While we all still wait patiently for Rhythm Heaven to arrive on US and European shores, Japanese fans are already hard at work on their own spinoffs - this video shows Karateka Mania, which sets the rhythmic pugilism of one of Tengoku’s most celebrated minigames to a J-Pop soundtrack. It looks a little more complicated than Tengoku’s fairly straight rhythms, though perhaps not quite as exacting.

Rhythm Tengoku Gold remains in the Japanese top ten, and is a recommended import, although not as much as the superior GBA original. It’s expected to reach western gamers in the first or second quarter of 2009.

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Engadget is getting itself in a froth about a piece of equipment which has been found on a European trademark registry site, and is putting two and two together and coming up with five, claiming that it’s a Nintendo pedometer. With little supplemental information about the peripheral it’s hard to say that it’s definitely what it looks (a bit) like, though there’s no noticeable Wii branding, and I’m not convinced it’s necessarily the next evolutionary step for Wii Fit - or indeed related to a brand new game. Besides, we’ve already got Wii Jog on the way.

And isn’t that an Xbox 360 button on the reverse?

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Well, not quite. It’s just the latest set of must-buy/resist gashapon from Play-Asia, featuring a tiny balance board attached to a tiny Wii Fit by a tiny chain.

Not convinced? How about the cute little Wii Wheel? Or the copy of Mario Party 8 that’s mercifully too small to actually play? Each toy with a game case actually has a tiny little disk inside, as you’ll see if you click on the link above.

Interesting observation - what on earth is wrong with the Wii Zapper? Why do we not have a Link’s Crossbow Training version? Could it be that Nintendo Japan is actually unhappy at the (admittedly fairly pointless) peripheral? Or perhaps they’re waiting for the next collection to unveil that one, perhaps alongside the Wii pedometer - see next post for details.

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Gamekyo is today suggesting that Nintendo has a surprise lined up for its conference this coming Thursday. While rumours continue to fly about a new DS model (with camera functionality and larger screens), it seems that Nintendo also has a game lined up.

The site suggests Nintendo will reveal a new game during the event “which is actually an old franchise that everyone is waiting for”.

Which, let’s face it, means Kid Icarus or Pikmin. I’m going to go with the latter, and I’m also going to bet that it’s not just Pikmin 3 but something else - perhaps something that actually very few people were waiting for.

I guess we’ll know in two days’ time. 

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When I talk, Nintendo listens. Well, that’s what we all say when one of our brilliant ideas actually becomes a reality. Evidently, keeping my fingers crossed that one day Nintendo would start thinking about making something along the lines of the superb Japanese-only GBA Bit Generations games for WiiWare has paid off. Today, on the US store, you’ll be able to download Art Style: ORBIENT for 600 points, and that’s the first of three games in the newly-named Art Style series to hit the service this October. (Please let the next one be Art Style: COLORIS.)

According to the press release: “Games in the Art Style series feature elegant design, polished graphics, and pick-up-and-play controls, creating an experience focused purely on fun and engaging game play.”

If it’s like the original Orbital, it couldn’t be simpler - two buttons for attract or repel, as your little satellite encircles various stars, gobbling up smaller planetoids along the way to increase in size. Think of it as a 2D Katamari with planets and basic controls, and you’re not far off what to expect. The gravitational pulls of the various space bodies take a bit of getting used to, but after a while you’ll be able to slingshot around planets at high speed - probably only to crash into an unexpected bit of asteroid debris, but hey.

Impressions either tonight or tomorrow. This is 600 points I’m almost desperate to spend.

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While the US site for Wii Music is bare-bones, to say the least, Nintendo’s official Japanese site has plenty of videos which show the game in a far better light than its cringe-inducing appearance at Nintendo’s E3 press briefing.

The minigame page shows the conducting aspect Miyamoto so memorably showed off at E3 2006 - which looks fun if very simplistic - and a bell-ringing diversion which looks like it supports four players simultaneously. There’s also a music test to see if you can recognise pitch - again, this looks remarkably easy, but then again I do have some music training, so I’m not the tone-deaf newcomer that Nintendo’s really after with these asides.

But perhaps of most interest is the ad-lib section, which shows three songs being played twice - the first time a fairly straight rendition of the tune in question, the second a looser, more freeform interpretation. The twiddly guitar in the middle song is a little OTT, but the relaxed bongo accompaniment on the third vid works brilliantly, and is very different from the more basic drumming on the other version. And the settings are really quite charming, too.

