Shownotes Below the Cut!

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So Nintendo Power has a big front-page splash for a new Silent Hill game that’s coming out for the Wii. GoNintendo elaborates;

“This is a reimagining of the first Silent Hill,” explains producer Tomm Hulett. “It’s not a remake or a port. That’s an important distinction. It really feels like a new game.”

Apparently the story is the same, concerning Harry Mason as the main protagonist and him searching for his daughter Cheryl after she gets lost in the surreal town of Silent Hill. However, certain things have changed. On top of challenging puzzles, you now can find ways to access every room presented to you, rather than some rooms being locked in one phase of Silent Hill and others being unlocked in another phase. No load times have been announced, the Wii control stick and remote are used for separate actions, such as walking and using the flashlight respectively. We’re also told there will be no combat in this new game, and that you can only run from your enemies.

Ok, no load times and more in-depth controls seem like a good deal to me. The issue concerning the locked doors is nice, but takes away a bit of what made the other Silent Hill games different, even if in a frustrating way. However having no combat whatsoever and only being able to flee? How does that make the game any better? “Survival” isn’t just about running away from the threat; it’s about keeping yourself safe from harm. Sometimes you can’t always run and need to defend yourself, even with a crappy knife or wrench you picked up. I hardly see how removing combat makes this game more “survival horror”, but that’s me. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it in the near future.

Keep Playing: Rewind is a new sub-segment from our own Keep Playing series of game reviews, focusing on games of the 8 and 16-bit era and the like.

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So, it seems that not only are BottleRocket and Namco not working together on the newest Splatterhouse game set for release this year, but now the former bed-buddies are getting nasty with one another over the issue.
Last month, Namco cut ties with BottleRocket, the original developer of the new Splatterhouse game, abruptly and out of the blue. No reason was given for why Namco packed up and left so suddenly, though each side has their own story to tell. Now BottleRocket is shooting back at Namco.

“Splatterhouse had been in development for over eighteen months and up to having the title taken away from us we had not missed any contractually defined milestones. So either there were no performance issues during that timeframe or Namco’s management of the title was inept.”

BottleRocket doesn’t seem to be pushing the issue past mere words, though, as they admit to fearing the larger development corporation could easily crush their smaller one if slander starts affecting their image.

The new Splatterhouse game is due out April 28th.

Right on the heels of Resident Evil 5 being released overseas, and tomorrow here in the states (though some got it sooner), it seems the momentum of the Resident Evil franchise is still running strong and plans to for some time.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles has been announced for the Wii, and will follow up big brother Umbrella Chronicles as another rail-shooter in terms of gameplay. Darkside Chronicles will be filling in the gaps left by the previous title by exploring the Resident Evil 2 part of the story. As seen, Leon and Claire will make their candid appearances as primary character to control, while other characters and additional story will be shown and explained. Game producer Masachika Kawata also hinted to the inclusion of other game scenarios from the series being explored as well. Code Veronica, anybody?

No release date has been set, as the game’s development has been rumored to not even be halfway done yet, though we do at least have some nice eye candy to show for what has been completed.

RE: Darkside Chronicles

Ok, so it’s not so much an “Obscure Find”, as it is a “You Need to Take a Look” feature, especially for those of you who are, like me, huge fans of video game music.

Overclocked Remix is a site dedicated to the remastering and reinventing of previously-composed video game music. It’s not a newbie to the internet and has been around for almost a decade, bringing together gamers and musicians and combining the respective loves of each into a community of enthusiasts dedicated to finding new ways of spinning old classics and new classics alike in the realm of game music. Eventually, what began as individual musicians making individual remixed tracks from all sorts of games, spawned into groups of the independents combining forces to produce remixes of entire game soundtracks. Hence, OCR Albums came about.

Many great game albums have been recomposed by some of the best OCR has to offer. Classic soundtracks came about, such as “Hedgehog Heaven” – a remix of the entire Sonic the Hedgehog 2 soundtrack and “Relics of Chozo” for the Super Metroid soundtrack. My personal favorite has to be “Project Chaos“, an entire remixing the the Sonic 3 & Knuckles game album.

Overclocked managed to gain some heavy notoriety with their site albums when their remix project of the Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix was actually featured as the in-game soundtrack for the release, featuring the ultra-talent of individuals like José E. Felix, Shael Riley, and even big-wigs such as site head David Lloyd and his trusty sidekick (err, fellow staffer) Andrew Aversa.

With the most recent release of “Summoning of Spirits“, an arrangement of the Tales of music soundtracks, these site-wide project album of OCR’s are most definately an Obscure Find you’ll want to check out.

The second of my twin reviews on the recent Castlevania games released, this one about the Wii game Castlevania Judgment, this one being not quite as lenient as it’s brother. Be sure to check out that review also if you haven’t already.

Ending Music: Dracula’s Castle Remix (Alucard’s Theme)
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Within the past decade or so, we Americans have seen a trend of comic book-based movies and adaptations from books all over the silver screen. In fact, it’s become so commonplace that we expect it now. If there not a summer blockbuster that isn’t based on a comic or a book, good or bad, then it hasn’t been a fulfilling year, has it? Even the success of Transformers has proven that other venues can be tapped for potential in the film industry.

So it’s only fitting that anime become the next big thing to be converted by Hollywood. And that’s got potential in and of itself, right?

Perhaps not as much as you’d think.

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