Since that time, Mistwalker have developed a range of titles, for different platforms, and their next release will be The Last Story for the Nintendo Wii, releasing 24^th February in Europe. This will be Sakaguchi’s first title as director since Final Fantasy V, way back in 1992. He has also enlisted the immense talent that is Nobou Uematsu, who also left Square in 2004. Uematsu has composed the score’s for all their games so far. Let’s take a look at what has been, and what to expect in the future.

Mistwalker initially signed up with Microsoft to produce Xbox 360 exclusive titles, of which there are two: Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Blue Dragon in particular helped boost sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan, at the time of its release (2006).

“Microsoft sold 35,343 Xbox 360s – an increase of nearly 90 per cent over the previous week’s figure of just over 4000 consoles. It’s likely that the rise was linked to the release of Blue Dragon, which was developed by Mistwalker, the studio led by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.”
– Ellie Gibson, Blue Dragon release boosts Xbox 360 sales in Japan, GamesIndustry.biz

Blue Dragon is as traditional a JRPG as you’ll ever come across. A group of heroes set about to save their land from an evil ruler, traversing a massive world and using turn-based combat to defeat foes along the way. This may well be deemed old-fashioned in the western world of gaming, but it certainly still has its fans, including myself. Blue Dragon was one of the first 3D RPGs released for this generation of consoles. It boasted the unique art style of Akira Toriyama, creator of manga series Dragon Ball and whose style is also used on video game series Dragon Quest.

Party of Five, anyone?

The game itself is indeed very long. This was the first multi-disc Xbox 360 game released, encompassing the whole adventure on 3 discs. In my opinion, although I’m still making my way through it slowly but surely, it’s JRPG-by-numbers, but still enjoyable because I knew to expect that. There were some good touches. For example, the battles are not the often-loathed ‘random’ battles from past Final Fantasy games, but instead are induced or avoided by engaging/escaping the enemies on screen. Hitting them first also gives you the first hit once a battle is initiated. Blue Dragon is nothing new, but that does it no harm at all.

Mistwalker’s next big release was Lost Odyssey, again for the Xbox 360. Boasting incredible visuals, this 4-disc epic is still a favourite among many an RPG fan, both east and west. For those waiting for their Final Fantasy fix at the time (that never came), this more than filled the gap. While there have always been varied opinions of Final Fantasy XIII, Lost Odyssey still sits firmly on my gaming shelf where Final Fantasy XIII fell off, never to be touched again. Lost Odyssey may have reverted back to random battles, but the battle trigger system (pressing within a time frame to land extra hits) is superior to Blue Dragon’s old school ‘press A and wait’ system, providing more interaction and more reward for doing so.

The story and characters are excellent, providing moments of danger, fear, action, even comedy, and giving the gamer a great sense of empathy to boot. You really feel you are following the journey that Kaim, the lead character, is taking, and will be as determined as he is to find out about his past.

Following on from the success Blue Dragon brought (more so in Japan than here), a franchise was born. An anime series was created, and 2 sequels were also developed, this time for the Nintendo DS. The first was the unimaginatively titled Blue Dragon Plus. This entrant to the series was billed as a real-time simulation RPG – much more like Final Fantasy XII – and retains the Toriyama-style visuals that define the series. Blue Dragon Awakened Shadow soon followed also, continuing the real-time strategy experience, and adopting Dragon Quest IX’s route of allowing creation/customisation of your own lead character.

Following the Nintendo DS releases, Mistwalker stayed with Nintendo, culminating in the production of The Last Story. It may also prove to be the Nintendo Wii’s swansong RPG, with the impending release of the Wii U console. It looks fantastic, and is a release I was hoping for since it was announced nearly 2 years ago.

Since that time, The Last Story has been on release in Japan for around a year now, and was long thought to be only fit for the Japanese market.

“With all the conversions, when we do it in Europe we’ve got to do the whole of Europe,” Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton told Eurogamer. “So it’s multiple languages. It has to be viable.”

