I was able to check out the Monster Tale demo that was set up at E3 last week, and with the Majesco booth tucked away from the main show floor not many people got a chance to learn what DreamRift’s Monster Tale is about and more importantly, how it plays. That’s where I come in – while crowds were fawning over the newest Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc., I’m bringing you all impressions of a game that seriously has potential to be the sleeper hit of the year for both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Read on for some detailed impressions from this aging hardcore gamer.

Some Background on the Game
For those that have no idea what Monster Tale is about, it is the first game from the DreamRift development studio, formed by the lead developers behind Henry Hatsworth. These guys came up with a very innovative mash of two gaming genres: platformer and puzzle, and it worked quite well. They’ve decided to combine two gaming genre types as well with Monster Tale, combining Metroidvania-style gameplay on the top screen and monster “raising” on the bottom screen.

The game follows a young girl named Ellie, who suddenly finds herself in a different world. Not too long after arriving on this world, she finds a mysterious egg and it hatches right in front of her. Out pops an adorable monster, who decides to follow Ellie, thinking maybe she is its mother. She cares for the little guy and decides to name him Chomp. As they travel on, he continues to evolve based on how Ellie raises him. It may sound like a standard monster raising storyline, but it’s cute, effective, and simply works well.

What’s Metroidvania?
Monster Tale’s gameplay is very similar to “Metroidvania”, a gameplay style that is more of an adventure game than a platformer as you travel all over a huge 2D world and find new items that allow you to reach new areas. For example, in Metroid, you could find jump boots that would allow you to reach a new platform and unlock another area of a dungeon. The Castlevania series has evolved to this style as well starting with the beloved Symphony of the Night, and is now a franchise staple on the DS. From my time with the Monster Tale E3 demo, it appears that Monster Tale follows this gameplay style well and fans of both Metroid and Castlevania will be able to understand and enjoy Monster Tale very quickly.

The Monster
The most significant gameplay feature that Monster Tale introduces that I have probably never seen before is an actual pet companion with such depth. The game is almost more about the monster than Ellie, as the monster earns experience, levels up, learns new traits and abilities, and even evolves into various new forms. In contrast to that, it doesn’t seem like Ellie levels up at all, so it’s interesting to see that while you have direct control over Ellie, it’s the monster progression that will ultimately carry you through the game. I don’t know what else to say except that it plays wonderfully. The monster seemingly has its own unique AI where it will attack enemies when it can, but you can still call on it to perform specific special attacks. As it levels up, it learns new interesting attacks unique to its evolution type, such as forming a shield, performing a charge attack, etc.

At first I thought that the monster abilities would be pretty simple, but of the half dozen or so I got to experience in the demo, I was actually quite surprised. While the game looks family friendly, the gameplay is very much classic old-school gameplay goodness. Each of the 30 monster evolution types learns several different abilities, and you are able to map each ability to one of the face buttons of the DS. To activate an ability, you just have to hold the L button down and then hit one of the buttons. For example, I can have Ellie melee combo an enemy, send him flying, then hit L and tap the X button to send Chomp barreling towards the enemy for even more damage. Or when a monster is launching an attack at me, I can hit L and tap the Y button to have Chomp draw a shield. While it’s been probably something like 15 years or so since I’ve last played Duck Tales on the original Nintendo, playing this game did give me certain vibes of that old-school Capcom classic with  Scrooge McDuck using his cane as a pogo stick.

The two screens for the monster raising aspect of the game is also quite well done. While the top screen is all about the action, the bottom screen functions as Chomp’s “home”. Here, Chomp can rest and relax to rebuild his meter or interact with various items that Ellie comes across. Many of the items I came across had various interesting properties. The first item I found was a cookie, and when I dropped it into Chomp’s home, he studied it for a while before devouring it and gained experience points and stats. Then I found a soccer ball and let him check it out. After investigating it, Chomp kicked the ball and it started bouncing all over both screens, knocking out any enemies I came across on the top screen. Treasure chests were the most enjoyable to find, since Chomp would spend time unlocking the chests and all sorts of new goodies would pop out that he would further interact with.

The First Boss
At the end of the demo, I encountered the first boss: another child who had his own monster that was much bigger than Chomp. The child seems surprised that Ellie treats her monster with love while this kid seems to be enslaving his. You can’t help but feel bad for the kid’s mistreated monster, until the kid declares that he will take Ellie’s monster for himself as well. Then it’s on like Donkey Kong son!

