Beyond Good and Evil 2 Trailer

Michel Ancel didn't disappoint. His recent revelation that Ubisoft hadn't yet greenlighted the sequel to Beyond Good and Evil that he has been in pre-production on for the last year whipped fans into a frenzy. They finally had confirmation that the long awaited sequel was in the works and it came with the caveat that it might not actually come to fruition.

All that is in the past now though, as Ubisoft, as expected, officially revealed the first trailer for the game at its UbiDays event.



Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot introduced the clip by stating that the trailer was rendered completely in the game's engine, which means this is going to be one purty game.

It's interesting that they chose to only show Jade (the heroine of the original) from the back, which leads me to believe they probably haven't nailed down what she'll look like now that the visuals are much more realistic. In the original game, Jade looked a LOT like a cartoony version of Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2. They'll have their work cut out for them to keep her from looking too much like Alyx while still being recognizable as Jade outside of the context of the game. Green lipstick helps.

No date or platforms have been announced but 360/PS3 are a lock based on the HD graphics of the trailer. Wii fanboys had been hoping it would be an exclusive to the little white box based on the fact that the original game reportedly sold best on GameCube, but it looks like it isn't meant to be. I wouldn't put it past Ubi to re-release the original on Wii, Okami-style though.

Castle Crashers Development Wraps Up

The wait for Castle Crashers has been a long one. Originally scheduled to be released over a year ago, the game's developer, The Behemoth, decided to delay the game in order to take advantage of the 100MB of extra space Microsoft lovingly bestowed upon XBLA developers. So while the delay was painful, the end result should be a much bigger, deeper game. And now, the wait is almost over because the game is officially complete.

The Behemoth's Dan Paladin wrote on the Castle Crashers blog,

This game is undoubtedly the largest 360 XBLA game that has any kind of story; Large in scope, takes hours and hours to go through with your buddies. Lots of little treasures and secrets hiding around the levels, many unlockable characters all with a different feel

Unfortunately, due to the way XBLA works: certification, fitting the game into the release schedule etc., it could still be a couple months before the game is actually made available for purchase.

On the bright side though, what a summer this looks to be for XBLA: Penny Arcade Adventures, Bionic Commando ReArmed, Commando 3, Super Street Fighter II HD, Braid. Even with all the garbage that usually ends up released on a weekly basis, we shouldn't go more than a couple weeks without something really cool.

It's nice to see that the Big Three have all realized that their online services are the perfect venue to combat the annual summer drought. 360's got a great XBLA lineup, Nintendo just introduced WiiWare, with games like Alien Crush and Eternity's Child on tap for the Summer, and Sony has the intriguing looking PixelJunk Eden as well as the episodic Siren: Blood Curse coming to PSN.

I'm looking forward to most of these games more than anything that's coming out at retail until Too Human hits in late August and my excitement for that has dropped dramatically in the wake of the complete neutering the co-op has gone under.

4-player co-op lives on in Castle Crashers!


[via Joystiq]

RUMOR: Samba de Amigo Gets Premium Content

The boxart for Sega's upcoming Samba de Amigo for the Wii just popped up on Gamestop's site bearing the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection "Pay to Play" logo which Nintendo had announced awhile back would appear on games that had extra costs associated with them, either in regards to online play or premium content.

In the case of Samba de Amigo it likely refers to extra songs available for purchase, but the Wii has already proven to be problematic in this regard due to its limited storage space. Both Guitar Hero III and Rock Band have had to forgo downloadable songs for this reason. So how exactly is Sega going to pull off what Activision and Harmonix can't?

Fans of the original Dreamcast Samba de Amigo may remember that it too had "downloadable" songs which were in reality already on the game disc and were only unlocked by a tiny downloaded "token" which took up very little space on a Dreamcast memory unit. It's very likely that the Wii version works the same way.

The problem is, the downloaded songs on Dreamcast were free, which is apparently not going to be the case on the Wii. As far as I'm concerned, charging for content that is already on the disc is just shady, so hopefully this isn't the case.


[via GoNintendo]

Shock and Corruption the week of Aug. 19th

No, it's not a new US military offensive, it's Microsoft and Nintendo's covert operation to keep gamers indoors as the summer begins to come to an end and kick off the annual flood of Holiday titles a month early.

Irrational Software's Bioshock is without a doubt my most anticipated game of the year. They played a horrible, horrible joke earlier this year when they laid down the carpet of a June release date and then promptly pulled it out from under me, revealing an open grave with a tombstone marked August 22nd. So it goes.



