Home

    Wii News

    Shigeru Miyamoto unexpectedly promotes Samurai Warriors 3

    August 5, 2009 - 12:00pm

    Why should we care about yet another Dynasty/Samurai Warriors game from Koei? Because Shigeru Miyamoto does, that's why. Nintendo's Senior Managing Director surprised press by appearing at Koei Tecmo's press conference for the Wii-exclusive Samurai Warriors 3, and announcing a new gameplay mode based on Nazo no Murasamejou, a samurai-themed Zelda-like game released only on Famicom Disk System.Samurai Warriors 3 will support the Classic Controller, and will be sold in a Classic Controller Pro bundle like Monster Hunter 3. It is due in November, with a playable demo presented at Tokyo Game Show. These things still sell in Japan, so we expect this to move some Wii hardware, as long as it isn't in first person or anything like that.[Via GameSetWatch; original Japanese report via Inside-Games; image via Famitsu]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    EA: We would like to see console price cuts this year

    August 5, 2009 - 11:00am


    John Riccitiello is well-known as a man accustomed to living on the edge. His opinions, often controversial and polarizing, frequently tear rifts between factions of the gaming community. We imagine his latest outburst will be no different -- during EA's Q1 conference call, the polemical CEO said, "We think pricing will move hardware," and added, "We anticipate price cuts at some point and we'd like to see them later in the year."Sure, this may seem like the popular opinion right now, but there's plenty of folks who hold opposing beliefs. Like us -- we wouldn't mind seeing a universal increase in the price of consoles. You know, to keep the proles out.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Guitar Hero 5's new 'Rockfest' multiplayer revealed

    August 5, 2009 - 10:30am

    Yes, there are new things in Guitar Hero 5! Producer Brian Bright told 1UP about the new "Rockfest" multiplayer, which he described as "a suite of new multiplayer game types in Guitar Hero 5 that can be played individually or in teams." These different games can be strung together in a "playlist" so that each round of multiplayer involves a different goal. That's kind of clever!The "Rockfest" games include:

    • "Momentum," in which all players start at medium difficulty, which increases with every 20-note streak and decreases with three missed notes.
    • "Streakers," in which points are awarded only for consecutive notes played while nude in multiples of ten. "One point for the first 10 note streak, two for reaching 20, three for 30, and so on."
    • "Perfectionist," in which each section of a song is scored by percentage of correct notes, with the top player receiving four points, the next best player receiving two, and third place receiving one.
    • "Do or Die," which knocks a player out for the remainder of a section for missing three notes (otherwise known as the "Not Fun" variant).
    • "Elimination," in which low-scoring players are eliminated at regular intervals.
    • "Pro Face-Off," which is a basic score competition.

    We're surprised to see the inclusion of game mode that deliberately kick players out before the end of the song -- in some cases, quite early into the song. You know, since drop-in gameplay has been the other biggest feature announcement. Bright did say this is for the "more competitive players," so maybe it's seen as compensating for the "Party Play" mode. See some footage of Rockfest play after the break.

    Continue reading Guitar Hero 5's new 'Rockfest' multiplayer revealed

    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Squeezing some details from Military Madness: Nectaris

    August 5, 2009 - 7:00am

    Turn-based strategy title Military Madness: Nectaris is having its layers peeled away on the PlayStation Blog, but don't let the prominent Sony placement confuse you -- the game is also coming to Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare. The moon-based military action, which is actually an update of TurboGrafx-16's Military Madness from 1989, allows up to four players to battle on 10 maps. The single-player campaign includes 32 levels and is "essentially a remake" of the original game, with updated AI and graphicalz.Military Madness: Nectaris has no need for such highfalutin concepts like an "economic system." No sir, this game is about tactics and "decisive military action." For way more detail about Nectaris, check out the full piece by the game's designer, Kyle Tunison of Backbone Entertainment, over at the PlayStation Blog.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Enough DJ Hero media for you to make your own mashup song

    August 4, 2009 - 10:30pm

    We hope you budgeted some time today to devote to watching DJ Hero clips. Despite the brevity of each individual clip -- something we're lamenting, given our burning desire to hear the rest of this "Poison"/"Intergalactic" mix -- there are seven overall clips, which certainly adds up. You should probably get started!Above, we've embedded the aforementioned (and tantalizing) mix of Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison" and the Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic." After the break, there's more from DJ AM (including a little video about how awesome being a DJ is), along with mixes from DJ Z-Trip and DJ Shadow.

