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Steel Diver Review

Kyle Moore
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Steel Diver
Developer: Nintendo/ Vitei Inc.
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: 3DS
Price: $63AU (Fishpond) / $40 US (Amazon)
Genre: Simulation/Strategy/Action

Overview

Up periscope. Let’s take a look at the latest game to surface from the Nintendo Company. Hopefully it’s not a dive. If you haven’t figured it out yet from my string of naval pun’s Nintendo’s latest game is a submarine game entitled Steel Diver. Available on the Nintendo 3DS, Steel Diver is a strategy game where players must guide their submarine through treacherous waters while at the same time avoiding and destroying any enemies that float by.

Gameplay

Steel diver is divided into three different mini-games. The first of these games involves navigating a submarine through an underwater maze, while avoiding hazardous enemy subs, rocks and sea mines. Before submersing into the depths of the ocean, you are given the option of choosing your very own submarine. There are three to choose from, each with their own pros and cons. The first in the fleet has a simpler navigation control system, which makes it easier to use but difficult on those narrow passages. It also has the ability to fire torpedos vertically that comes in hand for those looming enemies ships at sea level. The second sub is a good all rounder, with more advanced steering options in the form of a wheel-type controller. The last vessel you can choose is the most difficult to control, but allows for more complex movement, despite its size. This last submarine also has the most firepower, with the ability to fire four torpedos consecutively rather than two.

Regardless of which submarine you choose to pilot, all three are still rather difficult to control. This is of course the point of the game. The challenge is to navigate through a rocky maze using two controls: horizontal for pitch and vertical for depth. If the submarine receives too much damage it will spring a lead and the controls will be momentarily disabled unless you quickly plug the leak with your stylus. Once the health meter reaches its end, the game is over. The good news however is that if you surface to the top for a while the submarine will repair itself. The key to utilising this is time management, if you spend too much time floating on the surface the timer will run out. There are also convenient little air pockets located underneath the depths of the ocean for you to strategically utilise on your journey.

There are two means of entering the second type of game in Steel Diver. After completing a mission, the periscope breaks the surface of the water and Periscope Strike begins. This portion of the game utilises the 3DS’ gyroscopic technology and allows you to rotate in a circle while attempting to locate and destroy enemy ships within a certain time limit. While this mini-game automatically comes at the end of completing a mission, there is also the option of selecting it to play on its own. Playing Periscope Strike this way will give you a few more options, such as selecting different enemies and different weather conditions, my favourite being enemy ships in a storm which proved to have some impressive graphics.

The last mini-game type of Steel Diver is a clone of the classic board game, Battleships. Steel Commander creates a battleship type board on the touch screen. The goal is to locate your enemies’ ships and destroy their supply ship and protect your own. Personally I feel like this portion of the game is designed a little like an iOS game with some 3D graphic cut scenes. While the graphics are impressive, I can’t help but be annoyed as I just sit there and watch my ships be attacked without the ability to move. On the other hand, if I am to locate an enemy ship or sub myself, I have the more engaging option of attempting to either drop a bomb or shoot a torpedo at them – fairly similar to the Periscope Strike version of Steel Diver. It should also be noted that this portion of the game also has an online multi-player function, or failing to log online, you can also test your skills against the artificial intelligence of the game.

Graphics and Audio

Nintendo have made good use of their 3D technology on this one. Depending on which of the three gaming options you take, you are going to have different graphical representations. Because Steel Commander emulates a game board, the graphics aren’t impressive. However, in terms of representing a board game graphically, I think Nintendo have done a good job, creating little game pieces to sit on the board that look like they are straight out of the box. This portion of the game also has some pretty decent 3D cut scenes and gaming options, but compared to the other capabilities of the game graphically it is a little dull. The missions’ portion of Steel Diver has some incredible use of the 3DS’ graphic capabilities. Nintendo have created some amazing undersea worlds, with stormy seas and even underwater volcanoes. With the 3D slider up to full capacity, these graphics are truly impressive. With stormy seas in mind, it is worth noting that the most impressive graphics in the game are those that emulate weather at sea. The best example of this is one of my favourite portions of the game, enemy ships in a storm in Periscope Strike. Not only does it just look incredible, in 3D or 2D for that matter, but also the graphic representation of the physics of being at sea is pretty much on the mark. At least I can only assume, it’s been a while since I used a periscope in hazardous seas.