The enemy monster started laying eggs and the eggs would hatch out little smaller monsters that started shooting projectiles my way. Fortunately, Chomp was able to fly up and knock them out while I focused on attacking the boss. The monster also started breathing fire, but Chomp started playing with a soccer ball on bottom screen and kicked it up to do some good damage to the boss.All in all, through a combination of melee attacks, Ellie’s trusty bracelet blaster, and Chomp watching out for her, we were able to take down the boss, and sadly, the demo ended at that point.

For Fans of Henry Hatsworth
Fans of Henry Hatsworth would expect these guys behind Monster Tale to have learned a thing or two from their initial game, and I have to say that so far, this is taking the good of Hatsworth and reducing the bad. Henry Hatsworth’s combo/juggle system returns, allowing Ellie to juggle enemies in the air with melee attacks for more drops. Interesting character design and amusing dialogue return. Having beaten Henry Hatsworth myself, I have to say that Hatsworth’s major issues were the locked rooms where you got stuck in an area and enemies just poured in from both sides, and the major jump in difficulty in the later worlds. In my extensive time with the demo, I didn’t come across any sort of locked rooms at all, at least, not any that forced you to be stuck in an area the size of the DS screen. That’s definitely a plus in my book! So far, the game has also been easy enough that it hasn’t been frustrating and it’s simply just enjoyable to play. I think that the change from puzzle to monster raising makes for a much smoother gameplay experience as well – the focus is now really on the top screen, and not having to worry about switching your focus to the bottom screen to prevent monster blocks from attacking you is quite a relief.

Parting Impressions
If the demo is a good indication of the full game, this is looking to be a day 1 purchase for me. As an old school gamer that isn’t so crazy about puzzle games, Henry Hatsworth’s unique combination of platformer and puzzler was good but not exactly what I was looking for. Yet with the core Hatsworth team’s sophomore effort of Metroidvania and monster raising, it’s fantastic. The combination of a charming story, memorable characters, and refined gameplay design position Monster Tale to not only be better than Henry Hatsworth, but quite possibly the best DS game release this year. Hopefully we learn more about this game in the months to come!

Some of the already announced E3 2010 titles I’m looking forward to – can you guess what they are before the jump?

E3 2010 takes place this week starting tomorrow from June 15 through Thursday June 17, so there should be a lot of notable gaming news and announcements that we’ll be very excited to talk about. While most of the good stuff is probably under lockdown until E3 when they are announced, some publishers have already revealed their (partial) E3 2010 lineups. I’ve gone through and pulled out a few titles that I am definitely looking forward to hearing more info about in addition to any other crazy potential surprises!

The 3rd Birthday (PSP) – Square Enix
Surprisingly, there’s going to be a semi-sequel to the Parasite Eve series released on the PSP! I remember enjoying the first one on the PS1, so to go back to an action-RPG game with Aya Brea again sounds great. I just wish a Vagrant Story 2 would get announced…

X-COM (360/PS3/PC) – 2K
The X-Com series has a pretty loyal following on the PC and like another beloved PC series, Fallout, it’s getting a 3rd person-shooter style reboot in 2011. I never got a chance to play (and get hooked) on the original PC games, so I’m not as against the idea of this reboot as the more hardcore fans. After all, I thought Fallout 3 turned out pretty well! If X-Com ends up being as atmospheric as BioShock and Fallout 3, I’ll probably end up loving it.

Monster Tale (DS) – Majesco
Monster Tale comes from the lead developer and designer of Henry Hatsworth, the beloved action-adventure puzzle game from EA. What’s exciting about this title for fans of Henry Hatsworth (and classic NES games) is that Monster Tale will allow for raising a pet monster but have Castlevania/Metroid-style gameplay making it a potentially enjoyable game for gamers of all ages.

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (360/PS3) – Capcom
I’m not a very good fighting game player at all and I’m ready to admit it. But even if Street Fighter IV kicks my butt, I’m still excited for Marvel vs Capcom 3. Something about seeing my favorite Capcom characters in a fighting game has my inner fanboy screaming out. Too bad most Capcom characters end up sucking eh? The newest reveal on the Capcom side is Dante, from Devil May Cry, which almost made me faint. What Capcom characters will be revealed next?!

