That's exciting news. I might contact the Oaks Mall and local GameStops to see if there's any plans for anything. Not that the Oaks Mall compares to the one there, Citrus Park.
Dance Central is easily the most exciting Kinect game, too. I'm glad to see people were paying the most attention to it. Seems like a good first effort for Kinect marketing to me.
So you're trying to say that I, alone, am out of this world?
Glad you enjoyed it, Caliban. Make sure you tune in next time, too, whenever that will be!
Traditionally, I haven't posted updates to "Iwata Asks" as news, but this time, since things were changed up, I felt like I just had to do it.
It was already a must-buy for me. At E3, it was simple but a lot of fun.
Take a look at one of the pictures we have for the game, the character select screen. Anyone know what that's hearkening back to?
I'm going to add some to this, since I've got the game, as well.
The grinding aspect of the game is definitely not understated. A fact that makes it worse? As of the fourth or so level, the only decent place to buy power-ups is the very first, which means you've got to head back to the first stage and find the shop you want to buy from there, before being able to upgrade. What's this mean? Even though you might earn tons of experience and money as you progress through a stage, you don't see a statistical benefit from this until you complete or leave the stage you're currently in.
Past that, money can't be shared from one account's character to another in any simple way. While it is possible to have someone else on another account take your money, then quit, choose another character on your account, and then get the money back, the task is annoying and takes unnecessary extra time.
Additionally, like Chessa said, character growth can feel a bit excruciating to wait and grind through. The lack of initial abilities for each character means early grinding lacks the variety and style available in the late game, and yes, your character moves very slowly. While I'm all for unlockable moves as your character levels, truthfully, a few more options at the beginning would've been nice, and would've done well to differentiate characters from each other early on.
The game, itself, has several references to the graphic novels, but is virtually unrelated to the movie. This isn't a good or bad thing, but if you saw the movie, it means you'll see some scenes that don't fit align perfectly with it. It's all the more reason to consider checking out the graphic novels, really. Beyond this, lots of content in the game refers to classic video games. When Stephen Stills exits a stage, he leaves via Warp Pipe. Likewise, Kim leaves by taking a Warp Star, from Kirby fame.
Overall, it's worth it for the people who are slightly more hardcore than The Simpson's Arcade Game or TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, in my opinion. The grinding is a major setback, but the gameplay, after that, is a whole lot of fun and pretty challenging.
I'm just going to double post:
I beat the main mode tonight, and it's a solid game. I haven't fully explored all the bonuses and challenges, which I'll probably spend time doing on Saturday, should I get time. It's got just about everything one would expect to be considered an arcade shmup with some added style, as well. If you can't wait until the review is up, my recommendation is "Buy."
I would have loved it if Brawl's development completely ignored the single player aspects, and instead, only developed a bit of a more balanced multiplayer with a few more characters.
That said, the idealist in me would prefer a world where a concept is created and developed to its full potential. If the concept works as a single-player concept, then let it be one. If it works for multiplayer, let it be a multiplayer game. If it can work for both, let it be both. That said, the reality seems to be that multiplayer games, particularly online multiplayer games seem to have more money-making potential if they catch on: All players need to buy a copy, and they can encourage friends and spread like wildfire through social networking, though not in the FaceBook sense of the word.