The sound effects for Steel Diver are great fun. There are a lot of explosions and of course a fantastic array of submarine lingo: “surface”, “dive!” and “all ahead”. This paired with the music really makes for an atmospheric experience, fit for underwater adventure. The music is somewhat reminiscent of some older games for Nintendo consoles. I can’t help but think of Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo, and the ever-annoying underwater levels. This, paired with some mechanical and industrial sounds really adds to the underwater submarine aesthetics of Steel Diver.

Conclusion

As a time management and strategy game, Steel Diver has some merit. It is a fun game to attempt to master, but that is where the fault of the game lies. It takes some time to try and get a good grasp of the controls, once you do the game is fun. However, it seems that as soon as you begin to get to grips with how the game functions, you’ve exhausted all your options of game play. The mission option has an option where you can try and beat your records, but I’ve never really been a fan of trying to best my own timed scores in games. There is also the option of completing missions with all three submarines, but again I feel that this gets a bit repetitive with only seven levels and some quick timed levels to complete. While the graphics of Periscope Strike might be incredible, the gameplay is very near exhaustion by the time you get to have a go at the third option of playing the game. It is essentially always the same, and what adds to this more is the fact that this option of gameplay has been integrated into the mission mode. Chances are you have already had a go at playing missions before trying your luck at this game on its own. There is no doubt about the playability of Steel Diver as a whole game, my only concern is how many times will you come back to it after completing the rather short game.

Two Tribes Interview – Potato Sack Aftermath

Chris Cerami
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Two Tribes Interview – Potato Sack Aftermath

As a follow up to all of the excitement surrounding the Portal 2 ARG that led up the release of the game, we had a chance to talk to Two Tribes, developers of two of the games in the Potato Sack of indie games. Those games were Toki Tori and Rush, two great games from the puzzle genre. The following is what Two Tribes had to say about their involvement in the Portal ARG and all the spuddy goodness that it involved.

1. To kick this thing off, why don t you fellas (ladies?) tell us a
bit about Two Tribes as a developer. How would you like people to identify you?

[Collin van Ginkel – Lead designer Two Tribes]
We started out doing mostly contract work. We made games like Garfield, Worms and Rubik's World for Wii and Nintendo DS, but we always wanted to do our own thing. With the arrival of the digital download culture, were able to make the jump to being fully independent, which is awesome. We try to be very open about what we do and I'd like to think people see us as a friendly bunch, who care about delivering high-quality games.

2. It seems like the retro style of gameplay has sort of returned to
glory a little bit in the last year or two with games like Donkey Kong Country Returns, New Super Mario Bros., the upcoming Sonic Generations, etc. Toki Tori, which Two Tribes put on Steam recently, also has a pretty retro vibe to it. Did the decision to bring back Toki Tori on a more modern platform have anything to do with this current retro revival or was it something that your team had wanted to do for a while?

[COLLIN]
Well, Toki Tori has first been revived on WiiWare in 2008, so perhaps they got inspired by us! 😉 Seriously though, as you can see with the enormous success of 'simple' games on all recent platforms, people are not looking for more complexity in their games. They value clarity and ease of use, something which the old games (aside from their devious difficulty) already had. We're all for this, since it means we can just focus on making great games.

3. Toki Tori has some similarities to other puzzle/platformer type
games, like Lemmings for example, while still remaining unique. Were there any games or series that were a big inspiration in either the original Game Boy version or the remake?

[COLLIN]
I think the entire 90's catalog of games has inspired us. Games like Lost Vikings (SNES), King's Valley (MSX) and Adventures of Lolo (NES) have concepts that are similar. But to be honest, it's been so long ago, I can't tell you how the process went precisely.

4. Rush is quite reminiscent of Chu Chu Rocket, a puzzle game by Sega
for the Dreamcast, only with a much sleeker, more stylish presentation. It is a pretty classic type of puzzle, but with Rush you gave it a distinctly modern look and feel, with bright colors and electronic music. Did you feel that the game needed to have a sort of modern appeal in order to sell or did it just feel right for the atmosphere of the game?

[COLLIN]
The foundations for RUSH had been laid by Rubik's World for Wii. Since that had the Rubik's license, we needed something blocky and abstract. When we removed the license and improved on RUSH for the Steam version, we stuck with the blocky theme, but wanted it to have its own vibe.

This blog post gives you a bit more information about how it came to be:
http://twotribes.com/message/guide-to-rush

5. How did Toki Tori and Rush come to be included in the Potato Sack
and how did you feel about their inclusion?

[COLLIN]
We were invited by Valve to participate, I'm guessing based on the quality of our games on Steam. We had no clue this was coming and were extremely excited once we learned what was going to happen. It's been a real high-point in our history so far 🙂

6. Did your team have any involvement with the recent Portal ARG that
Valve ran other than having your games be included in the stack of indie games? Fans might think that being involved in a project like this would mean being privy to all sorts of neat secrets relating to Portal or the ARG, is that the case or were you kept in the dark like the general public?

