Simon Jeffrey, known around some parts as the President of Sega, is either very smart or ... not. It's a fairly simple story here -- he casually mentioned Resident Evil 5 in an interview about MadWorld, saying "when that [Resident Evil 5] happens on the Wii, it'll help," referring to attracting more hardcore gamers to the platform.
Later, he referred to the comment as a "slip of the tongue," but that doesn't mean it's not true. If it wasn't true, he would say "mistake". We're not going to hoist the confirmed flag or anything (as some have been awfully quick to do so), but a guy so high up in the industry couldn't possibly pull this rumor out of thin air on the spot, right? We'll keep you updated, so any RE5 hopefuls should stay tuned!
Good news for people who want even more space shooters on the Wii: the Milestone Shooting Collection, a three-game bundle including Chaos Field, Radilgyand Karous, has been picked up for U.S. release on September 23 by UFO Interactive. Chaos Field was released here on the GameCube in 2005, but the other two games are completely new to us -- partly because the GameCube release of Radilgy was cancelled.
When Milestone announced this item for Japanese release last May, it was going to be a retail release of Karous only. Then Milestone decided to throw a couple of bonus games on there, and then it became the "Shooting Collection." The bundle is probably the only way it could ever get picked up by an American publisher. And $30 isn't bad at all for three games, even in the age of downloadable games!
It's a double WiiWare update for this Friday, PAL peeps. Oxygen's Pirates: The Key of Dreams is an unknown quantity, but appears to be some kind of piracy-themed scrolling shooter with strategic elements. If that sounds like it has potential, the footage we've seen so far (viewable, as usual, after the break) isn't filling us with bright-eyed optimism. We'll be downloading that today and giving it a whirl, so let's hope we're wrong!
SPOGS Racing, on the other hand, is very much a known quantity, and not a very great one, either -- we slapped a three out of ten on it.
Pirates: The Key of Dreams -- WiiWare -- 1000 Wii Points
You can certainly make an argument that the Wii doesn't need any more digital side-scrolling shooters, since a plethora of options are offered on the Virtual Console. Yet, we think when it comes to the Gradius series, you might be willing to make an exception.
Konami announced that Gradius ReBirth will hit the Japanese WiiWare service this summer. We really don't know much about the game, but the lone screenshot (above) shows that the classic sprites will be returning. What else do you need to know, though, other than that it's Gradius? As long as the price is right, this is likely a "must buy" for shoot 'em up fans.
Look what we found while browsing GameTrailers for the best part of half an hour and being exposed to that awful yoof-oriented Extra Fusion gum advert far too many times: moar Conduit.
This footage was snapped on the E3 showfloor yesterday, and features a High Voltage developer (it's not revealed who) gushing about normal mapping and a "lot of effects usually seen on PS3 and 360" as his colleague navigates and blasts his way through alien-infested streets on easy mode. Die, scum! In truth, it's basically how The Conduit has always looked: really, really clichéd, but also really, really pretty as well.
Today's choice for Virtually Overlooked seems fairly obvious. Now that Capcom has made WiiWareworth talking about, the gaping absence of any sort of Mega Man game on the Virtual Console is even more noticeable. Europe already has Mega Man and Mega Man 2, and they'll be released in Japan starting this month. It's safe to say that we'll have our chance to be gouged on those two games soon enough.
No telling when or if they'll ever get around to the other "Mega Man 9."
When a game's intro starts with the text "IT IS THE YEAR 20XX," you just know that something special is going to follow. Something special and robotty. This English trailer for Mega Man 9 starts with the evolution (and now devolution) of the Mega Man sprite and then launches into glorious footage of the new game. We admit to being moved by the beauty of the intro scene. We're not robots. (We just wish we were.)
It really does look just like a really high-quality NES game, with all the parts we love (big pixels, bright colors) and none of the stuff we could do without (flicker, LJN logos). It sounds like one too! We're just going to leave the video playing over and over again in the background.
But what's this? The end of the trailer features Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network logos in addition to WiiWare! Good for them. It would be sad to miss out on Mega Man 9 just because you like Halo or whatever.
We sort of thought this would be the case, but confirmation always helps one sleep better at night. Especially when The Conduit is involved. In an interview with IGN, Eric Nosfinger of High Voltage stated outright that The Conduit will definitely be at E3 -- in an exclusive capacity.
E3 is only a few days away, and Nosfinger riles up the public by announcing plans of "private showings and leaving playable demos with a few select folks." Are we select folks? You better believe it. There is no better place for Conduit information than Wii Fanboy -- check out our exclusive High Voltage interview along with the dev team's plans for the future. The above video is a fresh piece of gameplay footage, and it's outright stunning.
Best of all, Nosfinger also mentions that the team has achieved successful 16-man online multiplayer matches. If there's anything the Wii needs, it's a smooth online FPS experience. The Conduit looks set to deliver on all counts, so stay tuned for our E3 coverage!
What an excellent week it's been for classic game fans! The DS gets a new (release of) Chrono Trigger, the Wii gets a new 8-bit Mega Man, and now this! NeoGAF's neo2046 noticed an update to Thunder Forcedeveloper Tecnosoft's website stating that a new entry in the longstanding shmup series is on the way. The WHOIS data for tecnosoft.com indicates that the domain has been in the possession of a Japanese company since 1996, and archive.org shows previous TecnoSoft webpages in that space, so this seems legit.
