Hands on with THQs and Capcoms upcoming line up

Recently THQ invited us to play some of theirs and Capcoms upcoming lineup. We took Darkside Chronicles, Marvel Super Hero Squad and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for a spin. Heres our thoughts

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles

Now, I have to say straight off the bat, on-rails shooters have never been my thing. Maybe it’s because I was thrashed horrifically by Time Crisis II as a child. Or maybe it’s because the PC FPS has dominated my life. Either way, I approached Umbrella Chronicles with some trepidation. How do you keep a shooter of this sort fresh in today’s shooter-saturated market?

DC’s ace in the hole is, of course, the fact that it’s a Resident Evil game. There are scenes derived from earlier titles, including Resident Evil 2, which certainly make it interesting for fans of the series. Leon and Claire are among the characters getting a recall, and players can control them through such locations as Raccoon City.

It’s the changes to the game itself that are the most interesting. One that has gotten much lip-service since E3 is the ’shaky camera’. In our play through, one particular night sequence saw plenty of head jerking and point-of-view twirling, especially when the zombie hordes start ’rushing’ (for lack of a better term) in.

In earlier builds, it seems that the camera movement was a little excessive, but we didn’t really notice it, so busy were we attempting to frantically disembowel approaching zombies. On that note, we did notice some of the hit registration was a little off, but we’re hoping that can simply be put down to the state of the build, more than anything else. Another smaller modification is that you can do pretty much everything with the Wiimote, without having to bother with the Nunchuk. It’s not that big a deal, really, but it does help keep you ’in the moment’ of the game.

And that’s, really, what Darkside Chronicles is about; sucking you into an RE-styled atmosphere. To be perfectly honest, the gameplay isn’t really innovative or particularly interesting from a purely mechanical standpoint, and isn’t likely to win over anyone who isn’t an RE obsessive.

Fans, on the other hand, will delight in the references and nostalgic re-runs of earlier times (including this games predecessor, Umbrella Chronicles), with set-piece after set-piece full to the brim with zombie madness. In fact, that’s probably what Capcom is banking on.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

What’s most odd about this game is not that exactly 50% of its content matter is based on a lineage of anime many Westerners will not be familiar with. It’s not that it features a golden lighter that transforms into a 30-foot robot. It’s not even that it will arrive exclusively for the Wii. It’s that the game has already been out for Japanese arcades and consoles, and it’s taken till now for Capcom to realise that it may have a market elsewhere as well.

Well, that’s not totally fair. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took the commercial success of Street Fighter IV to prompt the guys at Capcom to try taking this fighting game to the world. But that aside, it looks like T vs. C will do well here. Why? Well, think Marvel vs. Capcom. Got that? Ok, now take out Marvel and replace that with Tatsunoko. This game in a nutshell.

The mechanics are broadly similar, with a couple of different kinds of combos available. The controls have also been streamlined for the sake of simplicity, with three kinds of offensive moves, presumably to make it more usable on the Wii. It does come off as being a tad easy – specials are maybe a little too easily activated – but clearly this is a game where the fun is in watching stuff explode and move across the screen at high velocity, possibly while making some sort of whooshing noise as it careens forward in a cavalcade of lights and sparkles and sparkly lights.

Anyone who’s familiar with… well, any fighting game really, will feel pretty much at home. Of course, with a game of this kind, it’s all about the fighters. The great thing about the subject matter is that there are all sorts of great characters to get acquainted (or for some, reacquainted) with here. There’s the aforementioned lighter-robot (called Golden Laightan), Ken the Eagle and June the Swan, and a host of others, in addition to the familiar Street Fighter and Co. lineup. All are well presented and animated in a 2.5D style.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom is quite an interesting game to consider, really, because it’s hard to pick exactly who Capcom are aiming this one at. People who don’t play many fighters/watch much anime might not pick it up because the source is too unfamiliar, and veteran arcade gamers might pass on this one simply because it can be a little too easy under a weathered hand. Of course, what it does well is bring some of the more hallowed archives of anime history to the world of gaming, in the company of some rather large gaming staples, so with any luck it’ll sell bucket loads, if only to show the world how much we love quirky lighter-transforming robots.

Marvel Super Hero Squad

Those looking for the Ultimate Alliance sequel are, I’m afraid, looking in the wrong place. This is not aimed at you. THQ is really aiming this one at the younger end of the demographic, with developer Blue Tongue channeling some LEGO-y goodness into a fairly straight up bash and collect action game.

That isn’t to say older gamers won’t get a kick out of the game; LEGO has proved us wrong on that count before. Tonnes of Marvel heroes (and villains) feature, from Spiderman to Sabertooth, and it seems there’ll be plenty of the ol’ power upgrading to keep you going. And Stan Lee cameos, as seems to be his ‘thing’, which is cool.

Marvel Super Hero Squad features a jump-in, jump-out co-op through the Adventure mode, which takes you through the story, and most levels will see you take on huge swarming hordes of enemies for what we are certain are complex and narratively-sound reasons.

The Wiimote is the only controller you need, with attacks, jumps, and the odd special move about as complicated as the controls ever get (presumably, the reason for the open co-op slot is that with a friend it’ll take longer to realise you’re playing a kiddy game). The art style is also simple. Well, actually, a better word to describe it would be cutesy, which is again plausible seeing as Marvel is hoping to sell a line of children’s toys off the back of this franchise as well.

But let’s face it, there is still something amusing about yelling ‘Hulk Smash’ as you run what looks like Hulk’s baby brother through a wall of suited minions, giggling privately to yourself (or maybe to your similarly enamoured compadre on the couch there) at the antics unfolding on screen. Before you roll your eyes, I’ve seen 30 year olds behave in this exact way.

On the other hand, to move the beating away from the surrounding environs and onto the juicy vegetable matter before us, this will, in the end, be of little interest to the seasoned gamer. Gamers with kids, on the other hand, or even just the parent looking for a nice yet ‘cool’ game to play with their children from time to time may well find this to be a title everyone can love. Just don’t pick Wolverine, I hear he can be a little nasty from time to time.

Thanks to Nick for taking the time to travel to the event. More impressions from the event can be found in the upcoming issue of Pixel-Hunt. Also thanks to THQ for the invite.