[Hessel Bonenkamp – Designer Two Tribes and Project Manager Portal 2 ARG]
Well, the password for one of the final phases of the ARG was "collaboration". That didn't only stand for the collaboration within the community to solve the ARG and release Portal 2, but also for the collaboration between the developers and Valve.

So, basically, every developer was responsible for creating their part of the ARG. There was some cross-pollination between developers where parts of a puzzle where hidden in another game but the bulk of the ARG content was made by the developers themselves. Valve did most the more central stuff such as the basic structure (the three updates), the Seattle puzzle, the sites and overlays, etc.

To do our work properly we've got the whole game spoiled for us back in December and we've been in close contact with Valve ever since. So, yeah, our involvement in this project gave us loads of inside information on Portal 2 way before it's release. Though Collin has been able to avoid all Potato spoilers during the development of the ARG.

This is actually quite an interesting question because we have seen that quite a number of people credit the whole ARG to Valve or even to Gabe Newell alone. You now know, of course, that this has been the work of almost a dozen companies collaborating to create a fantastic ARG.

7. I have also heard that some of your team had an interesting little
stakeout when a fan showed up at Two Tribes HQ to sniff out some clues. Can you tell us a little bit about that, or any other interesting stories from during the whole event.

[HESSEL]
Ha! That was such an awesome moment!

You should know that we hid a set of GPS coordinates (in Braille) in one of our Toki Tori levels. For a while those coordinates were mixed up and the community was focusing on some location near the Seychelles. It took them a while to figure out that they were pointing to the front door of our offices where we'd placed a poster with further clues.

The community was fairly organized and they had an IRC channel running in no-time. All the developers, including us, kept a close eye on the IRC channel during the ARG. One afternoon we noticed that one guy was stating that he lived a mere 20 minutes from our offices. When he left we went to the barbershop across the street and started waiting (I also got a haircut while we were there, you know, to be inconspicuous).

After a while he showed up and after a while he noticed our poster. The poster was hidden from plain sight at the top of a streetlight, but it was still very legible from street level. What we hadn't expected though was that our guy actually climbed the streetlight because he needed to bring back some photographic evidence. If he had looked across the street he would have seen a whole barbershop going mad!

We got his climbing actions on film which Hidden Path then used to create a movie with. The movie started a nice back-and-forth between us and the community. I think they really liked the fact that we were responding to their actions. It might also have creeped them out. A little.

There have been many more great moments during the ARG, but this was definitely one of the highlights.

8. While the Potato Sack and the ARG were generally pretty
successful, especially at promoting indie game devs like yourself, there was some disappointment felt by PC players who eventually realized that Portal 2 s release wasn t going to be significantly earlier. How do you feel Valve handled the whole affair from this angle? Do you think there is anything they should have done differently to prevent potential disappointment?

[HESSEL]
The crescendo event has been addressed in the postmortem, I think it's one of the bigger what-went-wrong points. It was a last minute decision to move it forward a little and it would have been better if we hadn't done that. Then again, a Valve game that releases a good 10 hours early. I don't think that has ever happened before.

9. The Potato Sack, and by association the included games, received
quite a few downloads thanks to all of the commotion and the relation to Portal 2. Was there a large effect on sales/downloads of Toki Tori and Rush thanks to the ARG? Can you give us an idea of how big of an impact this event had on your user base, even if you can t give us hard sales figures?

[HESSEL]
We have an article with a graph for RUSH's sales here: http://twotribes.com/message/rush-sales-statistics/.

That should give you a pretty good indication. An important factor that you can't see in the graph is that a lot of people are now introduced to our, and other indie developers', games. Those people might normally not stumble upon our games.

10. Other than the obvious answer, being your own game, what is the
teams favorite of the other indie games included in the pack? I personally am a sucker for Bit.Trip Beat, and I know Super Meat Boy is another fan favorite. Would you say Two Tribes has a consensus or do you each have your personal picks?

[HESSEL]
I, personally, really like super meat boy. I know one of our programmers has become quite fond of Defense Grid another programmer really likes Amnesia. One of our designers has spent 89 hours in Killing Floor, so I guess we all have our picks.

[COLLIN]
COGS!