Thankfully, the game is viable for Europe. Considering how well Monolith Soft’s JRPG Xenoblade Chronicles has done on the Wii, The Last Story is certainly marketable. Like Xenoblade, it is a console exclusive. Details are still forthcoming, with no European version reviews emerging just yet, but UK magazine Edge did review a Japanese copy, which even for them is usually unheard of. From what reviews I have read, The Last Story is promising to be the most cinematic game the console has seen, with full voice acting throughout, beautiful cut scenes, and a narrative packed with action, romance and betrayal.

It also promises to have a game length that is more flexible; unlike most JRPGs that last 60 hours plus, the main story is around the 20-30 hour mark, but, should you choose to complete side quests, this can easily double that. This, along with co-operative AND multiplayer deathmatch modes, Mistwalker are certainly trying to innovate the JRPG, more so than Final Fantasy XIII ever could, in my opinion. This could indeed be Sakaguchi setting the trend once again, as he did with the original Final Fantasy all those years ago.

The Last Story will be released only on Nintendo Wii in the UK and Europe, on February 24^th.

The 3DS is not forgiving of shufflers. As you may or may not know by now, it works by off-setting the 3D screens ever so slightly, so that each eye receives a different image. As a player, you have control over the level of off-set with an analogue slider, so you can adjust the level based on how far away from your eyes you’re holding the device. As long as you make sure you hold the 3DS at a fixed distance and don’t tilt your head much, it’s fiiiiiine. Shift position, left your arms drift or maybe stretch your neck a bit and it’s all over. So yeah, I turn it off.

But the one thing I noticed about Super Mario 3D land? Sneaky buggers have put in challenge levels where you have to use the 3D. I spent a good 10 minutes bouncing around gormlessly in a room stacked with boxes wondering if there was some sort of graphical glitch that meant Mario was falling behind a box instead of jumping ON it. Eventually, in a desperate bid to not have to ask the nice PR lady if I had broken their test console, I jumped up and down in frustration on conspicuous yellow tile at the front of the screen.

Yup, when I stood still on the tile then the perspective of the entire room changed, revealing that the block was, in fact, not at all in the perfect alignment that it appeared to be. It was… *gasp* a bit to right and in front! But ever-so-carefully sized and positioned to seem like it fit the pattern of the blocks stacked against the wall. Obvious with the 3D on, yet almost impossible to see with it off.

In another level, high up in the sky, I happily jumped from cloud to cloud. “Whee!” I thought as I hopped along to my destination. “I’m trundled along on my fluffy white platforms” *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* *splat* Buh? “Oh, I probably got the jump angle slightly wrong. Never mind, I’ll just restart from the last checkpoint.” *bounce* *bounce* *bounce* *splat* Yup, another platform perfectly positioned to appear in one place with the 3D setting off and clearly elsewhere with it on.

I say again, sneaky buggers.

But come on, Nintendo, really? I (theroetically) already spent over £150 on your fancy pants handheld console. I (theoretically) bought your game for £30 of my hard-earned dollars. And you’re telling me that I’m playing it wrong?

In fairness, the cloud section is flagged with a floating [3D] box in the corner. Had I been thinking, I might have treated that as a clue to turn my 3D on but you know what? I turned it off for a reason. Looking at 3D on the 3DS is tiring and it gives me a headache.

Despite this minor setback – and to be clear, I only encountered it twice in the 5 worlds that I played – Super Mario 3D Land is a fun game, even for people like me who have never seriously played a Super Mario game before in their life. (Shut up, I’ve been playing PC games since before you were born, young whippersnapper.)

The game’s levels are laid out along similar lines to the Super Mario Galaxy games, albeit with less shooting through the air from planet to planet. Basically, you collect enough giant coins in earlier worlds to unlock the later levels. I managed to get through 5 entire worlds in a single session without trying very hard, only to find I needed 50 giant coins to unlock the castle at the end of World 5 and only had 30. Back to level grinding for me.

