Awesome Quote of the Week

They buy the Wii games that they buy for the same reason that people go to McDonald's. McDonald's doesn't win a lot of restaurant critic awards but they are approachable, they're consistent, and you know what they're going to serve you.

-Michael Pachter on what it takes to make a must-have Wii game

Well, since I count the number of times I've been to McDonald's in the last ten years on one hand, that explains why I have so few Wii games.

See...

I told you so.

Running Out Of Ideas?

Apparently, EA ran out of mini games to add to a Wii compilation game, so they just decided to make the avatars grotesques caricatures of mostly b-list celebrities and athletes. Yikes! I know, I know, we're not much better, but at least we have cricket and bocce.

Celebrity Sports Showdown: Celebrity Sports Showdown In The Creepy Flesh

MadWorld's Violence is Funny, Not Serious

While I normally hate on everything Wii related, I have been drawn to the games that take a chance on the system. Games such as Zack and WIki and No More Heroes. I would have picked up Okami if I hadn't already played it on the PS2. So it should come as no surprise that I have been drawn to MadWorld, and not only because of its stark color palette and its graphic violence. This month's Nintendo Power offers some more information about the game straight from the game's producer, Atsushi Inaba. See, while the game is ultra violent, it should not be taken seriously.

We don't want this game to be dark and serious. One of the games that I played to better understand what constitutes "serious" violence was Manhunt 2. And although I personally like that type of game, when violence is portrayed so simply, that's when it becomes more serious and dark. When it's over the top and extravagant, it feels much more acceptable. That over-the-top expression is what makes it funny. That's why people laugh when they see violence in this game. It's not realistic. Nothing like this would ever happen in real life, which is what games should be offering to the audience.

Awesome quote. While I agree that over the top violence can be funny, for a while, something strikes me as odd about that quote. I'm sure people smarter than me could articulate that sentiment better than I could but the best I can come up with is that it seems shallow. Is this the mentality that is holding back games from achieving art status? Extreme violence has its place in movies and books but reflecting on what "does" happen in the real world is what lifts it to cinema and literature. But like many have argued, that probably does not make a good game. And that is our challenge.

Dead Rising Announced for the Wii, Neutered

Dead Rising is in my top five games for the Xbox360. Its blend of action and story were very engrossing. It also made some surprising and polarizing design decisions. Many people either hated it or loved it. I was definitely in the latter.

The game was structured in a very open, non-linear fashion; allowing each player to forge their own path through the zombie infested mall. It allowed you to choose which bosses you wanted to take down and which people to try and rescue. Each subsequent play through could play out as a an individuals own mini zombie cinematic experience.

The save system and leveling up the character were a bit odd at first. In time, it all came together for me and made the game that much more enjoyable. By limiting the save locations and creating a very difficult decision upon death (start from the beginning with all of your accumulated stats or reload your last save), the game ramped up the stress put on the player. Some found less overwhelming and frustrating, I just like it heightened the experience. I had to weigh my options; should I save the couple with the wounded husband or the brothers who can defend themselves better? The leveling system adds another layer to the game that is not normally seen in action games. As Frank learns new moves and becomes more powerful, the game really becomes fun. And setting up crazy pictures for big points was good too. Since the experience carried over from game to game, it really encouraged multiple play-through.

Now we get word that Capcom is bringing the game to the Nintendo Wii. Only instead of a faithful, low-resolution homage to the original, we get a watered down, "casual" experience that wreaks of cashing in on the success of Resident Evil 4's outing on the same console.

They taken much of the flexibility out of the game by creating a very linear path to plot points and eliminating Otis's side quests. Apparently, the save system has been made "less frustrating" to appease the new herd of gamers on the Wii. The camera angle has been changed to the over-the-shoulder RE4 style which caused the developers so much problems they took the photography out of the game completely. Frank is a photographer, it's the whole reason he's in the mall! Not only have the elements that make Dead Rising what it is have hit the cutting room floor, the graphical power of the Wii buckled under the weight of hundreds of zombies on screen on once. This number has been significantly decreased, but I guess will have to wait to see the final game.

