Huh? Saga?

Apparently I am very much into the band Saga. Or something. Actually a good friend sent that link to me while a group of friends were talking about marketing, Green Lantern, and Old School gaming.

I have been playing a lot of SEGA Genesis (apparently confused with SAGA) recently. I picked up a copy of Nightshade, which is a sequel to the "next-gen" version of Shinobi. While Nightshade does a better job of it, both games fail to capture the tight control and fun that the originals had, mostly because the translation into 3D not only doesn't add anything, it detracts. I re-hooked up my trusty Genesis and slapped in some Revenge of Shinobi and some Shadow Dancer. Two excellent Shinobi games that are still super-duper fun. I wanted to make sure I wasn't high and these old games indeed were the icons of action gaming I remember them to be. They passed my test. Actually they also made me drag out all my Genesis and Turbo Grafx gear and go totally old school this whole weekend. I knew I kept that stuff around for a reason.

If I had to identify 3D games that did the best job of bringing the 2D world of fun to the next-generation it would be Capcom's Onimusha and Devil May Cry series. Those games have old school elements, but instead of just translating them into 3D like Shinobi did, they added stuff and catered to the 3D strengths, making well received games and good sellers. My hat is off to them.

And in the surprise event of the summer, Doom 3 has gone gold and I don't care. I'm sure this will change 180 degrees once I see someone in the office playing it and my drool starts flowing, but everything that Doom3 brings to the table has been given to me already. Normal mapping? Riddick on Xbox has that in spades. Solid 1st person shooter? FarCry fit that bill nicely. I guess I will wait and see. Any word on a demo from any source?

See you all wheneva!