11. A lot of fans were joking during the ARG that Amnesia: The Dark Descent's bar on the GLaDOS@Home site would never be filled because the game is just too scary. We here at Capsule Computers know firsthand the sheer terror involved in Amnesia, but what does Two Tribes think? Does anyone around the office have the stones to play it with the lights off?

[HESSEL]
I'm too scared to install it.

[SHAN]
Definitely NO! I don't even dare to play it alone all by myself 😉

12. Finally, let s end this interview by taking a look into the future. What s on the table next for the very talented (and very handsome) people over at Two Tribes? Any big news on the next big thing we should be looking forward to?

[HESSEL]
I'll leave this one to Collin (but where did you get that we are handsome? I mean, we are, but how did that get out there?)

[COLLIN]
We're now almost done with Swords & Soldiers for iPhone and iPad, after which we'll continue on EDGE for Steam and perhaps some other platforms. So we're quite busy!

In September it will have been ten years since the original release of Toki Tori. We will not let that pass without a bang, so expect something awesome around that time 🙂

We here at Capsule Computers would like to thank the good folks over at Two Tribes for shedding some light on the behind-the-scenes details of this huge collaboration. I think it will probably be quite a while before we see an event that brings together the gaming community in quite the same way, for both gamers and developers. Keep a look out for announcements on the future of Toki Tori for its upcoming anniversary this September!

Dark Souls arriving in October with plenty of ways to die

Travis Bruno
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The last time we heard about Dark Souls we heard that it was coming out some time in the Fall but thankfully the latest trailer released for the game has shed a bit more light on the release date. Arriving sometime in October of this year the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls is set to have players grow increasingly frustrated at the title and die plenty of times.

The amount of deaths that you will be experiencing is so great that Namco Bandai thought that you should take a look at a few of them now so you know what to expect when the game comes out. At least this time you will be able to pick your poison as Dark Souls will be released for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 whilst Demon’s Souls was a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D arriving in the US on June 28

Travis Bruno
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Today Capcom has released quite an interesting video for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. It starts out simple as a newscast but escalates from there when they talk to a reporter on the front lines where all of the mercenaries are fighting it out with the various infected enemies. That is of course until something else happens, but we’ll leave that for you to find out.

Along with the trailer was finally a US release date of June 28th which places it a few weeks after E3. Also confirmed for the title was the previously leaked character Rebecca Chambers, bringing the list of current mercenary characters to seven. With Rebecca, Chris, Claire, Krauser, HUNK, Jill and Wesker to choose from, who will you choose to fight as when the game releases on the 3DS?

Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 battle screenshots released

Travis Bruno
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The Gundam franchise has been alive and well for 32 years now and fans have been following it all the way from the original Mobile Suit Gundam to the most recent Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. Both Tecmo Koei and Namco Bandai are joining forces yet again to bring fans of the Gundam series another game to play as their favorite characters.

In the screenshots released today we see how combat will look in Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 and how the title itself will look with the cel-shaded look that will appeal to fans of the series. With hundreds of enemies in your path waiting to be cut down through any number of different energy weapons this is going to be a game that will be hard to miss for a fan of Dynasty Warriors, Gundam, or better yet a fan of Dynasty Warriors Gundam itself. It’s been released in Japan since the end of last year but it will be released to the West on June 28th for the US and the 24th for Europe.

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Hitman: Absolution revealed; more info coming at E3

Travis Bruno
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Fans of the Hitman series can take a deep breath and rejoice because Square Enix and IO Interactive have just revealed the existence of Hitman: Absolution via a teaser trailer you can see below. In the trailer there isn’t much actually shown besides a barcode with 110706 highlighted. This coupled with the fact that Square Enix also said that more information will be given out on June 7th at E3 makes those numbers match perfectly.

Tore Blystad from IO Interactive says that “For the first time we are taking Agent 47 on a personal journey which allows us to explore other parts of the Hitman fantasy” and that it will be “both a familiar and yet significantly different experience from other Hitman games; something our silent assassins will relish, as will all those new to the Hitman world.”

Agent 47’s been betrayed by those he once trusted and now with the police hunting him down he must find himself in a personal journey in the dark world that he involved himself with. Hitman: Absolution will use IO Interactive’s Glacier 2 technology and will be built from the ground up for a game unlike any other Hitman before it.

Skype purchased by Microsoft; adding Kinect and Xbox Live support

Travis Bruno
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Let it be said that Microsoft is a company with very deep pockets and when it wants something, it will usually end up getting it. Microsoft has announced that they have entered an agreement to purchase Skype for $8.5 billion which is a very high price tag for a service that provides nearly all of its services at no charge to its users.

