'Electroplankton' (NDS) - Screens
by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2005 May 18th
In Electroplankton, art and music collide to create a wildly fresh interactive audio experience. In this freeform title featuring the striking visual style of Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, players poke, rub and draw on the touch screen to stimulate odd aquatic creatures and create their own music. Each of the 10 different types of Electroplankton features a completely different sound style, ranging from haunting melodies to head-nodding beats to funky Mario theme remixes. One Electroplankton even acts as a sampler, allowing players to record up to four sounds and layer them over drum loops. Players create new sounds and experiences
It's been long enough that quite a few gamers have never heard of the System Shock games, two benchmark PC games that set the bar for challenging FPSes and, in their own way, for survival horror. When you hear older gamers talking about SHODAN or crawling through hallways with only a wrench to defend themselves, they're referring to the arguably classic System Shock 2.)
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This year's E3 featured an astounding number of PSP titles that were just plain fun to play, which is something that the handheld console has been lacking until now. Tekken: Dark Resurrection was among those titles, and it was perhaps the single game I put in the most time with during E3. While it is largely a straight port of the limited arcade release by the same name, T:DR is certainly more portable than an arcade machine.)
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We live in perilous times, my friends. These days, the game industry is either all about the single-player experience, or the dynamics of (God help us, sometimes massive) multiplayer. Remember back in the day, when it was only about two people? In games like Streets of Rage, Contra and Final Fight, you had to help out your partner every step of the way, or face mutual destruction. These days, we're lucky to get a "cooperative mode" in the games of our choice.