Now apologies if we didn’t post this earlier, but we’ve been too busy sobbing into our Tesco Value hankies to type anything meaningful about this. During a presentation by the company’s Takashi Aoyama on the Wii’s front end at last week’s Game Developers Conference, Nintendo surprised us all by whipping the friendly, smiling face off the Wii’s free WiFi, to reveal the horrific, devastating sight of a payment service for online gaming. Aieee!
Aptly called Pay & Play, the new service will potentially offer a higher quality experience and content delivery for those who shell out their hard-earned. In typical fashion, though, the announcement was rather vague, leading to the Internet to burst into frenzied speculation about what this would entail: OMG! Mario Kart Wii - £12 a month!
The cooler head predicts that Pay & Play is the name for the payment model behind massively multiplayer games like Monster Hunter (probably not Animal Crossing (sob!)), and may also cover future downloadable content or Wii Ware games. Those that do require payment will carry a red sticker on the box to indicate you’ll have to dig deep. No price plan has been announced yet, but rest assured that knowing Nintendo, the price will be inexplicably high enough to seem a little bit pricey, yet low enough to be reasonable in the scheme of things. Everybody’s also unsure as to whether these will take the form of one-off payments on a game-by-game basis, or a yearly subscription like Xbox Live.
Again, from what we can gather, Nintendo won’t be abandoning us freeloaders. Nintendo’s current online experience isn’t exactly robust and user-friendly enough to expect us to put money down for what’s already there, and certain WiFi games will still be available without paying. You can keep your overlong Friend Codes for a game of Super Mario Strikers Charged as far as we know. And yes, you won’t have to pay to play with other people on Mario Kart Wii. We think. We hope.
Wii has reaffirmed its position at the top of the hardware sales league, managing to outdo PlayStation3 by a ratio of nearly four-to-one in Japan during February.
Japanese publisher Enterbrain confirmed that Nintendo sold 331,627 Wiis in the four weeks to February 24 - compared with Sony’s 89,131 PS3s.
And remember, Sony’s been trying very, very hard indeed in Japan. PS3 has “proper” rumbling controllers out there already, had an aggressive price cut at the end of last year, and Sony even made a white special edition PS3 just in case it was “being white” that was the secret of Wii’s success. All of which has done nothing to help PS3 become relevant in the world’s gaming hotbed.
Last week, for example, PS3 sold 18,000 units in Japan, while Wii did 79k - yet more confirmation that Nintendo’s going to dominate gaming for the next few years.
And I’ll admit it. I was one of those who thought the Wii novelty would wear off after three months. Then I readjusted my estimate to six months. Then a year. Then 18 months. Now… I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO THINK.
Nintendo has just released information on price points for Wii Fit, due out on April 25th. In the UK, it’s going to cost GBP 69.99 and in Euros it’ll be 89.99. In the Land of the Brave, meanwhile, Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that it’s going to retail for under 100 dollars.
What does that mean in terms of real cost, after one adjusts for exchange rates? Well, those buying in Euros are getting it for about one-pound-fifty cheaper than we are, while the Americans are getting it for a whopping 20 pounds cheaper. I’m not mathemetician, mind, and these figures are open to decisive rebuttal. But if I am right: what gives, Nintendo?
Sorry folks, but due to a misunderstanding we’re temporarily taking down this post and the comments thread. In the meantime, check back often, and thanks for taking an interest.
Of course you have. We all have. And now, thanks to some people with too much time on their hands, we can actually see it.
I’ve always been slightly suspicious of 3D platform games. I don’t think the extra dimension adds anything to Mario, and while Galaxy is fantastic for a raft of other reasons, looking like a moving balloon animals exhibition isn’t one of them. Call me a Luddite, but I want someone to make this game.
Not entirely sure what’s happening here, but it would appear to show the usually dignified Jon ‘Mr Cynical’ Stewart of Daily Show fame making a complete tool out of himself while leaping about on stage at last night’s Oscars playing Wii Tennis.
