Nintendophiles 10.14.09: Third Year Anniversary Edition
Posted by Theo Fraser on 10.14.2009
Come celebrate Nintendophiles’ three-year existence, with news on Professor Layton’s future, Nintendo being prepared for the Holiday season, a new Wii Pokemon announcement, a look at Tales of Graces and Red Steel 2, and Ocarina of Time makes the list in the latest Great Nintendo Gaming Moments feature. Join the festivities inside!
Hello and welcome to this week's special edition of Nintendophiles, where we celebrate the column's third anniversary here at 411 Games. If I'd have guessed on 11th October 2006 that Nintendophiles would become an incredible internet sensation in three years time...well, I would have been very wrong. It's interesting to look back on my debut column actually. I featured Beyond Good and Evil, which is still awesome and still doesn't get the recognition it deserves, and mourned the lack of a sequel. 3 years later a sequel has been rumored, announced and then seemingly slipped into the ether again, so I guess we're still no closer to a proper conclusion for Jade and Pey'j. In the inaugural ‘Viable Candidates for the Virtual Console', I selected Super Mario RPG as my top pick, and Nintendo made me a very happy camper by releasing it on the VC last September. I also claimed that the DS would be a natural home for the RTS, with the stylus partially recreating keyboard and mouse control, which is perhaps an over exaggeration on my part, and simply didn't happen, although hybrid RTS-RPG titles such as FFXII: Revenant Wings later found success. But really, a true RTS just doesn't exist on DS. Anno 1701 is OK but nothing to write home about. I smell a gap in the market!
Anyway, enough reminiscing for now. Let's go to Tidbit News of the Week before we get to the bulk of this week's proceedings.
~ Silent Hill: Shattered Memories further delayed? Some disappointing news to begin this week; disappointing in that the Silent Hill Wii-make was scheduled to be one of this year's highlights for the console, yet now it looks like the title will slip into 2010. Konami have confirmed that the title will ship in Europe in February 2010, with a North American date still undisclosed. Originally planned as a Halloween release, the date slipped to November before being given a loose December release window by retailers such as Gamestop and Gamefly. Konami have yet to confirm the date however. No word on why the delay occurred but I assume it must have been necessary if Konami were willing to forfeit the Christmas period, which would have been incredibly lucrative for them considering the delay of fellow core-oriented title Red Steel 2.
~ SEGA plan to target core gamers on Wii. Originally thought to be a commercial flop, MadWorld ended up selling well enough for SEGA to make plans to target the core gaming market on Wii. The company is apparently "prepared to have a go and try to be innovative" and are "prepared to invest in high quality, new IPs." Awesome, roll on the announcements!
~ Modern Warfare 2 on Wii in the future? MW2 sees a release shortly on other platforms, but us Wii owners can look forward to the two-year old original. I'm still not sure whether to get excited or not; the original was obviously brilliant, but will it translate well to the Wii? Regardless, Treyarch are being cagey about whether or not MW2 will come to the Wii as well at some point. Executive Producer on the Wiimake (titled Modern Warfare: Reflex), Daniel Suarez, said, "Treyarch is working on this [MW:R] right now. Infinity Ward is working on Modern Warfare 2 right now. I think it's fair to say that we want to give the Wii consumer new experiences and we'll continue to do that." Treyarch want to give me new experiences? I guess I've never tried bondage...
~ New Wii remote colors coming to Japan. To tie in with the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Nintendo are releasing two new colors of Wii remote in Japan; Blue and Pink. Um...cool?
Professor Layton and Pandora's Box launched in the US this past August to be met with critical and financial success, proving that this is a franchise with legs (after many feared the sequel wouldn't fare as well as the original due to it being a bit of a ‘one-trick pony'). A third installment will reach Western territories late next year to conclude the trilogy (it's already been out in Japan for quite some time), and with this in mind many wondered what Level 5 have in store for Layton fans. With such worldwide success on the DS, could a Wii title possibly be on the cards?
CEO of Level 5, Akihiro Hino, spoke to Official Nintendo Magazine about the Professor Layton franchise's future:
Akihiro Hino:This trilogy comes to a conclusion with Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel, but we will be releasing the first title of the new trilogy, Professor Layton and the Flute of Malevolent Destiny in Japan. The new trilogy will also be based around solving puzzles, but will also include greatly improved bonus modes so I think that players will be able to enjoy the games for even longer. We currently have no plans for a Wii release.
A Wii release would have been interesting, purely because motion control would have opened up a whole new world of possibility for mind-bending puzzles, and I'd love to see if the series' success would translate to a console release. However, it's great that Level 5 have plans to keep the franchise running on DS for the next few years with three new instalments. Let's just hope they have something good planned for the next trilogy to give it a new lease of life, as three more titles presenting exactly the same gameplay would quickly become stale.
For the first time since the Wii's launch, it appears that there won't be any hardware shortages in the run up to this year's Holiday season. This will be the first Christmas with the reduced $199 price tag on the console, which in theory could spark another mad rush, but the company are apparently more than adequately prepared.
