E3 2015: Square Enix Press Conference Impressions

Along with Bethesda, Square Enix is one of the new kids on the press conference block.  They used to have press conferences at E3, but it has been a long while since their last conference.  With Square Enix's big presence at both the Microsoft and Sony press conferences, did they save enough for their very own press conference?

Square Enix did save enough to fill their 90 minute conference, but the great number of titles shown didn't translate into an interesting presentation.  In actuality, it was a boring show that saw a lot more gum flapping than gameplay footage.  At certain points throughout the conference, I closed my eyes and just listened to the corporate jargon the presenters were throwing around.  The show must have been putting the translator to sleep since he had some problems keeping up with the presenters at times.

For all the great titles that Square Enix had to offer this year, it was frustrating to see time wasted rehashing the exact same trailers for Rise of the Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII and World of Final Fantasy that were shown at other press conferences or worthless "behind-the-scenes" trailers that could've been replaced by actual gameplay footage.  Don't have two random animators from Disney tell us about a Tangled world in Kingdom Hearts III, show it as part of the gameplay trailer.

Speaking of Kingdom Heart III, the gameplay trailer was the best thing on this show.  It hinted at the story, showed off the combat system and highlighted some dramatic special moves including the use of Disney theme park attractions as weapons.  Aside from Kingdom Hearts III, the Just Cause 3, Hitman and Star Ocean trailers were the only other standouts from this show.  Everything else just felt like white noise; even the Deus Ex; Mankind Divided trailer which Square Enix was hyping weeks before the conference.

As their first press conference in God knows when, Square Enix performed far worse than anybody could of predicted with their large lineup of games.  At its best, the conference was passable.  At its worst, the conference was like an uncoordinated powerpoint presentation.  Square Enix may need a phoenix down after this dull show.

Grade:  D

E3 2015: Sony Press Conference Impressions

There is no need for a cool intro because I'm just going to get to the point.  Sony put on one of the greatest E3 press conferences ever.  If you thought their performance two years ago when they stabbed the knife into Microsoft's heart and just kept digging it in was amazing, this show was light years greater than that one.  I have never been physically exhausted from watching a press conference due to all the cheering, smiling and hysterical laughing I did throughout the show.

Sony started their presser by re-revealing The Last Guardian for PS4 and didn't slow down until a hour into it.  Each game in that hour from the large AAA titles to the small indie titles hit it out of the park.  The pace was just rapid fire one after the other with little time to rest, but that breakneck speed made everyone in the audience and watching across the globe experience an unimaginable sense of adrenaline.

Every title at Sony's press conference, except for Call of Duty: Black Ops III and its generic explosion-fest of a demo, had an impressive showing.  Even among the masses of great titles, there were a few standouts.  Guerilla Games' new IP Horizon: Zero Dawn could of easily closed the show with its unique premise, compelling gameplay and freaking robot dinosaurs!  Naughty Dog made the Uncharted 4 delay even more unbearable thanks to a wonderful demo following Drake and Sully's misadventures through a South American town.  Media Molecule's game Dreams intrigued with its ability to literally mold anything you want into reality be it a game, film or piece of interactive media.

On top of all that, Sony dropped some mind-blowing surprises that left many jaws gaping, eyes popping and tears flowing.  Sony started off with a cool trailer for a brand new Hitman game followed by giving us a charming crossover in World of Final Fantasy.  Then the bombs started dropping.  Right after the World of Final Fantasy reveal, Sony announced the heavily-requested full remake of Final Fantasy VII, which had people going bonkers.  If you didn't think that was enough, Sony made waves upon unveiling Shenmue III's existence.  I will be honesty, I choked up when the Shenmue III trailer appeared on the screen; I couldn't believe what I was watching.  It was a magical moment to say the least.

Although I have been singing this conferences praises, it did slow down considerably after the first hour.  The clear change in pace came from an out-of-place montage that should have gone at the end of the show instead of right in the middle.  Seriously, I thought the show was over when they played that montage.  Sony did bounce back with some Project Morpheus updates, exclusive packages for Disney Infinity 3.0 and a new gameplay trailer for Star Wars Battlefront.  It was almost all for naught when Sony ran into some difficulties connecting controllers for the Uncharted demo, but it was fixed thanks to a timely reset.

