Archive for the ‘Wii’ Category:
Red Steel 2/Dead Space info coming soon - NGamer
The latest issue of unofficial UK Nintendo publication NGamer can be found in stores from today, though it’s next month’s edition which looks more interesting.
At the back of the mag, the next month page advertises an ‘Easter reviews special’, covering the likes of GTA: Chinatown Wars, Broken Sword and Little King’s Story.
But more excitingly, the mag also promises the first look at Red Steel 2, sequel to Ubisoft’s FPS/sword-fighter which was something of a commercial success during the Wii’s launch window. Better still is the news that the game will feature “Motion Plus swordsmanship” says the mag.
Chop Till You Flop - Is Dead Rising Wii a duffer?
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, the Wii-make of the critically-lauded 360 zombie actioner is released today in the US, yet bizarrely - at the time of writing, anyway - there’s not a single review up on aggregator site Metacritic. That’s never a good sign, and indeed, the suggestion that it might not be the world’s greatest port is borne out by the two magazine reviews which currently exist, but haven’t been added to Metacritic just yet.
UK magazines Official Nintendo Magazine and NGamer both carry reviews of Chop Till You Drop, the former awarding it a fairly average 68%, with the latter plumping for a measly 55%. Both suggest it’s an infuriating experience thanks to the addition of zombie parrots and poodles, but that the lack of enemies also disappoints - neither were problems in the 360 game whose mall was absolutely full of the undead. But as NGamer summarises, “a zombie-infested mall doesn’t make much sense without zombies to infest it. Poodles and parrots are among the most irritating substitutes imaginable.” Ouch.
This week’s UK charts - Fit off the top, Overkill holds firm
No surprise that the return of one of gaming’s best-known franchises toppled Wii Fit from the all-formats chart, with the magisterial Street Fighter IV dragon-punching its way to the summit. Nintendo’s phenomenally successful non-game only dropped to second spot, despite fierce competition from the nerd-tastic Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II on PC. Mario Kart, Wii Play and Layton all suffered small drops, while Mystery Case Files: Millionheir plummeted from third spot to number 26 - presumably stock shortages costing it dear.
There was better news for House of the Dead: Overkill, which hung onto the number 15 position in the all-formats chart, rising one place to ninth in the single-format rundown - presumably strong word of mouth helped its second week sales - let’s hope it hangs in there for a while longer to prove that hardcore content can sell on Wii.
MadWorld hits Europe on March 20th
Slicing, smashing, bludgeoning and bashing its way to store shelves across Europe next month is Platinum Games’ ultraviolent destroy-em-up MadWorld - publisher Sega announcing today that the stylish scrapper will launch on March 20th.
It’s another valiant attempt by the Japanese giant to bring a bit of Mature action for us Wii owners starved of blood, guts, gore and chainsaws. It might be a slightly tougher sell than House of the Dead Overkill, though - shooting zombies with a gun controller is more immediately appealing to some than monochromatic, faintly satirical beat-em-ups. Hopefully Sega’s marketing department will have something worked out and can get behind it in a big way in the weeks leading up to its release.
Smash Bros. creator joins forces with Nintendo to create new dev team Project Sora
A nice spot from GoNintendo here - Nintendo has some new info on its official Japanese site which says that Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai is involved in a brand new project. Naturally, this being Nintendo, there are few concrete details, but it seems to be a new second-party company working under Nintendo named Project Sora, whose rather clinical looking official site can be found here.
GoNintendo also has a quote from Satoru Iwata claiming that the game is “an experience that’s different from anything [you’ve played] up until now.”
Harvest Moon gets a speed boost with new fast-paced puzzler
As anyone who’s ever played a Harvest Moon game will know, having a surfeit of vegetables is rarely an issue - certainly to begin with. Yet that’s precisely the problem in Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, a puzzle-based twist on the green-fingered series we all know and love. (And sometimes hate.)
It’s set in the world of the most recent DS release - the excellent Island of Happiness - and most of the game’s key characters are present, as they attempt to gather matching vegetables from the ever-growing crop (sounds like GM gone mad to me). It looks to be something of a tile-matcher with a few tweaks to the standard three-in-a-row formula - which Natsume’s press release unfortunately fails to detail.
Wii Sports Resort here by May?
It’s looking increasingly likely that Wii Sports Resort will arrive in either April or May, if new information on a Wii version of Virtua Tennis 2009 is anything to go by.
VG247.com is reporting that the MotionPlus logo has been seen on the Sega game’s boxart, and given that the third-party release is arriving in May, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Nintendo’s flagship release must be hitting shelves a little earlier.
Of course, it could just be rumour and speculation, but Sega isn’t denying that the game features MotionPlus (despite the non-mention in the official press release) which tells its own story. And it’s a game that would undoubtedly benefit from Nintendo’s new peripheral.
Phoenix Wright faces the music
If you’re a fan of the music in Capcom’s superb Ace Attorney series, you’ll no doubt be disappointed to hear that you missed the chance to hear it performed live by a full orchestra at the Gyakuten Saiban Tokubetsu Hout Orchestra Concert 2008 in April of last year. Unless you were there, in which case well done you.
But if you’re prepared to accept second best, then you can now get your hands on a DVD of the concert from Play-Asia. Fully realising that watching an orchestra play on its own isn’t the most visually-exciting thing ever, the organisers projected images from the games on massive screens throughout, and these are all viewable on the DVD.
There’s also a booklet which accompanies the DVD as a digest of the concert, with commentaries from the producers involved. And it all comes in a fairly posh box with the Japanese Gyakuten Saiban logo adorning the front.
Review: House of the Dead Overkill
By most ordinary critical standards, House of the Dead Overkill isn’t a five-star game. However, it’s a long time since I played anything which put such a grin on my face throughout, and from gloriously profane beginning to genuinely jaw-flooring climax (seriously, no matter what you’re expecting, you have never seen anything like it) this thrillingly dumb rail shooter is just pure, unreconstructed fun.
It’s clearly been made with a lot of love and respect - both for its host console and for the grindhouse movies it parodies. The presentation is startlingly good - the title screen text appears from a blur as if a projectionist has just adjusted the picture, while a terrific film grain effect and deliberate continuity errors in the game’s cutscenes pay appropriate tribute to the genre. The Seventies-themed soundtrack, featuring delightful songs about decomposing mutant girlfriends and the like, is outstanding.
And then there’s the swearing. Make no mistake - Overkill has a big, red 18-certificate sticker on the box for a reason, and it’s not just the splatters of gore when you dismember or decapitate the attacking mutants. But it’s the utterings of protagonists Agent G and particularly Isaac Washington that stand out, the dialogue littered with variations on the f-word. It’s all done in such an over-the-top way that it’s hard to be genuinely offended, no matter how sick the story gets - and with sojourns into incest, necrophilia and a climax which brings a whole new meaning to ‘meeting your maker’ you’d better believe that it’s one seriously twisted tale.
House of the Dead: Overkill HandCannon - the best Wii lightgun yet?
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.)