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The good times.
10.06.05 / 11:07PM / Joe
 We're now entering the good time of the year, when games start coming out again. Summer and fall are like hibernation months for video games. You can always count on October and November and December for plenty of AAA releases. Of course, there's a lot of rushed crap that hits the shelves to scam their way onto holiday gift lists, but let's consider that an unhappy side-symptom of the general awesomeness of the season.
Just off the top of my head, I have a ton of games that I'm watching for. Here are my absolute First Week grabs. There is no discussion, simply purchasing.
Animal Crossing: Wild World - DS, 12.05. Duh.
Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented - PS2, 11.01. Duh again.
Trapt - PS2, 10.18. It's the PS2 iteration of the Deception series, which is long overdue. However, we'll cut the creator some slack, since he made the Fatal Frame games during his time off.
Trauma Center: Under the Knife - DS, out now. This is one of the conceptual reasons why I wanted a DS... a surgery action game!
This group is games that I'm sure I'll get, just not in that initial release week. Unless there's a sale.
Chibi Robo - GameCube, 11.15. Not sure if this one will actually show up; this release date could be completely bogus. However, it looks like a nice bizarre little Japanocentric game, and I tend to like those.
EyeToy: Chat - PS2, 11.01. IF this arrives and IF I can get other pals to buy it, it will be a fun way to video chat and play chess simultaneously.
Gun - GameCube, 11.08. A Wild Western game that I of course must have. Terrible title. "Red Dead Revolver" was a silly title, but at least it had personality.
Lost in Blue - DS, out now. I'm going out for Trauma Center this weekend and if they don't have it, I'll get this instead.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time - DS, 11.28. Loved the first one, loved the Paper Mario series that (sort of) inspires it. The big trouble with this game is that it ships right before Animal Crossing... and Animal Crossing casts a big gaming shadow in my house.
Mario Kart DS - DS, 11.14. I'll probably get it just to see Nintendo's all-free no-hassle wi-fi network, but, honestly, I'm not too excited about it. My trouble is that I have bad memories of the mostly average Mario Kart Super Circuit on GBA, and that is probably unfairly coloring my perception of this one.
Mario Party 7 - GameCube, 11.07. Noticed something about the Mario Party games: we play each one less and less (with the notable exception of the worst game in the line, #4) even though each version gets better and better. So that keeps this from being a Week One title, even though we're big proponents of the Party series.
Odama - GameCube, 11.15. Like Chibi Robo, this is another screwy title that may never actually come out to play. Historical pinball combat is, however, a genre that I just can't play enough.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - DS, 10.15. Another DS concept game, but I like the notion of a video game based on lawyering, so I'll snap it up.
Sly 3: Band of Thieves - PS2, out now. By rights, I should already have this one. Not exactly sure why it hasn't happened yet, but I can heavily blame We Love Katamari.
This group consists of games that I'm fairly certain I would like, but for whatever reason I rank them lesser than the above list.
Metroid Prime Pinball - DS, 10.24. Going to need to see more of it in action to decide if it's worth it. If Odama comes out, I may feel pinballed out.
Ratchet: Deadlocked - PS2, 10.25. I thought the last Ratchet & Clank game was mostly phoned in, and this version is all about online play which I can only take in small doses. So I don't know.
Soul Calibur III - PS2, 10.25. I love the character creation mode, but I would really hate to buy this after Namco snubbed a GameCube release.
Super Mario Strikers - GameCube, 12.05. In video game terms, I consider Soccer to be pretty much Hockey... so I could see this being fun. However, there is so much else out there that I don't see me making a sports game a priority, no matter how Mushroomed up it is.
In looking over that list, I have to ask myself if I've already bought my last Game Boy Advance game? (WarioWare:Twisted, if you're keeping track.) There's not really anything I'm looking forward to on the GBA release lists... and despite the superior form factor of the SP, I pretty much use my DS for portable gaming these days. Is the era over? A sad thought.
Also, where's Kingdom Hearts II? Pushed into 2006, but very definitely a Week One purchase. This new screenshot seals the deal:
Dude, they're in Steamboat Willie World. Is Kingdom Hearts II trying to hit on me or something?
And if you're thinking that Young Master Clark Jae Fourhman has been having an adverse effect on my gaming habits, that is just not the case. Since his wonderful arrival into our lives, I've finished Kirby: Canvas Curse, God of War, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Paper Mario 2, We Love Katamari, re-played most of Resident Evil 4 and Luigi's Mansion, and damn near finished my pokedex in Pokemon Sapphire. It's just a matter of organizing one's time better. I haven't been to sleep in weeks. |
