Okay, as I told you all way back in March classic PC adventure Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is coming to DS. What I didn’t know then, however, was that there’s also going to be a Wii version. Published by Ubisoft, it’s to be known as a ‘director’s cut’, which will expand on the original with some new puzzles and some story tweaks to show events leading up to the start of the game, as well as how it fits in with the rest of the series.
Excitingly, this new version will also feature character art from Dave Gibbons, creator of comic book masterpiece Watchmen - facial expressions will be animated as characters converse, affording the dialogue a little more dynamism and emotion.
You’ll be able to rejoin likeable hero George Stobbart in March of next year, when Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - The Director’s Cut hits both Wii and DS. Get it on your pre-order list immediately - it’s going to be brilliant. Remember: you heard it here first.
The new Wii de Asobu (Play It On Wii) range, hitting Japan over the next few weeks and reaching Europe and the US early next year, is definitely something to look forward to, particularly as these GameCube games aren’t just being ported to Wii with nothing changed, reports IGN.
Pikmin’s divisive thirty-days-until-death mechanic has been made less stressful with the addition of day-to-day records, which the game will store, allowing you to start from any day of your choosing - handy if you’re shy of ship parts and you’re into Olimar’s final days on the Pikmin planet.
Meanwhile, Mario Power Tennis stands to have a quite significant revamp from its GameCube iteration, with its controls being completely altered, making it entirely compatible with the Wii remote, with the player swinging their controller like a normal racquet, executing forehands, backhands, lobs and smashes with the sort of motions you’d use in the real game. Indeed, there are two separate control schemes - one of which will use the remote on its own (presumably with automated character movement) and one which uses the nunchuk (apparently so you can guide your chosen character around the court yourself).
Pikmin will be out in Japan on Christmas day while Mario Power Tennis joins the Wii de Asobu range on 15th January. Sorely tempted to import the pair of ‘em, I am.
The official site for Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii-enhanced version of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (from the new Wii de Asobu/Play It On Wii range) is up, and it shows exactly what we can expect from the revamped control scheme, as well as brief glimpses of new stages and mechanics.
You’ll use the nunchuk analogue stick to guide DK through the levels (which should make the underwater stages a little easier) and the A button on the remote is used to jump. Where before you clapped for certain context-sensitive actions, a simple shake of the remote is used, while pounding the controllers alternately up and down will see DK whack the various enemies he meets with his mighty fists.
The levels shown in the videos on the site look slightly busier than before, while one or two clearly have different layouts to the GameCube version. There’s more environmental interaction too - with DK pounding the floor to raise banana-releasing plants from the earth, and opening up cracks in the ice to slide down.ÂÂ
It’s out in Japan in a couple of days, though it’s already available to import from Play-Asia if you’re interested.
Awesome. If ever you’ve wondered what one of Nintendo’s best loved handhelds would look like mid-explosion then the folks at Gamepaused.net have your answer, in the form of this superb t-shirt.
It’s the first in a new line of clothing from the site, and it’s crafted from high-quality 100% cotton, printed in Panton Black and 021 Orange (it says here).
In the words of Gamepaused.net:
‘If you could measure the affect of a console on the future of games the GameBoy would probably be the most influential by a long way - the iconic handheld was the birthplace of many of our favourite games and their characters. We wondered what would happen if you exploded the GameBoy to find out what wonders were inside this magical console. We found out on the Exploded GameBoy T-Shirt.’
The internet is never going to let cold, hard facts get in the way of a good furore, so a Kotaku report (discussed on Casualgaming.biz) that Nintendo of Europe issued a press release politely asking “publications” not to use the old red logo, but the ‘new’, grey one is naturally causing some tears and tantrums before bedtime.
Of course, anyone who’s purchased a copy of the Official Nintendo Magazine in the last couple of years (or, indeed, any Nintendo-published game, though it’s marginally less obvious there) will be aware that the logo’s been grey for ages. It’s just that with this email it’s now sort of official, and it represents Nintendo making further steps towards the Dark Side in some people’s eyes.
While grey isn’t the most inspiring of colours, Nintendo has increasingly wished to position itself away from its previous ‘kiddie’ image towards something a little cooler and more sophisticated, so the abandonment of red makes sense, really. Of course, certain internet-goers see it as further evidence that Nintendo is neglecting its fanbase, who apparently adored the original colour so much that this move is akin to erasing the golden memories of their childhood. Boo frickin’ hoo.
