the announcement of the Wii U at Nintendo’s press conference some people including myself had been skeptical on how this thing would play out. I see the promise and ideas of where Nintendo is trying to go with this. It is to early to tell if all gamers will accept the concept but expect more info and news of games to surface in the future. I’m thinking this is only the tip of the iceberg for the Wii U and the avalanche is coming soon!

Chase Mii is game that put 4 players with Wiimotes against 1 player who has the Wii U tablet controller. The players are all in a maze and the 4 players with Wiimotes have to find and catch the 1 player, however the player with the Wii U controller has a map of the entire maze and can see where all the other players are.

Shield Pose is a game that has the player withe a Wii U controller blocking arrows being shot at them from enemies. The Wii U controller acts like a shield. Players also have to block the arrows at a rhythm giving the game some extra difficulty.

What is there to say about Golden Eye? Not too much, Golden Eye is Golden Eye. The classic controller layout does improve on the aiming and increases targeting speeds greatly, (thank god for that) which makes game play a lot faster. Character design in the game almost look the exact same from the Nintendo 64, still a little blurry but not as boxy. Throwing Odd Job’s hat never felt so amazing, also playing paintball mode brought back a lot of memories and a lot of nostalgia. True Golden Eye fans will not be disappointed from what Nintendo is bringing back to the table.

The Wii MotionPlus definitely helps with Link’s ability to attack his enemies. The new idea in Skyward Sword is that players have to look at enemies to see how you’re supposed to attack them. The plant creature enemies opened their mouths vertically or horizontally indicating the only direction you could slash them to take them down. This bled into the demo’s boss battle where you’re attacking a giant scorpion with weak spots in each of his giant claws: the arachnid would open his pinchers a certain way, telling the player which way to attack.

The Wii Sports Resort archery mode has been brought to Zelda in his crossbow: to aim and fire you use the Wii remote‘s pointer to target enemies, then flick the Nunchuk back to pull back the string. Letting go of the button lets the arrow fly.

The game has a pretty slick style that combines the “realistic Link” design with “toon Link” shading. It’s much more colorful and vibrant than Twilight Princess.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is scheduled to be released in 2011 for the Wii

Ever since the reactions Harmonix had received for The Beatles Rock Band game, they knew there was a hit on their hands. Green Day Rock Band is set to mimic that success with authentications that not only define the Green Day name but leap forward for the Rock Band franchise. I sat down with lead designer Chris Foster and publicist Stephanie Myers at the MTV headquarters for a hands on of the game.

The Green Day: Rock Band will feature 47 songs including a collection of greatest hits and fan favorites, two from Insomniac, three from Nimrod and two from Warning. Most importantly the band’s most iconic albums Dookie and American Idiot in its entirety, while the third album 21st Century Breakdown can be pared with the six songs that had already been dlc before that for the completion of the record. Green Day made sure they gave fans what they wanted and tried to make the experience as true to Green Day as possible. It was important to include the entire albums of Dookie and American Idiot for that reason. Unlike the Rock Band games before this, Green Day Rock Band features full band motion capturing for all the songs, giving each one a different feel to them.

Like the Beatles Rock Band game all the songs are unlocked from the start. The challenge or maybe longevity of the game may take a hit with some season veterans of Rock Band but no one can deny this pick up and play system works. The game is actually harder then many songs in Rock Band, as some of Green Days songs can get particularly faster, especially on drums. The campaign progression and challenges will have great archival material that can be unlocked, like the Beatles Rock Band game did. Over 100 photos, and 40 minutes of video of all kinds of stuff ranging from interviews, out takes, song performances and unreleased footage. Chris Foster explained how working with MTV obviously gave them the advantage to explore a lot of rare material.

The game focuses on three venues that Green Day has played throughout their career. What I loved was the detail of each venue and the band at that particular moment. I got a chance to play a song from each venue, not only did it give a sense of being there but the style and age was captured for that time period as well. The game looks better then any Rock Band Game before it and with the motion capturing, it moved better as well.

GD: RB is shaping up nicely and is set for release in only two months. Their is no doubt that there are plenty of rhythm based games but its rare to see attention to detail like this. We’re looking forward to the various changes made in this game, along with personally learning more from Green Days catlog. Harmonix’s goal seems to be quality vs quantity and we couldn’t agree more from the results.

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