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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

E3 2015 Repeats: Totem Stacking and eSports


I'm noticing some similarities between games at this E3.

Totem Stacking and You and You and You

Totem stacking, you may have heard Sony or your friends talking about it, but what is it? It's when more than one character gets on top of the other and makes the violent act of fighting together against an enemy. Though not owned by any series in particular it was odd to see it be a main mechanic in both World of Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. Both totem stack in each game  looks different, yet similar. In World, some characters are bigger than others and in a more Chibi form than others and can ride each other. In Tri Force all three link just stack on each other. Still it's odd this mechanic is coming to separate games, I wonder if it's just the start of a stacking phenomena.

eSports With Robots Never Sounded More Boring

Then there's the esports robot titles that are 3 on 3 matches. I don't know why that became the magical number, but both Sony Morpheus' game Rigs by Guerrilla and the boring looking Metroid Prime Federation Force's Blast Ball have robots fighting in threes. Sadly, the robots aren't fighting to death. Come on, who wasn't hoping RIGS was a new Virtual On? Though they don't look similar, RIGS looks like future NASCAR and the Tiger and Bunny anime, while Blast Ball just looks bad.



When games from totally different companies start repeating themselves it's time to worry about the future of gaming. Please tell the companies how you feel about stacking, we've had enough of it in the Mario RPGS.

The titles I've mentioned seem mostly unoriginal, and sadly reused from other games and animes. Maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board or in the case of the very boring RIGS and Blast Ball, just throw the damn board out the window after setting it on fire.