E3 Impressions part 1

Klonoa · Post by **Klonoa** » Tue May 22, 2001 9:48 am

Well folks it's the moment you've all been waiting for. My impressions of E3. I'm writing them sooner than expected because I wanted to have an E3 article that I wrote published in the newspaper first. You see, when I go to E3 people who I talk to think I'm there representing a newspaper, not some message board. However, I found out just now that the newspaper isn't going to do an E3 article at all! So I said 'screw it, I'm going ahead with my usual E3 impression write-up on the message boards.'I'm going to do this thing in sections. Why? Well because it would take me forever to write it up all at once and I don't think you all would want to read all that anyway. So today's section is going to be all about the smaller booths and their companies. Meaning the booths that just filled up meeting rooms or scattered around the outer edges of West Hall-where Nintendo, Sega and Sony filled up the most space. I won't even cover anything in Kentia Hall-the ghetto area of E3. In future sections of my E3 impressions, I'll talk about the booths in South Hall (bigger names like Capcom and Konami), and then I'll do a section about the 'big three'-Sega, Sony, and Nintendo (with Sega and Nintendo getting the most coverage). Then I'll finish up with my awards of the best things at E3. Then later I can do things like post specific details about Pac-Man World 2 and whatnot.So let's begin! On with the games!TITUS:
You know, at the show Yamcha and I were talking about how we didn't think Titus had ever made a good game (they're the ones responsible for that 'great' Superman N64 game). Well I think I've been corrected because when I visited Titus' booth near the tail end of the show, they had a couple of nifty Game Boy Advance games. They also had some Top Gun game that everyone was crowded around, but I didn't care about that.Anyway, the first of Titus' GBA titles that looked promising was Prehistorik Man. This was actually a title on the Super Nintendo. I rented it once. It's not as cool as other caveman platform games like Joe and Mac, but it's cool in a 'Jazz Jackrabbit' sort of way.The other GBA game was a completely new title called Planet Monsters with the slogan: 'Gotta kill 'em all!' Despite the tongue-in-cheek humor, the game is basically Pengo! You kick blocks around trying to squish bad guys. According to the guy who demonstrated the game for me, he said (with a heavy French accent) that this game will also be a 4-player multiplayer game, but you'll only need one cartridge to play! Multiplayer anti-Pokemon Pengo! How could you not like it?BAM! ENTERTAINMENT:
These are the folks who bastardized Pop N Pop and Elevator Action by putting popular cartoon characters from Cartoon Network in those roles. Then they made some really crappy GBC PowerPuff Girls games. So I don't have much respect for them. They have new PowerPuff Girls games ready for N64, PSX, PC, and GBA. I didn't get to see them, but I hope they're better than the past games!MAJESCO:
Majesco is kind of the unsung heroes in the video game industry. Hey, they brought back the Game Gear recently. Anyway, at E3 they showed that they will be heavily supporting the Game Boy Advance. Most of the titles they showed looked like ports of Super Nintendo games, but one game did catch my eye. Majesco will be doing a completely new GBA adventure with A Boy and His Blob! Yes! Although on the box, the boy looks like he has Cloud Strife's hair!PRIMA PUBLISHING
They make strategy guides. The only reason why I put them here is they made a really really good E3 show guide. I'm using it now to help me write this thing! All the game guide and magazine publishers have booths at E3, too.KEMCO:
Kemco had a lot of games, only one of which I can remember. It's Kid Klown in Crazy Chase for Game Boy Advance. Looks like the Super Nintendo version. Must've been an early prototype because when I played it, I couldn't get my little clown guy to move. He just stood there getting ran over by falling logs. The flyer for Kid Klown was full of SNK-like English. I'm still not sure what "Gallahad in greasepaint" means.TECMO:
They had a Monster Rancher game with cel-shaded characters, and Dead or Alive 3. They also had character costumed people of Monster Rancher monsters dancing on stage as well as booth ladies dressed as Dead or Alive characters. Guess which was more popular with the crowds?One more thing about Tecmo. The business card that I got from them for their PR contact had his picture on the front holding a phone in a ninja pose and his job title said "The PR Guy." Very cool.WORKING DESIGNS:
They had Arc the Lad Collection for PSX. Since this is Working Designs, we'll probably see this game in stores about three years from now.BANDAI:
They had a bunch of Gundam and Digimon games, only one of which I can remember now-a Digimon card battle game for PSX.KOEI:
Koei is known for making boring simulation games. But I think they're trying to revamp their image. Oh sure they had more of the same boring simulation games at E3, but they also had some things I would've never thought they'd publish. First is some skateboarding game with some really interesting characters, like a fat fish guy and a cute lady with wings on her head and another cute lady with pink hair and a ghost guy. The other game is Guitaroo Man. It's a rhythm music game, but it looks like it plays more like FantaVision. Both games are weird Japanesey games that will be coming to the US, and they defy any more description than that.ATLUS:
They had Super Dodge Ball for the Game Boy Advance, which plays like the old NES game. So whatever happened to Technos, you ask? Well they went out of business some time ago, but the president of Technos is now at Atlus, so that's why we get Super Dodge Ball! I wonder if GBA River City Ransom and Double Dragon games are next?ACCLAIM:
How do you stay in business Acclaim? Nobody likes you. They had a lot of games at E3 but the only ones I can remember were Fur Fighters for PS2. It was cel shaded. They also had PS2 ports of Sega games like Crazy Taxi and 18 Wheeler American Pro Trucker (Yay!). No new Puzzle Bobble games (boo).ENIX:
I'll wrap up this section of impressions with the best of the smaller booths-Enix. At E3, Enix was showing nothing but a trio of Dragon Warrior games, so their booth was all decorated appropriately. Akira Toriyama artwork grazed the walls of the booth, there were windows displaying imported Dragon Quest toys to drool over, and giant Slime balloons hanging from the ceiling (my dad says they look like Hershey's Kisses).I enjoyed meeting with Enix at E3 because the representative there actually knew what he was talking about and was really into his work. He knew every single obscure Toriyama reference Yamcha could throw at him. He was one of the only people I talked to at E3 that knew what he was talking about. He also was nice enough to give us little Slime plush keychains, one of the coolest freebies I got at E3!Dragon Warrior 7 for PSX looks to be the sprawling quest that Enix made it out to be. I got to play it from the beginning. Looks pretty cool, more like a video game and less like a movie (cough cough, Squaresoft). When I got tired of talking to people in town I asked the PR guy when I'd get to battle something. He said the first battle doesn't happen until about 4 hours into the game! Eww! So after that I just had fun in the game by picking up barrels and throwing them at people-Donkey Kong style.I didn't get to play any battles, but I did see some on video. They look very nice. All the enemies have great animations. In one I saw a bear monster fall on his butt, and in another I saw a group of slimes conglomerate into one big King Slime!Dragon Warrior 3 for GBC looks to be a fine update of a NES classic, with tons of extras on the cartridge that's supposed to be one of the biggest GBC cartridges ever! Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 for GBC comes in two versions, and is basically Toriyama meets Pokemon-and should be good for fans of the series.And that's it for now. If you have questions about anything I posted above, feel free to post below with your inquiries. If you have questions about anything from another company that I didn't mention here, please hold your questions until I get to that company in future sections. Thanks.--Klonoa

Jesus Hibiki · Post by **Jesus Hibiki** » Wed May 23, 2001 3:37 am

Wow.. the dallas paper didn't want to cover E3 at all. That's pretty sad. Argh! A boy and his blob. Awesome game but I was lousy at it. It trully sounds like the game boy advanced will be the ultimate time killer.

Yamcha Hibiki · Post by **Yamcha Hibiki** » Wed May 23, 2001 11:20 am

KETCHUP JELLY BEANS!------------------
Yamcha Hibiki:
<A HREF="http://yamcha.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Shinkutokimekisempukaku</A> - It's not just a gamer comic, it's a space gamer comic!
<A HREF="http://kane.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Sub-Culture</A> - A mouse, a fox, and a whole lot of nothing.
<A HREF="http://comicollage.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>Comicollage</A> - Proving that even 7 people put together can't make a decent comic. :p

Jesus Hibiki · Post by **Jesus Hibiki** » Fri May 25, 2001 2:42 am

You know.. funny you should mention that one. Proof that when I last played that game I really just didn't catch on. I wasted all my ketchup jellybeans cause I thought they didn't work. I'd just throw them at my blob and he'd sit there like a re-re. of course.. then I realized I was the idiot as I'll be darned "ketchup=Catch up"