Lastly, they've thrown in the mandatory "because we can" motion gestures. I'm sorry, but dare I say it, increasing the player's stress and anxiety creates a better sense of immersion then waggling the controller to swing a baseball bat. The weight and pressure put on by my nervous system is much greater then wild flailing ever could be.

Nintendo Must Be Stopped

When I saw the Wii Remote "Motion Plus" announcement first thing Monday morning boasting "more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation.", I was angry. Then, as more information rolled out today, I became sick. This is why Nintendo is losing my favor. They are releasing peripheral after peripheral, packed in with "casual" games and making a killing. Not only should the Wii Remote have been doing this from the start, but not even Nintendo themselves have proven motion controls to be a reliable substitute for a standard controller. It did not improve Twilight Princess nor Super Mario Galaxy; the GameCube controller is better suited for Smash Brothers and Mario Kart Wii.

I see Wii Remote motion controls everyday, all day long, and have yet thought, "wow, I think we've finally got it." Motion controllers are a case of just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. If anything, more sensitive equals more programming headaches, as the developers are going to take all kinds of flailing about into account when they program what motion they hope their player will perform.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter that they didn't announce Kid Icarus Wii.

Confession Time

I played, no, I take that back, I experienced Wii Fit today. I still don't think it's a game. But, I enjoyed it. I saw its merits. I heard a voice in the back of my head that said, "Buy this." Oh no. Damn you Miyamoto.

Wii and DS: Made for Each other

This was news a long ways back (give me a break, I bought a house and had a baby). It was revealed that the Wii version of the Ghostbusters will use Wii-DS Connectivity to enhance game play. Essentially, the DS would be used as the famous PKE reader that was used in the movie. I love this design decision and implementation. This is much better than having Tingle drops bombs on unsuspecting foes.

Even longer ago, I attended the Wi Summit in Hollywood hosted by Nintendo and they went over this functionality for the Wii. The presentation was mostly boring but it sparked an idea while I was nodding off.

I've played a few card based games on several platforms, such as Uno on Xbox Live, but was disappointed that there was no way to play with friends in the same room because, obviously, every one's cards would be on the screen to see. With the use of the Wii-DS connectivity, the game could deal the cards to each player's DS and then each player would only be able to see their own cards.

It seems like a simple idea and I'm surprised that some developer has yet to take advantage of this feature in a meaningful way until now.

Fun Friday: It's a MadWorld Edition

This is the trailer for Platinum Games and Sega's upcoming title, MadWorld. This game is most unexpected for what I have come to expect from a Wii title. No More Heroes raised the bar for off-the-wall, artistic action games, but this game just obliterated that bar. MadWorld comes to us from Hideki Kamiya, the developer who brought us Devil May Cry (loved), Viewtiful Joe (mostly loved), and Okami (loved), so I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this title.

Gimme a “W”, Gimme a “T”, Gimme a “F”

This is old, but it looks like our All Star Cheer game has some competition in Namco's We Cheer. I didn’t realize that there was such a demand for cheerleading games. Well, I guess they did make a forth Bring it On movie. At least our game uses the Wii Balance Board!

Best Idea for the Wii Balance Board Yet

We were in deep philosophical discussion at work the other day about our upcoming cheerleader game and it's usage of the Wii Balance Board when one of my co-workers suggested the best idea I have heard yet for this upcoming peripheral. Image the following scene:

It's been a wild night of crazy drinking and heated contests of Wii Sports Bowling and Boxing. It's getting late and your guests are starting to entertain the idea of calling it a night. But you are a responsible host and strictly forbid anyone who has too much to drink to drive them self home.

What are you to do?!??

Fire up your copy of Wii Sobriety and connect the Wii Balance Board. Your guests will be having so much fun competing in mini-games simulating all of your favorite field sobriety tests, that party may just keep on raging into the night!

We can all have a dream, right? Someone needs to get on top of this for WiiWare STAT!