Dead Space 2 (360/PS3/PC) – EA
Dead Space was one of my favorite new IPs in 2008, so I’m glad to see the survival horror game is getting a sequel. I even played Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii! I’m definitely a fan of the series and am interested to see where it will go next.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising (360/PS3/PC) – Konami
All of you probably know by now how much of a Metal Gear Solid fan I am. Last E3, Konami announced that they would be bringing Metal Gear to the 360 with Metal Gear Solid Rising, starring Raiden. After Metal Gear Solid 2, I didn’t really care for Raiden much at all, but he was kind of a badass in Metal Gear Solid 4 so I wouldn’t mind seeing what Rising is all about. Now if only Konami can provide us with more details at E3 2010…

The Last Guardian (PS3) – Sony
I never got a chance to play Team Ico’s first two games, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but I’m definitely not going to miss out on their next title. What’s even more exciting for me is that there are rumors of an HD remake of both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus coming out for PS3, which will allow me to experience all three of Team Ico’s beloved games.

This is my short list of titles to expect for now – but who knows what the publishers reveal. Let’s see what happens!

We live in an interesting time for games. In the not too distant past, gaming genres were clearly delineated: you’d play Doom to get your first-person shooting on, Starcraft to focus on real-time strategy, platformers like Super Mario Brothers 3 for throw your controller out the window experiences, and the turn based Final Fantasy role playing series for some heavy stories and to prove that “video games can make grown men cry”. But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century…

In the present gaming world, formerly clear cut lines delineating genres have begun to blur, and overall this has resulted in deeper, more enjoyable experiences for gamers. Take Modern Warfare 2, for example. With the amount of customization available to an individual player in multiplayer, people have compared the game to a role playing game, or even a MMO. This has served to make the game incredibly addictive and enjoyable: you keep fighting to ding that next level (and gain a corresponding “loot” drop). Moreover, since there are so many customization options, you find players of different “classes” forming squads in an effort to dominate their opponents.

Meanwhile, role-playing games have edged in the other direction. Mass Effect 2 is essentially a 3rd-person shooter whose role playing is focused in the dialogue and story choices a player makes. The Final Fantasy series has moved away from turn-based comment and has its battles in real time. The biggest series to remain true to traditional RPG trappings is DragonQuest, which is so old school that its ninth iteration was a Nintendo DS exclusive. Even platformers have had their share of genre-bleed (see: Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure).

It’s pretty awesome that this evolution in gaming has occurred. It has provided gaming experiences that couldn’t be accomplished when developers stayed locked in to one game type. What does that mean for the future? I think tried and true franchises will continue to survive if they don’t keep up with the “evolution”. But gradually, even the big guns might get left by the wayside. Take the Halo series as an example. When ODST came up, sure, it was on a short development cycle, but I’m sure Bungie was hoping that it would reinvigorate the Halo multiplayer community again, and to some extent it did. But if Bungie doesn’t design some sort of leveling system akin to Modern Warfare 2 in Halo: Reach, I don’t know if I’ll still be interested.

That’s what I love about video games: developers are forced to “out-innovate” each other, and I’m sure we’ll see other great leaps forward in gaming evolution soon. And since we, the consumers, determine the weakest link, I’m confident that this will lead to the survival of the fittest game innovations. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more action-game-with-classes-and-dialogue to play.

Mirror’s Edge
I have put a lot of hours into the game, slowly working through the story but I’ve also started working through the time trial mode. I came within 0.90 seconds of a three star time on “Cranes Two” on my fourth or fifth try, which was pretty exhilarating. Unfortunately, I spent the next hour and a half trying to shave that 0.90 seconds off. My thumb started hurting and I had to give up. I managed not to destroy my controller though, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Halo Wars
A week off of playing and I’ve gotten pretty rusty. I guess that means I’m old. I still need to finish the game in legendary and find all the black boxes, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to that soon. I still need to get back to Dead Space though but jet lag has put that on the backburner.

Left 4 Dead: Survival Mode
I played this with a few friends, and I enjoyed it a lot. I really enjoyed it but I’m not sure how into it my friends were. Basically it’s like fighting a bunch of finales and standoffs, which I actually really enjoy. I also think it’s fun to have goals you are trying to beat, surviving for a certain amount of time in this instance. Hopefully people will be willing to put a few more hours into this with me!

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I’ve finished about 40% of the game so far, and the difficulty level is really starting to ramp up. I get the feeling the platform is going to start becoming Ninja Gaidenesque, i.e. I’m going to need to start memorizing where enemies are going to spawn and stuff. I think I’ll need to better understand how the puzzling elements power me up in the platformer pretty soon.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
A friend lent this to me and I started playing it as a change of pace to Henry Hatsworth. It’s pretty cool, Liberty City looks pretty much the same except it’s a top down view. I think I even drove by Roman’s taxi hub. The dialogue is horrible – I don’t know if they are making fun of bad Chinese Engrish or what but it leaves a lot to be desired. I hear the story is pretty much a throwaway though, so we’ll see if the gameplay holds up.

