Nintendophiles 09.03.08

Posted by Theo Fraser on 09.03.2008

Disaster: Day of Crisis finally sees a release date, but will the wait be worth it? That’s the big issue in Nintendophiles this week, but don’t miss other news on a MotionPlus-enhanced Wii lightsaber game, more Street Fighter IV talk, Secret of Mana hitting the Virtual Console, the latest look at Tenchu IV and more!




Howdy folks! Welcome to another instalment of Nintendophiles, crammed full of more Nintendo goodness than Super Smash Bros. Brawl's trophy collection. Almost. Anyway, I'll forgo the usual opening spiel as we've got quite a lot to cover today, and my fingers are twitching with anticipation. For those wondering, however, I'm fully recovered from my ‘wrestling debacle' last week. No more dizziness, back spasms or neck twinges, thankfully. Although it still burns when I pee. That might be something else though...damn those hookers.



Disaster hits European shores this October
Credit: Cubed3

Rumors hit the net a couple of weeks back that Disaster: Day of Crisis was finally ready for release, and would debut in PAL territories this October. Turns out these rumors were correct, as Nintendo recently offered official confirmation of an October 24th release date in Europe.

Since its inception, it had been one of my most anticipated Wii titles (the concept sounded pretty cool, and the parallels with Jack Bauer are pretty obvious, which appealed to me as I'm a huge 24 fan.) But that was all based on the presumption that...you know...we might actually see some footage from the game during its development? Allow us to get a good idea of whether or not it's actually any good? To this day, we've only seen ONE proper trailer, and even that was largely cinematics. Add to that the ever-recurring delays and it hasn't been the smoothest of development periods. So the question is, "Should we be excited?" I actually haven't got a whole lot to say on the matter; I know just as much about the game as anyone else, which leaves us all in the dark, doesn't it? It's probably best to hand over to Nintendo's press release to fill you in...


Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, flood, hurricane... and the small matter of an ex-military terrorist group with their hands on some nuclear weapons - and all in just 24 hours?! Welcome to Disaster: Day of Crisis, the action adventure game on Wii from Nintendo and Monolith Soft., sweeping across Europe on 24th October 2008 guaranteed to bring out the survival skills in everyone.





Stepping into the shoes of Raymond Bryce, a traumatised but highly decorated retired US marine and former operative of the International Rescue Team, prepare for a day like no other. Called back into action to deal with the threat of SURGE, an ex-military terrorist unit led by former elite forces specialist Colonel Hayes, Ray must overcome personal tragedy and numerous devastating natural disasters to prevent the threat of nuclear warfare.

Wracked with guilt over the loss of his best friend in the line of duty, Ray finds out that SURGE has kidnapped a leading seismologist and his assistant to predict the arrival of an earthquake, which will act as a diversion for their plan to seize the nuclear weapons. However, upon finding out that the assistant is his lost friend's sister, Lisa, the mission turns personal and offers Ray the chance of redemption he's been craving for.

Disaster: Day of Crisis is a dedicated single-player all-out action adventure blending a variety of exciting gameplay activities around an intense and absorbing 23-stage storyline. In addition to vanquishing the SURGE threat, players must come face-to-face with a series of daunting natural disasters and take full advantage of Ray's survival expertise to rescue stranded civilians left helpless.





As the story unfolds, the player's skills are thoroughly tested as Ray finds himself in increasingly hazardous situations. Gameplay varies from exploring devastated city streets for survivors to thrilling shooting sequences, as well as driving, swimming and intense quick time events all intuitively controlled with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Players are awarded Survival Points and Battle Points which are vital for improving Ray's abilities and ensuring he has the skills needed to overcome the game's hard-as-nails bosses, survive the effects of each disaster and ultimately, rescue Lisa.

During the majority of stages, players will find themselves searching for civilians in need of rescuing, which will help improve Ray's skills. With each civilian saved, Survival Points are awarded that can then be freely distributed amongst five critical skills such as Strength for unarmed combat and lifting objects, Firearms for handling weapons and Mental for Ray's ability to concentrate his mind.

Along the way, Ray will face adversity from SURGE, at which points the game automatically switches into combat mode. Similar to an on-rails shooter, the action becomes fast and furious where players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to dispatch enemies with a variety of lethal weaponry including handguns, automatics and shotguns. Once every hostile is taken down Battle Points are yielded that can be used to purchase new weapons or tune current equipment to perfection.





Even after the main storyline is completed, there are numerous incentives for players to keep coming back for more. With additional modes such as a shooting range and a staminas campaign, and a wealth of hidden content covering unlockable weapons and costumes to the extra hard 'Real Disaster Mode' difficulty, Disaster: Day of Crisis will keep gamers entertained for many months to come.

So are you ready to step into the shoes of an action hero and emerge victorious after one hell of a day? If the answer is yes, then Disaster: Day of Crisis is crying out to be rescued from your nearest retailer across Europe on 24th October 2008.


