“Battles are played across multiple rounds with points scored for each round based on the quality of the hand. Each player uses a Wii Remote to point and click on a deck of cards laid across the screen. The first click flips the card over at which point it can be grabbed by anyone else. You’ve got to have fast fingers and eyes if you’re to grab the cards you need before someone else snatches them from you.” – James Higgins, CEO of Left Field
The good news is, the development cycle for the game is nearing an end, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the game was ready for release in the next 2 months or so.
“So we decided to lead on the Wii SKU this year. Developers normally lead with the lowest common denominator piece of technology, and so although we’re doing PS2 and the Wii and the 360 and the PSP and DS versions of the game, we led with the Wii from a graphics point of view.” – Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant, producer Kirsten Forbes
It’s encouraging to see that at least one developer is focusing on the Wii when it comes to multiplatform releases. Typically, developers have completely shafted the Wii to work on other versions of their games including leaving out features.
For more than a few weeks, Time Magazine has been hosting a poll on its website to determine the most influential person of 2008. Now, the voting has ended and the dust has settled. Immediately, Shigeru Miyamoto would come to the mind of any video gamer as being influential for his innovative ideas. Miyamoto was riding in the #2 slot for a number of days, but eventually outperformed Rain – last year’s winner – by 4 points. Last year, Miyamoto was voted the ninth most influential person. This year, however, the Wii’s continued success, coupled with the fact that Miyamoto is a very respected member of the video game industry, helped boost his point total. Congratulations to Mr. Miyamoto!
– split of 3d to 3d side-scrolling action is about 50/50
– hub areas for story return once again
– Wii version is not using the same engine as PS3/360, but the team is working hard to duplicate the look as closely as possible
– mix of speed and platforming
– Wii version is different in stage design and controls
– coding and stages for Wii version is being handled by Dimps, who was responsible for Sonic Rush/Sonic Rush Adventure
– Tomoya Ohtani from Sonic Rush will be the sound director
If the Sonic Rush team’s prior work is any indication, I truly think this can be one of the stand-out Sonic games in the franchise.
The Conduit
– FPS, pushes technology, not war-time shooter
– D.C. under attack by aliens
– All seeing eye: Walk up to doorways, pull out item – interact with lock to find hidden passageways, monsters
– Matt & Bozon have seen footage, won’t talk about it yet. Video in next few weeks
– High Voltage still working on making the game look better
Gyrostar
– Space-shooter, good music, effects
– Only $7, supposed to launch with WiiWare
– Looks like an Xbox Live Arcade game, also looks better in a higher resolution
Animales de la Muerte
– IGN team excited for it
– Nintendo not regulating content for WiiWare, but no games with AO games
– Hope to show a game like WiiWare soon
– More High Voltage games in future
Prince of Persia
– No Wii version, not much news on the game
– Hope it’s more of a traditional PoP game
I’ll consider writing up a summary of this issue’s Nintendo Power, but for now, the review scores are as follows…
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon : Explorers of Time/Darkness (DS) : 7.5
Drone Tactics (DS) – 7.0
Summon Night: Twin Age (DS) – 7.5
Super Dodgeball Brawlers (DS) – 6.5
Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (DS) – 5.0
Top Spin 3 (DS) – 6.0
Top Spin 3 (Wii) – 7.0
Iron Man (DS) – 5.0
Iron Man (Wii) – 5.5
Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy (Wii) – 8.5
Boom Blox (Wii) – 8.0
We Ski (Wii) – 6.0
I’m very proud to see that Blast Works and Boom Blox received stellar scores. I hope, however, that gamers will actually buy these titles and prove to third parties they can be successful on the Wii.
Much like the Blue Shell, the POW Block is sure to cause a lot of grief in Mario Kart Wii. Fortunately, someone has discovered a few helpful tidbits to avoid the item.
Famicom / NES (400 Wii Points)
Antarctic Adventure – Konami
Donkey Kong – Nintendo
Kirby’s Adventure – HAL Laboratory
Super Mario Bros. – Nintendo
Super Famicom / SNES (600 Wii Points)
Gradius III – Konami
Super Mario World – Nintendo
Super Metroid – Nintendo
Cybernator – Hudson
Contra III: The Alien Wars – Nintendo
Nintendo 64 (800 Wii Points)
Mario Kart 64 – Nintendo
Not a bad line-up to start with if you ask me. The Mario games alone can keep a person busy for a long time to come.