Reggie Fils-Aime: [From] our standpoint, we're prepared. We have a tremendous amount of product in inventory. We've been flowing product into retail. We do not expect to have shortages on our products. Now, if we do experience them, I'd love to have that problem, but we're not seeing that happening this year.
Sales were clearly dwindling, hence the need for the price cut, and this could also factor into why Nintendo don't expect to sell out; the demand just simply isn't there anymore. Despite these concerns, the company look to be finishing 2009 with a considerable profit, so I doubt they're very worried. And with a new Mario title launching in a couple of weeks, it's bound to be a successful quarter for Iwata and co.
Japan gets Tales of Graces Wii boxset; New ToG trailer
Japanese gamers got very excited a few months ago when Monster Hunter 3 became the first software to be bundled with the Wii, and now a new package has been announced to tie in with the release of Tales of Graces on December 10th. For 27,800 yen (a saving of 1,500 yen) you'll receive a standard white Wii, a white Classic Controller Pro and a copy of Tales of Graces. Much like MH3, this is going to be a BIG release in Japan, possibly even bigger than New Super Mario Bros. Wii, so a software bundle is a fantastic idea on Namco Bandai's part. Shame there's no special Graces-themed controller, like the beautiful MH3 one, but that's a minor quibble.
While we're on the subject of Tales of Graces, a couple of lengthy new Japanese trailers were released this week, demonstrating sections of gameplay and battle as well as detailing a couple of storyline arcs. It's naturally in Japanese, so we're not going to know exactly what's going on, but I wanted to show the storyline trailer in particular as it shows off a vast number of locations and gives a great idea of the title's atmosphere. It's most certainly a more dynamic engine than the one found in Symphonia, which helps the characters come across as more expressive and allows the cutscene action to be far more flowing and genuinely gripping to watch.
Character models do look a little low-res, which is worrying as that was one of the main complaints of Dawn of a New World. However, environments look very pretty indeed, and there appears to be a strong draw distance, with added haze in the background to give the impression of greater distance (and it also just looks quite nice!). I can't wait to see an English version, as the story has me greatly intrigued and I'd love to know just what the fuck is going on. Take a look for yourself:
New Wii Pokemon announced! But uhh...it's still not what we wanted.
Credit: IGN
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the Pokemon Team had an unannounced Wii Pokemon title in development, and were hoping to officially reveal it sometime soon. That occasion came this past week at a Nintendo of Japan retailer briefing when the company debuted Poke Park Wii: Pikachu's Big Adventure. Yes, we were all very foolish to get our hopes up for the console RPG we've been craving since 1998.
From the sounds of things, this will be another title focused on mini-games, where you'll progress through various attractions with different Pokemon by your side. Different events require different Pokemon; for example, the ‘Sky Race' event will naturally go hand in hand with Flying types, and ‘Marine Slider' asks for Water-based Pokemon. Unknown right now is how ‘you' the player is involved; do you become Pikachu, as the name suggests, or do you take on the role of a trainer, commanding various Pokemon to do your bidding? If so, where exactly does Pikachu fit into things? Many questions have been left unanswered, but we should be seeing a proper press release in the not too distant future. With a focus on quick-fire mini-games, it almost sounds like the ‘Kids Club' party events from the old Pokemon Stadium games on N64. They were actually a ton of fun in multiplayer so this could while away a fair few lunchbreaks if it turns out anywhere near half decent.
That's all we really know at this point, but I felt it was important to share the news in case anyone was still praying for a full-blown Wii RPG. Alas, it was not to be, my friends! Pikachu's Big Adventure sees a Japanese release on December 5th. There's no word on a Western release but as it's one of the least obscure Poke games recently released over there, I'd expect to see it at some point.
Red Steel 2: MotionPlus gameplay demo
This is what we've all been waiting to see; a proper demonstration of the MotionPlus integration in Red Steel 2. We've seen many fancy gameplay snippets which make the MotionPlus-enabled swordplay look pretty cool, but it gave us no idea how it actually functioned. Fortunately, Ubisoft have been so kind as to release a new video detailing as such. And while it doesn't answer every question we might have (is the guy ‘over-selling' the motions like in the original Wii commercials?), it shows us exactly how sensitive the kit is, and the swordplay genuinely appears to replicate on screen the player's exact motions. I feel a little safer getting very excited about this now...
Time to reel out the old features! Long time readers will know I used to alternate a couple of special features back when Nintendophiles was a standard opinion column rather than a full-blown news report, and the Anniversary edition is the perfect time for me to bring it back. First, let's go back and revisit the moments we've covered so far during the course of Nintendophiles' stint at 411 Games...
And now, ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves! For it is now time for me to introduce to you Great Nintendo Gaming Moments #7... Sheik is Zelda! (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [N64])
With Nintendo's history littered with so many incredible moments from the Zelda franchise, it's hard to pick one particular standout event. Ocarina of Time itself contains enough to fill a ‘Best of Nintendo' DVD (I would totally buy that, get to work on it Ninty!), such as the discovery of the Master Sword and subsequent transformation into Adult Link, the near destruction of Kakariko Village after it is set on fire by Bongo Bongo, and Link stabbing Ganon through the face in the title's epic finale, but there is one moment in the N64's most prolific game that truly shocks the player, providing a massive twist that literally no one saw coming. To refresh your memory (or *gasp* in case you've never seen the moment in question), check out the moment Sheik reveals ‘his' true identity.
