Nintendophiles 05.05.07
Posted by Theo Fraser on 05.05.2007
The first ever Nintendophiles: Down Under brings you all the latest on a DS Kingdom Hearts game, the Virtual Console receiving an original game, an update from Nibris on Sadness, and the first official trailer for EA’s crazy dancing game, Boogie!
It's a history-making edition this week, folks, as this is the first ever Nintendophiles presented to you from the Land of Oz! Yes, after a gruelling 25-hour flight with poor in-flight entertainment, smelly people beside me, and an engine noise more obnoxious than Phil Harrison, I'm grumpy and jetlagged, but hurray, I'm in Australia! And man, it's hot! I'm currently in Brisbane, which is beautiful by the way, but there's been a drought here for a little while, so everything's extremely dry. Seen a few geckos and tropical parrots, no spiders or snakes just yet! Although I was woken up at about 4am by what sounded like an 8 year old being strangled, but in fact turned out to be some kind of monkey thing. A very noisy monkey thing. Freaky!
The DS gets its own Kingdom...possibly
Credit: IGN, CVG, Famitsu
Just a quick bit of news to get things started. Square Enix have just revealed, through representative Tetsuya Nomura, that the Kingdom Hearts series will see a portable iteration released in the near future.
Speaking to Famitsu magazine, Nomura said,
"I want to make this [new project] slightly different from the Kingdom Hearts' series, and change the system a little... The multi-developing makes me want to put it on something else... If we follow this idea, it would be hard to choose if to make the game for the PSP, DS or the cell phone. "
A DS version of Kingdom Hearts would certainly be "slightly different" and "change the system a little," so it would make sense. The Kingdom Hearts series is no stranger to Nintendo either, as KH: Chain of Memories found success on the GBA. Square Enix have been big fans of the DS so far, so I see no reason why they'd be against a DS Kingdom Hearts. Like Chain of Memories, the game won't be a full-blown sequel (i.e., it's not KH3) but more of a side story. Nomura stated that he wanted to "explain what Mickey did in the World of Darkness, and also how he got his keyblade." So...that's cool. Hopefully we'll get official confirmation of a platform reasonably soon.
Virtual Console to receive first original title
Credit: Cubed3
System 3, the publishers behind Wii titles Gottlieb Pinball Classics and Super Fruit Fall have just announced that a remake of the C64 title Impossibly Mission will be brought to the Virtual Console. This marks the first time the VC will receive an original title, rather than the catalogue of retro games it is well known for. A DS version of the game is in production, and will be released shortly after the remake.
Awesome news! I sincerely hope other developers are quick to follow suit, and we get a slew of new titles on the Virtual Console. That would make me a very happy bunny indeed!
Sadness makes me Happy
Credit: Cubed3
After months of hearing relatively nothing from developer Nibris, they've finally released a few new nuggets of information concerning their upcoming Wii survival-horror game, Sadness, including a new piece of artwork. Artwork, baby! Hells yeah!
Spooky. I like it! And you know what's better? When asked how close these concept shots reflect the in-game visuals, Nibris replied "Near. Very near." Oh you're such a tease!
But let's move away from concept art for a second and focus on actual facts. And for that, we need my trusty friend, Bullet Points.
Two playable characters, most likely the two we have seen in previous artwork depictions; the mother and her narcoleptic son.
There will be 18 species of monsters. Your chosen path in the game determines which ones you see, if any.
Friendly monsters will be around at various points, presumably to aid you in your quest.
The main character (the mother) is of Polish-Hungarian descent, and spent her childhood in England, where she had her education and started a family.
The train the crashes in the opening moments of the game had many other passengers. Their fate has yet to be revealed.
There will be no load times. Sah-weet!
The development team are aiming for a minimum of 20 hours in terms of game length. For comparison, Resident Evil 4 was typically around 25 hours long (unless you're a super human or you suck, in which case that would differ wildly). Definitely good news to see that we'll get a proper full-blown adventure, and not some half-hearted story that wraps up in a few hours.
Majority of the game will be spent as the young women. 5% of that time will be in Poland.
Voice acting is confirmed.
Gameplay will incorporate lots of fog effects, because nothing says scary like a bucket-load of fog.
Music will be provided by a proper orchestra. "One of the best," apparently. Sounds good to me!
I've said in previous Nintendophiles that I hate to start the hype-wagon, but man this could be good! It's an ambitious project, but then again, that's what the Wii is all about; breaking from the norm to provide something new and exciting. If Nibris manage to deliver a product half as good as it sounds like it could be, Sadness is going to be something quite special.
The Wii makes a Call for Heroes
Credit: IGN
Call for Heroes: Pompolic Wars, scheduled for release on the PC in June, is a third-person action-RPG, taking place in a Final Fantasy 9-esque fantasy/medieval world, where the evil Pompolic leads a demonic horde to invade and take over the world. Humanity is all but annihilated, which is where you come in, playing as one of two characters in your quest to banish the evil once and for all.
So what does this have to do with you, you ask? This isn't Microsoftophiles, you don't care about PC games, right? Well, just announced, the game is coming to the Wii! That's quite a scoop if you ask me!
Nothing has been confirmed in terms of what the Wii version will offer, although the Wii-mote will be used for spell-casting and weapon combat, which sounds like an awful lot of fun in my book! With 15 levels to work your way through as you gain experience and upgrade strength, armour and health, action fans can look forward to a great outing of good vs evil and frantic Wii-mote waving. The Wii release is pencilled in for Q4 2007, so expect more detailed info in the coming months.
W...T...F?
You have to see this. No, seriously, you HAVE to see this. This is the first official trailer for EA's upcoming dance ‘em up, Boogie.
That's all for this week. Next week might be my trip into the rainforest, so keep an eye on my Blog for various updates concerning my whereabouts and the status of next week's Nintendophiles. If I'm still in civilization, check back next Thursday for another edition of Nintendophiles: Down Under!