    Continue reading Enough DJ Hero media for you to make your own mashup song

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Wii coming Nov. 10 [update]

    August 4, 2009 - 9:50pm


    Just as Modern Warfare 2 is hitting PS3 and Xbox 360 this November 10, Wii will finally be getting something a little less modern in the form of a port of the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, according to Kotaku. The site doesn't divulge the source of its information, but claims the game is being brought to Nintendo's console by Treyarch, developer of Call of Duty: World at War. An official announcement is said to be coming tomorrow; we've contacted Activision for confirmation.Update: Activision has confirmed that the Treyarch-ported "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" will launch on Wii on November 10th.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    Wizardry franchise revived on PS3, Nintendo DS

    August 4, 2009 - 9:00pm


    Classic RPG franchise Wizardry is making a comeback ... of sorts. The classic RPG franchise is coming back in not just one -- but two -- new games to release in Japan later this year.First is a PS3 game, to be published by Acquire. Details are slim, but Wizardry: Torawareshi Damashii no Meikyou (Wizardry: Dungeon of Imprisoned Souls) is supposedly hitting the Japanese PlayStation Network this Fall, according to a report by Siliconera. The release would mark the first time the Wizardry series becomes available on a current generation console.Next up is a Nintendo DS game, Wizardry: Seimei no Kusabi (Wizardry: Pledge of Life). Supposedly, this will be a 3D dungeon RPG that will be available exclusively on Amazon Japan, almost guaranteeing high resale value on eBay for years to come.Source - Wizardry 囚われし魂の迷宮 Official WebsiteSource - Wizardry Crawling to DS tooPermalink | Email this | Comments

    Vanillaware: HD Muramasa wouldn't be 'a great deal of extra work'

    August 4, 2009 - 7:00pm

    Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade is quite beautiful on the Wii, but would such a work be possible in HD? Vanillaware founder and president George Kamitani told Gamasutra that he thinks so. "Well, the original art we draw is all done in double-size -- in the case of Muramasa, the animation frames then get compressed down to the Wii's native resolution," he told Gamasutra. "As a result, producing a fully HD title would not be a great deal of extra work for us; it would just mean our original art is displayed in higher resolution." This is very similar to what WayForward's Voldi Way told us about 2D development in HD.Despite the relative ease of transitioning to HD, Kamitani said there was no plan to re-release Muramasa as an XBLA game (or to re-release it anywhere else), but that the company is "in the experimental stage" of high-definition development.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    EA Sports Active is EA's best-selling Wii game ever

    August 4, 2009 - 6:15pm

    Throwing stuff at stuff is okay, but what Wii owners really like is stretching. That's the takeaway we've gleaned from EA's quarterly financial results, which reveal that EA Sports Active, selling "over 1.8 million copies in the quarter," is not just a genuine hit -- it's the publisher's best-selling Wii title to date.If EA hadn't already announced that expansions and versions for other consoles were coming out, now is right about when we would say "there are totally going to be sequels to this." Although, we suppose, technically, the second EA Sports released a game was the second we knew there'd be another one in a year.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

    The Joystiq Scribblenauts Challenge: Your Solutions! (Redux)

    August 4, 2009 - 6:00pm


    After giving ourselves a few hours to turn our video words into internet words, we're presenting the results of the Scribblenauts Challenge again, now in a non-video form. If you're curious about the original puzzle (which tasked us with knocking some bottles off a table without a gun), read all about it.Now, if you're curious about how your guesses fared, get thyself to the jump!

    Continue reading The Joystiq Scribblenauts Challenge: Your Solutions! (Redux)

    Permalink | Email this | Comments