Well, if you somehow managed to get through all four of last week’s new releases and are somehow bored again, well, it being a slow week again has to especially suck. But at least there’s a failed franchise reborn and a taste of what’s “standard fare” in Japan…
Hey, remember Spore? From uber game designer Will Wright, which was supposed to be the next big thing? It didn’t quite work out that way… but the franchise at least has another lease on life, perhaps with Darkspore. It’s been described as Spore meets Diablo; truth be told, I personally see very little of the former, other than the similar character and world designs. But in action, it does seem pretty Diablo-esque; the key difference between this and Blizzard’s classic action RPG title seems to be an emphasis on cooperative and player vs player action. Oh, that and the sci-fi digs. PC
Meanwhile in Japan, do you know what’s popular? Lots of stuff: cute little anime girls… frantic shoot ’em ups (called “shmups” by the cool kids, aka dorks on the Internet)… witchcraft. Whereas the indie game scene here in America has produced such fare as Portal and Sword & Sworcery, in the land of the rising sun, you have a literal mountain of titles that combine the aforementioned three. And Trouble Witches Neo is the first real taste that us Westerners have had of this wonderful genre of gaming (with the sole exception being Death Smiles from last year). Don’t let the saccharine looks fool you, the action is about as frantic and hardcore as it gets. Xbox 360