Mario Kart 8
I tried to scour info. In the demo I played, the item selection is very basic. It may be a demo thing, but it seemed like the usual suspects of shells, 3x shells, mushroom boosts, gold mushrooms, and bananas. In fact, I noticed the lightning and I think I noticed the squid while the weapons wheel was spinning, but it never selected them and were never displayed. This may imply that there are weapon settings. I also didn't see a blue shell, not once.
The graphics were pretty nice, but I think the screen shots make them look better. They were comprable, but not mind-blowing, and nothing that the PS360 couldn't do from what I could tell. To me, the more impressive feat will be the 60fps 4-5 player and 12-player online. The backgrounds were well designed, and there are little touches like the wind and glimmer on the hangglider and the leaves brushing off the trees when you hit them.
Other than that, game was fun and controlled how I would expect. The CPU was terribly easy, and it felt like a 50cc race, so I didn't feel the intensity. Overall, the game played well and looked good and
Super Mario 3D World
I only got to demo one level and watch another one, so I didn't see too much. I played as Toad. It appears there is no ducking-backflip or triple jump, unless Toad doesn't have those.
The cat suit was a lot of fun. You can climb a finite amount. Also, the bubble mechanic is the same as NSMB. It is a little annoying because the camera follows one person, and seamingly the person closest to the flagpole. It makes it challenging to look for secrets, but it forced some communication which was cool.
The controls felt fine, but not quite as spot on as previous Marios. It might be because I was Toad, but I didn't feel that fluidity in jumping and movement that I did in Galaxy. I believe Anihawk or Amirox said it played like a Mario Party game, and it sort of did. It was fun, but doesn't feel like the massive single player adventure I would hope for, even when playing with one player. It's also a little bothersome than world 6-4 was so easy, and I really hope it's not the *real* world number, or that the endgame has 15 worlds.
Overall, quite disappointed, but it will be fun and we'll all buy it.
Donkey Kong Country : Tropical Freeze
Looked great. I didn't get to play it, but it really looks fantastic on the big display. I really hope they fix the load times, because it took close to 20 seconds to load the level.
The Wind Waker
Looked great. The biggest improvement I noticed was draw distance and lighting.