The lands themselves are nicely varied. You’ll find yourself scaling mountains, running along pirate ships, crawling through dungeons and bouncing around on clouds. There are brightly coloured exteriors, biscuit-themed exteriors, mushrooms stacked up like totem poles, disappearing-reappearing platforms. All sorts of madness goes on and the whole thing is just so happy it’s impossible not to be cheerful, even as you die again and again on those stupid flippy platforms that swap in and out as you jump. Super Mario Galaxy veterans will know the ones I mean.

In a nice touch for us impatient noobs to the series, you can store one power-up when you pick up another, so on certain levels when you need to shoot fireballs to progress, for example, you don’t need to stress quite so much about losing your abilities as you would in the classic games. The Tanooki suit is great fun for smashing blocks with your tail and the propeller box hat provides a metaphorical safety net for those of us who aren’t so confident with precision jumps. You can also have a boomerang suit (bit boring) and various other tricksy abilities.

When you die often enough in a world, you get rewarded with the numpty suit for a while. This is a white version of the Tanooki suit that renders you invincible. Pretty handy for barging through enemies when you just want to get off this damn level. Yes, I used it on a number of occasions – notably the few levels that featured a camera moving relentlessly onward, regardless of where I was or what I was doing.

These levels in particular annoyed the crap out of me. I’m trying to enjoy your scenery, goddamnit. Why are you forcing me to rush through the level? If I were, say, rushing from burning lava or an incoming tidal wave, I wouldn’t have been so annoyed but when the entire difficulty of a level relies upon the on speed of a camera moving along a virtual dolly? That’s just silly.

Sure, I’ve had a bit of a whinge about certain features but overall, Super Mario 3D Land is great fun. If you have a 3DS I would very much urge you to buy it.

Super Mario 3D Land will be out on the 3DS from 18th November.

Due to the popularity of the original Sims Pets expansion, pets for The Sims 3 has been one of the most-requested features since the game launched in 2009. The pets that in this upcoming game are fully playable characters. You’ll be able to choose from a horse, cat or dog and, just like your human Sims, each pet will have three personality traits of their own. You have complete freedom to to play them as difficult and cruel or loving and helpful to their owners – give your human Sims a kicking with the horse when they’re looking the other way.

My favourite feature, however, is the customisation. Accessories for the pets include bridles, saddles and reins for the horses, while cats and dogs have all sorts of collars and bows to choose from. You can adjust hair length, hair cuts and dye their coats all manner of colours. Me? I’m planning on making a horse with skin using the rubber ducky pyjama texture. Or perhaps a nice cow print. It could go with my custom-made Wild West Cowpoke Kitchen Suite.

There will be several different versions of The Sims 3 Pets, depending on the format.

• The PS3 and 360 versions are a standalone game that will only include cats and dogs. You can choose from a range of predefined breeds or create your own custom creature. Once you get into the game, you’ll be able to mate with other breeds and create little mongrel babies. Should you want to pretend you have a real pet, you can use the Kinect voice control to give commands to your pets.
• The Nintendo 3DS version is another standalone game with over 60 predefined breeds of cats and dogs. You’ll be able to trade pets with other 3DS gamers over StreetPass and use the pedometer to collect Play Coins to spend on your Sims.
• The PC/Mac versions are an expansion pack, so you’ll need the original Sims 3 game to play. This version will have a much wider range of pets: Horses, cats, dogs, birds, lizards, rodents and snakes.

I wonder if we’ll get the boom-chicka-wow music when we breed our pets…

Soft-porn musings aside, EA have released a demo today for the PC and Mac that lets you create your own cats, dogs and horses. If you already have a copy of The Sims 3 you’ll be able to upload your creations to The Sims 3 Exchange. See you later, gamers. I’m off to make my rubber duckie horse.