OK, well Nintendo thankfully saw sense and accompanied the press release with over 70 brand new screenshots, some of which you've just seen mixed in with the above text. Some screens are impressive, others are...grey. Yeah, there's a whole lotta grey going on in this game! I think this may be one of those cases where it's hard to tell how graphically impressive it is without actually seeing it in motion. The first screen, with Ray running away from a tsunami, looks reasonably cool in screenshot format, but if the water particles are dynamic and you've got buildings collapsing around you etc, it'll look a damn sight more impressive in motion.

After reading through all that a couple of times and letting it all sink in, my main concern is that the game will ultimately end up like the True Crime series, where they tried to do too much, leaving us with no really strong gameplay element. Mediocre gunplay, poor stealth levels, average driving sections...nothing was particularly outstanding as the development team had evidently been spread too thin. Is this how Disaster: Day of Crisis will end up?

The need for quite such a massive press release is also worthy of pointing out. I mean, just look at the size of it! The typical Mario press release goes along the lines of "Oh noes! Peach has been kidnapped, get yo ass in gear Mario! In stores now." It's kinda telling that Nintendo had to detail the entire game in their press release...because hardly ANYONE knows about it! Nintendo PR and marketing have come under criticism in the past, but I thought we'd gotten beyond all that after the stellar Wii campaigns so far. Aside from just shoddy PR work, there's really only one viable explanation for this; Nintendo are embarrassed by the product. I'd honestly hate for that to be the case, I really would, as Disaster had such potential...but if Nintendo aren't willing to give it their metaphorical ‘Seal of Quality', there's probably a very good reason.




ANOTHER Star Wars Lightsaber title, this time with MotionPlus!
Credit: EGM

LucasArts executives were reportedly pretty ticked off at E3 when Nintendo announced the MotionPlus Wii remote enhancement. Nintendo had kept the device heavily under wraps, choosing to refrain from revealing it to other developers, therefore losing out on the possibility of already having MotionPlus-enabled third-party titles in development upon the device's public unveiling.

This didn't seem to bother the Big N, as they're likely very happy with Wii Sports Resort getting all the MotionPlus-related attention, but other developers weren't so keen on being kept in the dark. LucasArts were one such team, as they had been heavily touting the gesture based combat system of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and had just announced a lightsaber-combat specific title in Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels. Gamers had high hopes for these originally, but once it was made clear that 1:1 gesture/recognition wouldn't be possible, the titles were quickly dismissed in favor of the more technically impressive Force Unleashed on 360 and PS3. Had Nintendo keyed the development team in on the plans for MotionPlus, LucasArts could have avoided these issues and worked in the 1:1 combat system everyone had hoped for.




Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels


Alas, it was not to be, but LucasArts are refusing to give up on what they expect to be the definitive lightsaber game. According to Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, LucasArts are already prepping a brand new Wii lightsaber-oriented title, which will go into full production as soon as Lightsaber Duels and The Force Unleashed go out the door, with a projected release date of ‘Early-to-mid 2009'.

I have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I applaud LucasArts' perseverance in trying to give us the lightsaber game we've been wanting pretty much ever since the late 70s. A game where you *really* get to hold a lightsaber in your hands, your exact movement being replicated on screen. That's great, and as a Star Wars fan, I'm totally amped for when that day finally comes. What bothers me is that this will mark the third Wii lightsaber title in the space of about 6 months, not to mention the DS iterations of The Clone Wars and The Force Unleashed. The result of which will be a complete over-saturation of the market. Gamers will be burnt out, and that means sales will be down. I can just imagine the feedback from the gaming industry now - "It seems people weren't all that bothered about a true lightsaber game after all." It won't necessarily be true, but that is the way some will perceive it. It's a concern I shall monitor over the coming months. How do you guys feel? No big deal? Or has LucasArts finally squeezed the Star Wars juices dry? As always, feel free to leave your comments below, they're always welcome.




Street Fighter IV Wii "wouldn't be a kid's version"
Credit: Vooks.net

Yoshinori Ono, Capcom representative and Lead Producer of Street Fighter IV, has been very receptive to talk of a Wii version of the title in recent months, and this past week was probed once again on the possibility. Originally, Ono stated that they would give it some serious consideration if there was enough demand for it on Nintendo's console. Judging by his latest response, it seems as if the demand was plentiful!


Ono: We've had a lot of requests for Street Fighter IV on Wii. Since it's a 2D fighting game, it's doable, but whether we'd try we don't know. We'd have to see. If we can sell it, we might consider it.





Tsk, such a tease that Ono guy is! Anyway, regardless of whether or not Capcom really were going begin development of a Wii version, Nintendo fans instantly got hot under the collar over the assumption that we wouldn't get the ‘real' Street Fighter IV. It's a pessimistic view to take, but reasonably fair considering the number of lacklustre ports we've seen over the past 2 years. Despite this (and despite the fact that a Wii version in theory doesn't exist), Ono defended the possibility of a Wii version, saying,


Ono: It would be a straight-forward Street Fighter IV—it wouldn't be a kid's version.

Considering the tremendous job Capcom are doing with the Dead Rising port, I'm inclined to believe them.




Secret of Mana confirmed for Virtual Console
Credit: Cubed3

Old school RPG fans rejoice! Square Enix are really spoiling us this year! Final Fantasy IV remade in glorious 3D, Chrono Trigger brought back to life on the DS, and now Secret of Mana has been confirmed as an upcoming Virtual Console release in Japan.