Yep, that’s a decent (if low picture quality) trailer above, but if you click this here link, prepare to be dazzled.
For some reason, the forthcoming Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes has passed me by, but after watching the linked footage from Capcom’s official site, it’s immediately become my most-wanted game this December (when it’s released in Japan). It features a wealth of Street Fighter characters as well as others from Capcom’s illustrious history, and they’ll be battling against opponents from Tatsunoko Production, a famous Japanese animation studio responsible for Neon Genesis Evangelion and, er, Samurai Pizza Cats, among others.
Given that Tatsunoko isn’t particularly well-known outside Japan, that 2D beat-em-ups are pretty niche in the west, and that we’re not really that lucky, the game is almost certain to remain a Japanese-only release. A massive shame for the majority, but almost certainly a must-have for those fortunate enough to own consoles from that particular region.
It’s out two weeks before Christmas, and I’ll be reporting back on whether its simplified three-button moveset can provide enough variety in combat. From the vids, I’d suggest that seems to be the case - and as a faster, better looking tag-team take on SFII, it’s one of the smoothest visual experiences yet seen on Wii.
Wow. Americans have clearly done something right - or Nintendo is overcompensating for the lack of Disaster: Day of Crisis - because it’s got a cracking week of WiiWare and Virtual Console goodies. Besides Art Style: CUBELLO (mentioned in the post below this one), the much-hyped World of Goo is on there, as is classic SNES adventure Secret of Mana.
The latter’s one of the most eagerly-awaited retro games on VC, and given Square-Enix’s predilection for re-releasing enhanced versions of its old games, it’s a bit of a surprise to see it at all. Meanwhile World of Goo is almost certainly the highest-profile WiiWare release since the service launched - it’s 1500 points and a whopping 321 blocks, but early word is absolutely stellar. I’ll be giving it a go tomorrow, so expect some more impressions then. SoM will just have to wait until silly season is over, I’m afraid.
In amongst the melee of new game info yesterday, I only briefly referenced one of Nintendo’s most interesting announcements - that it will be bringing a host of GameCube classics to Wii at budget prices. While initially it seemed that the games would be direct ports, evidence so far from screenshots and videos suggests that the first two releases in the range - Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and Pikmin, which hit Japan on 11th and 25th December this year respectively - will both feature Wii-enhanced controls. Though “enhanced” is pushing it in the first instance, even if - now I’ve thought about it - the remote and nunchuk shaking is a just-about-acceptable compromise. Certainly it should work better than the similar bongo-free controls in DK Jet Race/Barrel Blast.
A translation of this Famitsu page suggests that the two Metroid Prime games, Pikmin 2 and Mario Tennis are on the way, while other sources also suggest that much-overlooked cult classic Chibi-Robo! is due a Wii-appraisal.
Slightly later than initially planned, the adventures of the detective dog and his mildly psychotic rabbit friend will be reaching Wii owners across the US from October 7th and Europeans a couple of weeks later, arriving on the 24th.
There’s no price info for the PAL release as yet, though expect it to be cheaper than your average release, as the American version will cost a mere $29.99 - fairly bargainous for the six-episode set.
I played the first few episodes on PC - if you’ve played either Strong Bad game the mechanics will be familiar, but the humour is a little less ‘out there’, and so it should be more accessible to most. The question of whether these games will spark a point-and-click revival remains to be seen - let’s hope decent sales lead to a spate of old-school adventure games on the console, whose remote is the perfect mouse replacement - for this genre at least.
Sneaking in there ahead of Capcom’s Mega Man 9, Konami’s Gradius Rebirth is the first uber-retro to hit WiiWare, looking for all the world like a SNES game.
It’s essentially identical in concept to the original Gradius - a rock hard side-scroller with waves of enemies to zap and a progressive power-up system that resets to nothing when you die, lumbering you with a painfully slow ship with no firepower, and making a hard game even harder.
Of course, the answer is simple: don’t die! But that’s easier said than done here, with some fiendish (and occasionally downright unfair) design that will have you breaking out the swears faster than Peter Kenyon on transfer deadline day. I’ve been playing for the past hour and only just made it to Stage 3.
With plenty of options to tweak the game’s difficulty (I dread to think what Very Hard is like if this is considered Normal) and a score attack mode, not to mention the ability to save replays of your best attempts - or most heinous failures - Gradius Rebirth certainly offers plenty of content for your 1000 points. Whether you’ll actually enjoy it depends on your patience/hardcore gaming skills.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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