I haven't posted here in years, but I have been moved to.
2009 and 2008 were pretty slow nintendo wise, but next year is shaping up to be amazing.
First of all, there's:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=17392
This could potentially be dsiappointing. The trailer doesn't really have a Metroid feel to it at all- something I think the last prime game also lacked- that sense of isolation. But, I'm open to being pleasantly surprised.
Secondly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBVUEYaYx54&feature=fvst
This is one of those trailers with all the boring bits kept in, so it's very "mario jumps on switch", "mario collects things", "mario goes swimming"- but, really, who cares? It's mario galaxy+Yoshi, so it's going to be a lot of fun.
But, most of all, i'm looking forward to:
http://au.ds.ign.com/dor/objects/949592/golden-sun-ds/videos/goldensun_ds_trl_e3.html;jsessionid=1ktm1q5lt2vv0
I had given up hope of this happening- which is silly, because it's only been, what? 6 or 7 years?
But god, it looks worth it. Golden sun is one of those series that one gets attached to pretty easily, maybe it's just because I was 11 when the I got the first one- a very impressionable age, in videogame terms.
1- Could be good. Too early to say.
2- Oh hells yes. Galaxy is probably my fave game this gen.
3- My skin tingled during the GS DS trailer. The first 2 games were 2 of the best RPGs I have ever played. Got very high hopes for this one.
Looking forward to Mario Galaxy 2 the most, just hope they haven't rushed it, although it looks pretty promising. GS DS looks lovely too, loved the original game's charm and graphics.
Metroid:
Lets completely throw out the window the concept of it being a "metroid" game. From ninja gaiden's team, hell, at best its going to be a "Metroid Flavored Hack n Slash" sort of thing. If they attempt to actually make a metroidvania game with that kind of perspective/gameplay/theme, it will be a dismal failure along the lines of the CD-I zelda games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE0BgpVJl8Q
Frankly, I'd give it a 40% chance of utter suck, a 30% chance of being mediocre, and a 30% chance of being "good". And a 0% chance of being a classic
Mario:
How could they possibly mess it up? Its one of the damn best engines there is out there, and its obviously not going to try to break new ground, so it will just be like an overpriced expansion pack with lots of new content. Too much of a good thing ruins it, sure, but a second title won't do that on its own. I'd much rather hear the team going on to produce a new excellent franchise, but obviously they like to just rehash the past over and over and over and over again, which is all nintendo does these days.
Now if only they got ride of the imagery of mario humping the head off yoshi as they fly through space
Golden Sun DS:
There are only 2 bad things that could possibly ever be said about that announcement:
A) It still won't be enough to make me buy a DS. Sorry
B) It took them long enough
Golden sun was one of those games that was impressive because of what it accomplished with limited hardware, and a combination of excellent quality and depth on top of absurd epic scale size. But it completely lacked any mention of pushing the envelop; it was just sort of like a very well done final fantasy game, and despite being one of the better made games of all time, it didnt really do anything we hadnt seen in 50 other games before it. Which makes me fear that Golden Sun DS is going to feel very... familiar :X
Golden Sun 2 was great but it lost a bit of its charm when you realized you were just playing Golden Sun 1 revamped, heh.
i love how its "2010 in games" and then suddenly its all nintendo based. hey nintendo released a new ds so something did actually happen in the world of the big n.
can we talk about interesting things now aka 360/ps3?
I'm still too disappointed by Spore and Fallout 3 to look forward to games in the next year. Not a good time for the PC, I suppose. I'm going back to playing Jagged Alliance 1 and X-Com: UFO Defense next year, might buy a copy of Rome: Total War while I'm at it.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I haven't seen anything that looks interesting yet, not really keeping up with new releases. Been disappointed with most of what I was looking forward to, recently, especially Spore... shallow, casual tripe. I have no idea how they made a game with such limitless customization so linear and repetitive Enough Spore ranting.
Only game I'm really looking forward to is Mortal Online. Taking a great leap forward for MMORPGs. I hope it catches on and Dev's stop producing the same utter mulch they have been for far too long.
And they need to stop making shooter games, and start making stuff more like Trine. If you have Steam, get the demo. It's a step in the right direction at the very least.
Oh, and I don't want to see any more abstract crap, or any setting just because it's 'cool'. I don't know, I don't care, just give me something interesting, even poetic, clever, inspiring, something that is entirely self-contained, far away from popular media and current trends.
Give me settings like Cortex Command, where it inter-locks with the game mechanics perfectly. Give me another Link to the Past! Give me an open-world Pokemon game that sticks as close to the series as possible, with no numbers (huge distraction, hate them). Give me an emotional connection. Challenge me to find my own way around obstacles. Give me a world with rules to find out, and even let me break a few of them. Give me an epic climax. Make me truly feel like a Hero.
Ok, maybe I do know and I do care. There's so much that can be accomplished if we stop going for the easiest, tried and tested, most effective methods. Show a little backbone, we're smart, we can do better! Someday I'll step in and show everyone, I just need to be in a leading position with devout followers.
I don't even want to make money, I want games to start shining as an art form. Not because of the graphical work, or the narrative, or audio - nothing about media, that's a pretty shallow way to claim games as art. The artistic value in games is in the way they flow, how your decisions affect what happens, the intricacy of the underlying mechanics, just about everything that you don't see or even think about whilst playing.
Yep, I'm a nerd. I just deleted a big paragraph explaining what can be said in a few words, though you likely won't get what I mean or agree with it without those side tidbits. Regardless, my thoughts:
Forget the "art form" crap!
And I still sit here trying to keep myself from adding on. It is the most succinct version.
I know, I'm bored of the art form crap, too. But it's the best way I could think of to describe what I'm looking for, if that makes any sense. I could care less about art, or things becoming art. What did I even write? Am I contradicting myself too much? Forget the last big paragraph and anything previously said about art. Games are games. Art is... I don't know. Centuries of debate has gotten us nowhere, and now I'm just running in circles.
Maybe I can sum up what I want in a few words too...
I want something worth playing.
I had to try really hard not to add on to that.
Edit: Congrats on becoming an admin, glad they chose you