More from our Nintendo press do experience
Hands-on with more Gamecube games you can expect to see released over the next year.
Venturing downstairs at Old Street's tiny Cocomo Bar offered the opportunity to sample the likes of Metroid Prime and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, provided one could tolerate the high density of persons that populated the small, dark room. Perseverance can be rewarding, however, especially when the games in question are some of Nintendo's most wanted second and third party titles.
Samus Aran's much-anticipated jump into three dimensions was a genuinely impressive affair. Nintendo's earlier doubts and reluctance to publicly show Metroid Prime now seem to be a thing of the past and Retro Studio's next-gen update seems to be coming along nicely. With a strong emphasis on Hollywood-style cinematics, Metroid Prime presents an extremely solid, immersive and atmospheric game environment. Viewed mostly from a first-person perspective, but with a seamless transition to third-person when she rolls into a ball, Samus's vision is greatly assisted by her visor. With different viewing modes available to the player, such as locking on to targets and scanning rooms for items, enemies and door locks, the visor adds a small amount of claustrophobia to the already tense proceedings. It is also a catalyst for some really nice effects, such as the reflection of the protagonist's face when firing certain weapons.
What originally seemed like a fairly straightforward Resident Evil pastiche now seems to have come in to its own. Originally developed for the N64, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is dubbed as a psychological thriller and is aimed at a more mature audience, which is something Nintendo should be welcoming with open arms.
Spanning 20 centuries and featuring a total of 12 playable characters, the plot sees the player battle, cast spells and solve puzzles throughout history. Admittedly with an overall Resident Evil feel to the presentation, the game surrounds the player with a convincingly creepy atmosphere throughout its host of diverse locations. Each time period features an appropriate playable character, armed with an array of historically accurate weaponry. One of the key features of the game is its Sanity System. How players actually play through the game greatly affects their sanity. Avoid confrontations and generally play with a weaker mentality, for example, and you'll find your sanity level dropping, which, in turn, causes various dramatic effects to your state of mind. Such 'sanity effects' include an apparent system crash, loss of inventory items and controller failure. None of these are detrimental to play but add to the intensity all the same.
Already available in the US, Eternal Darkness is set for a November release over here. Stay tuned.
Samus Aran's much-anticipated jump into three dimensions was a genuinely impressive affair. Nintendo's earlier doubts and reluctance to publicly show Metroid Prime now seem to be a thing of the past and Retro Studio's next-gen update seems to be coming along nicely. With a strong emphasis on Hollywood-style cinematics, Metroid Prime presents an extremely solid, immersive and atmospheric game environment. Viewed mostly from a first-person perspective, but with a seamless transition to third-person when she rolls into a ball, Samus's vision is greatly assisted by her visor. With different viewing modes available to the player, such as locking on to targets and scanning rooms for items, enemies and door locks, the visor adds a small amount of claustrophobia to the already tense proceedings. It is also a catalyst for some really nice effects, such as the reflection of the protagonist's face when firing certain weapons.
What originally seemed like a fairly straightforward Resident Evil pastiche now seems to have come in to its own. Originally developed for the N64, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is dubbed as a psychological thriller and is aimed at a more mature audience, which is something Nintendo should be welcoming with open arms.
Spanning 20 centuries and featuring a total of 12 playable characters, the plot sees the player battle, cast spells and solve puzzles throughout history. Admittedly with an overall Resident Evil feel to the presentation, the game surrounds the player with a convincingly creepy atmosphere throughout its host of diverse locations. Each time period features an appropriate playable character, armed with an array of historically accurate weaponry. One of the key features of the game is its Sanity System. How players actually play through the game greatly affects their sanity. Avoid confrontations and generally play with a weaker mentality, for example, and you'll find your sanity level dropping, which, in turn, causes various dramatic effects to your state of mind. Such 'sanity effects' include an apparent system crash, loss of inventory items and controller failure. None of these are detrimental to play but add to the intensity all the same.
Already available in the US, Eternal Darkness is set for a November release over here. Stay tuned.
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