LostWinds creators David Braben and Steve Burgess have stated they are “not making any announcements†on the recently confirmed LostWinds sequel, but nevertheless offered a number of hints about the future of their windswept WiiWare hit.
Speaking at a LostWinds-centric Frontier Developments presentation at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today, Braben and Burgess reiterated their intention to produce a follow-up to the critically-acclaimed platformer, identifying the world of LostWinds as one they would be “foolish not to return†to, before revealing a number of clues to the direction the franchise might take; Braben stated that he “would love to see†a full disc-based LostWinds release in the future, and even teased us with fresh artwork of a black, swirling thundercloud, a suitably foreboding and nebulous sample of things to come for little Toku and the world of Mistralis. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, the collision detection is awful. Though, admittedly, that’s a little unfair, given that collisions were very probably turned off to make the demo easier - certainly I’m not expecting to be able to ‘board straight through trees in the finished game. Otherwise, Shaun White Snowboarding was looking pretty damn good.
Running on the Assassin’s Creed engine on 360 and PS3, the Wii version was comparatively cartoony in style - a sensible approach that worked well, even if Shaun himself looked like some World of Warcraft mutant when facing the camera. It was an almost SSX Blur-esque visual approach, which - while not massively detailed - moved very smoothly throughout. The controls seemed to work brilliantly - using the board almost exclusively, with the remote purely used for menu selections and those all important air grabs, it functioned pretty much exactly as you might hope a snowboarding game would.
With the board turned ninety degrees, leaning forward and backwards turned Shaun in the appropriate direction, while pushing down with your front foot increased his speed, with your back foot used as a brake. Tricks were a little more complicated, though easily accessed with a bit of practice - crouch and straighten up quickly to make a leap from the various ramps, and twist or adjust your foot position (onscreen instructions gave you hints of how to do this) to pull off different spins and flips. A meter on the left showed your centre of balance, allowing you to land effectively by keeping as central as possible when about to hit the snowy ground.
It was only one brief run, and concerns remain over how it’ll work without the board, but this builds upon the snowboarding in Wii Fit superbly and truly looks like it’ll utilise the peripheral’s full potential. With a dedicated team working solely on the Wii version, this is one multiformat title that isn’t just your average port - a fact that was clearly evident from the demo. Good work, Ubi.
Yes, it’s a game you can play with your backside. What next? Guffing into your DS mic? Yet despite sounding like the games industry’s finally succumbed to total lunacy, RRRTV’s arse-boarding works incredibly well.
The idea is that the Raving Rabbids (can we not just drop the Rayman part now?) have invaded your telly, and are taking over various TV shows. While we’re sure there’ll be some scabrous satire in there, the two levels I saw were pretty wide targets, with the balance board-enabled stage simply being a piss-take of winter sports in general. It sees your Rabbid riding an upside-down wildebeest - it’s called Beestie Boarding - down a rather steep hill. Sitting on the board, you lean left and right to turn in the appropriate direction, though if you’ve excellent gluteal muscle control (must be down to my shady past as a Ricky Martin impersonator) you’ll find that simple shifts of your butt-cheeks provide the kind of fine-tuning required to get the best times. Lean back at certain points and you can boost down the track, where the close control is even more important.
The other level on show was a rhythm-action stage which used the remote and nunchuk, as the demoers on the stand shook their funky stuff to Jungle Boogie (which is still in my head thanks to it being on repeat the whole day - God knows how it is for those who were showing it off). Rather than the simple controller-shaking of the original or the Rock Band-ultra-lite of the sequel, this displayed some simple stick models whose actions you needed to copy as they scrolled across the top of the screen. In truth you could probably get away with simple left-to-right and up-and-down shakes, but it’s all part of the fun to hold them above your head and step side-to-side, or wiggle your shoulders and stretch as you pull off that traditional Travolta-in-Saturday-Night-Fever pose. Questions remain about its accuracy, but is it fun? Hell, yes.
Only two levels then, but I came away thinking that this could be the best RRR yet. Apparently the full game uses the balance board “for 30% of the minigames”. That could potentially alienate some, but given how well Wii Fit is selling at the moment, we reckon most of its potential audience will be able to get the very most out of the game.
This Friday, stroll into your local gaming emporium, slap two twenty pound notes on the counter, and walk out with a copy of Boom Blox on Wii. Unless they’re selling it a bit cheaper, in which case you should wait for your change first. Either way, you’ll probably thank me for the tip.
Boom Blox - as you probably know by now - is the brainchild of Steven Spielberg, the director turned game developer coming up with the idea after speaking to Miyamoto and playing on the Wii for the first time. It’s a puzzler where you basically have to knock things down. And knocking things down is always fun.
