I had an opportunity to swing by D3 Studios’ meeting room early Wednesday morning to get a glimpse of a few of the titles that are coming out for the Wii and the DS. D3 is most well known for the Naruto games, based off of the anime and manga. However, they have expanded this genre with a new title that is coming out called Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers.
Onechanbara is a hack and slash for the Wii that is already available in Japan. The primary characters are from the Onechanbara anime and manga, just as the Naruto games are. I was first shown the trailer, which was quite over the top. The sisters, Aya and Saki, are fighting off a zombie horde. Although, in the trailer, Saki is watching the television while it happens. Aya is being shown in the shower at rather specific angles. According to D3, this is exactly what the developer wants.
Aya was used in the demo I was shown. She is rather scantily clad and holding two swords, which is staying true to the anime and manga. The game uses the Wii remote and nunchuk quite well, as there is no real wasted motion. Your job is pretty simple: Kill or be killed. You will roam areas and take on more zombies as you progress, along with boss battles.
Graphically, it looks pretty good on the Wii, although it does seem to suffer a bit of slowdown from time to time. This could be a problem considering that you will be endlessly hacking at monsters.
I do like the concept of the game, as there are some features that I enjoyed. One feature is that you will have to keep track of how much blood is on your sword. If you allow the sword to become completely covered, it will get stuck inside of a zombie and you will have to shake the Wii remote to pull it out. Building onto that, the characters’ body can also become completely covered in blood. This makes you stronger, although it can slow you down as well. It’s over the top with this, as well, as being completely covered makes the character look like she’s naked, which is exactly what the developer is going for.
Onechanbara is slated for an early 2009 release.
From there, I moved onto Bangai-O Spirits, which is a DS side scroll shooter made by Treasure. You’ll recognize this name as they created the shooter Ikaruga. Bangai-O is extremely chaotic, just like Ikaruga, although the style of this game is a bit different.
You shoot in every single direction as well as move in every direction. This is vital as there is a lot going on in the game. It can be a little taxing to some casual gamers, but the hardcore shooter will enjoy it as it’s very challenging.
Bangai-O Spirits is completely customizable, as the game allows you to edit whatever you want in the game. So, if you have an easier level that you think needs to be more difficult, you can make it narrower, add in more enemies, or even bosses. The reason for this is that Bangai-O Spirits is going to use a new system to share levels with people. It’s a way to get around the Friend Code, and this new technology is called Sound Load technology. It sends stage data via a sound file. You can record it onto anything as well as take these files that other people have and hold it up to the DS microphone, allowing the file to transfer over. I’ll be interested to see how this works out.
The game, as I said before, is very chaotic and fast paced, with 160 levels already built into it. On top of the single player game, there is a four player online multiplayer mode in which you can use built in levels or customizable levels if you want.
Finally, I finished up with Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 for the Wii. As expected, this is a fighting game, but this version has taken on a twist. Instead of it being just one on one combat, you can have up to four players at one time, and can also be broken down however you want it. You can have a free for all or have players team up against each other, whether it be 2 on 2, 3 on 1, whatever you feel like doing.
The controls are fairly accurate, although it will take some time to remember certain moves. For instance, in order to build up power, you have to hold Z and C in and then do a series of gestures with the Wii remote. If you don’t do it properly, which I failed probably half of the times I tried, your character misses and is vulnerable for a second or two.
Combat wise, the game works well with the controls, though. Shaking the Wii remote gives you one attack while simply hitting the A button gives you another. Pressing the D-pad allows you to change your focus from one enemy to another if you wish. Just so there is no confusion, an arrow will point at the enemy you are fighting.
Most fights are two-tiered, as they start on a platform which a player can be knocked off. At that point, you can land a series of attacks while falling if you are instigator. If you are falling, timing movements correctly can allow you to block this. I jumped into a few matches and found the fighting controls to be pretty easy to pick up, although I still had issues with building power or “chakra” as it is called in the game.
Character wise, there will be 30 playable characters. Most of these characters are mainstays from the show, but D3 has gone beyond that and taken several characters that have been in the anime or manga only once or twice and put them in the game. For one reason or another, they felt that it gave a change to the game itself.
