Right now, Animal Crossing: City Folk is the topic of discussion

- Halloween has returned to the game

- WiiConnect 24 will send you new items

- the city has a theater that puts on comedy shows

- friends can visit the city while you aren’t there, and the other way around as well

- You are now able to create the front, back, and sleeves of your shirt

- once again, you can take photos, save them to an SD card, and send them to friends

- If you have a friend that leaves the town, the connection will disappear for everyone…just like Wild World

- you can transport your Wild World DS character to City Life to play as them. You can also bring data that represents all of your all of your items/collectables, and then visit Tom Nook in the Wii version to recollect them.

- You can take character data to your DS, move the data to a friend’s Wii, and visit a town that way. That’s for people that don’t have wifi at home.

- In Japan, you can take your DS to a download station to grab the new content for City Folk.

- the DLC is brand-new, not already on the disc

- There will be no NES titles available in City Folk

- There will be no interconnectivity with the Wii Forecast Channel, on real-time in-game weather.

- seasons are still inverted for souther hemisphere

We’ve moved onto Wii Sports Resort. No new information yet, just dev playthroughs of each game.

- Wii MotionPlus measures angles of rotation and adds that measurement to what the Wiimote is already capable of, allowing for 1:1 motion.

- Wii Sports Resort features multiplayer in the sense of passing Wiimotes with MotionPlus attached, and then there are other multiplayer games that require each player to have a MotionPlus accessory.

- the resort setting was picked because it fit well with the collection of games included. Nintendo cannot talk about the total number of games in Wii Sports Resort, but they are hoping that there are at least 10.

- The MotionPlus was created just because there were games they would like to do, but the Wiimote didn’t allow for it. It wasn’t created as a necessity, but just something to make more movement possible.

- Nintendo will not answer whether the original Wii Airplane demo will be present in Wii Sports Resort.

- Nintendo is trying to decide whether or not they should create a Wiimote that has the motionplus tech already inside, instead of as an accessory. They have not made a decision at this time.

- Nintendo is trying to use the motionplus in a way that doesn’t over-complicate games, but adds to the overall experience.

We are moving on to Wii Music…

- So far, just a rehash of all the stuff we know

- there are roughly 50 songs. public domain songs, popular licensed music as well

- Nintendo isn’t thinking about adding new music via WC24. They do respect the growing connection rate and use of WC24, but they are mainly concerned with the widest user base possible.

- Someone asks why Nintendo is calling this a game instead of a musical toy. Isn’t it more like a toy, the person asked. Miyamoto answered (not verbatim), yes…it is more like a toy. That’s why it’s more fun than a video game.

Nintendo will not comment on a direct-sequel to Wave Race, but they feel that the mode within Wii Sports Resort will surpass Wave Race in depth

Miyamoto says that Pikmin team and the Zelda team are all enjoying creating their games…but he does not mention specifically what games they are working on. Of course, this statement would lead us to believe that they are hard at work on Zelda and Pikmin sequels.

Miyamoto just 100% confirmed Pikmin. his official statement as ‘We are making Pikmin’

Wii Music will feature tutorials for other instruments besides drums

Link

“Koji Igarashi calls the game “3D versus” action game. Igarashi also hopes
that the players consider it as such, because you can move a full 360
degrees. Igarashi made Castlevania Judgement like this, because it would
be too tiring to whipping with Wiimote for an hour.

Kotaku’s Leigh Alexander claims that game looks “cool” and “rad.” There is
a lot of references to old Castlevania titles (the hearts that can be
collected by destroying the objects)

Z-button for guarding and blocking, C-button for jumping. Attack with a
B-button. “Strong attack” by pressing B-button at the same time as you
shake Nunchuk. By holding A-and B-buttons, you can throw the objects in
enviroment.”

All in all, Castlevania Judgement looked very good.  The controls took some getting used to because it’s not a traditional ‘fighter’ as Igarashi said.