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.
Excited about Okami? By gum, we most certainly are. We’re bored of staring at the calendar and marking off the days until launch (and we don’t even know when the launch date is), so we’ve found some nuggets to chew over until we get something more meaty between our teeth. The advance playable code must’ve been lost in the post, it sometimes happens.
Christian Svensson, Capcom’s Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Business Development has been flapping his gums about the Wii version of Okami on the official Capcom forums. He’s not reticient to spill the beans, nosiree bob. Read on after the jump for the full details.
Mario Kart Wii hasn’t had quite the frenzy of speculation and intrigue that Super Smash Brothers Brawl had during development. Nevertheless, we’re as excited as ever, particularly after the rather disappointing Double Dash (er, it’s an overlooked classic actually - a reader).
In that case, we’re always happy to receive a new bit of information, and Japanese games mag Famitsu have provided. Top of the list, is Nintendo’s latest foray into novelties: the ability to use your Mii as a playable character. Upon performing certain unknown tasks, those freakishly simplistic representations of humanity will plonk down in their own kart and fire a banana up Luigi’s exhaust pipe.
As has previously been reported, for those interested in pointless numbers, the most important ones are four-player split-screen and 12 players over Wi-Fi. There’ll be 32 tracks in all - 16 all new ones and 16 returning from previous Mario Karts, and 10 multiplayer stages. Global rankings will be managed through a dedicated Mario Kart Channel.
All very exciting probably. One thing we wonder, though. Are they going to stick with ‘Mario Kart Wii’? It’s a rather bland name if you ask us. And motorbikes? We’re not too sure ourselves. Mario on a Yamaha just feels…wrong.
Brawl fans: give them an opening and they’ll be up there like a rat up a drainpipe. Perhaps that isn’t the most appropriate or evocative phrase to use, actually, but we use it anyway in reference to the discovery by the keen eyes of viewers of three unannounced characters during a preview of the all-new, quite possibly mega-selling, Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
During part of a trailer demonstrating the single player mode’s sticker power-up feature, icons for previous Smash characters Ness and Jigglypuff, plus another Pokemon, the dog-headed Lucario were noticed in the corner (as seen in the very blurry image above, no really). No footage of them in battle, though, just those static headshot pictures. Speculation, then, but fuelled further by Nintendo blanking out said icons in the next revision of the trailer.
At this point, we could only guess whether they’ll make an appearance or not, much less as playable characters. The game’s nearly out, yet it appears to be stuffed full of even more secrets than have consistently been revealed before. Then again, we’re reminded of previous shenanigans when a rogue voice-artist let out the news that she’d recorded the lines for Starfox Adventure’s Krystal for Brawl, which was promptly silenced, and nothing’s become of that…yet. Is this a smoke/fire story or are they just stickers?
If you thought your Thursday morning couldn’t possibly get more exciting, then feast your eyes on this video of Wii Chess in action. The game will allow for all the features you’d expect from a modern chess game, including customisable boards and online multiplayer features. It’s also got the most irritating theme tune you’ll have ever heard.
We’re slightly puzzled as to why Nintendo thought this game was necessary, even by casual gaming standards. We’ve had the option to play chess online - for free - for a good few years already, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything new and different about this version. Maybe there’s a mind-blowing version of three-dimensional hyperchess (a la Asimov and Star Trek) tucked away inside as a bonus, but it’s not looking likely.
Good news, folks. We’ve got an interview with Charles Martinet, voice of Mario, scheduled for this Friday. He’s in Londontown to promote a little game called Super Mario Galaxy, you might have heard of it.
Anyhoo, we’re as excited as Donkey Kong atop a pile of girders to be meeting such an esteemed figure, and we wanted to share the love. If you’ve got a really important question you’d like to ask him - like if he’s ever worn dungarees and grown a moustache - post it in the comments thread below and we’ll run the best ones under his nose.
Martinet’s been busy working on several major projects these past few months - Super Paper Mario, Mario vs Sonic at the Olympic Games, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, SMG - so he’s bound to have lots of anecdotes and insights to share with you all. Keep the questions clean, mind. You wouldn’t talk your mother with that mouth, would you?
We’ll be filming the interview and it’ll be posted here a few days afterwards. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements!
LostWinds creators David Braben and Steve Burgess have stated they are “not making any announcements†on the recently confirmed LostWinds sequel, but nevertheless offered a number of hints about the future of their windswept WiiWare hit.
 
 
Good news, folks. We’ve got an interview with Charles Martinet, voice of Mario, scheduled for this Friday. He’s in Londontown to promote a little game called Super Mario Galaxy, you might have heard of it. 
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