Sega On Western Games, Samurai Jack, Astro Boy

Thanks to GameSpy for its interview with Makoto Osaki of Sega-AM2, in which the Japanese director of projects discusses Western videogames he's been trying out ("I enjoyed Max Payne a lot. I've only played the PS2 version, though. I also enjoyed Ghost Recon and SOCOM a lot"), before noting the uncertain possibility of the arcade-based Out Run 2 making a U.S. Xbox appearance ("You could probably just rent the games, play them a bit until you're done, say 'That was fun,' and take them back'), and mentioning the inevitable Virtua Fighter 5 ("It will be what fans expect - a one-on-one fighting game.") Elsewhere, GameSpot has a preview of the Sega-published Samurai Jack, as this GC/PS2/Xbox title, "reminiscent of Capcom's Maximo games, albeit with a more over-the-top feel", is officially announced, and 1UP confirm that a Sega-made Astro Boy game is coming to the West, in PS2 and GameBoy Advance flavors.

Comments

Great, Tetsuwan Atom!

[dancingmad]

I ended up playing the Tetsuwan Atom game for the GBA. It's pretty good and I'm glad both versions are coming to the U.S.

Re:Great, Tetsuwan Atom!

[lotsofno]

Atom Boy was made by Treasure, the same company that brought us the classic and action-packed "Gunstar Heroes."

There's a review over here if you want to read more about it. I've played it, and it's quite fun.

Re:Great, Tetsuwan Atom!

[Anonymous Coward]

Was it comfy under that rock these past few years?

Re:Great, Tetsuwan Atom!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's such a shame a mildly retarded chimpanzee can beat it in about half an hour.

Note to Adrenium: Hire an artist

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think they might have spent a little time and made the character -actually- look like Samurai Jack from the show? Wow, I really hope those a pre-pre-pre-beta screenshots, because it looks like crap.

Re:Note to Adrenium: Hire an artist

[DrWho520]

Hire the artist. If there is any game out there screaming for cell shading, Samurai Jack is the one. I have been expecting/dreading a games since the cartoon came out, and dread may be the truth. I hope the jaggies are because of the picture, I hope his face does not look like granite in the final product, I hope all his bits fit together better than how they seem in the images, I hope the fix the frame rate problem cited in article and I hope they give the music of Samurai Jack its due. Samurai Jack has one of the best sound tracks of any show on television today. It is obvious the makers put work into the music so that it adds to the feel and integrates into the story. They better add the trademark Jack sound affects as well.

Why not cell shaded? Are you afraid it will look cartoony? Seriously, ladies and gentlemen, it is a cartoon.

Oh yeah, what's up with the reed hat and the bamboo armour? The hat looks like someone sliced of the top of his head and screwed the hat on and the armour looks like someone tied together a bunch of PVC pipe and duct taped it to his sides. Where is the dog armour with the banner, replete with dog tracks?

I for one am presently dissapointed. I hope someone competent wooks on the game before release.

Re:Note to Adrenium: Hire an artist

[Paladine97]

It might not be perfect, but I think it looks OK overall. It captures the essence of the cartoon.

I want to send Aku to the pits of Hell!

Re:Note to Adrenium: Hire an artist

[The Evil Couch]

Why not cell shaded? Are you afraid it will look cartoony? Seriously, ladies and gentlemen, it is a cartoon.

It looked cell shaded to me. 3-D models with flat colors. give em some time to add more to it and I think they'll do an OK job. I don't expect them to do an outstanding job, there's almost no good games based off of cartoons.

Re:Note to Adrenium: Hire an artist

[Anonymous Coward]

It looks about as cell shaded as Legend of Zelda: Ocerina of Time did. Ocerina's graphics were *begging* to be cartoon like Wind Waker, but the use of flat colors on 3d models just doesn't have the same effect as the real cartoon shading that Wind Waker and Viewtiful Joe (and Auto Modelista) have.

These graphics look very dated.

TMNT used cell shading perfectly to bring a cartoon to life in an admitedly mediocre game, why not do the same here?

--
M

Samurai Jack

[djdanlib]

Is anyone else having trouble with the Samurai Jack page rendering properly in Firebird 0.7? I've had this same problem off and on with Sharky Extreme as well.

That's one of my favorite cartoons of all time. I hope they keep it true to the cartoon. "Samurai Jack! Watchout!"

All of the screen shots seem a little washed out, even more so than the cartoon. That's a little disappointing, even if it's for some bright dramatic light effects when you whack something with your sword. Would an iris effect help out with the limited range of brightnesses?

Re:Samurai Jack

[Samhaine]

That's because GameSpot is stupid. Refresh the page and things'll be spaced properly.

Woah, Samurai Jack graphics....umm

[Repugnant_Shit]

I'm glad those are the graphics for the PS2 version. Hopefully the GC/Xbox versions will look a lot better. The characters are way too blocky. The show's animation is very smooth, without lots of sharp angles.

It looks like the game is rendered normally, only with cheesy looking textures on the characters, instead of a good cel-shaded look like Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, or Viewtiful Joe.

These screenshots are very disappointing. Hopefully the gameplay will make up for it.