Capcom: Treasure Island Z

N

Natoma

Veteran
http://wii.ign.com/articles/780/780374p1.html

One thing that I like a lot about what capcom has done with this system is the use of the Wiimote as a pointer in 3D space. That's how you move your character around. You want them to go somewhere, point them at a particular spot and they'll move there. Definitely makes moving in 3D space simpler than with an analog stick I think. You also use the Wiimote pointer to grab and maneuver objects.

The graphics are gorgeous imo, and a big step up in quality from Zelda Wind Waker.

Video is here: http://media.wii.ign.com/media/893/893610/vids_1.html

Here are some screenshots: http://media.wii.ign.com/media/893/893610/imgs_1.html









 
Quote from the IGN writeup:

The game's cel-shaded presentation betrays its true nature. Treasure Island Z will challenge you and, if the levels we played at Capcom's event are any indication, it will stump you, too. Zack plays through puzzle stages, each filled with booby traps and secrets, useable items and death-bringing foes. The goal for each stage is to find and obtain a treasure chest located within and the difficulty varies between puzzles, but even the earliest areas had some players perplexed. We don't view this is a drawback, but a plus -- genuine gameplay hurdles are a rare commodity in today's industry and we're pleased to see a game that doesn't make any excuses for being hard. It is also mean. If you mess up at any point during a puzzle, Zack will die and you will have to restart the challenge from scratch. Some of the challenges lasted between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the player. Amazingly -- and this truly takes a lot of nerve -- a company representative said one particular puzzle in the game can take as long as two hours to complete. How would you like to die at the end of that one and have to restart the entire process? The game ranks you on time and whether or not you asked for a hint and compiles and end score based on both. Theoretically, there's a lot of replay value to be had for gamers who want the best score.
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Here are some shots that depict gameplay:



In that photo you push forward with the Wiimote and turn it to open the door.







In the prior three photos, you push forward and back with the Wiimote in a sawing fashion to fell the tree and solve this particular puzzle.



In this photo you make circles with the Wiimote to turn the gear like a Jack-In-The-Box. There are many other photos, and the gameplay video in particular, which depict the ways in which Capcom is making great use of the Wiimote.

I'm pretty psyched about this game. :D
 
There's a bit of talk about the game in the latest 1up show. Can't be arsed to transcribe it now, but a few points were:
  • "It looks like an adventure game, but it's really a puzzle game", whatever that means.
    You uncover and collect items that give you new abilities, which in turn allow you to do more things. No combat to speak of, and there's alinear level progression without back-tracking (to produce two reasons why it's not quite like Metroid!). IMO describing such a game as an "adventure" is every bit as right or wrong as calling it "puzzle game". So there.
  • Structure is a bit iffy still, with some instant kills when you examine (harmless looking) objects, and you have to restart a whole level when you die.
  • Very good Wiimote integration.

Personally I'll pass, but it does look like a solid, honest attempt at a genuine Wii game, and that's gotta count for something. It'll probably bomb in the west due to the cutsie stigma anyway, but it will certainly add to the pool of acceptable items whenever in a discussion the need arises to list Wii games that are neither half-assed shovelware nor mini-game collections.
Or something.
 
The good news is that there's still a lot of time to work out the kinks. For right now, I've got pretty high hopes for what Capcom has done, and what they can do, to smooth out the process. :)

Here's the direct 1up link to the Treasure Island Z story: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3158750

Rolf N said:
"It looks like an adventure game, but it's really a puzzle game", whatever that means.
You uncover and collect items that give you new abilities, which in turn allow you to do more things. No combat to speak of, and there's alinear level progression without back-tracking (to produce two reasons why it's not quite like Metroid!). IMO describing such a game as an "adventure" is every bit as right or wrong as calling it "puzzle game". So there.
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IGN calls it a mix of Wind Waker and Monkey Island. Dunno if that helps your confusion though. :LOL:
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3158750
 
Natoma said:
IGN calls it a mix of Wind Waker and Monkey Island. Dunno if that helps your confusion though. :LOL:
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Oh absolutely. My Confusion has really come into its own lately, and at this rate it will soon evolve into Confuxa.
 
It's art direction. They're obviously not going for a realistically modeled look in this game.

See the difference between Zelda Twilight Princess and Wind Waker as example.
 
If you ask me, the Goblins series from Sierra/Coktel Vision seems much closer to a spiritual predecessor of this than either Monkey Island or Zelda. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.
 
Late response, but a lot of the dithering in those pictures is due to compression artifacts, and I'm sure they could "upgrade it" with some frame tearing and 4-bit textures if they wanted to. ;)
 
Anyone playing this? I just played through the little intro level. Nice looking game. I'm hoping the puzzles get pretty difficult.
 
Yes, the game is pretty difficult. Of course the first few areas are there to ease you into the game, but it definitely gets harder later.
 
Natoma said:
Keep us posted! But don't give out any spoilers! :)
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I'm not far enough along to make a recommendation, but from what I've played, I think it's on track to be a really great title, if the puzzles become progressively more difficult.

The controls are simple, but well designed. You can revisit the stages at any time, so you can try to complete them with maximum score.

Colourful with some creative art direction. The game looks great.
 
DeadlyNinja said:
Is the dithering in the screens due to Jpeg compression, or does the actual game use dithering in the colors?
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Are you talking about colour banding? I thought dithering was a good thing? I'm not a big graphics guy, so if you can give me an example of what I'm looking for, I'll let you know.

The only thing I know about dithering is if you can't display a colour, you put two colours side by side to trick the eye into seeing the one you want, correct?

Edit: I think I know what you mean. In the pic of above with the crank, you're referring to the blurred divisions between the interlocking stones, correct?
 
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