Always good to see “the mainstream” catching on to something, even if it is well over a year too late to be actually relevant. The big question is… did Nintendo pay for this staggering piece of global promotion?
Having difficulty getting hold of a Wii? The NHS has solved the availability crisis for a set of huddled unfortunates - and created an unorthodox route to gratification for the healthy and desperate - by offering it as a method of rehabilitation for burns victims and people with hand injuries in the South West of England.
“Using the Wii is a way of significantly improving movement, while not seeing the activity as therapy, which helps motivate them,” said Maureen Adams of East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Trust. “Wii can also be done at home, so patients are able to continue their own personal therapies.”
The Wii has also been used in several countries in the treatment of other conditions, including stroke, making it officially better than both the XBox 360 and penicillin.
The first of this week’s Virtual Console releases is a bit of an odd one. Can you guess what it is (if the title and picture above haven’t given you a big enough clue already). It sounds like it should have been a Turbografx game. It was a Sega game. But it then came to the NES as a similar, yet entirely different, game. Do you know what it is? Of course you do, silly. It’s Adventure Island.
Yes, Adventure Island(500 Points). Wonder Boy in all but name. To put it simply, Hudson Soft couldn’t get the full rights to Master System’s bright and breezy platformer, and so set about claiming what they could by releasing the exact same game with slightly different graphics and a wholly different name. Instead of angelic boy in grass skirt, there’s a gruff, chubby man in a cap. That’ll fool ‘em, eh?
But since we don’t have the Master System Channel yet, this is the one that us latecomers to the 8-bit party will have to play. While, let’s be honest, it isn’t a Super Mario Bros., there’s still a modicum of fun to be had. It just suffers from a lack of influential ideas, opting to get along on charm alone. If you’re really keen, though, you should know that you can already sample future sequels from both the Wonder Boy and Adventure Island side of the spectrum. Judging by this version, it hasn’t changed much since then.
The second VC game also had a bit of a name change, though none as convoluted: Street Gangs (also 500 Points) is the PAL name for fan favourite NES title River City Ransom, which is a re-skinning of the original Japanese game Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari. It’s a scrolling beat ‘em up in the Double Dragon style, except it forgoes efforts at realism in favour of cute, squat manga characters hitting each other with dinky weapons. Americans seem to go crazy for it for some reason. That said, it’s a good chunk of innocent violent fun to play through with a friend for an evening or two.
In contravention with patchy demand, Hiroyuki Kobayashi has put all speculation about a Wii port of Devil May Cry to rest.
“You know, a lot of people ask us if we are going to bring out a Wii version. I simply don’t think you can make the game the type of game it is, with the awesome graphics and control — I don’t think that would work on the Wii. So, I don’t think we’re going to bring one out, no.”
Kobayashi’s renunciation of Nintendo’s hotcake is fairly dismissive, as though there’s a wall with the PS3 and 360 on one side, and the Wii on the other, along with assorted children’s toys. While he may well be right to say that Devil May Cry wouldn’t work on the Wii - and I’m far from convinced of this - his characterisation of the Wii as a console incapable of playing a hardcore game is a bit worrying. If everybody shares his attitude, after all, the casual prophecy will just continue to fulfil itself.
Our brave reviewer dons a virtual tin helmet and fights the good fight in Battalion Wars II. Does it earn a medal of honour? Or does it die screaming in agony, unmourned and unloved? Watch the video and find out.
Now apologies if we didn’t post this earlier, but we’ve been too busy sobbing into our Tesco Value hankies to type anything meaningful about this. During a presentation by the company’s Takashi Aoyama on the Wii’s front end at last week’s Game Developers Conference, Nintendo surprised us all by whipping the friendly, smiling face off the Wii’s free WiFi, to reveal the horrific, devastating sight of a payment service for online gaming. Aieee!
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