A few years ago... well, more than that, but still... an upcoming GBA game called Project Exile was drawing unusually positive buzz. It was an RPG that looked like it was going to have one of those epic plots that 2D games have rarely attempted since the heyday of Phantasy Star and Shining Force. Even better, it was coming from totally unknown developers Studio Archcraft, so it had the allure of the heartfelt indy game. Sadly, Project Exile, like so many in-progress projects, ended up falling off the enthusiast press's radar.
Well, there's some hope for Project Exile now. It's back under the new title Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled for Nintendo DS, and publisher Graffiti Entertainment seems confident that the game can finally ship before Q2 2008 is out. The game has a new ,a href="http://www.graffitientertainment.com/downloads/BlackSigil/BlackSigilOfficialTrailer.wmv">trailer out that makes it look like an old school RPG gamer's delight, and in general, it's good to see smaller and more personal projects like this thriving.
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This is fantastic new for Wii owners with a taste for hardcore games. Renegade Kid is a small developer that works with the flamboyant publisher GameCock, and got a lot of attention with their first DS project, Dementium: The Ward. It was a badly flawed game from a control standpoint, but the sheer chutzpah and originality behind it makes it worth picking up. Their DS follow-up, Moon, is looking promising... and now it seems they're going to be bringing something hardcore to the Wii, too. Check out this help wanted announcement from their official site:
We are looking for programmers of all levels for the development of Renegade Kid's next original title for the Wii.
If you are looking for any of the following roles, please do not hesitate to send us your resume:
- LEAD PROGRAMMER
- SENIOR PROGRAMMER
- PROGRAMMER
- Prior development experience with consoles is required.
- Prior development experience with Wii or Gamecube is a plus, but NOT required.
Boogie is one of those games traditional gamers hate and "blue ocean" gamers seem to love. While I have a lot of sympathy for the "blue ocean" strategy and the people it reaches out to, I got completely bored with the gameplay inside of a ten-minute demo at last year's E3, so my opinion of the title is not especially high. Regardless, it moved roughly 300,000 copies and got more than its fair share of complimentary write-ups in mainstream news pieces about the Wii (and a 57% percent Metacritic average, to indicate how little the enthusiast press thought of it).
It seems that the sales were good enough to convince EA to fund a sequel to their karaoke/rhythm/general goofiness title. Although EB Games has since deleted the listing, their website briefly listed a title called Boogie Superstar set to ship for Wii in October 2008. Right now the only record that the listing was ever up is reports from eagle-eyed sites like WorthPlaying.com. Would this theoretical Boogie sequel actually manage to be fun to play? Personally, I'm doubtful, but I fully expect to see EA officially announce this one in the coming months.
Boogie
So technically this announcement is a few days old, but it doesn't seem to be widely reported and I can't quite believe this is actually happening. JoWood and Dreamcatcher, producers of... what the hell, a bunch of things I've never heard of and that crappy Agatha Christie Wii adventure game... well, yeah, those guys just announced a DS game called Driver's Ed Portable. You're thinking "What, like Brain Training for Driver's Ed?" And yes, you are correct.
This is not a game design that makes sense on any level, or should work at all. Yet, JoWood/Dreamcatcher is forthrightly stating that they'll offer a version with rules relevant to all 50 U.S. states, 13 Canadian provinces, and five different European countries. There's one segment meant to help you study for the written test, and then mini-games designed to develop reflexes. The whole thing is supposed to be available this Fall, but will it be useful? Will it be fun? Will anyone want to buy this thing? That remains to be seen.
Full press release info behind the cut.
Nintendo is an infamously tight-lipped company, developing and sometimes even launching products in total secrecy. When Nintendo reveals any of their secrets, it's often part of financial necessity, and this is especially true with the English translation of the Financial Q&A session that recently went up on the Investor Relations section of Nintendo.co.jp.
The questions are pretty far-ranging and hint at a lot of things, so I'll just start a rundown of the major points that seem reasonable to take from a close reading of the Report. Just click behind the cut to see the breakdown.
