A Fading Memory is one of the more intriguing community games on the Xbox 360 that I’ve seen. Admittedly, I was drawn in by the cover art, which is somewhat rare for community games. What makes it intriguing is the premise behind this platform adventure — you play a woman, more accurately a woman’s dream of herself who, in reality, has slipped into a coma. The introductory level has almost lyrical prose to set the game in this dream world.

The game’s challenge is that the world darkens, which you can only relieve by killing the monsters that inhabit the dreamscape, illuminating it again though only briefly. I love this mechanic for bringing tension to a game. The graphics are simple but have a very identifiable style. [For some reason, I thought of Kandinsky, which, although his art really looks nothing like this game, would be an interesting style to adapt into a game.]

The downside is that I thought the controls and the level designs were somewhat awkward. Still, it’s one I wanted to buy and play to see the rest of the story.

In part 1, I previewed action and role-playing games and in Part 2, I previewed other up-market games. I think without a doubt, 2009 will be much better for the Wii core and hardcore gamers. The good thing, too, is that we’re not seeing an isolated up-market game here and there–we’re going to have several come out.

• February -5
• March – 3
• Q1 – 3
• June – 2

And several more are confirmed for 2009 but do not have specific dates announced. Is there a chance we’ll have a repeat of 2008 in which most of the better games come out in the first half? Yes, but if we look at even the unconfirmed though likely or possible games, I think we have good reasons to be encouraged for a solid second half of 2009 as well.

I think the success of the Q1 releases will be important and will perhaps have an effect on more game announcements. The fact is that, although the Wii has been out for 2 years, publishers weren’t on board from the outset. As its sales continued, the Wii was too popular to ignore. As a result, it appears that third-party games are just now catching up and releasing good, up-market games.

Below, I list the interesting but unconfirmed 2009 games or games worth mentioning at least.

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When I drafted this post, it was back in December, and now there are scores of such lists. Still, not all are the same.

In part 1, I previewed action and role-playing games that are confirmed for North America and/or Europe. In Part 2, I’ll look at other up-market genres. In part 3, I’ll list the best of the unconfirmed 2009 games.

Continue reading →

larahl from Poland is working on a DS homebrew game called Spider DS that is a combination of a platformer and an RPG. It’s a game about a boy who has turned into a spider. As the game progresses, the boy spider gains abilities, like climbing and web slinging. THere’s not much more detail about the game, but even this little bit is titillating. I love the original premise–it’s the kind of game where both the story and the gameplay are interesting. The demo has only a little functionality, enough to see the jumping ability and the changing time of day. I find the platforms a little too small and awkwardly placed, and while the graphics are very basic, it has a quaint feel to it, not unlike some of Jayenkai’s excellent games.

I’m definitely curious to see where larahl takes the game.