Dreamcast: Blue Stinger Gets a Facelift for America
Blue Stinger Gets a Facelift for America
See first hand the camera changes Activision has prepared for American gamers.
- Blue Stinger was one of the Dreamcast's biggest game's in Japan earlier this year, but intense camera problems lead to a tremendous distaste for the title in the eyes of many gamers. Personally, I noticed the game's god-awful camera positioning system from the moment I started playing. It was so horrible that I was surprised that the game had been shipped at all given its unplayable state.
Activision, coming off of a supposed fix up of the PlayStation Tenchu earlier this year, has stepped up to the same plate with Blue Stinger and set about releasing a much improved version of the game for American gamers in time for the Dreamcast's launch. The previewable copy of the game that we've received, while still incomplete, is already a dramatic improvement over its Japanese cousin.
New to this version are a behind-the-shoulder camera system, along with a first-person surveying camera. These two systems replace the horrid, uncontrollable, pre-determined camera from the first version. The behind-the-shoulder cam follows the character you're currently controlling, giving you sufficient view of the world directly in front of you. Anyone who's played the game's Japanese version will tell you that one of its most horrid features was how you'd often have to make the characters run towards the camera in order to move forward; the new dynamic camera is a welcome feature, as it's ALWAYS pointing in the character's forward-facing direction. The first-person survey camera is also a welcome feature in that it allows you to look around at your surrounding while remaining fixed. Yes, believe it or not, this must-have feature was absent in the Japanese version.
These new camera changes alone are enough to elevate Blue Stinger to one of the Dreamcast's must-have launch titles, but there are still some problems that will hopefully be addressed. In particular, the movement of the camera is a little bit jerky, and there are times when it would be better if the camera would zoom out and up instead of remaining behind the character (when confronting a zombie, for example). Also, I'm under the impression that just about every 3D exploration game should allow the player to press a button in order to keep the camera fixed with respect to one axis of rotation. It is unknown if Activision will be able to incorporate any of these changes, although they have stated that they're working on a few more fixes before the game's release.
We'll be back with a review of Blue Stinger as soon as we're given a reviewable copy. You can see for yourself, though, just how improved the American version is by downloading the pictures and movies below. I've tried to capture basically the same footage from both versions (this was made easy because the save files are compatible between the two). Please remember when watching the Japanese version that the camera is completely uncontrollable - you're forced to play the game exactly as is.
-- Anoop Gantayat, IGNDC