There's very little information on the barebones site -- in fact, you're looking at all of it -- so we don't know which platform or platforms TecnoSoft is planning to release the game on. But it's a shooter, and the Wii is where shooters go this generation. TecnoSoft would be able to release classic Genesis Thunder Force games on the Virtual Console to promote it. We'd love to see Thunder Force II and its indecipherable intro available once again.
In an effort to help build anticipation for Mega Man 9, and probably to prepare new players who don't realize how brutal Mega Man games can be, Capcom announced that the first two games in the series will be released on the Virtual Console in the two months leading up to the September release of the new WiiWare game.
Rockman will be released this month, according to both Capcom and Nintendo, whose VC lineup page has been updated to reflect this surprise announcement. Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo (Mega Man 2: The Riddle of Dr. Wily) will come out in August.
Both of these games have been out in Europe for quite some time, so the real surprise isn't that they're being released in Japan, it's why they haven't been released yet -- and it would seem that we have our answer now. Capcom was waiting until they could start promoting Mega Man 9.
Ask most gamers -- or gamers like us, at least -- about sequels, and you'll be greeted with much eye-rolling. Here's one follow-up we can get behind, however: a sequel to High Voltage's promising sci-fi shooter, The Conduit. What's that you say? The Conduit isn't even out yet? Well, who cares? Certainly not High Voltage's Eric Nossinger!
Chatting to That Videogame Blog, Nossinger revealed that The Conduit has "enough story [...] and enough ideas" to justify making further The Conduit games, though admitted that sales would influence whether such follow-ups were developed. "We're building a brand with The Conduit," added colleague, Matt Corso (remember our interview with him?), dollar signs spinning in his eyes. Let's not forget to keep our eyes firmly on the first one, eh, chaps?
Posted Jun 26th 2008 6:00PM by Phil Larsen Filed under: News
Call of Duty: World at War has hit the intertrons! The official COD domain has always been a general-purpose website, but the latest information for the upcoming shooter has been granted its own dedicated section with a whole range of groin-grabbing goodies.
The whole point of the site is the get involved with everything Call of Duty. You'll sign up and create your profile, and from there you can complete a variety of "missions" to earn points and level up. This include posting in the forums and taking part in polls, but you'll unlock more missions the further you progress within the site.
Why does this sound like a video game? It's a website -- but a pretty good one at that. The Intel and Reconnaissance (that is, news and media) sections should be updated regularly, and a developer blog is up and running. Off you go, then!
What looks like scanned images of Nintendo Power have appeared, which are too small for us to be sure if they're real. But we think they are! And if that's true, then Mega Man 9 is a WiiWare game! Not only that, it's a WiiWare game in the 8-bit style of the NES Mega Man games! It would be hard to imagine being more thrilled! Forget E3 -- the game of the year has already been revealed!
According to the accompanying post on the Mega Man Network, the game is being developed by the Mega Man Zero/ZX creators, Inti Creates, and will feature the following bosses: Magma Man, Galaxy Man, Jewel Man, Concrete Man, Hornet Man, Plug Man, Tornado Man, and Splash Woman. Splash Woman? We're going to go stand in front of the mailbox now.
High Voltage Software created the Saturn and PlayStation ports of Jeff Minter's Jaguar shooter Tempest 2000. This means, amusingly enough, that they have previous experience literally cloning Tempest. Based on its appearance, it would be tempting to call the company's WiiWare shooter Gyrostarr an application of this specialized knowledge. However, for a game about shooting spaceships in a chute, Gyrostarr has surprisingly little to do with the Tempest series. In fact, it diverges from the entire shooter genre in a few fundamental ways.
Konami's awful arcade-to-Wii Target :Terror port was a hilarious prank at first, one we were willing to play along with, what with its goofy FMV terrorists and over-the-top 9/11-inspired plot.
But the joke immediately stopped being funny when we saw the light-gun game's retail price: $39.99. We crossed our arms, turned our head slightly to the site, gave Target: Terror's box a stern look, and said out loud, "Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis?"
Willis must have changed his tune, however, as Amazon has temporarily marked down the game to $15.88, a price more in line with the amount most people would be willing to pay for the 2004 shooter. Grab it before the sale ends!
While it won't add enough to your total to make your order eligible for Amazon's Free Super Saver Shipping ($25), you can also pick up Data Design Interactive's Anubis II for a reduced $5.95. Some might feel that's still asking too much the game, however ...
[Via CAG] Read - Target: Terror for $15.88 Read - Anubis II for $5.95
Good news for people who want even more space shooters on the Wii: the Milestone Shooting Collection, a three-game bundle including Chaos Field, Radilgy and Karous, has been picked up for U.S. release on September 23 by UFO Interactive. Chaos Field was released here on the GameCube in 2005, but the other two games are completely new to us -- partly because the GameCube release of Radilgy was cancelled.
Today's choice for Virtually Overlooked seems fairly obvious. Now that Capcom has made WiiWare worth talking about, the gaping absence of any sort of Mega Man game on the Virtual Console is even more noticeable. Europe already has Mega Man and Mega Man 2, and they'll be released in Japan starting this month. It's safe to say that we'll have our chance to be gouged on those two games soon enough.
What looks like scanned images of Nintendo Power have appeared, which are too small for us to be sure if they're real. But we think they are! And if that's true, then Mega Man 9 is a WiiWare game! Not only that, it's a WiiWare game in the 8-bit style of the NES Mega Man games! It would be hard to imagine being more thrilled! Forget E3 -- the game of the year has already been revealed!
Konami's awful arcade-to-Wii Target :Terror port was a hilarious prank at first, one we were willing to play along with, what with its goofy FMV terrorists and over-the-top 9/11-inspired plot. 