Nintendo: You Were Bored Before the Wii

The blogosphere has already pointed out the cogency, or lack thereof, in the recent statements from the outgoing Nintendo VP of Marketing, Perrin Kaplan. She, as well as Nintendo, saw that before the Wii was released, "gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet." Well, I'm sorry to say that, as a gamer, there has been plenty of games that have kept me quite entertained. Unless of course, she was referring to the GameCube. Only three titles were able to keep me entertained long enough to play through them: Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil 4.

What many gaming news outlets didn't really comment on was the further statements by Robert Matthews, Nintendo's senior director of consumer marketing.

Just look at the way people consume entertainment today. The idea that you would spend hours playing videogames is just not real anymore.

While I do agree that people attention spans are shrinking and, as I get older, my time is split among many things, this blanket statement doesn't seem true in light of media in general. Movie times have steadily lengthened over the last few decades. The hour long drama is increasingly dominating the television line-ups as the sitcom seems to wither away. The Internet is absorbed in smaller chunks, but mostly due to the sheer volume of information out there.

On the other hand, epic games of forty hours or more are also diminishing. These are being replaced by the moderately paced ten to twenty hour campaign. So while there is a market for short attention span gaming, it is not the industry's savior. Games are adapting, allowing players to jump in and out of the game at any time with better save systems and level design. Besides, my 360 is played on a near daily basis. From what I understand, many people are starting to notice that the Wii may be collecting dust. At least until something better than Wii Sports comes along.

Lesson Learned: Motion Control's Big Assumption

The summer before second grade, I fell out of a tree on a camping trip and broke both bones in my left forearm, the ulna and radius. Ever since them my left arm has been slightly more "bowed" than my right. It's nothing crazy. I'm not a mutant or anything, but if you compared my two arms side by side, they would look a little different. However, it wasn't until very recently that I realized that my left arm has a minor limitation as well.

We have a racing title on the Wii in test now that switched up the controls from last year's version. Last year we went with holding the Wii Remote horizontally and steering like a real steering wheel. It seemed to work fine, but in this year's version, that's a secondary control scheme. The new default scheme has the player holding the Wii Remote in one hand and the Nunchuk in the other. So far, there are no problems. However, while racing, if the player wants to powerslide around a sharp corner (which is somewhat necessary throughout the game) they have to twist the Nunchuck from left to right, or vice versa, to powerslide in that direction while turning with the Control Stick. For most people this would probably be no problem, except it has been for me.

Due to my injury sustained about twenty years ago, I have trouble twisting my left arm outwards, away from my body, making left turns while powersliding nearly impossible. Since it is not a motion I do very often with my left arm (even my right for that matter), I never really put much thought into my own limitations. And my own issues are not even a real problem, as there are people out there with far more severe limitations.

As motion controls become more and more the norm and game designers look to eagerly implement them into their games, this is hopefully something that they take into consideration more often than not or risk alienating a segment of our gaming brethren. Not to say that all motion controls are bad, I just hope that they aren't shoehorned into games and then forced upon the player.

News Round Up

PAX and the holiday weekend threw off my posting schedule, so here’s a rundown of things that have caught my attention over the last couple of weeks as I play catch up.

• Manhunt 2 is Dated for a Halloween Release: I was off by a couple of months as far as the release of a ‘modified’ version, but I think they have achieved the desired effect – buzz.
• Guitar Hero III Achievements Unveiled: I love achievements but these suck. I know, I know, you should have to achieve something to earn them. But for the love of all things holy, I can understand a few, but not the majority of them. I initially thought that these achievements were fake. Firstly, they are way too specific and require unnatural skills at the game. Secondly, some of them have errors in them, like the ‘Now That’s Impressive’ achievement that states 750,000 points on a song with a 1 million point image. Thirdly, there are no achievements for progressing through the game past the bosses, like Slash and the recently announced Tom Morello. Finally, I noticed that there were 59 achievements. Juiced (a THQ game) had submission problems because they had 60 achievements but was then passed, maybe because of Guitar Hero. But, come on, look at the requirements for Tone Deaf and Button Masher. Seriously?
• Sequel to The Ship is Coming to 360: I love the premise of this game. You are given a name and must find this person on a cruise ship full of people and kill him – all while avoiding the unknown person who has yours. Quite a departure from most online multiplayer games, this one requires some stealth and skill, not just run and gun. Awesome!
• Pit’s Intro in Super Smash Brothers Brawl: I don’t care about SSBB. Not one bit. But if Nintendo finally went ahead and created a new Kid Icarus game, I would finally have enough reasons to own a Wii. It looks like they have the assets. Come on Nintendo, let’s get this done.
• Zero Punctuation Reviews Bioshock:

Back Home From PAX07

I'm back from the Penny Arcade Expo! I had a lot of fun in Seattle (my first time visiting) despite my feet and calves throbbing after three days of being up on them, showing off our games. I have to say, I expected the place to be bigger. My only other major expo experience was E3 in 2006. Otherwise, the people were all really cool and the atmosphere was one of a kind. I met a lot of really interesting people, including the folks who were demoing N+ and Kim from Bioware, who was demoing Mass Effect. We got a chance to quickly talk about testing such a massive game

My highlights for the show were playing N+ and Castle Crashers. They are very unique and satisfying experiences that are a perfect fit for Live Arcade. I watched people play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption over their shoulders; it looked amazing on the massive plasma screens they were playing on. I'll definitely be picking this game up if I get a Wii. The Mass Effect demo was amazing. Despite some who were disappointed or not awed, I think it really showed off the little details that are going to make this one of the greatest games ever.

I spent the majority of my time demoing our upcoming Wii game, de Blob. Originally developed by students in Utrecht, it puts the player in control of the rebellious Blob who is acting out against the evil Inkt Corporation by literally painting the city red, or whatever color you want. It was on the inside of our booth, so I don't think as many people saw it who could have, but it still managed to draw a large crowd when they did see it. I even had a few people tell me that it was their favorite game of the show which made me very happy. It still has quite a while in development and test before it hits store shelves, so I hope that marketing can get the word out in the mean time.

Lara's Wii Controls

I haven't been terribly impressed by any controls to date on the Wii. I recently laid out what I thought makes or breaks a game's motion controls. Crystal Dynamics did a fantastic job resuscitating the Tomb Raider franchise, and I think they may go three for three as the following video lays out their controls for the upcoming Wii version. They aren't trying to do anything too crazy; simple flicks of the wrists for dodging and the Pointer for shooting and looking. The more complex moves come in the form of environmental puzzles and exploration when the action slows down, aka the actual archaeological stuff. This is definitely the right direction. I may have to check this out when it ships and hope that other developers take note of the controls.

What Do I Want From a Wii Game?

The Wii offers a new ways to design and, ultimately, to play video games. Unfortunately, it has been a struggle that even, in my opinion, Nintendo has yet to over come. This week saw the release of EA's Boogie which has been met with some wildly varying reviews. Stephen Totilo at MTV's Multiplayer Blog took the chance to chat with the game's lead designer, Jean-Charles Gaudechon, and discuss his reaction to the reception the game has received.

When I see a 3 out of 10, I think it's people completely hermetic to it, just not getting it.

I understand his consternation, seeing as he has devoted a good chunk of his life to creating this game. However, from a gamer's point of view, the game is not an easy thing to understand. The game, on the surface, appears to be an amalgamation of two genre's: karaoke and DDR. The only problem is those two games seem to do the job better on their own and the combination is not like chocolate and peanut butter. I have yet to play the game, but I see a major problem with game play. The article states that the dev team had trouble linking Wii Remote moves with dance moves, and for very good reason. Dancing is a full body exercise, it's not just in the hands (at least not good dancing). I think a limitation of the Wii Remote is that it can only simulate certain actions and feel natural. Dancing is not one of them. This is where Boogie fails and DDR succeeds.

At the end of the article Stephen asks a series of questions that boils to: what makes a good Wii title? It got me thinking. I spend a good chunk of every day looking at our Wii titles and have been largely dissatisfied.