So, there’s plenty of evidence here of how much of a difference your playing (and your choice of instrument) can make to a song - meaning Wii Music is almost certainly far more flexible than most people are currently giving it credit for, even if the option to create your own tunes would be very, very welcome indeed.

Wii Music is out in the US on October 20th, and reaches European shores shortly afterwards, on November 14th.

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Owing to other commitments, I’m sadly unable to go into any significant detail about Disaster: Day of Crisis here - suffice to say I completed it in two five-hour sittings over the weekend, and am on my second playthrough now.

So yes, it’s really quite good. Far from perfect, but it’s not a game that’s been treated to a mega-budget, and creator Monolithsoft has done a sterling job creating an arcade-style experience that really suits the console. As episodic, fairly cinematic games go, it’s certainly better than Alone In The Dark, that’s for sure.

What I can say is that Disaster may not be the game you think it is. Third-person adventuring probably takes up around a quarter of your total playtime, with the rest spread between lightgun shooting stages, minigames, brief escape sequences and driving sections. It’s a nice mix that never allows things to get tedious, and there’s substantial replay value in both the number of unlockables available and the level-grading mechanic - get a higher rating and you’ll get you more items.

There’s a reward to almost everything you do in the game, which makes even the mundane tasks worthwhile. Though it’s clunky in places and downright silly in others, Disaster will be well worth picking up this October. Assuming you don’t own a PS3 too, anyway - unfortunately it’s up against the launch of LittleBigPlanet. Erk.

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So we return again to  San Francisco, courtesy of Tom - this time to look at MySims Kingdom. Continued from this post. 

Next up was MySims Kingdom. Leaving the corporate pizzazz of the conference room SimCity Creator was demoed in, we were led to the belly of the beast: the MySims designer offices on the second floor. It was something of a transformation from the clean, cool curves of reception and the majority of the ‘on-show’ campus. In fact it’s exactly what you’d imagine a videogame developer’s office to look like. Posters of MySims character art were pinned to the partitions, flow charts and Post-It notes were scattered all around, while toy animals inhabited any empty space (more on which in my next entry). Bean bags and comfy chairs surrounded the TV in the Kingdom demo room; all sense of formality dropped. It was like a completely different building.
 
Kingdom’s Executive Producer, Tim LeTourneau, was suitably relaxed as he showed off Kingdom. The first thing that strikes you is how more refined the visuals are compared to the original MySims, which was hardly a bad looking game in the first place. The colours are more vibrant, while the cutesy characters are detailed and well-defined. The second thing you’ll notice is that the game is not a simple sequel to MySims. It has the same characters and aesthetic, but a completely different direction. “It’s an adventure game” says LeTourneau,  a statement which caused a few raised eyebrows across the room. Surprisingly, as the demo went on, we found it to be a description that fits Kingdom, even though it remains a MySims game at heart.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Here. According to Google Translate:

“Sambo was a giant! “DOSSUN field,” appeared in the Battle of Sambo. Sambo gigantic sunshade in the attack, while soldiers with bomb attacks please.”

Shocking. Looks to me like a Pokey which you have to defeat in the quickest time possible - certainly the pics suggest so - but I’m not sure quite what to expect after that description. Any ideas, readers?

The tournament runs from 1st October to the 10th. I might just give this one a go, and revive the old beat-my-time competition. Watch this space.

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There’s a wealth of games hitting the shelves this week, with plenty likely to get lost in the melee thanks to an incredibly busy release schedule.

One title likely to get overlooked (and criminally under-promoted by Nintendo) is Make 10: A Journey of Numbers. It’s not really for adults, but its whimsical storybook presentation makes its maths problems much more palatable for younger gamers. It’s a game of immense charm and style, and comes strongly recommended to those with siblings or other relatives of a certain age.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is another (vain?) attempt to resurrect the flagging career of the blue ‘hog, whose fall from grace in recent years kind of makes him the videogame Amy Winehouse (albeit with better teeth). While I’ve not played enough to judge Bioware’s odd little role-player, it makes for a fascinating change for the spiked one, and it looks beautiful in places, featuring a combat system that reminds me of Ouendan - which can never be an entirely bad thing. Time will tell whether it has the depth to match its technical competence, but I’m optimistic this could be the start of a comeback for Sonic. Whether the world really wants that remains to be seen.

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