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We had a short product demo on friday with Sammy Studios, one which primarily covered Lethal Skies II and Seven Samurai 20XX. There was another website in there with us…I won’t name names, but these guys were definitely narcs. Hide your integrity, it’s a raid!! Right.
Lethal Skies II is basically a flight combat game with realistic and sci-fi elements mixed in. It can be played multiplayer, or i-linked with two ps2s. There are more vulcan elements this time round, with an emphasis on dogfighting vs the previous title. The demo we saw was past alpha, but still early. Even so the visuals were very nice...they say that some folks from oddworld Inhabitants and Angel Studios worked on this one. This would clearly explain the high quality of the new CG cutscenes.
And we got some more info regarding Seven Samurai 20XX. For one thing, the story is related to the movie after all. The main character is a ronin samurai in the year 20XX. He must defend a village from invaders; 'humanoids' in this case. He gathers six more samurai, and the rest writes itself.
It plays rather nicely, with an auto-targeting system which allows a good deal of hacking and slashing. A button press brings out a second sword for a limited time, increasing your speed and strength. With earlier enemies it can be a bit mindless – tap, tap, tap the button to destroy any reasonably close enemy within a 90-degree radius. More skill and thought enters in once the bosses approach, and you must face a superior foe with trickier techniques. This is typical Dimps behavior…they’re quite fond of fooling you into thinking that their gameplay is too simple. Remember how people used to say that SNK’s games were too straightforward and lacking in depth? The answer to the complaint was that SNK was all about freedom within structure, and bending of limitations, but making those limitations much more apparent, rather than hiding them. Well – Dimps remembers this too.
There’s more than just hack-and-slash in here too. There are some quick time events, low-level platforming and puzzle action as well. This too is classic Dimps amalgamation. I think they’re a much more sophisticated company than everyone gives them credit for. Just wait until they can make a non-licensed game with their own intellectual properties. It will be quite an experience, or your money back.
After the fuzz left (read: the other website guys), our old pal Meelad (head of PR) came in. I asked him a few questions he couldn’t really answer about the Atomis Wave arcade games that were on display in the booth. There will be much more detailed impressions of these in a couple of days, but I can tell you that Sushi Bar is my Game of Show.
Here’s something for you. Pronunciation of the arcade board goes this way: Atomis Wave. Not aTOMis Wave, as the entire ic staff has been calling it for some time. I’ll assume we’re not alone in this, because conventions of English tell us it would be pronounced this way. One of the benefits of making an arcade board in Japan is that you can completely ignore these conventions. Atomis Wave sounds rather like a superhero to me. But in addition to Sushi Bar, a Puyo-style puzzler with so much more going on – there was Dolphin Blue, the metal slug clone – and DemolishFist, a 3d beat em up. Great stuff. Dolphin Blue is the worst of the bunch, and…it’s not that bad.
Basic word on the street is that these will not hit any consoles any time soon. Ports are not planned now, but that’s not to say that they will not come to pass at some future time. If they do…you will be very happy people. More on this as it comes.
I also asked if they knew of the relationship between SNK and the Atomis Wave board, if any. And further, if any hardware jump was planned. Meelad did not know, but I expected this – he comes from the US side of Sammy, after all. Worth a shot!
But basically, these three Atomis Wave games are just the kinds of titles we complain are missing from the world today. And they’re coming to US arcades very soon.
Sammy’s lineup is looking strong these days, making me wonder about their future. Could they be the next big company to bring us quality localized titles in the US? Our next best source for well-translated strangeness? I certainly hope so.
Brandon Sheffield
I guess I have to address the comment I made during the presentation (in one of the movies) regarding the story, and the classification of the movie as ‘the first great action movie’. The reason I took issue with this is because it was the main justification for taking the movie out of context. It had action in it, make an action game out of it. However, the action in the film was merely a device used to show something greater. The ‘action’ showed the most despicable, dirty and messy aspects of war, violence and pride. This game glorifies it. I’d never take issue with this sort of thing had the comparison not already been made for me.
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