Firstly, graphics are important. The Wii is not and never will be able to display photorealism or compete with the 360 and the PS3 graphically. However, they still have the potential to look fantastic. The only stopping every game from looking as good, if not better, than games like Resident Evil 4, Okami, or God of War is budget. The importance in this area is to pick an art direction and run with it. Show some passion and dedication to the game's look. Don't just slap some assets together or reuse last year's. It's about making an impression and it does matter. I think Boogie succeeds here because they took a unique look and let it permeate throughout the game, like Katamari, Paper Mario or Rayman.

Controls has definitely been the make or break feature for Wii games. Unfortunately, it seems to break more games than not. The accelerometer and motion controls can only detect so many movements. Therefore, movements need to be kept simple or the effect is lost. Boogie and SSX Blur are good examples of this. They both seem to use complex combos of movement that aren't easily conveyed between the player and the game. But it is a balance, because if they are too simple, they appear tacked on and gimmicky. I would like to see my actions reflected on screen in a realistic, nearly, 1:1 ratio. This is why I think that only certain movements will translate. Swinging, pointing and slashing are examples of what have worked and what will work in the future. It is also an indication of the limitation of the system as they are motions along a single axis. Better designers than me will come up with special uses but only time will tell. The worst case scenario for Wii controls is when arm flailing will garner as much success as someone who is concentrating on the "correct" controls.

Designers on Wii games have an uphill battle. There are no easy solutions in this new paradigm for control schemes. Personally, I don't see too many good things on the near horizon from anyone but Nintendo, and I'm really not into too many of those games.

Fun Fridays: 2.0

It's seems that G4 Media had a problem with my Xplay clips and had them removed from YouTube. Oh well. I'll probably just start posting some screen captures or something from my intern gig. In the meantime, enjoy this clip from the upcoming Wii game: Zack and Wiki. Now, is it just me, or is this dirty? First, there's the naked child and then the falling tree! I must see sexual innuendo in everything.

Good News. Bad News.

Throughout this blog I have expressed my displeasure of the Wii console. Therefore I pleasantly surprised by the news announced this week from Nintendo. Coming later this year to the Wii is WiiWare, a platform for new games to be delivered to the console in a similar fashion as virtual console games.

Yeah!

I have to say this is very exciting. I love the Xbox Live Arcade format and think the Wii could also harbor a great deal of fun and unique titles. I think the indie developers will rise to the challenge and create some awesome original content. Furthermore, the major developers will also have an outlet for some of the crazier ideas they come up with but the publishers aren't ready to take a gamble on. In any case, the real winners are the gamers. We'll get more games that aim to create new experiences utilizing the Wii Remote.

Now the bad.

With all the great new content coming and the re-release of classic content, those tiny, 512MB hard drives are filling up fast. Not only is there no easy way to currently deal with the problem (delete and download again or save to an SD card as the memory becomes tight), Nintendo has categorically squashed any notion that there will be a add-on hard drive for the Wii. This is just one more nail in the coffin for me. On a system who's main selling point is a wealth of back catalog of titles, it seems that they should have had a long term solution for storage. A 512MB hard drive always seemed small. I already have numerous devices (including my phone) that currently have more storage. This is just starting to look silly now. Without a user friendly method of dealing with the storage issue, it is as if they built in a shelf life. Maybe this is more indication that the Wii 2.0 is not so far fetched after all.

Thoughts of a Casual Gamer

By casual, I mean a) my wife and b) she only likes Tetris and Mario Kart. The commercial for Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree has been playing quite a bit on TV. After seeing it, her revelation went as follows.

'That looked boring.'

The Nintendo marketing machine has been awesome over the last couple of years as proven by the success of the DS and now the Wii. They seemed to have become complacent since this spot inspired my wife's reaction, who I believe is in the Wii target demographic. There's a lot of standing around and stiff pointing despite the tag line of giving your family a 'degree in fun.' I'm just not seeing it. I think those who are writing the reviews are not getting it either.