Nintendophiles 12.17.08
Posted by Theo Fraser on 12.17.2008
Major news came this week when it was revealed that Square Enix are bringing Dragon Quest X exclusively to the Wii! Aside from that top story, don’t miss out on news of top-tier Konami and EA IPs coming to the Wii, Gamecube titles updated as part of the Play On Wii lineup, an all-new Tales Of entry is revealed, as well as the latest MadWorld trailer, all inside this week’s Nintendophiles!
Why do I do it to myself? I just sat through the Mamma Mia DVD, and after five minutes I was ready to cry at how cringe worthy it is, but no, I pursued it all the way to the end. And it really didn't get any better. I haven't done very well with films at all this week; I saw The Day The Earth Stood Still the day it came out, and it really should have been called The Day Nothing Very Interesting Happened. Still, I'm pretty sure someone has bought me The Dark Knight for Christmas, so all is well.
Wii makes major acquisition: Dragon Quest X in development!
Credit: CVG, Cubed3
^For artwork purposes only. This is from Dragon Quest Swords, the spin-off Wii title.
In what came as a massive shocker last week, it was revealed in a surprise Square Enix conference that the multi-million selling Dragon Quest series would find a home exclusively on the Wii for its upcoming tenth outing. Series creator Yuji Horii took the stage, with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in attendance, to officially announce Dragon Quest X for the Nintendo Wii.
Some sites claim a short reel of footage was shown, but there has been no sign of this on the internet as of yet, so that's probably a mistranslation. No details were mentioned, and a release date wasn't even hinted at, but even so, this was enough to send RPG fans into a frenzy. Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2 was the first title to be released in the US under the Dragon Quest banner (with previous entries known as Dragon Warrior), and helped to popularise the series in the West. DQIX is scheduled for release on the DS in Japan this March, marking this tenth entry as a welcome return to the home console format. Considering the fact that VIII scored an average of 89 out of 100 on Metacritic, this is clearly a very big deal indeed. DQ titles always shift millions of copies in Japan alone, so this will likely ensure a surge of Wii activity around the game's eventual launch. Either Nintendo pulled some rather large strings to secure the Dragon Quest franchise, or Square Enix were intent on proving that they mean serious business when it comes to the Wii, having disappointed fans so far with a lack of a ‘proper' Final Fantasy outing.
I'm dreaming of a Red Christmas
Platinum Games have released a special Holiday 2008 trailer for my most anticipated game of 2009, MadWorld, the ultra-violent action title that offers ‘light-hearted brutality' and the ability to link these acts of destructive behaviour together for a massive array of combos and killings, ensuring fresh gameplay with each playthrough.
SEGA have partially censored the trailer (covering up the explicit kills), which has had the desired effect on me as I want to buy the game even more now, just so I can see the gory deaths in detail. MadWorld seriously gets better each and every time we see it. March cannot get here quick enough.
Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis updated for Play On Wii releases
Credit: Famitsu
Originally announced back at E3, it was assumed that Nintendo would simply release popular and/or rarer Gamecube titles at a budget price, with fancy Wii packaging slapped on the front. However, it seems that we all grossly underestimated Nintendo's plans for the Play On Wii franchise (which will apparently go under the horrible name of New Play Control! in European territories), as each title has been updated in various ways to make use of the Wii's capabilities.
Pikmin hasn't seen any drastic changes, but the Wii remote's pointer will be used to initiate a point-n-click style of gameplay, which should be a little more intuitive than moving a cursor with an analogue stick, as was the case on the Gamecube. Also, the save function has been made more user-friendly, allowing you to restart play on the day of your choice, made possible due to the fact that the game will store a day-to-day record of your play. Neat.
Mario Power Tennis, on the other hand, will seem like a completely fresh game. Gamecube controller support has been dropped (boo!) but the title will be fully Wii remote-enabled (double hurray!). Your character's tennis racket will be controlled solely by remote swings, with forehands and backhands determined with an appropriate gesture as if swinging a real tennis racket. Spin shots can be carried out by tilting the angle of the Wii-mote as you swing, and Special Shots are delivered by holding various buttons at the same time as swinging the remote.