Even with a few hiccups and a generic demo, Sony's E3 2015 press conference will be immortalized for its breakneck pace, mind-blowing surprises and impressive games.  While I am disappointed that Sony did nothing to bolster their offerings this holiday season, 2016's lineup will sure make up for it in spades.

Grade:  A+

Silver Bit @ Fan Expo 2014

On Friday, August 29th, yours truly made the trek down to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the heart of Canada's largest city for this year's Fan Expo Canada.  Fan Expo Canada is a multi-day event annually held at the very August.  Originally the convention was made to bring together fans of multiple genres, mainly comic books, science fiction, fantasy and film, Fan Expo has gone on to include a vast range of popular media such as video games, anime, manga and horror.  Over the years, the convention has grown to fill four whole days with panels, workshops, special screenings, tournaments, meet and greets, after parties, signings and photo ops among a plethora of other attractions.  Fan Expo Canada is easily the largest convention in all of Canada as it fills both buildings of the Toronto Convention Centre to capacity.

It has been four long years since I last went to Fan Expo Canada and a whole lot has changed since then.  I was astounded on how the convention has grown in size especially video game portion of the convention.  Back in 2010, the entire convention was held in the North Building of the Toronto Convention Centre with less than five percent of that space being dedicated to video games.  This year, the video game portion of the convention took up a whole quarter of the South Building and a large area of the North Building.  The video game industry was more than well represented at Fan Expo 2014 and a lot of the thanks has to go to EB Games Canada and their Gamer Zone.  EB Games Canada brought in the likes of Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft, Bethesda, Disney, WB Games and 2K Games to demo some of the most anticipated games coming out in the next year.  There were well over 30 games on the show floor to demo including Evolve, Destiny, Far Cry 4, Sunset Overdrive, The Evil Within, Mortal Kombat X and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.  Personally, I spent the majority of my time in this section playing all the upcoming games I could get my hands on.  Considering I went for the one day, I only got to play about a third of the games available, but it was well worth all the kilometres traveled and the time spent waiting in lines.  I look forward to sharing my impressions on the demos I played in the coming weeks.  So stay tuned.

I did not spend my entire Friday in the video game section of Fan Expo.  There were tons of vendors selling video games, comics, art books, t-shirts, framed artwork, action figures, plush toys and anything you can think of.  Out of thousands of items available to buy, I picked up two Official Nintendo Legend of Zelda shirts for 40 dollars.  A lot of time outside of the games section was spent taking pictures of all the incredible statues set up on the floor such as giant Lego statues of the Shedder and Lord Business, and life-sized models of Prowl from Transfromers G1 and the Batmobile from Batman: Arkham Knight.  I also got to watch the very first episode of Star Wars: Rebels, the new Star Wars animated TV show set between Episodes III and IV, in the John Bassett Theatre with tons of excited fans both young and old.  It was a completely different experience watching a show with hundreds of other people as you got to hear live reactions from everybody in the audience, not just yourself.  While Rebels is geared towards a young audience, I found it to be very enjoyable for Star Wars fans of all ages.  It will definitely worth a viewing when it premieres on Disney XD this October.

Last but not least, I got to meet the cast of Reviews on the Run and Electric Playground along with famous video game composer and founder of Video Games Live, Tommy Tallarico.  Even though I met most of these gaming celebrities before, I was incredibly starstruck in front of all of them.  Some people idolize athletes, film stars or musicians, I idolize people in the video games industry including the developers, journalists and game analysts.  While I may have awkwardly stumbled over my words while talking to them, they all made me feel welcomed and appreciated.  I would like to thank Victor Lucas, Ben Silverman, Jose Sanchez, Marissa Roberto, Steve Tilley, Raju Mudhar and Tommy Tallarico for making a great Fan Expo even more special for me.  It was an excellent day and I cannot wait to go again next year.