Screenshots

PlayStation Access: They’re coming to Motion Ramp Park in Bristol from 29th September to 1st October. All you fans out there could win the chance to play loads of games before release:

• Uncharted 3 – Multiplayer / 3D
• Goldeneye 007 – Singleplayer
• Batman: Arkham City – Singleplayer
• Dark Souls – Singleplayer
• Battlefield 3
• Resistance 3 – Singleplayer / Move / Sharpshooter / 3D
• Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
• Starhawk – Singleplayer
• Tekken Tag Hybrid – Multiplayer
• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Multiplayer

Those who do win tickets will get a goody bag, 2 free drinks and there’ll be some tournaments to enter. Head on over to the PlayStation Access Facebook page, hit Like and then enter your details in the PlayStation Access Bristol page. Entries close on the 18th September so don’t delay. They’ll be in touch if you win.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: BioWare have made an official statement on same-sex romances in their upcoming MMO.

Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.
Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager, Star Wars: The Old Republic Forums.

I actually asked this question to Emmanuel Lusinchi, Associate Lead Designer on SW:TOR during Gamescom. He told me that there were no plans to implement same-sex relationships. The reason he gave was nothing to do with any internal stance on the world. Rather, it was because they wanted to go for a teen rating and adding homosexual content might bump them into a higher category. Given that you apparently have to stick the rating you were originally given (thanks, GamerLaw), I’m not sure how moving the homosexuality option to DLC helps this. Perhaps it’s a cunning plan to scream DISCRIMINATION if any ratings bodies try to block the update on these grounds? Neither the ESRB guidelines, nor the BBFC’s make explicit reference to homosexual relationships, though the BBFC does include a nebulous “Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers” under 12/12A.

BioWare’s most famous examples of homosexual relationships, Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2, were both rated 18. However, The Sims series has allowed romances with people of your gender for over a decade and still achieved a Teen rating from the ESRB and 12+ from PEGI so I doubt homosexuality was a factor. Odd rationale, to say the least.

Nintendo 3DS: From this morning’s pre-Tokyo Game Show press conference we learned that there will be sofware update to the 3DS. This will add 3D video capability and “extra functionality” for people who have completed the current Streetpass challenges. Nintendo also announced dates for two of their most anticipated games:

• Super Mario 3D Land – 18th November
• Mario Kart 7 – 2nd December

They’ve announced a new 3D tennis game, tentatively named Mario Tennis and and a new 3D Animal Crossing games. We’re taking bets now on whether or not it will be named “Animal Crossing 3DS”. (No we’re not. We like our money to stay in our own pockets, thanks)

And probably the biggest news to gamers from the conference – Monster Hunter 4 is coming to 3DS. This explains the weird 3DS twin-stick cradle that’s been floating around for the past few days.

Given that Sony didn’t confirm Monster Hunter 4 for the Vita at their press conference this morning, could this be a 3DS exclusive?

Super Mario 3D Land:

Nick: The four level demo featured tons of classic Mario gameplay all rendered in fantastic stereoscopic 3D. The power ups available included the Tanooki raccoon suit last seen in 1988′s Super Mario Bros. 3, super mushroom (giant Mario), star (invincible Mario) and fire flower (Mario fires fireballs). I had a great time toasting enemies with fireballs. Best power-up ever. The rest of the time I spent collecting coins, trying not to fall off the many perilous platforms whilst trying to find the end of level flag before the time ran out. The occasional boss fight punctured the level exploration, all of which followed the tried and tested rule of three (i.e. three knock-downs to kill).

I was really impressed by the 3D as it added a lot of depth to the levels. Although I did find it harder to jump into floating powerup blocks on the odd occasion. The graphics were very Super Mario Galaxy like too. Bright and colourful. The demo had clearly been built to show off features rather than levels from the game but it has made me more excited to play the finished game as a result. Much like Mario Kart 7, this Super Mario 3D Land has rekindled my love of Nintendo’s mega-franchises that was on the wain during the Wii years.

