Okamii & Phoenix Wright

Yep – the rumours have been confirmed. Okami is now due to be remade for the Wii, and as such, I have rather unofficially renamed the game Okamii. This is of course a no-brainer, with the heavy use of calligraphy brush strokes in the game this was always best suited to the Wii as opposed to any other platform, I’m just surprised that it has taken this long to be announced!

I have been tempted in the past to buy Okami (for the PS2), as it follows a very similar template to the Zelda games, also you cannot ignore the fact that the art style in the game is simply awesome. Well, now that it’s due on the horizon for the Wii, I thing this has jumped to a must buy status.

My only concern is that it seems like an awful lot of titles are due out now for quarter 1 2006, especially in light of several titles being delayed from the end of 2007. From memory, the titles that I’m interested in that I can think of are:

Mario Kart (Wii)
Rock Band (PS3)
Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
Fire Emblem (Wii)
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
Little Big Planet (PS3)

Phew!

I completed Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations the other night. I must admit that it was rather sad, knowing that this is the last game is the series. Whilst a new Ace Attorney game is due out next year (Apollo Justice), this just won’t be the same without the same memorable characters that made the Phoenix Wright games what they are.

It has to be said that the very final case was pretty damn epic and had more twists and turns in it than an entire series of Lost. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, a new piece of evidence, or some new testimony completely threw everything upside down. I even found myself verbally shouting “you what” at the DS (as oppose to the mandatory “objection”).

Now it’s time for a rant…

Now I quite like EDGE magazine, I really do. I’ve collected it on and off for numerous years, but it has to be said that I think that in my opinion their reviews have become less and less reliable over the last few years. They gave Phoenix Wright 6/10 – in other words slightly above average. The main complaint seems to be that the game mechanics were a little too rigid and that there were a few typo’s in the translation. Now first off, this is based on an imported game, so the fact that it already has a translation is a blessing, secondly, I probably only notice 4-5 occasions in the entire game where there was a typo. This is out of literally thousands and thousands of lines of text, as such, I think that this point is rather petty. As for the game mechanics, they seem just fine to me for what is in reality, an old fashioned text adventure. There is no harm in that at all, after all, how many games in this genre are there left?

Let look at the game as a whole. It has an amusing story, fantastic characters (which are the most memorable and likeable that I can think of for years), is a game which rquirs you to think things through very carefully, has a fantastic soundtrack and is overall a long, memorable and extremely pleasant experience… So 6/10 seems a tad low.

I know, I know, this is all very subjective, but it got me somewhat peeved! Also, although I’m yet to play Metroid Prime 3, their review seems a tad low when compared to other reviews of this game (which have been positively glowing).

You just need to take a look at Metacritic to get a better view of these:

Phoenix Wright 3

Metroid Prime 3

I know that I’ve been rambling, but I just wanted to get it off my chest. Overall, to summarise, I still read game reviews these days, but ensure that they do not bias my view on a game (especially EDGE’s) and instead go with my gut feelings.