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Zelda: Twilight Princess Sees Wii Control Revamping
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
After initially worrying about how physical players would have to get while enjoying The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendo has finally decided that sword-swinging motions will be incorporated into the gameplay. At E3, the B trigger button on the Wiimote was originally used for the sword, with the bow&arrow and other weapons being mapped to the D-pad. But as IGN reports:
At E3, players used the B button to swing Link’s sword, with Nintendo explaining at the time that players would likely get tired having to actually swing the controller. “Upon actually playing it, it’s more interesting this way,” said Miyamoto to Nintendo Dream about the new control scheme.
The newly-freed-up B button will now serve as the bow&arrow controls. IGN points out that this makes the use of the bow&arrow much less cumbersome, as gamers don’t have to change their grip to reach the Wiimote’s D-pad. My guess is there’s another reason for this redesign, which Nintendo hasn’t explicitly stated yet. In the E3 version of the control scheme, players were able to perform Link’s spin-attack by simply wiggling the nunchuk attachment, a setup that many players noted would make the game far too easy as one could simply repeat the spin attack quickly over and over again. If Nintendo starts moving all of the sword control to the Wiimote, though, the actions of performing complicated motions like those needed for the spin attack could help to raise the difficulty.
It should be interesting to see how much of an upper-body workout Twilight Princess eventually requires. Maybe we won’t even need that Nintendo diet software after a bout with Zelda.
Read More 
| IGN Wii
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George Harrison Chat Transcript Online
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Attendees of Nintendo’s virtual summer camp, Camp Hyrule, were able to chat with George Harrison, Nintendo’s Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications. GoNintendo has posted a full transcript of the online chat. One eager gamer tried to pry pricing and release date information from Harrison, but of course, he refused to answer.
Other interesting points from Harrison include the revelation that the excitement generated at E3 caused third party publishers to start more new Wii projects for 2007. In addition, it was revealed that the Wii version of Twilight Princess would not be able to utilize the Gamecube controller; those looking for a “pure” version of the game will need to buy the Gamecube version of the game. Harrison also discusses Nintendo’s marketing efforts around the Wii, and the unfortunate fact that Game Boy Advance owners will see declining releases into 2007.
IGN Snaps Photos of Black Wii at THQ Event, Then Takes Them Down?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Driving, Nintendo, THQ,
Earlier this morning IGN Wii posted a ton of photos from a super-secret THQ event showing off their Wii games (including Cars, SpongeBob Squarepants, Avatar, and Barnyard. And up until about 9:30 this morning, there were a ton of photos showing off some new Wii secrets including the Wii Dev Kit, and a black Wii controller. However, it appears that all of the interesting photos from the event have been taken down from IGN now! If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you can still see a few people playing with the black Wiimote, but clicking on the links will just take you to boring photos of the refreshments offered.
Joystiq is still hosting a bunch of the photos, but if Nintendo is behind the IGN photo disappearances, you can bet they won’t last long there either. Perhaps the existence of the black Wii was one of the secrets Nintendo planned to divulge next month?
Read More | IGN Wii via Joystiq
USA Today was recently able to grab Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime for a short interview about the upcoming Wii console. While specific launch details aren’t discussed, there is some information about how Nintendo will seek to differentiate itself from its competitors this holiday season. Fils-Aime again strongly stresses the innovative gameplay mechanics that the Wii controller will try to offer for this generation. For online play, Nintendo will be pursuing the same model of free Internet play that the Nintendo DS offers. This implies that Nintendo will still be using friend codes as a method of controlling the online experience. Fils-Aime also stressed that Nintendo is really striving to be a strong competitor in this generation. On Microsoft’s comments that consumers could purchase a Wii and an Xbox 360 for the price of a Playstation 3, Reggie’s response was that Nintendo would “rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, vs. buying any of my competitor’s products.” With their entry into the console wars, Nintendo is strongly targeting market share growth through an expansion into untapped markets. Fils-Aime believes that the Nintendo DS approach has led to their success in the handheld market, and that this approach will help Nintendo grow into the future.
Read More | USA Today
Display Your Inner Geek, Win a DS and New Super Mario Bros.
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS,
For all 5 of you out there that are huge Mario fans but don’t already have New Super Mario Bros, Nintendo is taking pity on you. By submitting a photo or video that shows your love for Mario and proclivity for public embarassment, you can win not one, but TWO DS Lites and a pair of NSMB cartridges to go with them.
You’ve only got 11 days to submit (the contest ends on August 25th), so start rummaging through the closet for your old photos and/or convincing your hot girlfriend to pose with your original Gameboy now.
Read More | Nintendo Contest @ Buzznet
Gamers tired of all the meat-and-potatoes fare being consistently served up by the industry at large, now have a feel-good, vegetarian alternative—LarryBoy and the Bad Apple for Game Boy Advance. Based upon the popular children’s characters, the VeggieTales, this game allows you to slip on the cape of a crime-fighting, superhero cucumber. To succeed, you must save the citizens of Bumblyburg from a thoroughly rotten fruit, one “Bad Apple.” To aid you in your quest you’ll have numerous superhero gadgets at your disposal, including the all-important sidekick, namely Archibald Asparagus, who acts as your character’s butler. For the health-conscious gamer, this is obviously all about eating a well-balanced diet.