Rhythm Heaven:

Debbie: Rhythm Heaven is a quirky little Wii game whose very simplicity belies the level of concentration you need the play it well. It’s a series of mini-games that rely on sound cues for you to do well. The three that I played were:

• A viking stabbing a fork into his peas
• A samurai guarding a cave entrance from emerging monsters
• A dog in an aeroplane rallying shuttlecocks with a cat

Yes, quirky.

I don’t know if this is the case for all the mini-games but these three all involved single-button gameplay; listen to the rhythm and time your presses. It’s a nice idea that quickly becomes mind-bendingly complex when, as the defending samurai, you struggle to remember that THIS sound means a single red-eyed monster is coming to be dispatched with a one press while THAT sound indicates an incoming horde that needs six rapid blows. What more, a fog will occasionally descend, covering the visual cues and forcing you to pay close attention to the music.

Stylized cartoon graphics make the game look good on the Wii and playing it is certainly fun if you have a sense of rhythm. I like it.

Kirby’s Adventure Wii:

Nick: I’m quite into Kirby games at the moment with the excellent Kirby’s Epic Yarn and the bat-shit crazy Kirby Mass Attack dragging little ole Kirby back into my affections. Kirby’s Adventure Wii which goes by the name Kirby’s Return To Dream Land in the US and Kirby Wii in Japan is due to reach these shores just before Christmas 2011 and will probably be the last Kirby game to be released for the Wii.

Kirby’s Adventure Wii is a more traditional side-scrolling platform game. No soft and squishy quilts, patches or yarns to be found here. Instead Kirby has to scour his less squishy home planet of Pop Star in search of pieces of a crashed Spaceship. I used Kirby’s signature skill – inhaling indefinitely – as my standard attack, swallowing or propelling any enemy or object that came close to me. Kirby has a serious pair of lungs on him along with an insatiable appetite making him a tough little cookie.

Kirby had other tricks hidden deep inside in his squishy pink body. When he inhaled certain enemies he would also take on their special powers. During the game I had my Kirby spewing fire, water and even welding a giant sword. When Kirby inhaled a glowing special enemy he went completely nuts and started welding a giant ultra sword. Yeah, the ultra sword of ultra devastation! Drunk with sword-power I carved away massive chunks of the level including many unsuspecting baddie bystanders. Hehe. These special abilities were breathtakingly fun to use as well as being invaluable during boss fights.

Kirby’s Adventure Wii also supports up to 4-players on screen at the same time. When you add in the super abilities to each of the players the screen is soon filled with technicoloured carnage. I also got to play the game with one of the Nintendo reps. The 2-player game worked in a similar vein to Kirby’s Epic Yarn with simple controls making it a real pick and play type of game. I also managed to avoid throwing my team-mate to his death. Win!

Kirby’s Adventure Wii is yet another brilliant Kirby game and one you should look out for in Dec this year.

Rhythm Heaven Wii is due for release early 2012 with Super Mario 3D Land and Kirby’s Adventure Wii due out on the 25th Nov 2011 and 2nd Dec 2011 respectively.

You play Luigi, who has been sucked through a madman’s TV monitor and into a haunted mansion. The madman in question is Professor E. Gadd (ho, ho, ho) who kindly provides you with a Poltergust 5000 or, as we would know it, a vacuum cleaner. Sure, a vacuum cleaner that straps to your back and has a seemingly endless capacity but a vacuum cleaner nonetheless.

Much of the game involves looking for things that move or sparkle and sucking them into your Poltergust. In 15 minutes I managed to capture 4 cobwebs, $500 worth of money, 3 live rats, 2 tablecloths, a curtain and a whole bunch of ghosts. No word on whether the rats survive in there but I like to think of it as a humane trap.