Not to be outdone, Nintendo had promised Metroid Prime 3: Corruption would be a launch title for the Wii. Shortly before November 19th it suddenly became a "launch window" title, the release designation that is the bane of console launches and gamers everywhere. The time period that could even remotely be considered the "launch window" came and went with no news from Nintendo, outside of a "read my lips" promise from NOA Prez Reggie Fils-Aime that there would be no Wii drought. Now, months into the Wii Drought of 2007 Nintendo has finally announced a final release date for Corruption: August 20th.

Yes, that's right, my 2 most anticipated games of the year, after seeing more than their share of delays will now be released 2 days apart. In a perfect world I would've been done with Metroid Prime 3 months ago and be gearing up for Bioshock right now.

This is not a perfect world, ladies and gentlemen. It is a cruel world. A sick world. One which makes you choose between Bioshock and Metroid Prime 3, and also between sleep, food, and a life.

Ahh, who am I kidding, Bioshock wins, I know what to expect from Metroid, Bioshock looks to be one of the most original games in years. I'll save Prime 3 for the inevitable Wii Drought of 2008. Assuming Mario Galaxy makes it out in 2007 (my prediction? Galaxy this Fall, Smash Bros... Someday.) that adds up to a grand total of one other must-play Wii title for me.













via 1up

Wii REVIEW: Kororinpa: Marble Mania

The basic premise of Kororinpa will be familiar to anyone who has played any of the Super Money Ball titles, particularly the recent Wii incarnation. You are tasked with guiding a marble around increasingly complex levels while collecting crystals and reaching the goal as quickly as possible. Kororinpa differs slightly from Monkey Ball in that all of the red crystals on a level must be collected before the goal is activated. In addition, there is one green crystal for each of the 45 main levels, that when collected, unlock a total of 14 secret levels.

The game puts the Wii remote to good use and is one of the few Wii games where motion control is not just tacked on. Unlike say, Sonic and the Secret Rings (which would’ve actually been a better game without motion control); Kororinpa benefits from it and wouldn’t be as much fun without it. The remote allows for precise control of the stages, which are what you are really manipulating, not the marble. Steady hands and patience are the name of the game, especially on what few tricky levels there are.

The game only makes use of the tilt sensor in the remote, with no IR sensing at all, which is fine because it doesn’t really need to. Menus are navigated using the D-pad on the remote and a nunchuk is not necessary.

Graphically the game does the job, it’s presented in 480i, 4:3 but it still looks decent on my 30” HD set. It’s not the type of game you’d expect next-gen visuals from anyway. The sound is equally unobtrusive, the music isn’t great but it never really gets annoying either. The game’s entire presentation is very basic.

Where Kororinpa falls apart is in its length, you can blow through all 45 of the main stages in a matter of 1-2 hours depending on your previous experience rolling balls through mazes. The difficulty never approaches the tear-your-hair-out frustration level of Super Monkey Ball but a variety of unlockable theme marbles, which can be harder or easier to navigate through the levels, allow you to adjust the difficulty somewhat.

Upon completing the 45 initial stages you will automatically unlock mirror mode, which lets you play through mirrored versions of all the original 45 stages. Depending on your dedication to “completely” finishing a game, and again, how much you enjoy rolling balls around mazes, the game’s replay value varies tremendously. Depending on how many green crystals you picked up your first time through the game, going back to collect them can take 30 minutes to an hour. The 14 stages you unlock from them can be completed in 30 minutes or less, easily. If you’re so inclined, you can also replay the levels to achieve gold medals for getting the best time. Scoring 25 gold medals, which in itself is not overly difficult, leads to a handful of additional levels.

If you are looking for something halfway decent to play on your Wii, you could do a lot worse than giving Kororinpa a rental, especially if Wii is your only system. Even with a $40 price tag though there’s just not enough to justify a purchase.

Pros:

• Excellent motion control courtesy of the Wii remote
• Fun, if not overly challenging, gameplay

Cons:

• Way too short
• At $40 it's overpriced
  

NiGHTS confirmed for Wii

NiGHTS fans all over the world are rejoicing over today's confirmation that their favorite androgynous purple jester with giant feet will be flying onto Wii later this year after spending the last 11-years in videogame exile.

I always thoughts NiGHTS was a fun, if extremely overrated game, so the idea of a motion controlled sequel certainly sounds appealing on paper. Coming fresh off of both Sonic the Hedgehog for 360 and Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii however (not to mention the abysmal Phantasy Star Universe), my faith in Sega, and Sonic Team in particular, is pretty much nonexistant.

