Dark and gloomy - just how an arcade hall should be!

At the AOU 2010 half a year ago (a Japan-based expo for manufactures of arcade parts, arcade games publishers and developers) SEGA introduced a new Virtua Fighter 5 to the public, suitably subtitled Final Showdown.

For two weeks the location tests in Tokyo’s arcades have rolled on, submitting the latest installment of the renowned beat-em-up franchise to the rigorous scrutiny of a (mostly) Japanese audience.

From what can be anticipated already, the guys at AM2 went for some rather drastic changes in developing Showdown, going well beneath the usual formula of adding new gameplay-irrelevant stuff to their new iteration. Apparently, you will see new costumes, new stages, new items and costumes in Showdown too but there is more to be unveiled underneath.

With Showdown, AM2 did a quite remarkable balance act: while preserving the hallmark of the franchise (depth), they opened the game for a potential new audience by cranking up the level of accessibility.

Showdown could become a tidbit to both beginners and pros–that is, should it ever be released on home consoles, which, I surmise, considering SEGA’s response to a fan petition, seems rather unlikely.

Not a Pretty Baby?

The character select screen: sumo-wrestler Taka-Arashi and karateka Jean, (re-)introduced in Revolution, are most likely new to you.

Capcom surprised the game world not only with the unexpected resurrection of their Street Fighter franchise but also with a new and compelling way to invigorate Street Fighter IV with a visual style–polygonal this time around–whose outstanding attribute is but unique and eye-catching.

Showdown does not leap quite that far. There is no new look exclusively invented for Showdown. In fact, its visuals have evolved only minimally from the original console release of Virtua Fighter 5 in 2007.

Some arcade gamers at the location tests even had to double-check whether they were not in fact playing on one of the old machines, because Showdown looks very much like a copy-and-paste of its arcade-only predecessor Revolution.

Showdown‘s new lighting system, however, is an appealing surprise. Not only are the characters cast in a much more natural light, without that “plastic” look anymore, but gameplay is also pleasingly affected by it. Now a bright yellow flash, much more noticeable than before, signals a counter-hit. If you want to ready yourself for pulling off that counter-hit-specific combo, you will be grateful for every visual clue.

A clear advantage, even over Revolution, then, concerns the new animation system, a field in which the series has always excelled at, but which seems to have been completely overhauled in Showdown. A powerful sidekick really knocks your opponent off his feet now, while some throws unlock a new degree of joyful violence (see Goh Hinogami’s, for instance).

With the new animations, the developer also want to give players as many visual hints as possible as how to react to certain attacks. A full circular attack is now visually stopped by the block, as in Virtua Fighter 3. “We really want people to better understand visually,” says AM2′s Katagiri, “if their attack was blocked or if they blocked an attack successfully.”

Risky moves truly animate as being risky now. If your powerful launcher is blocked, your character will, visually clearly recognizable now, enter a vehement recovery animation phase, hinting the other player at how hard he will be able to punish you.

For new players this holds another advantage. You are no longer required to learn the special properties for each move in the game; rather, you can now react on sight.

Throw-Escaping Is for Everyone

Sarah Bryant on one of the wallpapers AM2 fed their hungry fans with

The second big overhaul was unloaded onto the control scheme. Inputs for moves and throws have been coherently streamlined, demanding less joystick acrobatics than before.

The throw system, in particular, benefits from the new controls. Every throw, whether high or low, ends on Punch plus Guard now, and the possible throw directions have been reduced as well (lest you do not know: you can only escape a throw by entering its last directional input), and it is no longer possible to buffer multiple throw escapes; in Showdown, only one throw escape at a time.

While the overhaul of the throw-escape system may seem like a watering-down at first, it really caters the new uninitiated players in their play while retaining about the same depth of guessing games for players who want to indulge themselves in competitive play.

It is also noteworthy that throws execute a tad quicker now (10 frames instead of 12) and that instant throwing and throw clashes (an attack could cancel out a throw attempt, resulting in a status quo for both players) have been abolished altogether. Under the bottom line, throws become less powerful in Showdown than this has been the case in, say, vanilla VF5.

Considering that escaping throws is one of the bread-and-butter techniques for surviving in Virtua Fighter, one that had always required time-consuming training, the streamlining of the throw-escape system seems all in all a good thing for those who eventually dare the plunge into the franchise.