The real fun lies with the ghosts. You’ll start out with fairly simple ones just requiring you to stun them with your strobe light and then suck them in. Exploring areas that you’re not supposed to will result in staircases folding up or sprite gates clanging down on you and generate more powerful ghosts to capture. The stronger ones will struggle against your mighty suction power and drag you around the room. Be careful not to get dragged into the furniture or you’ll lose your balance and the ghost will escape. Even worse, it will likely turn invisible and pounce on you from behind. That delicious, yet nervous anticipation of their return is something I haven’t felt while playing a game in years. Where most games have you on watch for enemies who will kill you dead and put you through the tedious death-animation-plus-reload sequence, Luigi’s Mansion 2 feels like light entertainment but with an underlying complexity.

As you progress through the mansion the ghosts get smarter, arming themselves with frying pan shields to block your strobe and saucepan helmets to… well, mainly to look cute. You’ll swiftly find that you need to apply some tactics to manage the different types of ghost that share a room. The ghosts themselves are an adorable bit of character design. The look of dismay on their little ghostly faces when you sidestep their attacks is very satisfying.

Since this is a 3DS game, the system’s unique features are present. The 3D is nicely subtle – just adds a bit of depth onto each room, with only the occasional torch beam or ghost attempting to poke you in the eye. One rather pointless hindrance is that you can use tilt sensor to look up or down for coins and other goodies hiding in the rafters. On a handheld with a 3D movement window of approximately 1 inch, why in God’s name would you ask players to tilt the thing around to fully explore a room? It’s all right though, you can use the D-pad to accomplish the same thing.

In only 15 minutes Luigi’s Mansion 2 had me hooked. As long as the variety of ghosts and long-leggity beasties continues, this will be a great game. There are plenty of curtains and tablecloths to hoover up, keeping an explorer like me happy and the cutesy exterior disguise a properly strategic experience. Based on the demo, I would definitely buy this game. If I had a 3DS.

I’m almost tempted.

Screenshots

It's The Road To Nowhere

The touch screen served as a team communicator, so unsurprisingly I mostly ignored this screen during the game. Ok, yes, I did help my team on occasion as it technically makes the levels easier to complete. I’m not the only one who thinks that Team McCloud is full of numpties, check out this brilliant puppet Star Fox video.

The Arwing controls were nice a simple with the nub button used for steering, X – boost, A – laser, B – air breaks, Y – nova bomb and the shoulder buttons to perform steep turns/barrel rolls. I could also steer the Arwing by using the inbuilt gyro. This gyro “3DS mode” control was ok but I didn’t think it was as accurate as using the “64 mode” controls. Fortunately the gyro controls were entirely optional.

Gameplay wise, this was classic Star Fox fare. I was happily flying my Arwing through 3D worlds populated with waves of enemies who bombarded me with their lasers. There were massive buildings, asteroids, spaceships and space snakes (probably not their actual name) to avoid. The game was largely on-rails but I had enough space to manoeuvre my Arwing around many of the on-screen obstacles. I often got attacked from behind which necessitated some deft use of my air breaks along with a few acrobatic manoeuvres and a quick taste of death by lasers. These rear attacks along with squeezing through tiny gaps under collapsing buildings really showed off the 3D effects. I felt like I was right there in the cockpit with Fox McCloud.

Summary:

Star Fox 64 3D is a brilliant Star Fox game. The updated visuals and the new 3D effects work really well and enhance the on-screen action. This is an excellent game to show off the capabilities of the 3DS.

Star Fox 64 3D will be available in the UK 9th September. Looking forward to it? Preorder now.

Screenshots:

Without a rubbish steering wheel in sight and sporting some natty 3D visuals, Mario Kart 7 really looks the part. The 3D adds a lot of depth to the tracks which I felt pretty comfortable staring at for the whole time I was playing. The demo build consisted of 3 tracks along with a nice selection of karts and different tyres. However, I was restricted to only one attachment, the hand glider. Not bad. I’ll take that, thanks very much.

