Spyborgs E3 2009 Hands-On Impressions

Spyborgs is a good example of how games on the Wii can take a little bit of the new and a little bit of the old and put them together into a single, harmonious package. In this brawler, you'll find plenty of newfangled motion controls that let you crush enemies with a distinctly cinematic flair, but its game design is unabashedly old-school, with two characters running from one screen to the next and clobbering streams of enemies like in beat-'em-ups of old. We took the time to play through a few levels of Spyborgs on the floor of Capcom's E3 2009 booth.

What's New: Spyborgs is set up so that you can choose between two players from an overall team of three, and either jump between those two in single-player mode or play alongside a friend cooperatively. The team consists of Clandestine, a quick and nimble ninja lady; Bouncer, a lumbering but powerful robot; and Stinger, a charming fellow with a gun arm for ranged combat. This is the first time we've seen Stinger in the game, and his presence definitely rounds out the group's abilities and provides a good sense of balance between the players.

In addition, we've been able to check out a few new environments. The beginning of the game sees the team fighting through their mansion headquarters against all sorts of cybernetically enhanced enemies, eventually capping off in a large boss battle against an evil robot with the ability to shoot lasers from its eyes and fling cars like softballs. Later, we checked out some jungle areas, and later still a couple city levels that saw the team fighting on top of a moving train and some freeway overpasses.

What's Different: It doesn't seem that much has changed since Capcom showed Spyborgs at April's Captivate '08 press event. It seems that developer Bionic Games has settled on what it wants the game to be and stuck with it.

What's the Same: The controls remain very similar to what was most recently shown. You use A to jump, B for a light attack, C for a heavy attack, and Z to block. Once you build up your team energy meter enough by collecting energy cores from boxes and downed enemies, you can unleash a fancy team attack. This triggers a sequence in which one teammate sets up an enemy with a Wii Remote motion gesture and the other finishes him off--like a deadly volleyball spike but with robots.

What Impression the Game Made This Time: Spyborgs is a pretty fun little game. It's certainly not trying to do too much with its gameplay, but it looks like there's a lot there to keep your interest over the long haul, such as the ability to collect experience points from hidden locations in the environments, which are then used to upgrade various facets of your characters. You can expect more on Spyborgs leading up to its release later this year.