Launch Station: 3DS Double Feature

It has been a long time since Launch Station has graced the pages of Silver Bit.  Formerly part of regular scheduled programming, Launch Station is Silver Bit's preview article where yours truly conveniently summarizes all the information on a selected new release or possibly multiple releases for your reading pleasure.  Speaking of multiple releases, Nintendo is looking to jumpstart the summer months with a slew of new games for the 3DS this Friday.  The games in question are Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf: World Tour.  For 3DS owners looking for games to play after getting their fill from Bravely Default, Yoshi's New Island or Disney Magical World, there will definitely be something for them this Friday as these two games fall under two opposite ends of the gaming spectrum.  They will easily be great appetizers for the main course that comes later this month in Mario Kart 8.

Due to the series more casual audience, Kirby has always been a character that Nintendo can test out new ideas and concepts.  For a character all about transformations, Nintendo's pink puffball embraces new directions and experiments as Kirby has been turned into various types of balls from a pinball to a golf ball and even being made entirely out of yarn for the sake of new ideas and concepts.  Aside from new transformations and more powerful inhaling abilities, Kirby's platformers have stuck to the same formula since the original Dream Land series on Game Boy.  Kirby: Triple Deluxe looks to add a few new ideas to the Kirby platforming formula in order to take advantage of the 3DS's power and stereoscopic 3D.  Levels involve more than just movement from left to right.  Thanks to the Warp Star, Kirby can move between multiple layers of the level in a way much similar to moving between the foreground and background in Mutant Mudds.  With the multiple layers, Kirby now needs to worry about threats from the standard Waddle Dees to massive life-ending mallets that move between the layers to attack.  More so than past entires, Kirby's inhale move has been super powered with the help of the Miracle Fruit's Hypernova Kirby transformation.  As Hypernova Kirby, the pink puffball can inhale extreme amounts of items, enemies and large obstacles in order to solve puzzles.  Along with the new transformation, Kirby's copy abilities have seen a drastic overhaul as the developers have worked tirelessly on creating unique move sets for every single ability in the game.  As a bonus to the main game, Triple Deluxe includes two extra subgames in Kirby Fighters, a fighting game similar in gameplay to Super Smash Bros. where you pit Kirby's different copy abilities against one another to see which one is the best, and Dedede's Drum Dash, a rhythm game that has you controlling King Dedede as he bounces on large drums to the tune of classic Kirby songs.

It has been just under a decade since Mario and friends last hit the links.  Considering Nintendo's focus on motion controls during the later half of the 2000s, it is very surprising that Nintendo did not bring Mario out with new entries in his two most iconic sports roles, golf and tennis, to champion a new motion-controlled generation of gaming.  Well the wait for a brand new Mario Golf game is almost over.  With the portability of the 3DS, Mario Golf: World Tour's main focus is on multiplayer.  There is a large suite of multiplayer options for players to choose from with the first choice being whether to play locally or online.  Local play allows for quick and easy competition amongst friends and colleagues in the same vicinity.  Online play allows for a few more options as players can compete in regional or worldwide tournaments to see where they rank in Mario Golf.  Since you only have to post your scores for online tournaments, there is no need to have players log on at the exact same time.  You can post a score anytime during the tournaments scheduled start and end date.  Players can even set-up their own online tournaments and communities to compete with their friends and rivals in a more personal online setting.  While it may be the main focus of World Tour, multiplayer is not the only way to play this Mario Golf.  Castle Club is World Tour's single-player mode which allows players to learn the basics of the game through lessons from Toad, compete in club tournaments to increase stats and earn new gear for your golfer and explore the club grounds in order to meet familiar Mario characters and find special challenges.  The fun does not stop there as Mario Golf: World Tour offers players with a lot more downloadable content to buy.  You can either pick up the Season Pass for 15 dollars which includes all three packs for download upon release or buy the packs individually for 6 dollars each.

No matter what game you choose to pick up this Friday, there is no way you will end up disappointed.  Nintendo has put out two great 3DS titles to eat up gamer's time until the next large 3DS release or Mario Kart 8 later this month for Wii U owners.  Personally, I am picking up both titles for different reasons.  While I am not the Kirby fan in my family as that title belongs to my youngest brother, I have heard nothing but good things about Kirby: Triple Deluxe.  Even though Kirby's notorious easy difficulty, I am looking forward to playing Triple Deluxe.  On the other hand, I am a huge fan for Mario Golf.  Considering my father is a golf professional and I have been around the sport all my life, blending Mario with such a key part of my identity has always made me identify with the series more than your typical simulation golf game.  With the incredible online additions to Mario Golf, I am excited to play the online tournaments and compete on world Mario Golf stage to see where my skills stand.  With two great titles released on the same day, there is nothing that will not keep a Nintendo system owners smiling this Friday.