As Swift as a Fox

Goh vs. Pai, or: grim Judoka against punch-happy girl

Friends of swift stepping may feel at peace with Virtua Fighter again. Movements cancel much faster now, allowing for a more seamless blending of maneuvers than ever before in VF5. Stringing together dashes, crouch-dashes, and evades feels much swifter, and I would not be surprised if, in the forthcoming weeks, fancy new stepping techniques would reach us from overseas.

The backdash deserves special mention here. It is like a enitrely new movement, with more evasive properties, as the characters even lean back a little while performing it. Once you are getting caught in your backdash, though, it will knock you down–just a further proof that Virtua Fighter not only stands for depth but also rigorous game balance, every upside coming with a downside.

The new evade, or dodge, can shine as well. This time around AM2 opted for a high-risk/high-reward guessing game. If you manage to successfully dodge, you move to your opponent’s side and, thus, as being side-turned takes longer to get into a blocking state, gain the opportunity to cause some damage. If, however, you are hit in your dodge through, say, a roundhouse kick, it will count as a counter-hit, leaving you wide open for hideously damaging combos.

It seems that with the new level of responsiveness in Showdown, the emphasis of the series could be much more on movement now than before.

Conclusion

Showdown is much more a revolution than its predecessor, VF5: Revolution, even though the latter one introduced two new characters, sumo-wrestler Taka-Arashi (from VF3) and karateka Jean. But the filigree work AM2 pulled off on even the most sacred game mechanics let Showdown shine with ease over any of its predecessor.

When asked whether he would play Showdown if it ever came to consoles, a die-hard Street Fighter player replied that it depended very much on the game’s community. “A good game is good and all,” he said, “but without a lot of support, then it is no good.”

Unfortunately, SEGA seems to lack in exactly this area, in the support of a western community, in order to market their game on a larger scale than just the niche of arcade gaming that they have reserved for the VF franchise for now.

Word has it that Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will hit the Japanese arcades in a few weeks, on July 29.

Videogame adaptions of movies or TV series have rarely had a good stand. Gameplay seems to crush too easily under the elephantine weight of a film license.

The Transformers franchise has been no exception so far, since its cartoon launch on TV in 1984. The pain that fans haven’t had a good Transformers game in decades must still be reverberating in every vain of theirs.

But they are not alone in their misery. Just see what SEGA has done to Iron Man for the second time around now–not a too pretty sight if you ask me.

Nonetheless another Transformers game is to see the light of day soon. How pretty will the release date, June 22 this year, be to both gamers and fans?

High Moon Studios, mainly known–if at all–for their mediocre console port of Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy, have developed the new Transformers, monotonously subtitled War for Cybertron. Known for their Unreal Engine 3 expertise, the guys at High Moon have once more flexed their muscles to transform a silver-screen piece into a game.

At this point it would be fairly easy to dismiss War for Cybertron right off the bat as another patch of film license trash, its purport mainly being money-making. I fell for that kind of prejudice in the first place, but erred heavily in the end after having experienced High Moon’s interpretation of the mech franchise.

If you believe that Transformers: War for Cybertron be just for geeks, nerds, and fanboys who have sunk their teeth into some fictional world made up of the noble Autobots and nefarious Decepticons–how ridiculous, is it not?–, if you really think that, then I fear you must be erring as well.

In case you are fond of a third-person shooter that values skill over anything else–one that leaves you with a warm, mellow feeling in the belly–, prick up your shiny metal ears now, and listen to how I had been lost in paradise but eventually regained it during my hands-on time with the new multiplayer demo of Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Lost in Paradise

Two vs. one: Do you call this fair, Decepticons?!

What the heck is going on? Having joined a Team Deathmatch session, the assuredness of my victory and my overconfident smirk is fading away like ice in the sunshine, only that I get slaughtered left and right; a turning of the tables is nowhere in sight.

Fiendish Mechs are literally everywhere. Scouts, previously invisible to me, uncloak behind my back cleaving my Autobot asunder or they snipe me dead from an absurd distance. Heavily-armored and gorgeously equipped Decepticon Soldiers hover in the air and unleash devastating bombardments upon my head or they slaughter me with their roundhouse whirlwind attack that cuts through everything in its immediate range like through microwaved butter–only that butter really turns out to be the thin-like-paper hull of my lovely Autobot Scout.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is no simple affair, no mediocre game port of a blockbuster movie or cartoon series as I surmised it would be. Instead, what High Moon Studios made sure to deliver first was a deep and rewarding third-person shooter. Only then did the guys at High Moon begin to layer on the solid core gameplay a thin veil of Transformer license.