Skype has had various companies looking into buying it over the past few weeks but with Microsoft’s expensive purchase they will now be able to use it in all of their devices. This means that Skype “will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices.” It also means that Microsoft will now be able to use Skype to connect with people using “Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities.”

There has yet to be a timeline of when Skype will be integrated into Microsoft’s products but they have assured Skype users that they will maintain the standard clients used today by PC users and others. With E3 just under a month away this will most likely be one of the things showcased during the event.

Dream Trigger 3D Now Available on the 3DS..

Dustin Spencer
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After a good month since we seen a title released on the Nintendo 3DS, Dream Trigger 3D is now available and looking to bring the arcade shooter genre into the 3DS’ steadily growing library. In Dream Trigger 3D, the player must explore the very visual world with their eyes and sonar, taking down enemies that explode in a multicolored 3D pattern to create an in-depth experience.

With the release also comes a statement from D3 Publisher to give a tad more insight into the game:

“Dream Trigger 3D will test players’ arcade shooting skills and have them at the edge of their seats as they navigate through dozens of nightmare-induced stages in 3D,” said Peter Andrew, vice president of product development, D3P. “Dream Trigger 3D is the perfect visual showcase for the 3D graphical abilities of the Nintendo 3DS system and provides an experience never before seen on a handheld system.”

I have been watching Dream Trigger 3D very closely as it looks to be not only perfect for the system but it also reeks of just about everything a fan of classic arcade shooters would want. Check back soon as our very own review for the title should be coming up and we can finally see just what this title has to offer.

Zumba Fitness 2 Coming this Holiday Season…

Dustin Spencer
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Last year, Zumba Fitness was released to mindblowing sales and to this day is still dominating the Nintendo Wii’s software sales charts. Of course the smart thing to do is release a sequel, and that is exactly what Majesco are planning to do. Today the publisher announced that Zumba Fitness 2 will launch on the Nintendo Wii this holiday season and “another-to-be announced platform” in early 2012.

“We’ve seen an overwhelming demand for the next iteration of the franchise and I can promise you that Zumba Fitness 2’s new and improved features will challenge Zumba enthusiasts and entice new followers to join the party,” said Jesse Sutton, Chief Executive Officer, Majesco.  “The Zumba Fitness franchise of video games connects the exhilarating Zumba dance workouts loved by millions with uniquely interactive console platforms that are accessible and fun for consumers of all ages.”

Along with the release, a nice list of features was given of just what this new version will include:

  • Shake it in Style – From fan favorites like Salsa and Reggaeton to all new styles like Bellydance, Axe, Latin Pop and Pasodoble, players can choose from more than 20 dance styles.
  • Customize Your Experience – Select from more than 30 tracks in Single Song mode, take a class designed by Beto, Gina Grant or Tanya Beardsley, or craft your own playlist in Zumba Class mode. Invite your friends to join the fun in Zumba Party mode that supports up to 4 players. You can even take it slow in Learn the Steps tutorial mode before you dive into the choreography.
  • Location, Location, Location – Dance it up in five new, dynamic environments from a Miami Yacht to a Los Angeles nightclub.
  • Superstar Instructors – Dance and interact with top Zumba instructors Beto, Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant. You can even customize each instructor’s outfit with the hottest Zumbawear™ styles.

Zumba Fitness certainly earned itself a sequel and I am sure with all the new tracks and modes, Zumba Fitness 2 will be just as successful. I am now a bit curious due to the “other platform” that this will be released on. If Zumba Fitness 2 is in fact coming to the Wii’s Successor, that would confirm motion control for the console, but then again this could be a completely different console that might not have even been hinted at yet. Surely more will be answered at E3, but for now Zumba fans can literally bellydance in joy as a sequel is now on the way.

Marvelous Entertainment and AQ Interactive enter merger

Travis Bruno
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Marvelous Entertainment and AQ Interactive enter merger

In an interesting move, Marvelous Entertainment who is the developer of the personally beloved Harvest Moon series and the Japanese publisher of titles such as No More Heroes, Deadly Premonition and Muramasa has entered a merger with AQ Interactive according to Andriasang. AQ Interactive is the publisher of games such as Bullet Witch, Blue Dragon Plus and a 3DS title known as Cubic Ninja.

Also merging with the two companies is Liveware which was originally a part of Marvelous Entertainment. If the merger is successful it will be finalized on October 1st and be named Marvelous AQL. Last year AQ Interactive absorbed its subsidiary Cavia which worked on the Drakengard and Nier titles so it will be interesting to see what this merger will mean for both companies and their respective games.v

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