Capcom you so Crazy, Natal you're so Sega.

Maybe I'm being rough with my criticisms of Capcom, but they seem to make it so easy. Take this article for example. Capcom is going to work on a "hardcore" game for Natal using a former brand in the company's history. How lovely. In the article Christian Svensson dropped a few comments about the project.

"What we're doing is creating it from the ground up for Natal, in this case. But it's..." he said, pausing. "How do I describe this...it's created from the ground up for Natal. We're not looking at Natal as 'okay, here's a little Natal gimmick thenat we've worked into some existing game.'"

here's the second comment.

"The approach is we're gonna make a 'gamers game' for Natal using something amongst our brand history," he continued. "I know [Mega Man creator and Capcom head of R&D Keiji] Inafune is really excited about it, he's been very vocal both in Japan and with the media about his vision of what Natal brings. I'm going to have to ask you to wait and see."

I hate the term "Gamer's game". It's such an empty statement. Every game that's created is a game for gamers to enjoy. It's like a bartender making a drinker's drink, or a Cook making an eater's meal. As for what games will be produced, nothing really comes to mind. If it's being built from the ground up it'll probably not be Bionic Commando 2, or Megaman shooting gallery, Or two Resident Evil rail shooters. Natal is in an odd position now, because whatever games start to surface they're going to have to be hardware sellers, and I don't know if these games are really going to deliver, and if they don't will Capcom France again speak their mind about it?

While we're on the subject of the Natal, Microsoft has been really making some serious PR rounds even going so far as to trash their competition and proclaim how original the Natal experience is. Aaron Greenberg had this to say at CES:

"Because we are doing something completely original, I don't think you will see Wii games ported over," he said. "That's one of the nice things about not doing the motion sensing controller, we're going to have original concepts."
"When you think about games and new experiences that will appeal to people that maybe have never played games before, I think you do get into a new category with the types of experiences we think about," Greenberg noted. "I don't think that puts us in a Wii category, because we're still a high-definition console, we still have the online community—Live will be very much integrated into these experiences—so I think there's a lot more richness that we're able to bring to life with it. I think the type of games will be different."

Originality? Doubtful. One thing is for sure: If the Wii is the new NES then the Natal is new Sega Activator. It's something that was in the back of my mind, but it took a user on GoNintendo to really bring the reality of it home. Think i'm crazy? Well here are some videos that may change your mind.

Wait wait... Did he just say that "You are the controller"? On here's another clip of the Activator being shown off to various people on network television..just like another motion control device I've recently heard of.... strange.



The only difference in this case is that Natal supposedly has 70-80% of developers working on games for it, but that still doesn't mean that it will succeed. Then again it also doesn't mean it will fade into obscurity like it's predecessor. I guess that's another thing that only time will tell.

Source(s): G4 /GameIndustry.biz/GoNintendo/Kotaku