What an awesome moment. And as I mentioned, you never saw it coming. Sheik was just this mysterious androgynous being with a masked face (although Princess Ruto of the Water Temple refers to Sheik as a man, but again that's only because she is unaware of Sheik's true identity). Despite only the eyes and a few curls of hair showing, it was never obvious that Sheik was ‘in disguise'; after all, in Zelda lore, Sheikahs are loyal protectors of the Hylian Royal Family, in theory making Sheik's identity irrelevant to the player. We also never see even a hint of her being female (she really must have the best tape ever invented to tape those boobies down), which, while obviously done on purpose, deceives the player, making the revelation that much more unexpected.
If one were to look deeply into things, the name Sheik is also pretty misleading, as real-life Sheikhs are rarely if ever female; the word ‘Sheikh' in Arabic means ‘Elder', and any RPG aficionado will tell you that a video game Elder is always male. Sexist, yes, but that's just the way it's been in the RPG world.
If we're to believe the Ocarina of Time manga, Zelda uses the Triforce of Wisdom to actually become male, but that isn't backed up in any of the video games. The Sheik trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee on Gamecube claims that Zelda uses her magical capabilities to physically change her appearance in terms of skin tone, clothing and hair length, but this idea is later tampered with as we begin to note a slight shift in Sheik's appearance in more recent years. Nintendo have definitely made strides to make her more ‘womanly', especially evident in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where she has her hair in a tight little ponytail at the back. Having said this, the Brawl model of Sheik is apparently based on an unused design for Twilight Princess, so maybe we shouldn't read too much into that.
Of course, the player isn't allowed much time to digest the shocking turn of events, as Ganondorf imprisons Zelda in a magical crystal and takes her to his tower, providing the impetus for the final battle. With your end goal in sight and objectives clear, Link sets off for the ultimate confrontation of good and evil, making this one of the more pivotal moments in the entire game, and certainly one of the all-time most memorable scenes in Nintendo's storied history.
Random Nintendo-related Video I Love
In the spirit of this being an anniversary column, and a place where we celebrate all things Nintendo, I thought I'd take the time to pimp out an awesome Nintendo-themed Youtube video. It's the Mario Kart Love Song! Sit back and enjoy.
Week Beginning 10/12/09
[VIRTUAL CONSOLE]
~ Final Fight 2 - 800 Wii Points
The Blurb: It's been several years since peace settled in Metro City. With Cody and Jessica on vacation and Guy resuming his training out of town, everything seems to be in order. But Haggar is feeling uneasy after learning that Mad Gear was not completely destroyed. Once again, the Mad Gear Gang has emerged, and this time they want revenge. They've kidnapped Guy's master, Genryusai, and Genryusai's daughter, Rena. Now Haggar must travel the globe in search of Genryusai and Rena. Hopefully, with the help of Maki and Carlos, the reign of the Mad Gear Gang will be destroyed.
[WIIWARE]
~ Gravitronix - 500 Wii Points
The Blurb: It's time to claim your rightful place as the champion of the Gravitronix arena, but get ready to deal with up to seven other players who are all shooting for the same title. Vanquish your opponents with four different projectiles and the powerful beams of your gravity platform. Intercept attacks and take careful aim at exposed vulnerabilities. Deflect incoming projectiles or capture and charge them with energy for devastating explosive attacks. Team up with a friend and battle through campaign mode, or recruit up to eight players on a single Wii system in versus mode for an all-out battle. Customize your matches with a variety of different options, such as flooding the arena with projectiles or making the game insanely fast. No matter how you like to play, grab your friends and have a blast.
[DSIWARE]
~ Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon - 500 DSi Points
The Blurb: Pinball takes on mythological proportions in this Nintendo DSiWare exclusive. Choose from two modes of play (Regular Game or Daily Game) and begin your journey to becoming a pinball champion. Conquer mythic quests, collect gifts from the 12 Olympians, and push your skills to the limit by facing Medusa, the Sirens and more. Your portable pinball table will give you a quick adrenaline rush as you watch the steel ball fly through ramps and carom off bumpers all over the playing field. Rack up combo points, open specific game modes and enlist the Oracle for some help. Will you accept Zeus's challenge?
Retronomicon by Lee Price takes a look back at the awesome Grim Fandango.
The 411 Games staff count down their Top 5 SNES games in this week's 411 Games Top 5.
Adam Larck's 10th Hour takes you through the Top 10 Open World Games.
Also, Lee Price will be starting an Ask 411 Games column in the near future, so email him those burning questions to be featured in the debut edition! Emails should be directed to ask411games@live.co.uk.
Thanks for reading this week's special Anniversary edition of Nintendophiles, I really appreciate the support my readers have given me over the last 3 years. I'd also like to say a big ‘thank you' to 411mania for letting me ramble aimlessly about a subject I love more than my own family, week in week out. And if anyone in my family read that, I'll probably be having a very lonely Christmas this year...
