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Ah, Nintendo's "Dolphin" is here... in cubed "Dolphin-free" tuna form. Nintendo of Japan's SpaceWorld Expo recently took place, and originally, it was supposed to fully back the new Game Boy Advance. But, at the "last minute", some developers booted some footage through the GameCube's video filters, and presented some very breathtaking demos.
The obligatory polygon power test came first, starting off with a large version of the original Mario sprite from Super Mario Brothers. This became a landscape, and Miyamato (controlling the demo in real-time via GameCube) placed a 700-polygon Mario (basically a smoother model of the Mario model from Mario 64) on the field. He ran around and admired the bumps on the sprite field, and soon found another 700-poly Mario that Miyamato had placed. Soon, 128 Marios (get it? Mario 128? 64's sequel?) all ran around the field with intelligent AI, collision factors, lighting, and other effects with NO SLOW DOWN on the Cube.
Another demo highlighted Ganon and Link from Zelda 64 in a sword battle. This demo was also run in real-time, meaning that it wasn't an FMV (full-motion video) a la PlayStation. It was described as the darkest incarnation of Zelda yet, with an evil speech from Ganon and a gothic setting all around. Oh, and the battle kicked ass, too.
Retro Studios (an offshoot amalgamation of many companies) also surprised the show floor crowd. For 10 seconds, a very Alien/Lost in Space look-alike demo was shown. A red and yellow suit was running down a spaceship corridor, with small, robotic spiders chasing the familiar suit (thus the Lost in Space reference). If you can't tell what I'm talking about, then shame on you. It's Metroid.
LucasArts and Factor 5 also had something to show. A Rogue Squadron extension demo running in real-time. Cube.IGN.com said it best: "...take control of Luke Skywalker and fly your X-Wing over the dreaded Deathstar while battling 75 TIE fighters -- all pushing a blistering amount of polygons and running at a drop-dead gorgeous 60 frames per second..." My God... I never thought it was possible... view the story and the demo reels by clicking here.
And there's Game Boy Advance stuff, too. But, since I'm too lazy to type anything else out, just go to IGN.com Handhelds and look around.
"But, what about the N64 stuff?" you ask. Don't worry, that was shown too. Just go to my Sin and Punishment page to see what I found.
Plus, there was some news about Mega Man EXE for the Advance, and I, personally, didn't like it. Go to my Mega Man EXE page to find out what happened.
More news to come, as the mid-2001 release for both systems draws nearer...