Here’s a much higher resolution image for Nintendo’s new Wiimote attachment

Nintendo Press Room

- no new game modes
- audio/CG compression better than the Cube
- no added Wiimote gestures
- Classic controller support
- Wiimote/Nunchuk details
-Walk: Nunchuck control stick (Wii remote D-Pad for partner character)
-Run: Nunchuck control stick while holding Z (Wii remote D-Pad for partner character)
-Aim Weapon: Hold B and Press A
-Confirm Button: A
-Cancel Button: B
1: Map
2: Mobilize or Rest Partner Character
-: Switch Character (A setting), Menu (B setting)
+: Menu (A setting), Switch Character (B setting)

This trailer does not show the Wii version of the game, but it does tell some interesting story points. As pretty as the PS3/360 versions are, using the Wiimote will be much more satisfying. I just hope they are able to use the Wiimote to its full potential.

I know this isn’t exactly Nintendo news (although it does affect Nintendo), but it is interesting to note that even one of the industry’s biggest supporters of Hi-def graphics is calling for a change in controls/interaction:

“I hope if there’s a new Xbox that there’ll be fewer buttons on the controller,”  ”I think you could do things with a built-in camera or a little motion sensitivity. You look at the Wii controller with less buttons - they added functionality by doing waggle. Not a lot of games use the waggle well, but Super Mario Galaxy for example uses it perfectly. Zak and Wiki uses it rather well,” he said. 

“There are other ways of providing interactivity without having every single finger doing something at once on a friggin’ controller.”

This is very interesting indeed.  This might be in reference to the rumors surrounding Microsoft releasing a Wiimote-clone at E3.  Time will tell, but I think everyone in the gaming industry is finally recognizing that games, despite graphics, will need to eventually add more intuitive/immersive controls.

Link

We posted the other day about Quake being run on the Wii using the Twilight Princess Hack.  Now a precocious little hacker has managed to get Goldeneye to run on the Wii using some clever tom-foolery.  Check out the video to see the game in action.  From the video it looks like he’s only able to control the game with the classic controller and not the Wiimote/nunchuk.

Chocobo Mystery Dungeon Wii
-Daemon really likes it.
-”Great challenge without being too frustrating.”
-A lot more strategy than Pokemon Myster Dungeon series. Job system heavily affects how you play.
-”Feels like a very polished last gen game.”

Magenetica Twist (WiiWare)
-Craig thinks it’s pretty good, but the DS verison is better.
-Hard to quickly turn around because of the remote.
-Disappointing that there is no online, but still local multiplayer.

(more…)

Hey everyone!   Last night I got the opportunity to be a part of a conference call with Master Higgins (Toshiyuki Takahashi) of Adventure Island fame.  The meeting was a great chance to dialog with him about upcoming games from Hudson for the Wii and Wiiware.  

He spoke at length about casual vs. hardcore gamers, and discussed the balance between gameplay and graphics.  He feels that the Wii does a lot of things very well, but that developers have a greater responsibility in their design.  When asked about utilizing the Wiimote for an Adventure Island game, he mentioned that he didn’t want to “force” motion controls on a game.  The controls need to complement the game, and shouldn’t be tacked on.  He also mentioned his love of Kororinpa for the Wii, and felt the game utilized the Wii controls very well for a fun experience.

Some of the bigger news from the call, was the mention of a new Adventure Island game being developed by Hudson for Wiiware.  No word on whether we would see the title at E3, but they mentioned they are having to wait in a “landing pattern” for Wiiware releases.  Nintendo is apparently regulating Wiiware releases more so than Virtual Console games (could this have to do with space issues???  I think so)

I also got to ask him about the Wii’s balance board.  They couldn’t say much, but they are definitely looking into the balance board very seriously for an action/puzzle game.

There was also a lot of discussion about Master Higgins’ famous caravan tours around Japan.  Although this was his first trip to America in 20 years, Master Higgins mentioned the possibility of a small American tour at some point.  Better brush up on your Star Soldier skills for that road tournament!

Be sure to check back this weekend for this week’s podcast!  We will discuss the interview a little more in depth and also provide some sound from the actual call : )  So stay tuned for that!