Secret Rings was a lame attempt to shoehorn Wii controls into a Sonic game and it probably would've been a lot more fun to play if you could just use the D-pad to control Sonic and not have to thrust the remote forward to make him attack. 75% of the time you don't even feel like you are actually playing the game and the other 25% you just wish you weren't.

And that is the biggest challenge facing developers of Wii games: how to make the motion controls in the game work better than standard controls would. So far very few games have succeeded in this because very few developers are actually making original titles built around the remote.

There's always hope that NiGHTS will turn out to be a shining example of what a Wii game should be, but coming from today's Sega, I'm not going to hold my breath.

via Kotaku

Okami for Wii?

File this under: Please God let it be true.

IGN tells tale of a juicy rumor originating from the ever mysterious "reliable industry insider" or Rii as he/she shall henceforth be known. According to Rii, Capcom is "seriously considering creating a Wii version and may even be working on it as we speak."

Capcom UK on the other hand claims it is "highly unlikely" but what the hell does Capcom UK know anyway? They're just there to ensure that poor British gamers get their games as long after their American cousins as possible. Besides, if you've got nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. A cursory "No comment" would've sufficed and helped perpetuate my hopes of this actually happening, if even for just a few minutes longer.

The bad thing about this is, I started playing a very little bit of Okami when it was originally released and found it to be quite enjoyable but I backburnered it to save it for the post holiday drought. I planned on starting it up again after I finish Zelda but now I've got to wait for confirmation or outright refutation from Capcom Japan. I'd much rather play it on the Wii, especially as they'll surely add extra stuff if it happens.

It seems like a no-brainer. The Wii is already getting plenty of PS2 ports (see Manhunt 2) and Okami is a game that deserves a second chance if there ever was one. It's cel-shaded graphics and Zelda-style gameplay would be a perfect fit on the Wii, not to mention the game's unique paint brush mechanic which were begging for motion control to begin with.

If Capcom had any idea how popular the Wii would become they probably would've made it a Wii game to begin with...

Wii could definitely use more games like Okami to battle the neverending flood of Nickelodeon games and licensed crap in general so let's hope Capcom takes pity on Wii owners.

Wii don't want no Spongebob!

Source: Okami Leaping Onto Wii?-IGN Wii

Manhunt 2 Wii: Jack T. is gonna love this one...

When EA first announced The Godfather for Wii, images of beating people down with the remote immediately popped into my head and with Rockstar's announcement today that Manhunt 2 would be coming to the Wii, images of shoving shards of glass into people's eyes popped into my head. As with the Godfather I'm not really sure how I feel about that.


While I never played the first Manhunt, mainly because I'm not a big fan of trial and error stealth gameplay (and only partly because it was supposed to be unrelentingly brutal), it should be interesting to see how the Wii-remote is utilized by the title.

This one stands to open up a whole can of worms about the effect of violence on children even though it'll carry an M-rating. The fact that it's on Nintendo's Little White Box of Happiness makes it stand out even more since the system has been flying off the shelves no doubt in large part because of it's social/family appeal.

As it is, games already receive stricter ratings than film counterparts due to the fact that the player is participating in the action. M-rated games like Halo would likely be PG-13 movies and innocuous cartoony games like Super Smash Bros. Melee are rated T for Teen simply because characters can hit each other.

In the past we interacted with games with simple button presses and mouse clicks and that was enough to get people enraged. I can only imagine what is to come in terms of criticism for games like Manhunt 2 on Wii where the level of interaction is raised substantially.

There is a difference between pushing a button to stab someone in the face or beat them and actually mimicking the action to initiate it onscreen.

The problem is that too many people see ALL games as being for kids, hence the outcry against these types of games that kids shouldn't be playing anyway. Whether it's necessary for games to feature this level of violence is a whole other argument but I think everyone would agree that kids shouldn't be playing them regardless...

Personally I'm glad the Wii right off the bat isn't being saddled with the same publisher prejudice that Nintendo has faced since the SNES days: that Nintendo systems are for kids. It has been a self-fulfilling prophecy because the lack of adult content always turned Nintendo systems into exactly that.

It's somewhat ironic that after two generations of trying to shake that image, Nintendo finally threw its corporate hands in the air, stopped trying to compete with MS and Sony on that level and created the Wii...and now they are getting the adult content. Go figure.

Source: Rockstar on the Manhunt Again - GameSpot