How cool is this?! Surely some of you remember the Game Boy Color title Toki Tori. It was also re-released for WiiWare a few years ago. The game is getting a sequel, and while we don’t know the specific platforms it’s coming to, we do know that it’ll be available on at least one Nintendo download shop.
Amersfoort – October 18th 2011 – Exactly ten years after the release of Toki Tori for Game Boy Color, Dutch game developer Two Tribes announces the development of the long-awaited sequel.
Toki Tori 2 will see Two Tribes’ poultry mascot character return in a completely new adventure, developed from the ground up for today’s players and technology. The initial release will be through Steam for PC and Mac in the spring of 2012. Continuing the tradition of Two Tribes to support multiple platforms, subsequent releases on downloadable stores from Apple, Nintendo and more are planned.
Available for PlayStation®3 system , WiiTM and PC
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., October 18, 2011— Mastiff, LLC, a leading publisher of video games for all major consoles, mobile platforms and PCs, today announced the November release of the much-anticipated military action title Heavy Fire: Afghanistan, available for multiple platforms including the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Wii™ from Nintendo, and the PC.
Heavy Fire: Afghanistan is a super fast playing, high-intensity experience set in modern-day Afghanistan. Whether fighting up close and personal with guns and grenades, raining down fire from a helicopter or laying waste with a main battle tank, Heavy Fire: Afghanistan is all about constant, edge-of-the-seat action and beautiful graphics combined with straightforward, intuitive controls to give hardcore gamers and novices an immediately fun, pickup-and-play experience.
In most Zelda games, players would need enter an item screen and assign an object to a button before the tool could be used. Skyward Sword handles things very differently.
A circular inventory appears on the screen, and you can select an item by tilting your arm. Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata believe that you’ll learn the location of each item on the menu and, thanks to the simple tilt control, will be able to choose an item without even looking at the screen.
Iwata: Wii MotionPlus allows you complete control over Link’s sword, and you can stop that sword in mid-swing, fire a sword beam, and dash up using the A Button, but another big point is the big change from previous games in the UI for choosing an item.
Aonuma: That’s right. As alluded to earlier, in The Legend of Zelda games you have to be able to switch items in a flash.
Iwata: Yes. Aonuma: Until now, you had to open the item screen and choose the Bow or a bomb, disrupting the flow of the game. And that didn’t seem right even to me. But the director Fujibayashi-san and Tanaka-san in charge of UI totally resolved that big problem.
Iwata: Fujibayashi-san, how did you do that?
Generally, the “A” button in Zelda games is used to swing Link’s sword. But since that function is now mapped to the slashes of Wii Remote Plus, the developers were able to add a new gameplay element: dashing. This was the perfect situation, as, based on tradition, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi wanted to include a new action.
Satoru Iwata, Eiji Aonuma, and Fujibayashi explained:
Iwata: Stopping the sword was revolutionary this time, but also important was freeing up the A Button.
Aonuma: Yes, that’s right. (laughs)
Iwata: Up till now in the series, swinging the sword with the A Button was a matter of course, but using Wii MotionPlus frees up the A Button—an important point this time.
Aonuma: Yes, you can swing the sword without pressing the A Button.
Iwata: How did you decide to make use of the A Button then?
A new Iwata Asks focusing on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword provides insight to the development of the sword beam as well as an elaboration of the meaning behind the game’s title.
Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the idea of holding your sword still to be used for other things. He also thought of releasing a sword beam once you’ve held the Wii Remote Plus in the air, allowing it to charge up.
This gameplay idea contributed to Skyward Sword’s title – holding the sword in the air. But there’s another meaning as well. Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma explained:
“From what I heard from the NOA (Nintendo of America) localization team, the word ‘ward’ also means to protect and guard something, so ‘skyward’ can also mean ‘protector of the sky’, and ‘one who is protected by the sky’.”
Here’s the relevant excerpt from the Iwata Asks interview:
Aonuma: Speaking of sword movements, before all this there was an idea about being able to stop the sword mid-air
Iwata: You mean the sword is something you use to swing to defeat enemies, but now you’re able to hold it still mid-air, and use it for other things. Who’s idea was it that you could be able to hold the sword still?
Aonuma: Miyamoto-san, right?
Fujibayashi: I remember it clearly. All of a sudden, in the middle of the night, Miyamoto-san called us in and said, “Have it stop.” I was like, “Have what stop?” and he said, “The sword.” When I first heard “stop,” I didn’t think it was possible, but a moment later, I understood and was like, “Stop…? Oh, stop… I get it!”
And there was more to that late-night conversation. After he suggested stopping the sword, he said, “Then you raise up the Wii Remote and while you’re in that pose, energy builds up, and then you release a sword beam.”
Iwata: Stopping the sword led to the sword beam?