Gaming took a backseat to a lot of wedding planning this week, but since I was on the road I ended up getting a bunch of portable gaming in. espion4ge beat me to Rhythm Heaven which is next on my DS list, so I won’t talk about it here. But yes, the theme of my gaming week would be variety. Onward!

Retro Game Challenge (DS)
I finished the last challenge in the last game only to find out there is ONE MORE retro game challenge: beat all 8 of the games. Considering the length of some of these games and the fact that one or two of them don’t “end” after finishing the first time, it’s going to be quite a difficult mountain to climb. I’m not sure if I have the patience or the dexterity to finish off this challenge, but I have a six hour plane ride next Friday so I guess I’ll find out!

Halo Wars
I planned on finishing the Legendary campaign and all the single player achievements but got too distracted playing the multiplayer. It’s so addicting! Now my team and I are coming up against a lot more experienced players and seeing all types of strategies that we don’t know how to deal with. I guess I need more practice…or maybe I’ve plateaued? Either way, it’s still a lot of fun. Again, if you’re on the fence, at least give Halo Wars a shot as a rental.

Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients (Mac)
I’m starting to really get into the game, even though I know I’m a few years too late. I got to play my first two matches against human players and it was even more fun than playing against the AI. I got a new mouse for $13 dollars off of a slickdeal and have been using DOTA to test it out. Good times all around.

Dead Space
Started this game. It’s pretty freaky but I think I can handle it. Got caught up in other stuff but I’ll play this whenever it’s light outside, heh.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I played a lot of this game in the car, its gameplay is simple but addicting. It’s a bit awkward to switch between platforming controls and stylus controls for the puzzle element, but I’ve gotten used to cradling the stylus in my hand without using it. Still I wish there was some sort of stylus glove or something. Actually, there probably is…

Quick thoughts due to the lack of a 360…

So I’ve been spending the most of my time playing Retro Game Challenge on the DS, and it’s pretty fun. I’ve finally unlocked the RPG, so I’m looking forward to playing through that. The nice thing about the challenges in each individual game (which you need to finish to unlock new games) is the fact that very few of them involve completing the game, so the process doesn’t get tedious. I’ve played through six of the games, and since I don’t have too much to write about, I figured I’d write my thoughts on each one. Check them out plus some thoughts on Bully for Wii after the jump.

Retro Game Challenge (DS)
Cosmic Gate – This game is basically like Galaga, but with different animations. There are over 60 levels in all; I managed to get through 50-something before dying. I want to try to beat this entire game without continues or cheats when I’m done with all the challenges. It’s amazing how such tried and true gameplay still can be so fun, everything is so simple yet addicting.

Robot Ninja Haggleman – This platformer is a mashup of Super Mario Bros. and Ninja Gaiden. You are a robot ninja who can jump on enemies’ heads to kill them and stun them with ninja stars. In each level you need to kill all the enemies and then you get to fight the boss. The game can actually get pretty hectic when there are a lot of enemies on screen, and you need to time jumps perfectly or suffer the consequences.

Rally King – Probably my least favorite of the games, Rally King is a top down racer. The mechanics are pretty good and it reminds me of Outrun, but I was never the hugest fan of Outrun, so it’s kind of whatever.

Star Prince – The sequel to Cosmic Gate, Star Prince is a top down scrolling space shooter, and it really is a lot of fun. It is reminiscent of 1942 but in space, complete with power-ups, hidden warps, and a lot of other fun things.

Rally King SP & Robot Ninja Haggleman 2 – Sequels to their respective predecessors with updated gameplay, higher difficulty and a few new features.

Guadia Quest – The RPG, which I only just started. Watching the intro really takes me back though, the graphics look like Dragon Quest but the intro reminded me of Final Fantasy. Looking forward to it.

OK, enough Retro Game Challenge.

Bully: Scholarship Edition (Wii)
I got my Wii back from my fiancee and picked up Bully, a game I’ve always been kind of interested in. One of the podcasts I listen to is playing it in their Game Club so I figured I might as well play along since I’ve got nothing else to do right now.

I’m only about an hour in, and it kind of feels like a toned down version of GTA in a prep school (it is Rockstar, I guess). What frustrates me the most is the Wii controls, I don’t know if it’s because I play at an angle but they seem pretty finicky. I re-angled my sensor bar so hopefully that will help. Also, the graphics look terrible. Yet the Wii continues to dominate NPDs. It never ceases to amaze me (though I totally understand why).