Read More | Pocketgamer.co.uk
Ubisoft’s Megaton Announcement: Seven Games at Launch for Wii
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Corporate News, Driving, First Person Shooters, Nintendo, Simulation, Ubisoft, Wii,
Let’s just get straight to the point: Ubisoft today announced that they have been developing seven Wii games which will be available at launch for the console. The titles are:
- Red Steel (previously announced)
- Rayman: Raving Rabbids (previously announced)
- Far Cry
- Blazing Angels
- Open Season
- Monster 4x4: World Circuit
- GT Pro Series
A huge surprise (outside of the fact that Ubisoft somehow found a way to keep 5 launch titles for the Wii secret until now) is the addition of Far Cry, a FPS which garnered a lot of praise for its stunning graphics and would seem to run counter to Nintendo’s philosophy of de-emphasising graphical power. It should be a real test of what exactly the Wii can do, given that Far Cry is fairly taxing for even high-end PCs and the Xbox.
In one last piece of news, Ubisoft also announced that they will be releasing “an accessory in GT Pro Series that will make this game a must have”. Hmmm…. Wii steering wheel anyone?
Read More | IGN.com
The history of video games is littered with consoles that have failed to gain acceptance in the marketplace. Nintendo has generally had a strong track record, and looks to be regaining mind share with the Nintendo DS and the Wii. However, there is one console that sits as kind of a black mark on the game manufacturer’s past, the Virtual Boy. The Virtual Boy promised true 3D with its binocular-shaped view screen and red-against-black graphics. Gamers did get 3D, but also got headaches and sore necks from leaning into the viewer. The system was created by Gunpei Yokoi, famed inventor of the Game Boy; it is rumored that the abject failure of the system caused the man to become ostracized from Nintendo. Retro Gaming’s Racketboy give the Virtual Boy a retrospective, and outlines what were some of the top titles for the system. There does seem to be a number of interesting titles on the system; consoles appear to be selling fairly cheaply on eBay, so gamers don’t have to make a huge investment to get a feel for the Virtual Boy in action.
Read More | Racketboy
Japan Goes Crazy for the Nintendo DS
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
As picked up by all the major news sites, the Nintendo DS is now officially the fastest selling game console ever sold in Japan. In about 20 months, Nintendo sold 10 million units of their handheld wonder. To get a grasp on a number like that, take the following over-simplified mathematical explanation—since launch, the DS has averaged a sustained rate of one console sold every 6 seconds in Japan for the past year and a half. Even more impressively, the DS has seen a recent upswing in sales (thanks to the release of the DS Lite), selling 2.34 million units in the past two months, for an average of about 1 DS sold every 2 seconds.
It should also be noted that, unlike some of their competitors, Nintendo has based these numbers on consoles sold, not consoles shipped, meaning that all 10 million of these units really are sitting in the hands of Japanese consumers. Now, with about 8% of Japan’s population owning a DS, it should be interesting to see how long Nintendo can sustain this astounding sales rate.
See the press release linked below for more amazing figures on world-wide sales, straight from the source.
Read More | Nintendo Press Brief
Rumor: Nintendo Coaxing Independent Studios with Free Wii Dev Kits
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
When Nintendo announced their Virtual Console service for the Wii, they dangled the possibility of not only downloadable retro/classic games but also new games developed by independent studios with smaller budgets. Well, if this latest rumor proves true, then Nintendo may be aggressively pursuing this idea. According to gaming site Kotaku,
Just got word of an interesting (and totally unconfirmed) rumor from one of our insiders. It seems that Nintendo is giving Wii development kits to smaller studios. A developer in a big coastal American city apparently received a mysterious package from Nintendo. Office staff, programmers, and even the president weren’t aware what was inside. The box was opened, and viola, Wii dev kit. This could be a ploy on Nintendo’s part to get as many companies working on Wii games as possible.
Now, one would have to guess that Nintendo didn’t send the development kit unannounced—giving a kit to a studio without asking them to sign some sort of non-disclosure agreement would mean that this studio could in effect legally post all of the technical details about the Wii. However, if the studio had already been in talks with Nintendo and received the dev kit free of charge, then this would be great news for potential indie developers on a tight budget.
Since we’re speculating, here’s an even more interesting thought—why wouldn’t Nintendo take this to the next level?? Given the similarity between the Wii control system and a mouse / keyboard combination, it seems like the Wii could be a very easy console to program for, even for doing simple homebrew projects. If I got my wish, Nintendo would provide free, downloadable programming toolkits to anyone with a PC. Combine that with a system whereby Nintendo takes a percentage of profits out of homebrew projects sold through the Virtual Console and you’ve got the ultimate game development platform! (and one that could make Nintendo a pretty penny in the process) Of course, given Nintendo’s somewhat confrontational history with 3rd-party developers, the rumor from Kotaku and the above daydreaming may not come to pass anytime soon.
Read More | Kotaku.com
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