First things first: House of the Dead Overkill is almost certainly the best on-rails shooter on Wii, and you should go out and buy it immediately. I’m not ready to review it just yet as I’m only three levels in, but I’m confident enough to say it topples Ghost Squad from its throne, despite being a little slower and easier (which some might see as a bonus, anyway).
But I digress: I’m really here to talk about the HandCannon which I picked up from my local gaming retailer for £14.99. It’s a lot of money for what’s essentially nothing more than a plastic shell, but if you’re after a copy of the game as well, some stores are offering deals which make the guns a little cheaper. Or you can get them online for around a tenner. Bargain!
And a bargain it is, because this weighty beast is one of the most satisfying lightguns ever. With the remote slotted in, it’s a pretty hefty number, but it feels incredibly satisfying to hold and shoot. The puny of arm might whine that it hurts after a long play session, but that’s a good thing - it means you won’t complete the two-to-three hour story mode in one sitting. (There’s plenty of replay value; don’t worry if that seems a little short.)
With a comfortable grip, a really cool design, and a chunky solidity to the shell (as well as a clever way of attaching the nunchuk, ensuring compatibility with other Wii shooters) it’s a cracking piece of hardware, and makes Overkill even more enjoyable. If you’ve not got a lightgun, or you’ve only got the Wii Zapper, then this is well worth the investment. Buy two, even - once you unlock dual-wielding mode, you can really make those mutants “suffer like G did”.
Or, to give it its full, correct, slightly clumsy title, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. It’s been confirmed today, and there’s a teaser trailer above, which I’m sure you’ve already spotted.
As you might think from the inclusion of snowboarding, the Wii balance board will be supported, though unfortunately there’s no online play on the home console version. The press release doesn’t make it explicit, but Wi-Fi could be possible on the DS game.
It’s being developed by Sega Japan, under the watchful eye of Shigeru Miyamoto (I imagine Shigsy just saying “yeah, ’s alright” every couple of months when he’s shown a new build; I’m not convinced he’s that heavily involved) and the game will feature new faces to the series - yes! - to be revealed later in the year - boo!
Again, the initial announcement is shy on event revelations, simply naming alpine skiing and speed skating as among the disciplines. Once again, more events will be drip-fed to us greedy info-gobblers throughout the course of the year.
And that’s about it, really - I quite liked Mario & Sonic as a waggle-riffic multiplayer timewaster, and hopefully the sequel, with its balance board shenanigans, will be even better. It’ll sell millions, of course and after Sega’s recent losses, it needs a banker like this one.
According to a ’secret source’ of Eurogamer’s, yes. Seems everyone’s got snow on the brain at the moment, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out why this particular rematch is happening - the sporting waggle-fest being GAME’s third biggest-selling title in the UK during 2008, with the game shifting more than five million units in total during its first three months on sale alone.
For my money, this could potentially be a much better game than the already decent original, with several winter sports seemingly well-suited to the Wii controllers, particularly if there are any balance board-compatible events. Wii Fit proved how well snowboarding and skiing could work, and I can picture Sonic zipping down a tilt-based bobsleigh run, or even hurtling downhill on the luge. And pointer-controlled shooting would be just fine for the biathlon.
The Winter Olympics are never quite as popular as the ‘proper’ summer ones, so there’s a chance that the potential audience for this is lower than for the first, but those casual gamers who lapped up the first game are more likely to purchase a game if they know what they’re getting, so this will still likely pull in big numbers for Sega again. And if that helps fund a Yakuza 3 localisation (yes, I realise that’s not a Wii or DS game, but c’mon - it’s Yakuza) that can only be a good thing.
Sega isn’t commenting at the moment - it’s early days for a Winter Olympics game, let’s face it - but I’d expect to hear confirmation around E3 time if not before. Watch this space.
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