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Satoru Iwata just finished his GDC keynote address and announced quite a few things such as: Play from SD card for Wii, WarioWare: Snapped for DSi, Virtual Console Arcade, Final Fantasy games on the Virtual Console, and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS!
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GDC 2009: Satoru Iwata Keynote Liveblog

Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, will shortly be taking the stage at GDC for his keynote. Stay tuned to this post as it will be …
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Jeff Mills
Director of Production
Red Fly Studio

Stars Align (again)

At GDC in March 2007, Red Fly Studio had only been in business for about three months. Studio founders Dan Borth and Kris Taylor knew that we had to start immediately preparing for the future beyond our first title (Mushroom Men). We set out for the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco where we met with the top brass of half a dozen of the biggest game publishers in the industry.

The one publisher who seemed surprisingly uninterested in our demo was Vivendi Universal Games. They sat impatiently through our presentation, and as soon as the standard demo spiel was done, they drew us away from the screen and quickly got to the point. They had a job, and they wanted Red Fly Studio specifically to do it.

Before I left Terminal Reality to help Dan and Kris start Red Fly Studio, I had been part of production on Ghostbusters, the project TRI had been developing in utter secrecy for the previous year. Because of my foreknowledge of the project, the publisher could cut right to the chase: The publisher wanted TRI to focus their entire attention on the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of Ghostbusters without concerning themselves with producing a separate Wii version as well. We were already licensing Terminal Reality’s Infernal Engine to produce Mushroom Men, and our close ties to TRI (Dan and Kris worked there along with me back in 1999) made us ideally suited to produce Ghostbusters for Wii. And it was Ghostbusters, after all: a dream job. Right?

“No way!” came the unanimous response from Red Fly Studio.

If the release date for Ghostbusters had been after Mushroom Men’s release date, then maybe we could have done it. But the publisher required that we ship this new title at the same time as our current project. Pushing a single title to completion is challenging enough, but shipping two titles simultaneously is a monumental undertaking. The veterans at RFS had seen a dozen studios explode by growing too quickly, taking on jobs that they couldn’t handle. We knew better. We sadly but politely declined and bade them farewell, wishing that the timing had been better.

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The Wii Shop Channel is undergoing maintenance.  We know the North American and Japanese Wii Shop channels are down.  It’s also worth noting that this is the 1 …
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It looks like Nintendo is having another round of DSi ‘sampling’ events this coming Sunday, March 29.  I just got an email about it, so if you …
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In terms of highlights coming out of this show, I’d say Nintendo’s Iwata keynote is the one that you’ll really want to watch (Jeremy will be live blogging it tomorrow …
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Things are slowly kicking off at this year Game Developers Conference. Tomorrow is when the big fun starts, with Mr. Iwata keynote at 12 pm ET. I …
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Today President Obama and some luck elementary school students made a quick phone call to the astronauts in the international space station. One question that was asked, …
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DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS ANNOUNCES TOY STORY MANIA!, INSPIRED BY THE DISNEY/PIXAR FEATURE FILM “TOY STORY,” EXCLUSIVELY FOR Wii™

Beloved “Toy Story” Characters and Theme Park Attraction Provide Backdrop for Family-Friendly Carnival-Style Video Game

BURBANK, Calif. – (March 24, 2009) – Disney Interactive Studios today announced Toy Story Mania!, inspired by the Disney/Pixar animated feature “Toy Story,” will be released exclusively for the Wii™ home video game console this fall. Toy Story Mania! showcases an array of entertaining games based on the new Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort attractions, while featuring the iconic characters and humor from the popular Disney/Pixar “Toy Story” franchise.

“The ‘Toy Story’ franchise is a fun, dynamic and heart-warming series containing characters and themes that connect with every age group,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “Toy Story Mania! combines those popular elements with the unique antics of the new theme park attraction for the ultimate in family entertainment.”

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – March 24, 2009 – Activision and Feld Motor Sports, Inc. announced today the championship round of the Monster Jam: Urban Assault National Tournament, taking place at the Monster Jam® World Finals in Las Vegas’s Sam Boyd Stadium this Saturday, where one of nine finalists will be crowned as the new National Champion. Eight of the nine finalists qualified for an expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to compete in the Monster Jam: Urban Assault National Tournament by winning their regional qualifiers at Monster Jam events during January and February. The finalists will challenge each other using the Monster Jam: Urban Assault game on Wii™.

The tournament consisted of 16 regional qualifying rounds that began back in January and took place at the top Monster Jam stadiums across the country. Players competed on Wii™ gaming platforms in front of thousands of screaming Monster Jam fans. The eight fastest winners have been awarded expense-paid trips to Las Vegas, where they will compete against each other for the national championship in the Monster Jam World Finals at Sam Boyd Stadium. The winner will become the second Monster Jam Video Game National Champion.

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Summary

GDC
– Iwata keynote, only first five minute are allowed to be filmed

– Punch-Out!! Playable
– Thinks looks like a remake
– 10 Characters return
– 3 original characters
– Looks like it plays like the old game
– Calls GAF out for bashing the SNES version

NPD Talk
– House of the Dead Overkill, pretty low
– Laughs at VGchartzzzzzzz
– Looking for MadWorld sales and will post it. Talked with the VP from Sega; they are happy with their first results of the sales of MadWorld

ExciteBots
– Everything you like about Excite Truck, times 10
– Spinbar controls are good
– Randomness makes no sense, but awesome
– Tracks and pieces of levels look identical to first Excite Truck
– Short game, but you keep playing for the S ranks
– Online multiplayer and more stuff they can’t talk about
– Controls are more tight and more responsive
– Don’t know for sure if Excite is at GDC
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Nothing really new to show yet, but keep an eye on the site, it should be updated soon.

Site HERE

Hand-helds are a big hit in Japan. The DS, DS light and DSi are seeing great success in the land of the rising sun. Just a little …
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