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E3 – Three Guilty Pleasure Games

I enjoy reflecting on what a wordy pain in the ass I can be. Some readers seem to enjoy that aspect of the site, and I thank you for supporting my eccentricities. But I know others sometimes wish that I’d just get to the point, and so I think I can offer a compromise with this post. There were three games I had the opportunity to play at E3 that utterly defy my ability to get overly philosophical when describing them.

That doesn’t mean that they don’t merit attention, quite the opposite in fact. They were all titles I enjoyed playing immensely – so much so that I whined about having to give back the controller. But the quality of the experience with each doesn’t seem to require too many words on my part. You simply need to play them to get it – to appreciate the gameplay on a more physical level that is hard to describe. No amount of words is going to change the nature of that type of gameplay. So with this in mind, I offer you three games from E3 that proved to be exactly the types of guilty pleasures I hope to get more time with as soon as possible.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Zombies – Check.
Bullets – Check.
It really can be that simple.

While it isn’t the re-imagining of my beloved Resident Evil 2, I nevertheless jumped at the chance to return to the streets of Raccoon City by any means possible. Light gun games have been around since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable for me. I’ve always had a weakness for that genre, so another entry is like a sweet piece of nostalgic candy. Tying it together once again with the Resident Evil brand just makes it that much chewier.

Following up on Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom certainly could have snuck the title by without reinventing the wheel. Yet they are attempting to change the pacing, primarily with the camera perspective, which bounces and shakes from explosions and enemy attacks. It was a little disorienting at first, but I seemed to find the groove quickly enough. Is it graphically on par with where the mainline series is going? Of course not – but it doesn’t need to be. The game only needs to reunite players with two of the most popular characters from the series to win my attention. Am I a fanboy? No doubt. For better or worse, it’s a no-brainer offering on the Wii. The allure of additional content from the series only increases my embarrassing inability to resist the series regardless of where it goes.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

I wouldn’t say I was actively disinterested in the title, but I wasn’t going out of my way to play it either. When New Super Mario Bros. hit the DS, I was a little disappointed with the results. What I longed for was a return to the style of Super Mario World. Yet when I had some booth time with Nintendo, we got in on a four-player session, and curse them if I didn’t immediately fall victim to the game’s charms.

I want to say that this really isn’t the game for me – that I’ll rarely have multiple players around to take advantage of it, or even have an interest in playing it. But the minute I started the level, my fingers just immediately began working with a mind of their own. I know Super Mario Bros. better than any game ever made, and whatever my conscious mind might be thinking about Nintendo, casual gamers, and other things on the floor, a strange signal bypasses all of that. My childhood memories and instincts take over to make Mario move across the screen without any effort on my part.

They stuck Yoshis in this game. I’m not made from stone.

This just might be the crossover point where the core gamer meets the casual gamer. Where those of us who kept playing after Mario still have a place to meet those who didn’t, or have only met him for the first time.

See More Images for New Super Mario Bros. Wii »

Split Second

Split Second will be the lesser known entry on this list. There was a multiplayer setup at the Disney booth, and the game is an absolutely ridiculous blast to play. This racing game allows you to build up points that are then used to ignite obstacles on tracks that are wired to explode. There are lighter attacks that can be used sooner, or you can allow the gauge to build up into the red to unleash bigger explosions that take down buildings or at one point caused an airplane to crash into my opponents.

It’s not as refined as Burnout, but was proudly loud and over the top. Sections of track could be destroyed to reveal shortcuts, while fuel trucks ignited to send my car through the air. The racing offered the arcade styled controls that I’d expect from this type of game, and the only disappointment was hearing that I’d have to wait in 2010 to play it again.

Watch the Trailer for Split Second »

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