Sorry to flake out on you for a few days, folks, and it may happen again soon. Deadline season's getting thick. For now, though, I am back with a long-overdue and frankly heartbreaking look at Gamecock's Insecticide, a DS game that appeared to be one of the most exciting prospects going at last year's E3. As with a lot of games that look great on the show floor, though, something didn't quite come together with this one.
With a metacritic average sitting at 55%, the reviews suggest that quite a lot didn't quite come together. Most reviews cite the camera, but you'll see all kinds of complaints before we're through. Really, it's a shame, because Insecticide had a dynamite premise and a creative pedigree that didn't leave any reason to think the final product would've been anything but fun to play. Anyway, if you want to see the anatomy of how not to polish up a game for release, then jump under the cut.
Insecticide
If it was any developer with less cachet than Valve, I would dismiss it as non-news. Given that it is Valve, the genius developers who behind Team Fortress 2 and Portal, a little tidbit like this can become a big f'ing deal. The clever bastards at CVG popped this out of a much longer interview with Valve that, as far as I can tell, hasn't been published yet.
"There's a lot of people at Valve who are parents and would love to make a game for kids," Valve's Doug Lombardi told us recently.
"We all play the Wii a lot and we think that the proper way for Valve to approach the Wii would be to make something cool designed specifically for it." he added, when quizzed on the possibility of Valve venturing away from its usual FPS scene.
"I mean, I'm not making any announcements", he continued, "but there's a lot of desire internally to do something for kids, do something on the Wii."
The only real concern with Valve developing a console title is whether they could get it to ship before the system's lifespan was over. They good, but they slow.
I think it was impossible to own an NES, or have a friend with an NES, and not end up playing Tecmo Super Bowl. It was one of those rare sports games, like Bases Loaded or Double Dribble, that was often really fun even to people who weren't sports fans. If you're one of those nostalgics who feel like Tecmo Super Bowl was the apex of video game football, then I come bearing good news.
Tecmo issues a press release on May 1st announcing the publication of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for the Nintendo DS. The press release's tone hints that the gameplay is likely to stick to the top-down, 2D, slightly abstract style that made Tecmo Super Bowl so much fun, along with a host of customization and network play options designed to exploit the strengths of the Nintendo DS.
You can check out the full press release behind the cut, and starting working on your team colors and logos.
After years of waiting, the impossible has happened. Fans demanded it. They petitioned it. They wrote songs and fanfiction about how much they loved it. Until now, Nintendo ignored them. Today, the object of their adoration has finally been announced for Western release on the Wii's Virtual Console.
That's right. Cho Aniki has been announced for future VC release in the UK.
Now sure, it wasn't until the 1995 release of Ai Cho Aniki that the series fully grew into its homoerotic niche, but this is still a big step in the right direction for the Virtual Console, as far as I'm concerned. Also announced for upcoming release in the UK are Gley Lancer and Star Parodier -- two more excellent shooters that have until now have only been available in Japan. Will these titles eventually make their way to North America? Here's hoping!
Oh, and some game called EarthBound was recently re-rated by the ESRB and will probably be coming to the U.S. Virtual Console soon blah blah blah. Who cares? Cho Aniki!
Fans of the PS2 version of Okami noticed something strange about the ending of the Wii version: the original staff credit roll was completely missing. Instead, the only credits on the game were for Ready at Dawn, who produced the port.
This eventually came to the attention of original Okami director Hideki Kamiya, now at Platinum Games. He blogged about it, and translations of his posts riled up fans enough that Platinum felt the need to publish their own "official" translation of the blog post on the Platinum Games Facebook page.
Since Im sure there are plenty of people who will still be playing Okami, I wont go into specific details... However, it was the first time for us to make a long adventure, and so the staff roll was filled with all of the omoi appropriate for the end of a long journey. ... They were the omoi of everyone who worked on the project, put together in a moment of bliss held out just for those who completed the journey. It was a special staff roll for a special moment. And now it is gone. All of it.
Omoi is a Japanese word that roughly combines "emotions" and "intentions", which Platinum's translator chose to leave intact.
Okami
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