E3 2010: Hudson Soft Games (Impressions)

by: Tina - posted: 6/20/2010 6:50:00 PM

I’ll admit that the slew of games being shown off at Hudson’s corner of the E3 floor weren’t exactly my cup of gaming tea, but there were quite a few onlookers excited to get their hands on controllers and play.

Deca Sports 3

One of the games I was privy to was the new Deca Sports title, Deca Sports 3 featuring new abilities thanks to the Wii Motion Plus. In its typical fashion, the game sports 10 activities ranging from lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, log cutting, dive boarding, fencing, half pipe snowboarding, kayaking, skiing, to plane racing. You begin by either selecting an already-formed team of mates, or by meticulously constructing your own according to statistics you prefer to place money on. Next in the set-up is to choose either normal or Master Button controls, should you have the Wii Motion Plus device attached.

After allowing my Wiimote to calibrate, I noticed a relatively larger breadth of control when piloting my aircraft across obstacles and goal paths. More attention is paid to your control of the Wiimote, all of which focuses on motion rather than button pressing.

Motion control takes a step further with the new Kinect line of Deca Sports, in which your body becomes the controller. For a sports game of this kind, the Kinect model certainly seemed fitting. Although admittedly not having tried the demo myself due to a large attraction at the booth, the people bobbing and bouncing about on stage seemed to enjoy it quite a lot.

Bonk: Brink of Extinction

If Hudson Soft has an iconic character, it is most certainly Bonk. While he’s been out of commission for some time, Hudson finally garnered ideas that would mark the next appearance of the caveman character in Bonk: Brink of Extinction.

Some of these ideas included the idea of co-operative play as well as currently undisclosed play modes, and the new ability for morphing. Save for the quality of graphics, of course, Hudson assured me that most of Bonk’s character was retained including his usual expressions (such as going into rage mode when he eats meat) and a few of the old school bosses (such as the infamous King Drool). By maintaining a stock of primordial ooze crystals in one of your display bars, you can utilize various abilities such as Fire, Ice, Horns, etc.

These abilities are useful not only in a tight spot with enemies, but they also function as level steps, allowing you to progress throughout the platformer game where you would otherwise be stuck. For instance, I observed Bonk transform to his Ice ability to freeze an enemy and literally use him as a step to get to an unreachable ledge. You’ll find these abilities being introduced to you throughout the levels, picking up new ones to experiment with as you progress.

Throughout the 3 areas and more than 50 levels that are being provided in this Bonk iteration, players will be working to save his fellow cavemen from the brink of extinction (hence the title) that is under threat by a comet nearing in on Earth.

Bonk is being developed by Pi Studios and will be available on WiiWare, PSN and XBLA.

Bomberman Live: Battlefest

Yet another popular Hudson iteration being developed by Pi Studios, Bomberman Live: Battlefest features all the addictive fun of Bomberman titles with the addition of new bomb upgrades and the accessibility of being on the WiiWare, XBLA and PSN platforms.

Battlefest can be played with up to 8 players online, featuring all the old characters and including your avatar. Claimed tiles are indicated by your particular color scheme when playing something like Zombie Mode, but you can also do the traditional elimination rounds.

Hudson has included a roster of outrageous bomb upgrades, such as mines that can be triggered by other players and rockets that you can launch at others thereby extending the range of abilities you can pick up along the way.

Ultimately, Battlefest features the usual fun of avoiding obstacles and attempting to take our opponents out for the highest score and claim of the playing field. You can get a feel of the game yourself when it launches sometime this upcoming Fall.