Nintendophiles 08.06.08
Posted by Theo Fraser on 08.06.2008
This week’s Nintendophiles explores how Nintendo have fulfilled their original ideas for the Wii, no more downloadable content for a popular WiiWare title, Rock Revolution’s 40+ track listing is leaked, a MotionPlus demonstration gives us an idea of what we can expect from Nintendo’s newest piece of Wii technology, capped off with a look at the next Western-bound title from SUDA 51.
Today, I finally succumbed and went out and bought Guitar Hero III for the Wii on a total whim, after I saw it in the shops for the budgeted price of £45. I'm a sucker for impulse-buying, and at that price tag I simply couldn't resist. Considering a week or two ago it was £65+, that's a pretty big cut. Being the cocky son-of-a-gun that I am, I immediately started an Expert career mode and promptly failed miserably, causing me to run back with my tail between my legs and settle for Medium. Despite my glaring suckiness, it's a total blast to play and I can't believe it's taken me this long to jump on board. Sign me up for the Guitar Hero IV pre-orders!
Nintendo out of ideas for Wii titles
Credit: CVG, Wall Street Journal
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed this week that Nintendo has officially run out of original ideas for the Wii since its first proposal. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Iwata said:
'Wii Music completes what Miyamoto wrote in his proposal when he came up with the idea for the Wii. He was saying that he needs to think up more ideas now.'
The microphone attachment to be bundled with Animal Crossing: City Folk also looks set to be the last of Nintendo's first-party accessories, for the time being at least.
'Most of the ideas for accessories that we had initially come up with are out now. We might think up some more, and we might make them if we do, but we don't have any plans to release a whole lot more.'
Was that really such a smart move on Iwata's part to reveal that kind of information? It doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, mainly because it throws up a ton of questions. Where do the games that Miyamoto mentioned at E3 fit into this, such as Pikmin 3? What about the new Mario and Zelda games? Not to mention the brand new MotionPlus technology, which should have sparked a frenzy of creativity. Nobody's saying Nintendo's completely out of ideas, but it's mildly worrying to think that Nintendo designed the MotionPlus add-on with only Wii Sports Resort in mind. Still, if Miyamoto is going back to the drawing board for a reasonable amount of time, there's always the chance of a brand new franchise emerging...
My Life As A King DLC comes to an end?
Credit: Kotaku, 1UP
The widely-praised WiiWare title from Square Enix, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King received its first batch of extra downloadable content back in May, with new buildings, costumes and character classes available to those willing to spend between 100 and 800 Wii points on the privilege. Now, just three months later, it appears as if Square Enix has finished adding bonuses to the game, with the game's director Kenichiro Yuji saying:
'All DLC has been available since May 30. That's everything for now, and we have no plans for future DLC at the moment.'
That strikes me as a little odd, if I'm honest. My Life As A King has been one of the most successful WiiWare titles since the service's launch, so you'd think Square Enix would want to milk it for a little longer to try and make an easy bit of extra cash. The only real explanation I can come up with for this is that a full-blown sequel is underway, and the company want to save their ideas for that. As a refreshing change from the usual Final Fantasy offerings, I'd be all for a successor that takes the ideas employed in the first title and expands upon them to give us a really robust outing. Here's to hoping!
Whetting your appetite for MotionPlus
Credit: AILive
Unless you're a bit of a tech geek like me, this may not interest you, but AILive have formulated a new bit of middleware to help developers get to grips with the new MotionPlus technology. Right now you're probably thinking "Theo, oh wise one, why might this concern me? I care not for what these developer minions have to deal with!" Or something along those lines. Well, if you watch the video below and skip to around the 1:50 mark, you'll see a pretty neat demonstration of what's possible with MotionPlus, including a presentation of how a lightsaber title would work. LucasArts, take note!
Mouth-watering. Clearly, that tiny little plug-in for the Wii remote has some fancy technology inside it, and now it's time for developers, much like AILive have done here, to explore the possibilities and see what they can do with it themselves.
Rock Revolution track listing revealed?
Credit: Kotaku
Rock Revolution is the latest in the long line of recent Guitar Hero clones, this time with Konami at the helm. That in itself should help to ease your worries a little, although the control scheme appears to just use the Wii remote and nunchuk for "air-guitar" and "air drums", which was last seen in the pitiful Battle of the Bands. Still, if the recent track listing that has cropped up on numerous sources is anything to go by, we'll be rocking out to some cracking tunes come the title's projected late 2008 launch.
Konami are avoiding licensing issues by using covers of every song; no original master recordings here, folks. Whilst some may be disappointed to find that out, it does mean that they are able to offer an incredibly varied selection of songs, and it's hard to see how anyone can be overly disappointed. Check it out...
