– 4 player mode available
– Level Editor, share levels through WiiConnect24 (must beat game first)
– Create your own ball, use Mii as a ball
– Balance board control
– 10 stages made for balance board control, 100 stages for Wiimote control
– Konami publishing in Europe
– Releasing first quarter 2009 in Europe
Update: IGN has a few screens and details about the new mode.
Activision revealed details about an original mode in Guitar Hero: World Tour called Mii Freestlye in its Games Convention press conference today. Mii characters available on your Wii console will be able take part in the new mode to play certain activities, such as air drumming with the Wiimote and nunchuck. More news at it breaks.
Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH reveals original DS title wherein a whole world of magic awaits…Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced a magical new title for Nintendo DS entitled Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry, due for release Q1 2009 across Europe.
Set in a magic school, the game entails mastering a series of spells and incantations in order to achieve a Magician Licence and become Master Wizard. To this end, the player enrolls in a special school where alongside over 100 fully interactive pupils, they must learn and implement key spells and use them wisely. During the course of a term, however, the player is asked to solve a series of puzzles by mysterious beings that appear once a week throughout the game. Doing so will reward the user with extra items for use in their magic, and contribute towards the player’s advancement.
Central to Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry is the versatility of the game and its inhabitants. During the course of the game, players can go shopping or take up hobbies, make friends with anyone in the school, join bands to play music together, and even go on dates. Similarly, the school is rife with gossip related to available mysterious events, romance, stories among the pupils and players can even lend their character to friends in a unique ‘Study Abroad’ scheme wherein they are imported to a friend’s game world for tutoring – and will even discuss their adventures on their return!
With its truly immersive game world and adaptive gameplay – all of which is played in real time courtesy of the DS internal clock – Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry is a truly magical experience. Packed with unique items for use in magic, the player faces many long and hard challenges as they strive to attain the coveted five-star rating that will earn the Master Wizard accolade.
We’ve all heard about numerous stories about how desperate some people are in obtaining their Wii consoles, but how about buying two? Archie Lovett, a young boy, logged onto his grandfather’s eBay account and bid close to £200,000 on a Wii console. However, the child already had a Wii of his own. Luckily, the seller was very understanding of the situation and did not put up a fuss. “We have seen the funny side of this, but I have told Archie he cannot do it again,” said his grandfather. “It does show how clever he is.”
The funny thing about this whole story is that wasn’t the first time young Archie took control over his family’s eBay accounts. Time to put some parental controls on all of the computers!
Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced the next three titles to emerge from its distribution agreement with Hudson Soft.
The three games will be released in Q1 2009 across Europe, and mark the welcome return of Hudson’s ever popular Bomberman character to Nintendo DS, plus two original Wii releases entitled Hard Working People (Working Title) and Kororinpa 2 (Working Title).
The provisionally-titled Bomberman 2 (Working Title) will see the veteran bomb-slinger undergoing a new look, with players invited to customize their Bomberman to their own taste. Hudson has also extended the gameplay, with the familiar setting of planting bombs to destroy encroaching enemies and clear levels extended into a more open format. Players are faced with varied missions and can customize their Bomberman character in more than 160,000 ways. In addition to the single-player mission, Bomberman 2 (Working Title), will also boast a Versus mode for up to four players using Wi-Fi connection or eight players using Wireless versus.
EA announced a new tennis game today with – believe it or not – the Wii as the lead SKU. Better yet, the title will feature Wii MotionPlus for all types of tennis-related moves: Servers, forehands, backhands, and volleys close to the net. EA in Vancouver is overseeing the title and plans on a 2009 release.
Update: The press release is available now as well:
All-New EA SPORTS Franchise Is the Place to Play the Slams
GUILDFORD, UK. – August 20, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: ERTS) announced today that an all-new tennis videogame is in development at EA Canada in Vancouver under the EA SPORTS™ brand. The EA SPORTS tennis franchise will be available first for the Wii™ in 2009, followed by other platforms, and it will be the first EA SPORTS game that uses Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus™ accessory for the Wii Remote™ that will give players a new level of accuracy and responsiveness.“As we look to expand the EA SPORTS brand and captivate sports fans from around the world with rich new interactive experiences, it was obvious that the renaissance we’re seeing in the sport of tennis provides us with a big opportunity,” said Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS. “Our new tennis franchise, coming first to the Wii, will put fans right into the action and provide the excitement, tension and drama that true champions feel in legendary matches – like the classic from Wimbledon just last month.”
“When you make a game based on a license you really are playing roulette – you don’t know how the film is going play out in the market. When we were first asked to do Speed Racer the property it was incredible, it was very exciting. It was a film by the Wachowski brothers and it was about car racing – awesome that’s going to make a great game. We’re in a unique situation with the game, we’re like 40 Metacritic points above the film – usually the film and the game mirror each other quite closely on review scores… We released on the same time frame as Ironman, which was very successful film. The games didn’t review very well – but we know that Ironman games sold very well.” – Jos Ruffel, business development executive of Sidhe Interactive
The Speed Racer games for the Wii and DS received much better reviews than licensed/movies games typically receive. It’s really a shame to see mediocre sales for more than decent titles.
Munich, Germany (PRWEB) August 19, 2008 — Spinor, a leading game engine developer, announced today that its game engine, Shark 3D, now supports the Wii™ console. In addition, Shark 3D was used to develop “Moorhuhn Tales” for Wii, the latest game based on “Moorhuhn” (also known as “Crazy Chicken” and “Chicken Hunter”), one of the best known game brands in Europe.
“The Wii is a great platform, both for consumers and for game developers,” said Folker Schamel, CEO of Spinor. “The console and the games designed for it have made games far more accessible to audiences of all ages and interests. Shark 3D and its proven toolset for Wii enable game developers to tap into the console’s phenomenal success easier and with far less risk.”
“Moorhuhn Tales”, developed by phenomedia publishing gmbh, is nearly finished and is expected to release in the coming months. This game will be phenomedia’s first game on the Wii console. The Shark 3D SDK for Wii includes the C++ sources of all the gameplay elements used on the game. Game studios will not only see how those gameplay elements were implemented; with Shark 3D for Wii, they will be able to use that code for their own Wii projects.
