Namco Bandai at Comic Con
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010By Eddy
Yeah, I know it’s been almost a month since Comic Con ended, but we saved the best for last. Our Final installment of our Comic Con experience brings us to one of our favorite video game developers, Namco Bandai. This year, they certainly had a great line up available for us to try out.
Dragonball Z: Raging Blast 2
The first being one of my favorite shows from college, Dragon Ball Z. D can attest that my friends and I wasted many hours watching these shows from Japan. DBZ has also carved itself a nice little niche in the video game world. Their latest offering is Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast 2 . Including 90 different playable character you can literally be any and every character from the series, which means classic battles can be recreated at will. On top of that, with new updated graphics on the PS3 and Xbox 360 as well as a smooth battle system that is definitely an improvement over the last game.
At Comic Con, I got the opportunity to talk with one of the producers of the game. We talked about the impact that DBZ has had, and how this new game improves over the games of the past. He pointed out that the camera tracking the action has improved and follows the fighting much more accurately and smoothly, keeping both fighters in the frame at the same time. On top of it all the original Japanese voice actors are in the game blurring the line between where the game starts and the show begins. The only downside is that about 80% of the cast of character won’t be very fun to play with unless you are truly a hardcore fan. For a more casual gamer, it might be hit or miss when picking a fighter, but overall it looked and played great. Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast 2 will be available in late 2010 on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Enslaved
This is Namco Bandai foray in to the action adventure genre. Taking place in a post apocalyptic America, full of ruined cities overflowing with trees and jungles, we follow the escape of Trip and Monkey from a mysterious slave ship taking them out West. Trip, a female tech genius, modifies the head bands originally used to enslave them to the ship-owners to trap Monkey so that he will help lead her to safety. Players are put in the control of Monkey, who must ensure that Trip survives as well as he, using his various martial arts and MMA moves. The games make use this relationship to create a strategic element to the game, players must now weigh weather direct conflict with the bad guys is the right option depending on how well you can protect Trip as well as forcing you to use team work to overcome various obstacles. The thing that has me really excited is that Enslaved was developed by the same creators of Heavenly Sword , which for those who are familiar with video games was both a commercial and critical success.
It usually takes me some time to warm up to games and their controls. I am definitely not a quick learner when it comes to pushing the right buttons and figuring out the functionality, but once I do I can be sucked in quickly. So when I demoed Enslaved , it took a bit of coaching from the PR person for me to pick up the basics, especially the teamwork controls, but even running around the environment blindly as I did kicking robot body was a satisfying experience. Enslaved comes out on October 8th for both PS3 and Xbox 360.
Splatterhouse
No, this is definitely not your older brother’s Splatterhouse . In fact, at first glance you would be hard press to find anything similar other than the premise. Far from the 2D horror that started in 1988 and spawned a number of sequels, the new Splatterhouse takes us back to the beginning but with a new updated 3D point of view. Hardcore fans should not fret though, all the bloody fantastic action will happen but on a more graphic and visual level, rivers of blood flow as you fight your way through the movie. Obviously, playing a character that is transformed into a beefed up super hulk in a Jason Mask isn’t going to lead to a game about picking daisies in a field, well unless those daisies are demons and you get tear them apart in your bare hands. In addition to the aforementioned hands are meat cleavers, two by fours as well as other objects of mayhem.
When I say a preview it was as if the elevator doors in The Shining had just opened up. Suffice it to say that the main color of the game was red and it didn’t change much from that point on. Other updates on the classic include actual fighting combos that can be performed with new moves being unlocked as you collect more blood (yes I just said that). I am going to venture to say that this game is not for those who faint at the sight of blood, those with heart conditions nor children or pregnant women. Sign me up!! Splatterhouse comes out this fall for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