Mana is another SNES title that is often heralded as one of the best RPGs of all time (and in some circles, one of the best games period of all time), so this should please both old and new fans alike. With a great plot, some terrific SNES graphics (using the good ol' Mode 7 chip), a deep real-time combat system and a magnificent soundtrack, you simply can't ask for a lot more. If you've yet to experience its delights, you'll definitely want to set aside those 800 Wii points for the download.

It's great to see Square Enix support the VC with one of their ‘big hitters', especially as they easily could have opted for another DS port instead and made an extra bit of cash. Not wanting to be outdone by Square Enix, Nintendo have something nice in store for Japanese Wii owners, as Mario Golf on the N64 is also scheduled to be released in the coming weeks. I'm not a particularly big golf fan, so I'm not overly giddy at the prospect of playing this one on my Wii, but what IS getting my juices going is the fact that this marks the first of the Mario Sports titles to hit the Virtual Console, thus we can likely expect Mario Tennis to follow. And I don't care what anyone else says (screw you Virtua Tennis), but Mario Tennis is quite simply the greatest tennis game ever. Let the Dreamcast fanboy-fuelled flaming begin!

These two titles hit Japanese VCs this month, so look out for a US lineup in the very near future.




Renegade Kid tease new Wii title
Credit: IGN

You'd be forgiven for not being all that familiar with developer Renegade Kid, a team founded in early 2007, with just the one string to their bow so far; the well-received Dementium: The Ward on Nintendo DS. However, now is the time to acquaint yourselves with them, as they are currently working on two very hot prospects for Nintendo platforms. The first is an FPS horror title for the DS, Moon, which I've featured before in Nintendophiles and is looking awesome, using a modified version of the impressive 3D engine used for Dementium. I expect I'll be taking another look at Moon in the not too distant future as we approach its November 28th North American release, but for the time being, feel free to check out the game's official site here. Today, however, we're focusing on Renegade Kid's debut on Wii. A title that so far goes unnamed with next to nothing known about it, save for this teaser artwork:





Ooooooh, very moody and atmospheric, I like it. So let's dissect what we can gather from it. According to reports, the game is based upon "one of the biggest horror icons of all time". OK, count me intrigued, but we can go one step further here. A couple of internet geeks awesome people have drawn comparisons between the bat and moon motifs used in the artwork and a German expressionist film from 1921 entitled, Nosferatu. What is significant about this film? It is widely considered to be based on Dracula. Who I think you may agree is "one of the biggest horror icons of all time." Coincidence? I think not...

Doing a little further digging myself, the Renegade Kid website lists a couple of job opportunities, and whilst I didn't uncover any listings for "Dracula experts" or what have you, I did see some clues as to what kind of game it may be. The company are on the lookout for various artists, including Character, Environment, and Cinema artists. This suggests something of an action/adventure nature, with the need for cinematics personnel inferring a plot-heavy, story-driven type of gameplay. It would be foolish to start hyping the project at this absurdly early stage, but I'll certainly be waiting with baited breath for Renegade Kid's official announcement.




Tenchu Phwoar!

As an avid proponent of more mature titles coming to the Wii, I've been following the development of Tecmo's Tenchu IV very closely over the past few months. At the beginning of the week, Tecmo showed off the all-new trailer for the game, which sees a Japanese release next month. In short, it's very impressive. The graphics are looking incredibly slick, and have clearly been given an extra lick of paint since we last saw the title in motion. In terms of gameplay, the trailer shows off a nice bunch of stealth moves as well, so hopefully the combat system shouldn't get too repetitive. I'd love for a title such as this to succeed, so here's hoping it plays as well as it looks.







The 411 Games Crew

Mark Salmela guest-authors Coming Attractions this week, with a look at titles such as Mercenaries 2, Facebreaker and much more!

Mark Salmela has certainly been a busy bee, as he is also this week's guest writer for The 10th Hour, running down the list of Top 10 Sonic Games.

Derek Robbins and Rod Oracheski tackle the week's big gaming news in the latest 411 Games Fact or Fiction, presented by Tommy Coloma.

John Curry and The Checkpoint gives an insight into just how terrible a Guitar Hero movie would be.

Chris Evans presents The PC Centric Extravaganza, with a look at Fallout 3. Man, I can't wait for that one!


As a quick little heads up, I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen with Nintendophiles over the next 2 weeks. Next week I celebrate my 21st birthday, and whilst that wouldn't normally be cause for missing a column, my friends have sprung upon me a surprise little getaway at the beginning of next week, so I won't be around for all your Nintendo needs. The following week I move down to my new house for my second year of university, and as far as I know, internet hasn't been sorted out yet. If I can get to a reliable internet cafe, then no problem, you'll see me in 2 weeks, but if not, I'll see if I can arrange a little interim guest writer. I'll apologise in advance for all the inconsistency, but it'll just be for the next 2 weeks and then we'll be back to normal. And who knows, with the rate Mark Salmela is taking over 411 Games, you might get a special edition of B3yond the Nintendophiles! :)

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