NINTENDO RELEASES INFO ON GAMECUBE GAMES AT E3

Now that E3 has started the first batch of GameCube Screenshots have arrived and info regarding the games that will appear come launch or shortly thereafter. Nintendo has stated that the official release date for GameCube in North America is November 5, 2001. I am still skeptical on this date, however it may come to pass if the Big N has truly been working hard on completing mass production of the system. Honestly, if it actually makes it here by that date, from what I've gathered there will be about as many GameCubes as there were Playstation 2's last year, and we all remember how that went. Do I really want to stand in line, overnight, again? Not really, but if I see justifiable cause to do so I will.

The first info that I've gathered is that Shigeru Miyamoto is working on some game called "Pikmin" Ahh, is it just me or is this a misspelling for "Pokemon?" Alhough the name is so far what I would consider unoriginal, the appearance of the game looks put together well, however the target audience for the game has pretty much been cut off at the 13 year old level. It's a kids game through and through, like Pokemon, and Kirby. Basically it involves a sort of plant-ant mutant cutsey bug on some planet and your little cutesy spaceman crash lands on this planet and you must contact the pikmin in order to retrieve the pieces of your broken spaceship. The pikmin are used to do things and can be plucked out of the ground, coming in three stanges, leaf, bud, and flower. The mortal enemy of the pikmin is a ladybugish looking monster that tries to eat the pikmin. You know what? Is it just me having grown older, or does the premise of this game just suck. I mean, I was hoping the mind of the master could develop a game that is mindblowing, but this? Might as well play another platformer like Rayman, and combine old classic "Lemmings" in there for good measure. Somehow it doesn't seem too original. However I'll wait to see, and make it on my "rent before buy" list if it gets decent ratings when reviewed by gaming sites.

New images of Luigi's Mansion have also appeared. The game looks to be designed very well in a stylistic cartoonish 3-D, another children's title mind you but it looks rather well. Apparently the premise of the plot is that Mario and Luigi won a Mansion as a prize and it turns out the mansion is haunted and under the control of a mad scientist, and Mario disappears and Luigi must look for him encountering spooks in the mansion and going through a whole rootin tootin pile of hijinks. Ahh...yeah.... I guess the game's okay for the kids. I'll probably get this one for Nostalgia's sake and my memories of mario games.

Next we have probably a ca$h in on a classic name, Star Fox: Dinosaur Planet. Okay, it stars the Star Fox characters! Woo. -_- Again the graphics are nice...however... Apparently it's an action game where you fight dino bad guys on a planet somewhere. Now don't get me wrong, but wasn't the whole premise of Star Fox, the thing that made it fun was shooting things in space and dodging all those structures and flying through corridors and stuff. Mind you the cutesy creature characters and plot development of the game was lame to begin with, but the gameplay was excellent and challenging. I have StarFox for the SNES and StarFox 64 for the N64, and I liked the game considerably, however this departure from what I enjoyed about the series may prove to avert my attention to this game. Again another game probably suited for young teens and children.

Finally we come upon the one of the saving graces of the GameCube games I have viewed information on. Metroid Prime. This looks very cool from the few screenshots I've seen. Metroid was a favorite of mine from the NES, GameBoy, and SNES (in the top 5 best games for Super Nintendo). Needless to say I'm overjoyed that they are bringing a sequel to the game to the GameCube. No info as of yet has appeared regarding Metroid Prime's plot. More than likely as E3 continues to develop we will know more and I'll certainly keep everyone posted. From what I've seen of the game visually, I'm impressed, and really happy to see Metroid back better than ever. Samus Aran's suit and spaceship looked very awesome rendered in 3-D.

Another game that looked impressive was WaveRace: Blue Storm. I have WaveRace for the N64, and I was impressed by what it accomplished for it's time in 1996. It was pretty much ahead of the pack in terms of water physics and realism, however the game did lack some things I was looking for but, overall it made for a decent start on the N64. The GameCube version looks to be much more than it's predecessor, and that physics of water indeed, has been enhanced, although is it just me or are those THE SAME COURSES from the first game?

Finally I want to comment on Smash Brother's Melee. Apparently you can play as many characters in this that you couldn't in SSB on N64. You can play as Sheik and princess Zelda (which we all know is technically a contradiction to Zelda 64's plot but oh well), Fox McCloud as well as many of the other Nintendo Characters that have become famous over the years, most of which we did see on Super Smash Bros. It seems you will be able to play with more than two at once as well. The graphics look very good as well.

From what I've gathered there will not be a Zelda for GameCube this year, the soonest I would even expect to see anything would be Late in 2002.

Overall, from what I saw so far the one game that got me stoked for GameCube would be Metroid Prime. That looks awesome. As it were there is also a Metroid game coming out for GameBoy Advance along the lines of the Metroid that we saw on the SNES back in 1993. It was a good game then, and it would seem that the big N is capturing what made that game so great and bringing it alive today. Metroid Prime, if Nintendo doesn't rush the game and turn it into a brief 5 hour wonder, then they are liable to have something great on their hands. I do have to make an observation about Nintendo; they really need to have a little more focus on their games and broadening their spectrum. THere were a pretty good handful of games for the N64, but they were few and far between during the years of 1996 to 2000. Some of Nintendo's financial successes came directly off of Pokemon, Mario Party, and Zelda. Mind you Zelda was a worthwhile game, I can't say that I was overall impressed with Nintendo effort, partly due to the lack of quantity of games for older gamers aside from Goldeneye and Perfect Dark (which took them 3 and a half years to produce ugh...), and the serious lack of RPG's. Nintendo needs the RPG niche to seriously become competative with Playstation and X-Box. One thing that worries me about the future of GameCube is whether Nintendo can muster up enough development power and quality to work on CD/DVD based games. On a cart things were limited. Everything was about cutting corners and making a cute fun game that really didn't last too long. There were a few exceptions to this, however this was a predominant factor on N64 games many of which were plotless platformers. Take for example a comparison between a game like Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy VIII or IX, or Chrono Cross, there's no comparison point. Does Nintendo have capable quantity of enough writers, character designers, artists, 3-D CGI renderers, musicians, and actors to compete with ventures being put forth on Playstation 2 like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Xenosaga, Final Fantasy X, and Silent Hill, or games for the dying Dreamcast like Shenmue? These are what I call the milestone games. I haven't seen Nintendo come anywhere close to what I've seen on Playstation or Dreamcast. Can they do it? They have all the tools now, a powerful system, and no excuses. As a veteran hardcore gamer, from my perspective the next big thrill is going to be Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Shenmue II, and Final Fantasy X. I've heard a lot of bombastic talk from Nintendo chief executives about what GameCube will do, and how it is "just as good" as Playstation 2 and X-Box, but the reality of things is, is that they have an uphill battle in the 14 - 30 year old gaming market. I don't care what your system can do, if the games you have are not something I'm looking for, I as a gamer will be looking elsewhere. System power doesn't always matter. Case in point the original Playstation. For crying out loud, it's a dinosaur, a dated system long overdue for replacement, yet even in it's death throws there are games that truly turn heads like Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Anthology, the upcoming Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI remakes (Interestingly enough previous Super Nintendo franchises) , and Dragon Warror VII. The prevailing mood of this article almost seems one of pessimism toward Nintendo, however I am simply reflecting upon my thoughts as a gamer, a gamer who honestly experienced a few costly disappointments (Quest 64, Crusin' USA, Mario Kart 64, Doom 64, Bomberman 64) with the N64.

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