On the Download: DuckTales: Remastered

“Life is like a hurricane, here in Duckburg.  Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes, its a duck-blur.  Might solve a mystery or rewrite history!”

When that iconic verse rang through the halls of PAX East, a chill formed down gamers’ spines both young and old in anticipation of the newest adventure with the greedy yet lovable Scrooge McDuck.  From the charming 8-bit graphics to the beautiful chiptune music to the masterful gameplay, Capcom’s DuckTales for the NES has been revered as one of the greatest licensed games of all-time.  To see such an iconic game be remade for a new generation of gamers to experience and older fans to lovingly revisit is simply amazing especially considering the NES original has never been released on any online service.  Being developed by the wonderful team at WayForward Technologies, who are responsible for great titles like Shantae, Contra 4 and the Mighty series on DSi and 3DS, there are high expectations for the return of Scrooge McDuck.

DuckTales: Remastered is not a quick and dirty remake of the NES original.  The team at WayForward has put their heart and soul into reimagining DuckTales for this modern era of video games.  The 8-bit sprites have been replaced by beautifully hand-drawn and animated sprites that look straight out of the cartoon itself.  Even with the limited bleeps and bloops on the NES processor, DuckTales’ soundtrack is held in high regard by most older gamers.  Jake Kaufman, the composer of DuckTales: Remastered, did his best to preserve the original compositions of the soundtrack while taking a more orchestral approach on each track.  The NES did not have enough processing power to convey a story through cutscenes like games do today so most of the storytelling was put in the game manual.  With the extensive power of the game systems of today, WayForward expands on the original story of DuckTales with brand new cutscenes which add more context to Scrooge’s objectives in each level and explains some lingering questions such as how a duck is able to breathe on the moon.  Along with the obvious additions to the presentation and audio, DuckTales: Remastered contains two new levels, new areas to explore in returning levels, the privilege to swim in Scrooge’s money vault, a map screen, an easy pogo jump setting and tons of unlockables such as concept art and music.

As a big fan of the show, DuckTales has been a game that yours truly has wanted to play for the longest time.  I have listened to the music and watched quite a bit of gameplay from DuckTales, but I had never got the chance to play the game itself.  Thanks to DuckTales: Remastered, this writer can finally experience this NES classic now in high definition.  DuckTales: Remastered is available now for 15 dollars on PSN, Steam and the Wii U eShop.  Sadly, Xbox 360 owners will have to wait until September 11th to join Uncle Scrooge on his globe-trotting adventure.  For those who prefer physical copies of their games, a physical copy of DuckTales: Remastered will be available exclusively for PS3 on August 20th, which will cost 20 dollars instead of 15.  No matter if you enjoyed DuckTales on the NES or never played the game before, put down your money and support DuckTales: Remastered in order to convince Disney to revisit more of their classic video game library and hopefully inspire them to start a new age of quality Disney licensed games.

Launch Station: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Square Enix has done their best to draw out the Kingdom Hearts series as much as humanly possible before they have inevitably end the series with Kingdom Hearts 3.  For close to six years now, Square Enix has been releasing side story after side story trying to flesh out the entire mythos surrounding Kingdom Hearts that fans have gotten quite anxious for the next numbered entry in the series.  To tide fans over just a little bit longer, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, exclusively for the 3DS, serves as the official prequel to Kingdom Hearts 3 as the ending of Dream Drop Distance is said to lead right into third core Kingdom Hearts game.