Players will be able to just use a Wii remote, but a remote + nunchuk combo allows you to move your character around the court with the nunchuk's analogue stick, suggesting that players who solely use the Wii remote will have to put up with AI-assisted movement, a la Tennis in Wii Sports. That slight issue aside, this sounds fantastic. Appearing somewhat later in the Gamecube's life cycle, it shouldn't look too dated at all, and these Wii remote controls will really make it feel like an entirely new game. Hitting Japanese stores on January 15th, we're looking at a Spring release in the US, and at a budget price, I expect this one to fly off the shelves.
In a way, I hope Mario Power Tennis isn't made to be too good, as otherwise Nintendo will have no incentive to bring out a proper Wii sequel!
Konami and EA readying top-tier IPs for Wii
Credit: IGN
As we rapidly approach the start of a new year, gamers inevitably look to the future and what developers have in store for us. According to a report from IGN, 2009 has plenty of surprises for us.
IGN: Wii owners can look forward to some exciting announcements from third-parties like Electronic Arts, Konami and Ubisoft. We know of at least two major EA and Konami IPs that Wii fans are going to flip over when they become official...
This is going to add more petrol to the FLAME WARZ that is the whole "next Metal Gear" saga, but when you think of Konami IPs and Wii fans ‘flipping over' in excitement, Solid Snake is obviously going to come to mind. A full-on 3D Castlevania adventure is a distinct possibility as well, and is worth bearing in mind, although I would have thought they'd wait to see how well Castlevania: Judgement performs on the system first.
In terms of Ubisoft, we already know about Red Steel 2, so I wouldn't have thought IGN were referring to that. Perhaps a port of Beyond Good and Evil 2 is on the cards? A new entry into the Driver franchise, as has been rumored?
EA is a tricky one, especially as the branch of EA hasn't been specified. Most of the EA Sports titles are already available on the Wii, so we can rule that out. And in order to be worthy of the ‘flip over' comment, it's got to be something big, most likely an action title. Dead Space? Crysis? Battlefield? Command and Conquer? The Sims? It's anyone's guess at this point. I'll be keeping a sharp lookout for any developments on this story, so make sure you stick with 411 Games in early '09 to be amongst the first to find out.
New Tales Of mainline title headed to Wii; first footage below
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World hit North American stores just last month, but Namco Bandai are looking to be quick to follow up, as a brand new mainline/ "mothership" entry into the series is already in development. Despite an official trailer being released (shown below), a title has not been revealed, so we don't know exactly where it fits in the Tales Of universe, but rumors suggest it could very well be Tales of Destiny 3, which would be a great acquisition for Nintendo.
I scoured the trailer reasonably thoroughly to see if any of the locations shown were recognizable, but I couldn't see anything I knew of personally. What we can glean from the trailer is that it will retain the series' beautiful orchestral score, vibrant locations and distinct visuals, most likely using an upgraded engine from Dawn of a New World. Character design looks familiar in that sense, but the draw distance seems to have been vastly improved. The Namco Bandai team have evidently been beavering away in recent months, making the necessary improvements to the engine. Fans should definitely be thrilled with the results. I'd hope the town areas will be more heavily populated in the final version, but it's not fair to pass judgement on that area at this early stage in development.
The 411 Games Crew
Greg Bruno triumphantly returns to 411 Games with a new edition of What If?, asking what if Princess Peach had a sex change? What if Duke Nukem became a Born Again Christian? What if Nintendo hadn't dumped Sony from making the CD-based console? Don't miss the answers to all these vital questions!
John De Large is welcomed to the 411 Games team, and he brings with him a Once in a Lifetime Games News Report, featuring his pick of the week's five biggest news items.
Derek Robbins covers the unveiling of Gears of War 3 in this week's B3yond the Report, as well as CNN declaring the PS3 to be dead, the decline in sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and more.
Mark Salmela debuts Games Only a Mother Could Love. I love the concept, Mark! Kicking things off, it's the arcade version of Dragon's Lair. Ouch.
Rod Oracheski looks at the games industry in light of the recent economic downturn in the latest edition of Achievement Unlocked.
That's all from me for this week! I'll see you next week for a Christmas Eve-themed edition of Nintendophiles! Don't worry, it won't be Yoshi wearing reindeer antlers...
