While I know Greg’s got Planet MiniGolf on his radar for this week, our featured game is the highly anticipated Backbreaker. Madden hasn’t had a good challenger for a while, and while Backbreaker won’t have any NFL licenses, it does have the much-discussed Euphoria engine, a pretty decent customization mode (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), and some interesting game modes going for it. I’ll be curious to see how well it does. Non-NFL football just doesn’t seem to resonate with people all that well (think XFL, UFL, the awful CFL US expansion experiment), and to an extent that might hold true for gaming too. We’ll see if all the technical capabilities of Backbreaker can get it on the radar and at the very least, give EA something to think about.
With E3 coming up quickly, there are a number of potentially interesting things to be watching for. The keynotes, as always, should be interesting, as long as Nintendo doesn’t try to repeat what they pulled back in 2008. Actually, that can make things MORE interesting. Here’s some of the questions I have for what we might see in L.A. in a couple of weeks.
Will Kevin Butler be involved in the Sony Keynote? – The fictitious Sony Vice President of Pretty Much Everything is the star of one of the best gaming ad campaigns we’ve seen in a while. People have been clamoring for him to deliver the Sony Keynote this year. SCEA President Jack Tretton is okay, but Kevin Butler rules. Still this is the kind of character that is genius in smaller spurts, so the best thing, I think, is to let Jack hit us with a bit of his, uh, “dryer” delivery for a while, then turn Kevin Butler loose in the middle for a bit, then let Jack close.
What will Nintendo do? – Nintendo had a stronger 2009 keynote after the 2008 disaster. With the 3DS likely getting a more proper introduction, The Big N already has something worth watching, but what will they do for the Wii? I don’t think we’ll see a new console announcement with the recent black SKU being made available, so it’s going to have be all about the games again. Oh, and after announcing it last year, there’s been almost nothing said since around the Vitality Sensor, so you’d have to think there’ll be something involving that peripheral. Maybe a Metal Gear Solid game?
What about Move and Natal? – We should be seeing a lot more from Sony and Microsoft on their motion controllers this year, as they approach release. Hopefully we’ll get clarification on price points, bundles, and other necessary details, including Natal’s official name.
Who will Microsoft trot out at its keynote? – They’ve been bringing in a lot of star power to try and wow audiences lately, so I’m sure they’ll have some followup to the surviving Beatles from last year and others. But who will it be? And will they actually be there to pimp an Xbox 360 exclusive for once, or just more multi-platform titles?
What will be the coup this year? – Last year it was Microsoft announcing Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360. There should be at least one shocking announcement that will have people buzzing and have message board nerds flaming for quite some time. What will it be, and who will drop the bomb?
What embarrassing memes will be created this year? – It seems pretty much every year, some marketing tool is asleep at the wheel and approves some God-awful pitch or activity during these keynotes. It will happen again. What will be the next “Riiiiidge… RACER!!!!!”? The Over/Under on facepalm moments is currently sitting at 2.5.
How many times will Greg and Jeff get lost in L.A.? – Cause it’s not really a question of how likely, versus how OFTEN.
For my regular readers (all three of you), On Tap won’t be seen at its usual time next week as I’ll be on vacation with the family at Disney World. Look for a special E3 edition of On Tap the following week.
