In Volume 2, I first mentioned Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker as a game I was waiting for. I gave a summary on it and wondered whether there would be any new modes from what we already knew. In a way, there is. A game of hide-and-seek with a pixel Toad, activated with the Toad amiibo from the Super Mario range. The pixel Toad walks into the level from the book, and it's up to the player to find it and tap it within the level. I've been playing the game on and off, and will soon have a Toad amiibo to try my hand at finding those pixel Toad's.
Second of the games I mentioned was Screamride. I wondered whether the game might have a split development between console generations, so both Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions would be different. Turns out it didn't really need that, and while the game itself wasn't as free in its building as I'd have hoped, it did manage to be a good score attack type of game. The three modes offered within the game were diverse, though, and that made it great.
And now the games for Volume 3. The first is a LEGO game. Now while I haven't invested in the more recent ones, the last release that I played being City Undercover, there is just something charming about dinosaurs. I am talking of LEGO Jurassic World. I haven't seen any of the films, and we have a small amount of details about the game so far, but considering I buy the games based on my likes, the dinosaurs are the biggest draw for me. It appears we'll have twenty levels total, five for each of the films, but it looks like we might be going back to a larger hub rather than the several self-contained ones in the more recent games. Well, I hope so anyway. There are chase sequences, we can play as dinosaurs, and we can even create our own. There seems a lot this game is doing, and while the core gameplay will be similar to those that came before, those additions are what make each successive game stand apart from others. As for what I want - while I don't know the Jurassic Park series, I do know LEGO. As I said, the more bigger hub, rather than the self contained hubs, are something I'd like. We're going to get the classic LEGO humour in the game, as well as the usual range of collectables. What I'd want though, is for some kind of crossover. Doesn't matter if it's subtle, but I think we all got a laugh in LEGO Indiana Jones when the crystal skull turned out to be C-3PO's head. And with that, this game is number one of what I'm waiting for. And it'll tide me over until LEGO Star Wars 4 hits [whenever that gets into production].
The second game I am waiting for is one that it seems most people are, because this one shows Nintendo venturing somewhere new. Splatoon is a third person shooter that is getting all sorts of attention. Namely because it twists what we expect from a shooter. The game is a turf war type of game, and just as normal shooters use conquest as their main mode, so Splatoon uses turf war. The aim is to cover the ground in your team's colour ink, swapping between human and squid forms tactically to cover ground and... ahem, literally cover the ground. A king of the hill type mode was recently announced, making that two modes to what should be a number of them. The game itself, just like other shooters, puts its focus on online multiplayer. It has a single player campaign that is more like a platformer in respect. You're still using the core mechanics of the game, and shooting at enemies, but to traverse between points requires use of jumps and timing. And there's also an end goal. And what appear to be boss fights.
What I can see from this is good, and hopefully more modes get announced. What I want to see though, is something like a back-up plan. After all, it's always hard to get a new shooter series off the ground, and if online multiplayer is the main focus, it can backfire if sales aren't as expected or interest is lost quickly. Yes, the idea is teamwork, but that shouldn't stop the inclusion of bots to replace human characters. Of course I have faith in the game, but if I'm offline I shouldn't be restricted to just one mode. And let's be fair, it's a lot easier to manage a maximum of seven bots rather than sixty four. We can look to other shooters to get an insight into the modes we'll be playing, and try and think how they would be changed to fit Splatoon's style. I could talk for ages about this one, but I've covered the basics. There are a number of previews around to gain better insight into the game, and even video footage from the likes of GameXplain.
That's all for now from another What I'm Waiting For. The next one of these will come after E3, and I think it will be hard for me to resist putting in a certain Star Wars game for a second time, considering it is now getting to the point where a lot of material will be coming out for it [starting next month at Star Wars Celebration]. Either way, look forward to more content, coming soon.
What I'm Waiting For Series