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The night before E3, come to think of it, I played Playboy Pinball at an arcade near UCLA. I managed to jank some free balls out of it. It was awesome. I played for like a half an hour. That, however, has nothing to do with anything. Ahem.
Pinball is the kind of game I could pop in my Gameboy Advance and play at any time, so I'll probably get the new Pokémon pinball, which just beats out Sonic Pinball Party as the pinball game of the year award.
I might even get Mario and Donkey Kong, too. If you remember the old Donkey Kong for Gameboy, you have a good idea how this one works. There are hundreds of puzzle-like stages involving you as Mario trying to reach a key, and then a door. The gameplay is classic Donkey Kong, and that should be good enough for most people. My pal Joe and I were waiting in line when what you might call a "Booth Babe" found us and presented us with a GBASP each. Mine had Mario and Donkey Kong. His had an episode of Kirby playing on it. He asked her what the video format was. She didn't know. We couldn't guess. The line for F-Zero AX was long, so we talked to this girl for a while. Turns out she went to college in Japan, and had met Shigeru Miyamoto twice. I gave her my business card for the hell of it. Another girl in a tight shirt came by, and she had Donkey Kong Country for GBA. That's Electronic Gaming Monthly's Game of the Year 1994, you know -- it beat Super Metroid. I find I still don't like it all too much. I mean, really. You have to roll off the edge of every platform before making a jump. Why not just put the platforms closer together? Technique for technique's sake does not technically a game make.
After more F-Zero, I played Metroid: Zero Mission, and came to understand why Super Metroid had beat out all comers for Electronic Gaming Monthly's #1 game of all-time in 2001. Now, though, in this remake of the original Metroid, Samus can climb. Space Pirates infest the planet Zebes. It plays like Metroid Fusion, only I can see the game, because it's on a television screen. Playing this revamped classic got me in the mood to start playing more complex things on my GBA. Hell, you know what? Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? Fire Emblem? Super Mario Bros. 3 (if it get its act together)? Pokémon Pinball? Hell, I'm going to be half an asshole, and give GameBoy Advance the best lineup for 2003 award, for wanting me to play complicated yet non-Pokémon games in my Tokyo trains.
How much more complex Mario and Luigi is than other GBA games, I can't quite tell you. It's a simple RPG, in which you control both Luigi and Mario. The A button makes Mario jump. The B button does the same for Luigi. The levels require teamwork. I can't tell you how the hell it's going to turn out -- all I can say is that it's nice to be able to play a GBA game that doesn't require reflexes.
It's probably nicer, though, to own a GBA game that requires reflexes, yet you will never play. Yes, this means that my main man Doug Jones got Koji Igarashi to sign his copy of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, which rocks for him. What rocks for everyone is that the game kicks ass. It was one of the few completed games playable in the Konami booth, in fact. I spent a little bit of time with it, and I like it, even if it makes me wish that the first Castlevania set in the future would be set in a ridiculous and/or outlandish future. I want robot skeleton knights or something. Eric-Jon, Doug, and I thought of a few possibilities for more modern Castlevania titles -- maybe you're a trenchcoat-wearing Belmont in the 1920s jazz-themed "Jam Session of Depression," or maybe you're electric-guitar-wielding "R0xx0r Belmont" in "Rock Show in the Shadows." Maybe they could get Japanese rocker Gackt to do the music for the latter game, and make it for PS2? Or maybe they could get The High-Lows' Hiroto Kohmoto to do the blues-punk-rock soundtrack for Melody of Massacre. (Ten Insert Credit Bonus Points for the first person to email me proof that they get the connection). As long as they make a Castlevania game where the title has some actual connection to the game's story, I'll be happy.
Igarashi complained a while back about "running out" of musical terms with which to title his games. This is kind of depressing -- it shows how haphazardly the titles are handed out. Either way, the new PS2 Castlevania has been titled Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. The trailer impressed me from the beginning. It's very clear about what they're doing -- the game is set in the "12th Century," and the hero Leon Belmont seems to be the first of the Belmont family to hunt Dracula. What's more -- and most impressive -- is that Dracula seems to be a real, live (albeit a little bishounen-ish) human being, with lines of dialogue and everything.
The dialogue is a little goofy, and I love it because of that:
"I'll kill you and the night!"
"From this day forward, the Belmont clan will hunt your evil!"
It gives us a nice definite hero-villain relationship right from the start. And it wins Leon Belmont the best new game hero award. You thought I was going to give it to Billy Hatcher of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg? While that game certainly doesn't suck, I have to say hell no on the hero. Leon has a strong villain -- a human Dracula, and some of the richest, over-the-toppest game dialogue I've ever heard.
It's fitting that the first Castlevania for PS2 jumps so far back in the series time line. As for how it plays -- it's just as fitting that the game is a linear adventure, with rooms and levels and minibosses and bosses all laid out in front of me. While some dumb people might already be calling it Devil May Castlevania, I admire the linear approach. Let's remember that the original Castlevania was quite linear. Let's also remember that the last Castlevania to make an attempt at both 3D and nonlinear structure fell flat on its face and broke its nose. I'd let Igarashi make two linear 3D Castlevania games before finally making that "next-generation successor" to Symphony of the Night that everyone's been dying for. Already, with Lament of Innocence, I've seen a few more interesting things happening with 3D than have been happening in recent years. I like the whip combo system. I like having weak and strong attack buttons in addition to being able to block and jump. The first boss -- a golem that breaks apart a piece at a time -- is a bit of a thrill. Platforming in 3D is looking to be precise. I eagerly await this one.
[next: Sometime in July]
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