61 Frames Per Second

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

Like a lot of other gamers, I was rather perplexed by the announcements at the Capcom’s recent Captivate ‘08 event. Sure, Street Fighter IV is starting to look like a worthwhile return to the franchise and Bionic Commando just looks awesome - both got me wanting to pick up that Xbox gamepad again - but what the hell happened on the Nintendo side of things? Neopets Puzzle Adventure and Spyborgs?

Capcom doesn't really believe that ALL Nintendo gamers are eight years old, do they?

But as the media rolled in, I started to warm up to these new IPs. Despite whatever unpleasantness lies in my history with Neopets — a story for another day — the characters are still adorable, and Neopets Puzzle Adventure is being handled by the team responsible for the addictive Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. As a character-driven puzzle RPG, it shows a good deal of potential, and with Capcom and Neopets attached to the project, you know its going to have much more retailer support than Puzzle Quest ever did.

As for Spyborgs, well, the trailer didn’t instill much hope. Tacky voiceover, characters that could have been lifted from the very worst saturday morning cartoons, and potty humor... in a minigame?! You guys let go of Clover, the studio responsible for Viewtiful Joe and Okami, for this? "FUCK YOU, CAPCOM!" was my first thought.



There's one true bright spot: Spyborgs is the first project by Bionic Games, a new studio whose members have worked on Ratchet and Clank, World of Warcraft, Resistance: Fall of Man, Tony Hawk: Pro Skater, The Sims, and Call of Duty. With a resume like that, you know these kids know how to make games that are well-designed and actually fun. Also, Capcom's Christian Svensson stated on the company's official message board:

Have faith. This is a game that is incredibly thoughtful in its design, incredibly varied in its mechanics and will be incredibly fun to play (both alone or with a buddy/son or daugther/father or mother) when it’s done. The initial reaction here I swear is the EXACT reaction so many of you posters had when we first revealed Zach & Wiki. Somehow, Z&W is now a poster child title for the Wii in your eyes. Mark my words: you will feel exactly the same way about the level of quality in Spyborgs when it is done. Again, this is a big, epic game. A far cry from typical Wii shovelware. You’ve heard my rants on that before, I won’t go through it again.

I know that at least two of us FPSers love Zack & Wiki (probably more of us, I haven't asked around), and it's excellent to see them acknowledge that most Wii games are crap. For now, I'm going to accept that Spyborgs is still extremely early in development and is a labor of love for designers with great track records.

I am skeptically looking forward to both Spyborgs and Neopets Puzzle Adventure. Wish we'd learned a bit more about Resident Evil 5, though.