Now that's a mighty strong hand glider!

The karts have new updates available in order to handle the new tracks, most notably the hand glider and underwater attachments. The hand glider attachment only worked after I’d jumped off a ramp.

In fact whilst gliding around a bit of jungle track I felt like I was playing Rare’s brilliant Diddy Kong racing game. Not that this is a bad thing, just unexpected. I also developed a habit of crashing into the start/finish banner. Note to self – must glide better. The brief underwater sections found on the second track were quite fun. After jumping into the water and diving down to the sea bed my kart produced a little propeller to power it. Very effective it was too. The only real difference to driving on land was that my kart felt a bit less responsive and “floaty” light.

This was clearly a development build of the game as many of the usual Mario Kart power-ups like the dreaded lightning bolt and the blue shell (first-place seeker) were notably absent. Collecting coins in return for a temporary speed increase was back, although I was restricted to a maximum of 10 per lap and the coins regenerated on the track. I did like the tracks on offer. There was a nice variety of driving challengesavailable. You just can’t beat karting around on a beach firing shells through the waves as they gently meander onto the shore.

This is all rather picturesque

Unusually, I was able to access the full range of pickups available whilst in first place. Previous games would penalise you by restricting pick-ups to the useless ones like banana skins. This is a welcome change as I never really understood why you should be penalised for doing well.

Summary

I was hugely encouraged by this version of Mario Kart. It felt like a return to form for the franchise. I only hope that the some of the gameplay tweaks, like having access to all the weapons when you’re in first place and the coin collecting stay intact when the game is finally released. Welcome back Mario Kart, it has been far too long.

What balance is there between the driving and on-foot sections?

Drew Hahn: NFS: The Run is at heart a racing game as the whole on-foot out of the car sections make up less than 10% of the game. The purpose of having on-foot in the game is because we really wanted to keep you in the action while telling you a story at the same time. With past games like NFS: Most Wanted and NFS: Carbon you’d race, you’d race and race and all of a sudden the movie would come up and you’d put down your controller.

With this one we still wanted to tell you a story but keep the controller in your hands and keep you in the action, which is why were are doing the out of car sections. It really makes up less than 10% of the game. You are in the car for the vast majority of the game.

Eeek, it's the Cops. Run away!

DH: It’s any time you want to push the story forward and witness another key feature within the story. You’re Jack who is trying to get from San Francisco to New York at all costs. He’s a desperate man in desperate times. In this one your Mustang gets totalled and you really need to get another car so you run and steal another car. In other situations, there’s going to be other reasons throughout the race, for example in New York where you’re going to have to get out of your car. We haven’t gone into too much detail yet but we’ve got some really cool moments lined up throughout the race.

Is there a new version of Autolog in the game?

DH: We aren’t going this is “Autolog 1″ and “Autolog 2″ etc. In this one you are still going to have comparisons, recommendations and the galleries. The whole point of the race is you’re going to be in sections where you’re not only racing the AI in the other cars and the environment. What Autolog does is that it allows you to race friends.

On a much bigger scale you might find yourself coming into Chicago in the main game and 6 minutes behind one of your friends, in which case you can go back and try to make up that time. So that’s one thing that Autolog is going to be doing. There’s a whole bunch of other cool features that we haven’t talked about right now, so stay tuned for more information.

What about people without loads of friends online? How is the game going to work for them?

DH: It will still be the cross-country race. It’s still gonna be a grand story that you’re going to have to get through. Autolog is not essential to the game but it really enhances the gameplay experience when you do have friends and you take full advantage of Autolog.

What game engine are you using?

DH: The engine is actually Frostbite 2 the same engine as Battlefield 3, which gives us a lot of advantages over what we used before. Its got amazing rendering, superb audio and full destruction of the world as you can see here in this [E3 2011] demo. Cars can be really heavily damaged to the point where they are totalled and see as the helicopter is shooting at you, You see pillars explode, roads getting torn up and cars exploding. There’s going to be some really big epic moments with environmental destruction that’s really going to change the way that you’re going to have get through your races. You can look forward to that.