All The Small Things - Blink-182
Chop Suey! - System Of A Down
Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot (Slade)
Dance, Dance - Fall Out Boy
Detroit Rock City - Kiss
Dr. Feelgood - Motley Crue
Highway Star - Deep Purple
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due - Megadeth
Pull Me Under - Dream Theater
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
Spoonman - Soundgarden
Stone Cold Crazy - Queen
The Joker And The Thief - Wolfmother
Spirit Of Radio - Rush
We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
White Room - Cream
Youth Gone Wild - Skid Row
Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects
Last Resort - Papa Roach
Round And Round - Ratt
Still Of The Night - Whitesnake
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
No One Like You - Scorpions
Diary Of Jane - Breaking Benjamin
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
Falling Away From Me - Korn
The End Of Heartache - Killswitch Engage
Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden
Walk - Pantera
Heading Out To The Highway - Judas Priest
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Pain - Three Days Grace
All My Life - Foo Fighters
Am I Evil? - Diamond Head / Metallica
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Our Truth - Lacuna Coil
Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
Kiss Me Deadly - Lita Ford
Magic Man - Heart
Paralyzer - Finger Eleven
Given Up - Linkin Park
Although it's not to my own personal taste, I do like the inclusion of some of the more ‘pop-ish' artists like Fall Out Boy and Avril Lavigne, as it may broaden the game's appeal to include those who've steered away from the hardcore rock ‘n' roll of the Guitar Hero titles. It all boils down to personal opinion, of course, but if you're the type who's enjoyed the offerings in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, then there's plenty for you to love here. It's whether or not the gameplay holds up that we really need to focus on, and right now details are sketchy, so we'll need to sit tight and wait.
SUDA 51's Flower, Sun & Rain English trailer
SUDA 51 is back, this time bringing a mystery adventure game to the DS in the form of Flower, Sun & Rain, a former PS2 title now being ported to Nintendo's handheld and brought to the West. Rising Star Games, who brought SUDA 51's other recent title No More Heroes to European shores, are bringing it to PAL territories this October, and this is the first fully English trailer for the title. Even in English, I still have very little idea of what's actually going on, but the "Groundhog Day" concept is intriguing, and the trailer seems very keen to show off many of the different ways the game utilises the touch screen, which is a good sign as it implies it is integral to the adventure and not just tacked on for the sake of it. So take a look at the trailer, and hopefully you can make more sense of it than I did!
Things were a little slow this week in the world of Nintendo, now that all the hype and controversy surrounding E3 has died down a bit. However, don't let that fool you; the Leipzig Games Developers' Conference is coming up very shortly, and although Nintendo themselves won't be represented, you can bet your bottom dollar that some top third-party titles will be on show. Sadness is rumored to be officially unveiled at that time, but I'm starting to think I'll sprout an extra testicle before that day comes.
It's not really fair to call a music game attempt by konami a GH clone when they in fact started this whole crazy guitar based music game trend.
And don't say it was only a japanese thing. I've played an American Unit of Guitar Freaks.
Sigh.
Posted By: EyePawd (Guest) on August 06, 2008 at 12:37 AM
Konami created it, Harmonix* mastered it.
* Note that I didn't say Activison.
Posted By: WadeMcG (Guest) on August 06, 2008 at 03:19 AM
What I meant was that Guitar Hero was the franchise that popularised the genre, and now all these spin-offs/clones/whatever you want to call them are hoping to cash in on GH's success.
Also, this may show my complete naivety here, but wasn't Guitar Freaks only available in arcades?
Posted By: Theo Fraser (Registered) on August 06, 2008 at 06:12 AM
That song list is pretty pathetic; many of those tracks have already been featured in other games! Not to mention no original tracks...ugh.
Recent games have spoiled us with masters, there's no going back.
Posted By: Ken B. (Guest) on August 06, 2008 at 08:05 AM
Just gonna throw in my opinion here Theo, get Rock Band 2 instead of GHIV. Once you play it you'll understand just how much better Harmonix does rhythm games.
Rock Revolution has an interesting set list...like a mix of Rock Band and EBA. Probably won't buy it over RB2 though.
Posted By: Drew Robbins (Guest) on August 06, 2008 at 09:09 AM
My only comment is about the whole "no new ideas for Wii." I really dont believe this. Nintendo NEVER give away anything when it comes to secrets and such. Look at E3 as an example. Reggie said that a Mario, Zelda, Pikmin and possibly a Starfox and F-Zero game are in development. They say something like this and then spring something unexpected on you. You only have to look at their whole history to see that kind of pattern.
Posted By: Guest#6262 (Guest) on August 06, 2008 at 04:40 PM
The way I understand it is that Nintendo has reached all their goals for the Wii from when the design was put forward.
Expect to see a dance related game for the balance board, and a new pikmin and zelda game as well. Just because they have reached all their earlier goals desn't mean they haven't set new ones.
Posted By: Matt P (Guest) on August 06, 2008 at 10:11 PM