On a side note, I saw a Wii Music display/presentation at the mall. Kids and parents were flocking to that thing like the Pied Piper was in town. What a phenomenon.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
Tried to get it at my local Gamestop, but their two copies or whatever were sold already. Guess that’s a good thing! Anyway, I’ll probably order it from Amazon or something before my next plane ride, which is in less than a month. Gametrailers had a nice review.

360 Repair Update
My box is officially in Microsoft’s hands, and I got this e-mail this morning!

“We are happy to let you know that your request to have your console repaired is now complete and we are preparing to ship your console back to you. You will receive another e-mail message from us when we ship your console. That message will contain tracking information that you can use to check the shipment status of your console.”

Yay!

Update: 5 minutes later, I got this message! “We are happy to let you know that we have shipped your console back to you!”

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS) – I know someone that worked on this game, and he’s been pretty excited about its release this week. He’s so excited that he’s been visiting various Gamestops and retail stores the last couple of days to see how many copies are coming in and who is buying them. Thus, you can understand his dismay when he discovers that most Gamestop employees never heard of it, and instead ask him if he’s interested in buying GTA: Chinatown Wars instead. Of the Gamestops that did get the game in, they only get 1-2 copies. (I guess there’s always Amazon.) It’s unfortunate that it may get lost in the flood of big name titles this month on the DS, but I’ve played through it and it’s a solid game. It’s basically Mega Man + Tetris Attack, but my only real issue with it is that the difficulty *really* ramps up in the latter half of the game. If this is your cup of tea – start looking for it! With a tiny number of copies hitting retail stores around the country, it may prove difficult to find once word gets out. For more on it check out the IGN review, which gave it a 9.0, and how much hardcore gamers are loving it over at NeoGAF.

Street Fighter IV – So begins my downward spiral. I hit 2000 Battle Points last week and was pretty happy with it, but when I tried playing some this week, I must have lost nearly all of my 20 or so matches I played, dropping me all the way back down to 1200 or so. The competition this week has been ridiculously tougher than before, and I’m seeing far less of the “Ken players” that I saw when the game first released. It’s almost like the people that weren’t that good with the game have already moved on, so now it’s only hardcore players left. I’m playing against all sorts of characters I have no idea how to fight against since I didn’t see them before, and I’m also seeing more 4000+ BP players who are just nuts. I fought one Cammy player who would just rush at me and constantly spam light attacks as well as a light jump into the air and Cannon Striking me over and over. Before I knew it, it was already over. “What just happened?!” I asked myself.

Resident Evil 5 – I grabbed this over the weekend at Toys R’ Us since it came with the free $20 gift card, but I honestly can’t figure out how to spend it. Last week they had the “any 2 $20 games for $30″, but the selection was terrible at the Times Square Toys R Us, and now this week they have “$20 off any 2 $40+ titles”. But what the heck is left for me to get considering my huge backlog? There’s some games I kind of want, but not for $10 off their $60 retail price. So yeah, that’s my conundrum over the $20 gift card. They didn’t have 1600 point cards either, but hopefully they stock them at some point since I decided I’d end up just doing that if it came down to it.

Oh as for the game itself? Decent so far. It honestly has gameplay mechanics similar to Resident Evil 4, but for some reason I’m just not that into it. I see that half of my friends list is playing the game, but for some reason I’m just not that excited to play it after having beaten the first few levels. It’s not seeming as short as I thought, but it’s not giving me an “awesome vibe” like I had when playing Resident Evil 4. Consequently, I’ve been spending more of this week playing Halo Wars and Street Fighter IV instead. Expect some impressions on the game from me next week though.

Halo Wars – Picked this up this past weekend and I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought. While it’s simpler than Red Alert 3, I’ve actually grown pretty used to the controls and it’s quite doable with the d-pad jumping between my armies and bases, hitting the R trigger to switch between unit types in my groups, etc. I think I’m at mission 9 or so, and for the most part, Legendary difficulty hasn’t been too tough although I had to restart a few times in missions 6 and 7. I haven’t had a chance to play online yet, but I’ll probably try to get some games in if I can finish up the single player campaign this weekend.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ended up picking the PC version of this game at Best Buy this past weekend since it was $10. Ironically, it was pretty much right after I traded in the 360 version of the game across the street at Gamestop for like $15. I figured the game was pretty enjoyable and patches keep coming out for the PC version so maybe I’ll see what it’s like – plus, it has the new expansion with Ric Flair. I was shocked though to discover how zoomed in the PC version of the game was. I tried to zoom out as much as I could but it’s still probably zoomed in at least twice as much as the 360 version. Crazy stuff.