E3 is once again upon us (albeit in its retooled, min-E3 format). I won’t cover every single announcement here – there are plenty of up-to-the-minute industry news sites on the blogroll at right, so set your RSS reader and fire away. But a week like this always has a few thought-provoking surprises, and presents a good opportunity to take the industry’s pulse. It’s like halftime, leading up to the holiday season endgame.
There’s a lot to be excited about in Capcom’s lineup this year, with Street Fighter IV promising a return to form in offense-geared, fast paced brawling along with a hot new 3D presentation. It’s a big, big development for Street Fighter fans, but I’m actually more excited about the return of the true blue bomber in Mega Man 9 on the Virtual Console and PSN.
For this installment, Capcom went back to the series’ roots and opted for the graphics and sounds of a classic NES game. In an industry that’s constantly pushing the hardware for higher frame rates and jaw-dropping visuals, it’s a breath of fresh air to see someone opt for the look and feel that just plain fits the character best. Mega Man 7 (on the SNES) and 8 (on the original PlayStation) were both good games in their own right, but just didn’t have that classic Mega Man charm, as anyone that played through Mega Man 2 would attest.
The decision from a big studio to go lo-fi for the latest entry in their flagship franshise is a subtle, but important development. It’s an artistic choice, to create a similar experience and evoke the same feelings as we had playing through the glory days of the series.
This is the second awesome videogame quilt picture I've run. Please send more.
I’d love to see future installments of classic franchises explore what made them great in the first place. And while we’re at, why not breathe new life into the classics we’ve already played through a million times by adding more content? Wouldn’t it be cool to pick up a Double Dragon game where part 3 left off? Or play through the NES port of Maniac Mansion, with running commentary from the (reunited) original development team?
Nice post, I enjoy a lot playing games actually, especially the latest console tech like the PS3. IMHO, PS3 is way better than Wii or XBox 360.