Nintendophiles 02.05.09

Posted by Theo Fraser on 02.05.2009

This week’s Nintendophiles covers the big story of EA confirming Dead Space for the Wii! Plus, n-Space seem confident about Winter’s future, and Square Enix unveil the first official trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers. Check it out inside!





Welcome, one and all, to another edition of Nintendophiles! As I mentioned last week, I've been away for the past 4 days doing some filming. We encountered some crazy snow, which was pretty awesome in terms of filming and meant we got to have snowball fights in between takes. Say what you will, I have the mental capacity of a 7 year old, yadda yadda...but really, are you ever too old to enjoy the snow? Anyway, I'm back in civilization now with full internet access etc, hence why this is a day later than my usual allotted time. It'll be business as usual next week...I guess you Rob Van Dam fans could call this Thursday edition a "one shot deal." Ha, I crack myself up sometimes...

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Dead Space: Wii bound
Credit: Edge Online

I've been very tempted to purchase the critically acclaimed Dead Space on PC for quite some time now, with only a lack of funds holding me back. The title's petrifying atmosphere instantly sucked in gamers on Xbox 360, PC and PS3, making more than a few Nintendo gamers a little jealous. Fortunately for them, EA have stepped up to the plate, promising to bring the game (or a version thereof) to the Wii.





EA CEO John Riccitiello made the announcement as part of a recent conference call, saying:

Riccitiello: A good example of this [core properties that have legs] is Dead Space. We're bringing a Wii title to market this year, and it absolutely has the quality and fear factor that you got on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and PC last year.


What form the Wii iteration will take is unknown at present. It could simply be a straight port with a significant downgrade in terms of visuals and physics, but I would have thought it more likely to be a spin-off of some sort, created from the ground-up. As long as EA don't tack on any unnecessary motion control features or mini-games, it's hard to see how they can mess this one up, and for once I have complete faith in them after their recent proposal to concentrate on boosting their Wii offerings, increasing marketing efforts and delivering ‘core gamer-oriented' titles. Taking a page out of SEGA's book, EA evidently realise that THIS is where the gap in the market is with regard to the Wii's catalogue of games.

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Petition for Winter showing signs of success?
Credit: GoNintendo

Last week I talked about a cancelled Wii title called Winter, developed by Geist developer n-Space. In response to the 15,170 and counting total signatures laid down on an online petition to get the game up and running again, n-Space president Dan O'Leary spoke out about the internet gaming community's support:


O' Leary: Winter is a survival/action game concept developed by n-Space around two years ago and wasn't able to pick up a publisher back then. Recent efforts have been positive - a petition has picked up a lot of gamer interest (over 14,000 at time of writing), causing publishers to take another look.

The interest in and support of Winter has been amazing to witness. The whole thing has meant a lot to the team. The internet is so full of haters that it's really refreshing to see all the positive response and the petition is quite amazing in itself.

We have had some new and revived interest from publishers for the title, but it's not something we've aggressively pursued just yet. n-Space is currently in the midst of closing three titles - 7 SKUs plus localizations - so we're pretty swamped right now. We'll start some more aggressive follow-up in the near future. I suspect we will have some interesting conversations.


I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear of the renewed interest from publishers. 15,000 signatures aren't exactly going to pay the bills, but it's nothing to scoff at either, so I'm sure more than a few publishers sat up and took notice once the signatures started flying in. O'Leary sounds very positive about the whole thing, and it would seem that once the current SKUs are out the door, n-Space's attention could turn back to this exciting survival horror project. I'm confident this isn't the last we've heard of Winter...

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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers – First Footage

With all things silent on the FFCC:CB front for well over a year, it came as somewhat of a surprise when Square Enix announced that they would feature the official debut trailer of the title on the disc for FFCC: Echoes of Time on the Wii, which released in Japan last week. As promised, the Crystal Bearers ‘world premiere' was included, and has been reproduced for your viewing pleasure below!





The first thing that struck me was how polished it all looked. As we all know, it's been in development for ages, but with numerous other FF titles being in development at the same time, it was assumed that Crystal Bearers production had been halted or at least pulled back on. Judging by this footage, that would appear not to be the case. With this in mind, one has to believe that a 2009 launch isn't entirely out of the question. Fingers crossed, Fantasy fans!

There's an awful lot to love about the trailer. I mentioned how polished it looks, but I'd be remiss if I didn't specifically highlight the graphical sheen. In just the first 10 seconds we see some terrific particle effects, and Square Enix's usual flair for spectacular magical explosions of color is in abundance. Music, always a strong point in Square Enix titles, is beautifully orchestral and fits perfectly. The real question mark at this point is over the combat system. Many have drawn links with the system employed in FFXII, and it's easy to see the similarities. However, whilst we see quite a lot of gameplay snippets in the trailer, the system isn't explicitly detailed, so we're still relatively in the dark. Pointer controls are clearly enabled (evident by the shaky nature of the cursor), and it doesn't take a genius to work out that the big bubble of energy is most likely thrown with a similar remote-gesture. Hopefully the company will start issuing official press releases in the coming weeks to clear up any issues such as this.

Final Fantasy aficionados will also no doubt be ecstatic to see this latest title retaining the series' trademark cinematic atmosphere, and the trailer appears to throw the game into a very plot-driven light. FF has its fair share of detractors, but I'm sure most will agree that this is tremendous news after previous FFCC titles have failed to deliver in this department. Yes, it's not a mainline FF title, but I'm pleased Square Enix are continuing to expand the Crystal Chronicles franchise, giving the Wii a much-needed exclusive as opposed to a watered-down port of a title appearing on rival consoles.

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The 411 Games Crew

A 411-exclusive, it's an Interview with Jack Thompson, conducted by Greg Bruno!

Joe Roche brings you The Full Circle: 360 News Report.

The Select and Start News Report is presented by Vincent Chiucchi.

Derek Robbins has another instalment of B3yond the Report for you.

Drew Robbins debuts The Three Player Co-Op, with guests Rod Oracheski and Ramon Aranda.

What If? is Greg Bruno's other brain-child this week.

Early February game releases are covered by Tommy Coloma in The Release List.

Living LIVE is presented by Trace Aber.



A surprisingly quiet-ish week on the news front aside from the Dead Space announcement, but hopefully things will pick up again by next Wednesday. I'll see you then! :)

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