The first two months of 2013 have been underwhelming in terms of new retail releases for Wii U. That’s about to change this month. Need for Speed: Most Wanted U and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate are both slated for the console. There’s also a little game called LEGO City: Undercover on the way.
It’s been a fairly long wait for LEGO City. After all, it was one of the first games announced for Wii U. But the wait may be worth it – executive producer Loz Doyle believes his project will be Wii U’s best title. Doyle also thinks that LEGO City could move consoles.
“I hope other developers don’t mind me saying this, but this is the best game on the Wii U at the moment. I think the game is eagerly awaiting by many people and I’m sure that it will sell consoles for Nintendo. I also think it’s got real long term appeal, I don’t see it getting old for the life of the Wii U so I hope it will be a huge success.”
Doyle also discussed how LEGO City couldn’t be accomplished on another console:
“I can’t imagine the game working on any other system. We’d always wanted to do a Lego City game, and we’d always wanted to work with Nintendo. The Lego and Nintendo brands are a very natural fit, I think anyone would agree. When we were first shown an early version of the Wii U, we knew they Lego City Undercover was the perfect match for the console. The available RAM on board meant we could create the city we wanted to, and the GamePad just opened up so many gameplay opportunities. We had to reign in the design team because they were coming up with so many uses for it.”
Author: Austin
The last time the gaming industry saw a truly decent entry in the “X-treme” sports genre was probably well before the launch of the last generation of consoles. Every once in a while a snowboarding game or a skating game will crop up, re-enthuse folks for a few months, and then disappear as quietly as it came (2007’s Skate, anyone?). There seems to be a perpetual cycle with such games that cannot be broken, and more often than not it’s due to the fact that they rely more on appealing to the “skater” aesthetic than having good platforming (such is what brought the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series so much acclaim) or solid racing mechanics (such as Wave Race 64).
So here comes Mutant Mudds and Dementium developer Renegade Kid, trodding up to our virtual eShop doorsteps with their own attempt to succeed within the confines of a genre that had its heyday in the early to mid-2000s. When you first see a screenshot or watch a trailer for ATV Wild Ride 3D, it looks and sounds– certainly to its detriment– like everything you’ve ever seen before. Fast paced alternative rock, lots of overly-enthused voice effects, plenty of dirt, and “massive air” are all staples of a game presenting itself in this somewhat-dated genre, but in the case of this Renegade Kid racer, bland first impressions have proven to be all but incorrect after spending some time with the game:
Wild Ride is, thankfully, neither bland nor dated.
Author: Jack
Upon commencement of the critically acclaimed BIT.TRIP series, Santa Cruz-based developer ‘Gaijin Games’– formerly a simple and passionate three-man group freely designing titles emulating the Atari games they loved– was rife with change. In addition to lead programmer and co-founding member Chris Osborn’s departure to form TRACER, in an extremely swift, savvy, and hostile move, Gaijin CEO Alex Neuse went on a “company acquisition rampage” and absorbed small-time developer ‘Robotube’ in an effort to branch out and emulate large-scale publishers such as Activision and Electronic Arts, more than doubling the amount of staff.
Gaijin’s first post-acquisition move was the announcement of a sequel to perhaps the most accessible game in the slightly niche-audience BIT.TRIP canon in BIT.TRIP RUNNER, a fluid, seamless, and addicting rhythm game ingeniously masquerading as an on-rails platformer (you can read my review of the original here). Early game screenshots indicated the sequel, officially named Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, would be comprised of a completely different aesthetic than what we’d come to expect from BIT.TRIP, capturing more of a mainstream indie vibe as opposed to a modern take on Atari games. Would Runner2 expand upon the seedlings the first Runner game planted and blossom into a successful sequel, or would the ruthless, downright blasphemous moves Alex Neuse made as a businessperson osmose into the game and make it cave-in from sheer shallowness?
It’s the first one.
Wake up everyone, it’s time for science!
So today Nintendo released a small Wii U firmware update, and since then I’ve seen a few outlets claim that it “seems” like the update has sped things up on their consoles. Unfortunately, “seeming” isn’t good enough for me, and since I hadn’t taken it upon myself to update my console yet, I decided to test some load times both before and after the update to see how they compared. A few things to note: Firstly, the update auto-triggered (without giving me the option to opt out) halfway through my testing so I couldn’t get as many readings as I wanted in the “before” category. Secondly, I eliminated two results that were clearly technical outliers (a 35 second post-update “Miiverse” load and a 39 second pre-update “Settings” load) because that’s how statistics work.
Here’s what I found:
Startup
What: Time from hitting the power button to when users are selectable.
Pre-Update: 19.6s
Post-Update: 25.4s, 25.6s, 25.2s
Conclusion: Hard to say since the update auto-triggered before I could test more than one pre-update startup time. It would seem that things have gotten worse though.
Miiverse
What: Time from hitting the Miiverse icon to when things become selectable within Miiverse.
Pre-Update: 14.5s, 24.1s, 21.7s
Post-Update: 13.7s, 11.7s, 11.4s
Conclusion: While still not perfect, there is a noticeable improvement in the loading times of Miiverse after the update.
eShop
What: Time from hitting the eShop icon to when things become selectable within the eShop.
Pre-Update: 21.7s, 23.5s, 35.5s, 37.9s, 19.0s
Post-Update: 22.6s, 17.5s, 16.0s, 16.0s, 21.8s
Conclusion: Overall, a noticeable improvement. It’s much more consistent than the load times pre-update.
Settings
What: Time from hitting the “Settings” app icon to when things become selectable within “Settings”
Pre-Update: 18.1s, 20.8s, 24.1s
Post-Update: 16.6s, 16.0s, 16.0s
Conclusion: Again, a noticeable improvement. Nothing mindblowing, but an appreciated speed-up. And significantly more consistent.
Returning to the Home Menu
What: Time from hitting “Close” in “Settings” to when things were selectable on the Home Menu.
Pre-Update: 23.3s, 24.0s
Post-Update: 23.4s, 23.4s, 22.9s
Conclusion: No appreciable change.
Make of this data what you please! It’s hardly 100% science-proof, but it’s about as good as I’ve seen so far.
~Austin
Another solid show from the gang this week, and a great new format for lists– now with direct quotes from you guys seamlessly integrated in! The list this week is all about Mario Kart and the best and worst of the series; the news is normal, the what we played is normal, and everything else is normal. Enjoy!
Something was being goofy with the uploader last night, so unfortunately this is getting to you about 12 hours late. No worries, though! We’ve got plenty more features coming at you later tonight…
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There are a few, notable Nintendo deals running on Amazon at the moment. A roundup of sales can be found below.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
– $13.49 (only a few left, other sellers offering the game at similar prices) - Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (Wii) – $16.99
- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia – $19.24
- Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition – $35.24
LEGO City: Undercover has received its first review. Game Informer handed out an 8.5 / 10 score in its April 2013 issue.
Reviewer Jeff Cork was impressed with Undercover’s storyline, GamePad usage – except for the instances in which players must rotate the controller for 360-degree scanning – and hub elements. Cork wrote that developer TT Fusion “has absolutely nailed the best part of sandbox games.”
However, Cork felt that the game could have done a better job with its world so that players could be more motivated to participate in additional missions. Other than citizens involved with Undercover’s critical path, you won’t come across strangers on the streets in need of help.
Cork wrapped up by noting that LEGO City: Undercover “isn’t perfect, but I can’t think of another Wii U game that I’d recommend more. … It’s the most interesting and highly polished game in TT Games’ large repertoire, and it fills an important game gap.”