Police in helicopters. Rats.

Will there be an iPhone app for the game like the NFS: Hot Pursuit one?

DH: The game itself is going to be available on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii and the 3DS. It’s also going to be available on iPhone, iPod, iPad and in terms of the Autolog app; the existing app will be updated for this. We aren’t going say what exactly what we are going to do but it will be updated.

Thanks for your time.

I had mixed feelings about NFS: The Run after playing the E3 demo. Whilst it was filled with roads bustling with cars and street furniture, I wasn’t overly impressed by the sluggish car handling or the numerous in-race “events”. Everything was a too scripted and too predicable. After a single play-through you knew what events would happen throughout the race; when the police helicopter would attack, which cars to avoid and so on. I was expecting more of a dynamic driving experience which can be found in the recent NFS games like Hot Pursuit and Shift 2 Unleashed.

I hope that my reservations about the game are simply the by-product of EA’s desire to show off the power of the Frostbite 2 engine and race-changing events to the action-hungry E3 crowd. I’m still very keen to see what the rest of the game is like to play. If it’s less scripted with more dynamic racing then NFS: The Run could be one hell of a road trip across America. Here’s hoping…

Need for Speed: The Run is due for release on the 18th Nov 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii and 3DS.

Well, apparently Kirby has been attacked by an evil something-or-other and blasted into ten mini-sized Kirby bits. The demo I played had all the text and instructions in Japanese making it a little tricky to work out the narrative. The Kirby games are renowned for having wild and wonderful story lines but even so this game had its moments where I just stared at the screen wondering what the heck was going on, it was that weird.

Stylus, ready!

Controlled exclusively with the stylus, I started off with one teeny tiny Kirby making his way all alone in the world. The whole of the top screen of my DS was occupied by a huge Kirby face and a empty percentage bar with the text “1/10″ at one end. As my lonesome Kirby began scoffing fruit and other tasty items the percentage bar gradually filled up until out popped a brand new Kirby when the bar was completely full. Yay, new play friend for Kirby :-) I was able to refill the percentage bar a further 8 times until I had a mesmerising 10 Kirbys to control!

Woooaaahhhh!

Kill the bunnies

As the progressed through the levels I began to send my Kirbys into battle against giant flowers and bunnies. My killer Kirbys gave them all a good beating before gobbling up the fruits that would appear in place of their cold, dead, lifeless bodies. I never knew Kirby could be such a ruthless badass.

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin'

There were some puzzles to solve along the way too. The majority of which require you to have a certain number of Kirbys available. For example, I needed over 6 Kirbys to grab onto the roots of a giant turnip stuck in the ceiling and yank it free. Once the turnip had been freed, it hit the ground it burst into a load of fruit which unlocked another bit of Kirby once everything had been eaten up.

You do have to be careful with your Kirbys as they are vulnerable, especially when separated from the main pack. When one of them gets hit, it turns into a ghostly form of Kirby and turns white. When this ghost Kirby gets hit again in this state, it dies :-( However, you can restore a ghostly Kirby to its solid pink form using one of the glowing floating hoops that can be found near the end of levels. For the first few levels I couldn’t work out what these floating hoops were for but as the levels got harder and I started to lose Kirbys in battle, I began to make use of these life-giving hoops.

This game trailer does a great job of showing the Kirby chaos I’ve been describing in all its glory….

Summary

This is a crazy, crazy game. Keeping all your Kirbys together and attacking as an organised unit is a lot of fun and keeps you pretty busy. I had a smile permanently planted across my face the whole time I was playing the demo. Just like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Kirby Mass Attack is a must buy game. Now where did my marauding pack of Kirbys get to?

Kirby Mass Attack is due for release on the 19th Sep 20111 for Nintendo DS.