The highly successful integration of both Augmented Reality aspects and gyroscopic movement opens up endless possibilities for developers in the future.
I like the idea of a game like Spirit Camera being allowed to exist. It’s a wild experiment, and perhaps, with a less game-like approach, it could even have been an experiment that worked. Unfortunately, in its present state, it’s a little too volatile and there are a dozen ways for it to fail, which it does frequently. Sorry, Maya—you’re going to have to remain trapped by the diary’s curse.
Players are likely to see everything the game has to offer well within five hours, and we can say confidently that there's not much incentive to stick with it even that long.
The end product is a neat one, albeit it a niche one. I’m thankful that SOME Fatal Frame game finally made it stateside since the Nintendo exclusivity agreement, but I’d still rather have had Fatal Frame 4 or the upcoming Crimson Butterfly Wii Edition brought to North America instead.
If Spirit Camera wasn’t so tied to the AR booklet, the experience might be a little better, but the inherent problems with the 3DS’ camera sensitivity and being tied to the booklet really drags the game down.
When it works, the walls between reality and the Diary of Faces melt away, exposing an adventure truly suited to the 3DS. Unfortunately, the hokey story and technological limitations do the opposite, reaffirming the reality that you're just standing in your living room, spinning in place.
Fatal Frame fans should check it out to get their Camera Obscura fix, but everyone else should be weary of the cost associated with examining the Diary of Faces.
I was thankful that this experience didn’t last over three hours total, but players who paid money for it might not be as pleased. Spirit Camera has some extras to check out, but most of them involve repacking campaign content or taking photos with silly ghosts inserted into them.
Following in the footsteps of Resident Evil Revelations, a new survival horror game has made its way to the Nintendo 3DS. A spinoff of the Fatal Frame series, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir sticks to familiar territory for the franchise - in other words, ghosts, exorcisms and ancient rituals. It f...
We linked into a 4 minute compilation video earlier tonight, but now we have each clip separately, plus a little more footage. Hit up the link below to check it all out!
The official site for Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is up and running, and it's chock-full of content. You can check out the game's intro, some new screens and art, and bunch of the backstory on the game itself. Remember, this bad-boy is releasing on April 13th, which just so happens to be Friday the 13th!
#nintendo
How cute. It's not at all scary, of course, but then, the 3DS game its promoting - Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir - doesn't look terribly terrifying either. More »
Format: Nintendo 3DS™
Launch Date: 04/13/12
ESRB: T (Teen): Blood, Violence
Game Type: Horror/Adventure
Players: 1
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo and TECMO KOEI GAMES
Website: spiritcamera.nintendo.com
A visceral 3D horror tale unfolds before your eyes
The Spirit Camera™: The Cursed Memoir game invites players to experience supernatural thrills they won’t soon forget, using the built-in camera functions and augmented-reality features of the Nintendo 3DS system. The game’s mysterious storyline involves a girl named Maya who has been hiding in the darkness of an old house, cursed by a malevolent woman in black. To free Maya from the curse, players must use the “diary of faces” – a 16-page AR notebook included with the game – to view ghostly images and interact with the world Maya is trapped in. The Nintendo 3DS system becomes the Camera Obscura in players’ hands and is capable of revealing the supernatural and dispelling evil spirits. The lines between reality and fiction blur in this chilling horror adventure.
FEATURES:
The included “diary of faces” is a gateway into the game’s absorbing Story Mode. When viewed through the lenses of the Nintendo 3DS camera, each page of the book displays a variety of augmented-reality experiences.
Some pages of the book come to life in the form of video segments that reveal past events and shed light on the game’s central mysterious storyline. Others appear to send spirits floating into players’ real-world surroundings. Some page even summons players to virtually enter a haunted house where Maya is hiding.
Additional modes let players use the system’s camera in spooky ways. In Spirit Photography, they can take photos at their leisure and watch as haunting visions appear within the pictures. Spirit Check, lets them snap pictures of themselves and their friends to uncover the eerie spirits that surround them. In Spirit Challenge, they can put their own face or a friend’s face on a spirit and then battle it.
Players can also use the notebook with their Nintendo 3DS system to face other challenges involving a mix of memory, hide-and-seek and other game play elements all with a supernatural twist.
Tecmo Koei's survival horror series, Fatal Frame, is once again coming to North America, this time as a spin-off titled Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the Nintendo 3DS...
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