The result sits well with me: the action is intense, the heat of the battle, unforgiving.

And, as another plus, opening whole worlds of strategic depths, Transformers: War for Cybertron is class-based. The multiplayer demo comes with two of the four playable classes, Scout and Soldier, which are also customizable regarding their weapon loadout and special abilities (in the full version you can also color each body part of your Bot).

Molten, the only map in the demo, is huge, and leaves enough room for Vehicle mode in which you can reach remote corners of the level in no time, especially if you choose the swift Scout as your preferred class. The mobility factor becomes important in play modes such as Conquest where you need to get to different nodes as quickly as possible to capture them for raising your team’s score.

Unfortunately, the MP demo lacks any kind of a tutorial that attunes the new player to High Moon Studios’s well-thought-out but quite elaborate control scheme. And believe me when I say that every beginner, and not only me, will long for such an introduction upon his first plunge into the game’s deep control mechanisms.

Because, honestly, right now, I feel lost, overwhelmed by the frantic pace of multiplayer in War for Cybertron and its elaborate controller layout. While getting fragged abound on Molten, I regard a rage-quit for an appropriate means to vent my frustration, anger, and confusion. Xbox Guide button, Y, and “Yes” is all it needs.

Back on the dashboard, I have time to breathe in the calmness that the dashboard radiates. It invites me to think over what I have just experienced.

War for Cybertron has compelling graphics, with the right amount of metal sheen for its robotic world. Dazzling action awaits the player, with respawn times under two seconds, and Transformers that simply feel and control “right.”

The sum of all this is what refuels the players’ interest ad infinitum to come back to War for Cybertron, even if they have, just like me, been scared off by its complex control scheme in the first place. Every Bot has the right feel to it and comes with a special play style that you can further customize to your needs and wants however you wish.

Time for a second attempt.

Paradise Regained

This time around I take my time to prepare myself better before embracing battle. Having leveled up quite a bit (through my team making up for my inabilities), more customization options are available to my preferred Scout class now.

Similar to Call of Duty 4, you unlock abilities and weapons in War for Cybertron by leveling up. Winning the match, killing your enemies in spectacular ways, producing kill chains adds to that.

War for Cybertron lets you define your own play style through the four classes that play very differently and its manifold customization options.

The Stealth ability of the Scout comes in handy for my purposes. I choose to extend that ability with Ghost, which prolongs the duration of being cloaked. Surprise Action rounds off the package, allowing me to do hideous damage for a few seconds after becoming visible again.

With the Scatter Cannon as primary weapon, I turn any Transformer at phone-booth range into metal scrap. For more ranged attacks, I reserve the following method as my battle plan: a sniper rifle combined with Surprise Action makes up for hideously damaging bullets, killing even the fiercest Soldier whenever you uncloak and get engaged.

But I bring another special ability to the table: Decoy Trap spawns a fake weapon item that stuns once an enemy touches it. It has an incredible long cooldown, making it one of the less practical abilities, but when you trap an enemy with it, the joy couldn’t be bigger.

You can even cast Decoy Trap while cloaked so that running up to your enemy just to spawn the fake item upon becomes a viable tactic to stun him, allowing you to finish him off.

The potpourri of abilities and weapon loadouts really work hand in hand in War for Cybertron. You can play exactly the job you have designed your Bot for. More than three slots per class that you can choose to save your customization configuration to guarantee that you have enough variety when entering battle.

Forgotten is the frustrating attempt of my first unguided plunge into the game, and for that I am grateful, High Moon Studios.

Perhaps the most important question still remains to be answered: Should you Play That Game?!

Just imagine doing this: Double-jump, cloak, transform into Vehicle mode, and ignite the afterburner. The controls and fluid animations allow for such actions seamlessly and effortlessly. It is a joy to watch your Bot transform into a fully customizable, responsive killer machine.

It is usually true that movie games suck. However, Transformers: War for Cybertron does not. Play that demo!

149 bucks for a sensor -- what a proud price.

Finally, Microsoft let the cat out of the bag. Kinect, their new motion-sensor system, has now been officially priced at US$ 149.

In the Kinect package are included: the Kinect sensor device, a power supply cable, a user’s manual, and a Wi-Fi extension cable. But not a single game.

How those US$ 149 for Kinect translate into European currencies remains to be seen as well. Let us not hope for a 1:1 exchange rate as usual.

(On a side-note, a brand-new Xbox 360 Arcade also costs US$ 149.)