Bayonetta (360) – 10/10/10/10
Bayonetta (PS3) – 10/10/9/9
Super Robot Taisen Neo (Wii) – 8/7/7/7
Sin and Punishment 2 (Wii) – 8/8/8/7 (works well with Wiimote, slight learning curve, some stages drag on)
Final Fantasy Gaiden: Four Warriors of Light (DS) – 9/8/8/8 (classic elements with story/music, nice touches, blends well with today’s gaming standards)
Tekken 6 (PS3) – 9/8/8/8 (large character roster, bland action in the campaign)
Tekken 6 (360) – 9/8/8/8 (large character roster, bland action in the campaign)
Persona 3 Portable (PSP) – 8/8/8/8 (quicker movement thanks to no 3D map)
GTA: Chinatown Wars (DS) – 9/9/8/9
Elminage 2 (PSP) – 7/8/6/6
When The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time released, z-targeting was introduced, which enables players to lock-on to enemies. And even after all these years, that gameplay mechanic is still being included in new titles – Red Steel 2 included. According to Jason Vandenberghe, Creative Director of Red Steel 2, the developers purposely borrowed z-targeting from Ocarina of Time and explains that a huge change in the interface would be unnecessary.
“Well, of course we looked at everything in the known universe for inspiration (Metroid Prime, Zone of the Enders, etc, etc), but hell yeah, Zelda is a great example of how to make locking in melee work, and I’m very much of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought when it comes to interface. I prefer to take a hard look at what has already worked in the past, start there, and then evolve. Which is pretty much what we did.
Just so that you know, we have two selectable lock systems in the game – the default “auto-lock” system (that will do most of the work for you), and a “manual” system (that gives you full control over when and on whom you lock).
With auto-lock, the idea was that you can just jump into the fray and start swinging, without having to think too much about where you were looking. This is my favorite mode, FYI – my fighting style is berserker (for sure), and I love it when the game does its best to put targets in front of me.
Roman (my lead designer) feels differently – he’s much more a “style” player, and prefers to have exact control over his enemy selection. He’s always cautiously strafing around, getting behind people, dodging, looking for chances to take out more than one at a time… thus, he prefers the manual lock.
We’re continuing to make refinements to both systems even now. We will not rest until it’s frackin’ perfect!”
When you think about Mickey Mouse, crying isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, Warren Spector’s dream is to see kids crying at Disneyland after they have played Junction Point Studios’ Epic Mickey. Spector told Game Informer:
“As people play the game and they look at things, and they move through spaces and they listen to the soundtrack – I want them to have this feeling of recognition and familiarity, and then I want to yank the rug out from under them. On top of that, I really want to scare kids. I want to go to Disneyland and see a 10 year old kid crying. ‘Oh mommy, the clock tower’s going to come to life and eat me!’ That’s my fondest dream. Disney scared the pants of me when I was a little kid. Disney really needs to scare kids!”
As Seen On TV range brings the Nation’s favourite television shows to Nintendo DS and Wii.
Telly addicts rejoice! Now you can bounce on Total Wipeout’s balls, endure Bush Tucker Trials in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, and crush Countdown’s Conundrum for yourself as Mindscape deliver all the fun and excitement of the country’s biggest and best-loved TV shows exclusively for Nintendo Wii and DS.As part of Mindscape’s ever-expanding As Seen On TV line-up, 2009 brings the videogame debut of TV megahits such as Family Fortunes, ITV Studios Countdown, and ITV Studios I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!, all of which will be available for both the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Also joining the line-up – which already boasts favourites Ready Steady Cook: The Game, Deal or No Deal and Golden Balls – is The Ultimate Red Ball Challenge, the official Nintendo Wii game of BBC’s Saturday night smash, Total Wipeout.
Excerpt from a recent interview with Popular Mechanics:
“With both the Wii remote itself and Wii MotionPlus, what we’ve been able to do is introduce an interface that is both I think appealing and at the right price for a broad audience. And while we don’t have any concrete plans for what we’ll be doing with hardware in the future, what I can say is that, my guess is that because we found this interface to be so interesting, I think it would be likely that we would try to make that same functionality perhaps more compact and perhaps even more cost-efficient.”
To be completely honest, Nintendo is probably nearing completion on the “Wii 2” and Miyamoto probably knows about it. Nevertheless, what do you guys think? Would you be satisfied with a smaller, cheaper, more powerful Wii as Nintendo’s next console?
Update: Apparently, the DSi Shop Channel is down as well (thanks to Valay for informing me!). As soon as we find out when they’re back up, we’ll be sure to let you guys know!
When I tried to access the Wii Shop Channel today, a message popped up notifying me that the Wii Shop Channel was being worked on, and (as usual) didn’t give me any sort of time frame as to when it’d be back up. Normally this wouldn’t really merit much of a news story (the Wii Shop Channel has been down numerous times in the past with little or no visible improvements) but in light of Denise Kaigler’s recent comments about online Wii owners getting a bit of a surprise soon, this may be worth watching.
More info as it comes in!
1. Halo 3: ODST (360) – Microsoft
2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – Nintendo
3. Madden NFL 10 (360) – EA
4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS) – Nintendo
5. The Beatles: Rock Band (360) – MTV Games/EA
6. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) – EA
7. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (360) – Activision Blizzard
8. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) – Square Enix
9. Guitar Hero 5 (360) – Activision Blizzard
10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii) – MTV Games/EA
11. Batman: Arkham Asylum (360) – Square Enix
12. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) – Square Enix
13. Scribblenauts (DS) – Warner Bros.
14. NHL 10 (360) – EA
15. Need for Speed: Shift (360) – EA
16. Need for Speed: Shift (PS3) – EA
17. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (PS3) – Activision Blizzard
18. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (DS) – Nintendo
19. Wii Fit (Wii) – Nintendo
20. The Beatles: Rock Band (PS3) – MTV Games/EA
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and MTV Games today announced that LEGO® Rock Band™ will feature the likeness of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and multi-platinum selling group Queen. Appearing in the game as LEGO minifigures, front man Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor will be seen jamming to their hit anthems “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.”
Guitarist Brian May said: “This is IT! I wanna play! When do I get my toy LEGO man?”
Even though we’ve known about The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for quite awhile, Nintendo hasn’t been keen on sharing information about gameplay. There’s about a month and a half before the game launches, but for the most part, we’re in the dark. Shigeru Miyamoto still isn’t ready to talk about the title extensively, but he did recently provide a nugget of information about how Spirit Tracks will be taking advantage of the DS hardware.
“…What I can say is that with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, which was was the first Zelda game released on DS, I think there were a number of people who played a Zelda game for the first time with that first DS game. And so what we’ve tried to do with Spirit Tracks is take that experience and enhance it in a way that takes even more advantage of the DS hardware and the features that it has to offer. And change it up a little bit with the ability to ride around with the train and have fun that way.”
…And Miyamoto teased the next Zelda Wii title.
“It’s really fun to move your body around.”