In preparation for the return of Xehanort, King Mickey and Yen Sid decide to put Sora and Riku through the Mark of Mastery exam.  As part of the Mark of Mastery exam, Sora and Riku are sent into the Sleeping Worlds.  Sora and Riku's task is to reawaken these Sleeping Worlds by unlocking each world's keyhole and eliminating the new Dream Eater threat that stands in their way.  If Sora and Riku are successful in completing this task, they will be deemed full-fledged Keyblade Masters.  In Dream Drop Distance, there are two playable characters, Sora and Riku.  You never control both characters at the same time, but you will rotate between each character on the fly thanks to the Drop Gauge.  The Drop Gauge, which gradually depletes over time, controls when you switch between the two playable characters.  Once the gauge empties, you will switch control from Sora to Riku or vice versa.  You can add more time to the gauge by fighting Dream Eaters and you can also switch characters at any save point in the game.   The Command Deck battle system that was first introduced in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP returns in Dream Drop Distance with a couple additions.  Dream Drop Distance adds a new Flowmotion mechanic.  Flowmotion allows the player to interact with their surroundings in new ways to help traversal of the environment and set up new combos in battle.  Along their adventures, Sora and Riku are able to capture Dream Eaters, which can be used to help out in battle and provide different abilities for each character.  In past Kingdom Hearts games the Gummi Ship was used to travel between each world, not in Dream Drop Distance.  Dream Drop Distance makes use of a new mini-game called Dive Mode, which has player's literally diving down a long tunnel, collecting stars and defeating enemies before you reach the world's gate.  Also Dream Drop Distance is compatible with the Circle Pad Pro, which will make it much easier to control the game's camera, and has Augmented Reality functionality, which will allow players to play with the Dream Eaters they obtain in the real world.

No matter what I say, all Kingdom Hearts fans that own a 3DS will pick up Dream Drop Distance.  I do applaud Square Enix for their incredible support for the 3DS this past month.  It seemed like they were the only publisher other than Sega that wanted to keep us 3DS gamers satisfied this July and I along with many other gamers are grateful for that.  Speaking of Dream Drop Distance, I personally think it will be a really good game for the 3DS.  From my time with the demo, I do believe that to get the best experience with the game is to play it with the Circle Pad Pro because without the camera seems to be a quite erratic.  Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance should be a solid portable RPG to keep gamers satisfied for the coming months.

Hump Day Video: Wreck-It Ralph

Caught in all the hooplah surrounding E3 last week, a little trailer snuck by many gamer's radars.  A trailer for an upcoming Disney movie which looks absolutely incredible.  The movie is called Wreck-It Ralph.  Wreck-It Ralph stars a video game villain named Ralph.  After years of getting beaten up by Fix-It Felix over and over again for 30 years, Ralph does not want to be the bad guy anymore.  So Ralph abandones his game in order to find a game where people respect him.  The trailer is only 2 and a half minutes long, but it crams a lot of funny moments and cool video game references and parodies.  From Heroes Duty and trying to speak Q*Bertuese to cameos from iconic video game villains such as Bowser, Dr. Robotnik, Zangief and Clyde, this trailer will no doubt make any gamer laugh.  Wreck-It Ralph looks so good that I am making sure that I see it when it releases in theatres this coming November.  Now I hope you enjoy the trailer.

Hump Day Music: Duck Tales

For anybody who watched it on Disney Afternoons or saw reruns on Family Channel, Duck Tales was one of the best cartoons of the late 1980s early 1990s.  Duck Tales was soo good that it even got a game made by Capcom, which is just as acclaimed.  While I personally have never played Duck Tales for the NES, I have heard many good things about Scrooge McDuck's adventure into games.  If Duck Tales ever released for the Wii or 3DS Virtual Console, I would buy it immediately as I have wanted to play it for a long while.  I along with many other gamers would accept a sequel made by Warren Spector and his team at Junction Point in place of releasing Duck Tales for NES.

One of my personal favourite parts of the Duck Tales cartoon is the theme song.  Instantly iconic and easy to sing along with, the Duck Tales theme song is quite possibly the best cartoon theme song of all-time.  When Duck Tales was turned into a game for the NES, that meant Capcom had to alter the theme song to work on the musically limited NES.  So Capcom stripped away the lyrics and made an 8-bit version of the Duck Tales that is just as recognizable and just as good.  It might not have the lyrics, but you will be definitely be dancing to the infectious beat and possibly singing the lyrics yourself.  No matter if you watched it back on Disney Afternoons, caught reruns during the late 90s or have just been introduced to Duck Tales just now in 2012, it is a cartoon that has stood the test of time.  Just like Duck Tales' theme has stood the test of time in it's many forms.