Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Even when it was called the Revolution, Crossbeam Studios decided to get their hands dirty and promote some big titles. The original three were Thorn, Midnight and Orb, and everyone was totally getting into the vibe of these promising projects.

Unfortunately, all those titles seem to be heading to the big recycle bin in the sky. The studio isn't going out of business; they are changing direction towards the PC and the early Wii projects simply aren't a priority, despite the fan following. A giant Falafelkid article on Crossbeam delves deep into the studio and its staff, which is a must-read for anyone interested in the core machinations of a smaller development team.

The games haven't been scrapped forever and ever, but you can stop thinking about saving up for any imminent pre-orders. Check out Cubed3's coverage and discussion with Greg Szemiot from Crossbeam, as well as the original dissection feature.

[Via Cubed3]

Pandemic Studios, best known for big-kid games like Destroy All Humans and Full Spectrum Warrior, are working on a new children's game for Wii. According to a quote on Business Week's website from Pandemic Chief Executive Andrew Goldman, the game is the reflection of a desire to do something fresh and offer new gameplay, in a medium that they see as becoming stale. "The Wii does something new, and draws people back in."

We have to wonder, is it really wise to go on record with sound bites like that as they're promoting their Xbox 360/PS2/PS3/PC war game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames? We suppose it will sell anyway.

[Via NeoGAF]

Accordingly to all reputable sources, the game-formerly-known-as-Darkness is, at the very least, still a year off from release. The survival-horror project, one of Crossbeam Studio's trifecta of titles (Orb, Thorn, and Darkness), had to be renamed due to copyright conflicts with The Darkness, a title by 2k Games. Thus, Crossbeam Studios has announced an official name change of Darkness to Midnight. Still awesome. Name changes are fine and dandy, but someone needs to let Sega know that Wildfire is still way cooler than Secret Rings.

[Update 1: Silly us ... we confused Sadness with Darkness. Fixed.]

Yes, these Fusion Tour events have been going for several weeks now, I know. And you've probably read plenty of impressions, too. But not from Nintendo Wii Fanboy, you didn't, so grab a mug of hot cocoa and your favorite fuzzy slippers. It's time to read.

I, like most of you, had never played with the Wii before tonight. I was unable to attend E3, and despite my posting nigh every single day on the strange little machine, I had no idea if it could actually fulfill my every expectation. Would I have to convince myself that the controls would work, as opposed to just knowing that they would? It was almost nervewracking ... waiting to see if all that I work on and write about would be somehow validated.

In a move that totally shattered rumors of Majesco publishing Sadness for the Wii, NIBRIS and Frontline finally announced the publisher: both of them. That's right, earlier reports that the game had found a publisher were true, just not the one we thought.

Aside from co-producing Sadness with NIBRIS, Frontline Studios developed the recently-released DS title Sudoku Mania and have worked with NIBRIS on other, smaller projects in the past. Interestingly enough, the announcement on Frontline Studios' webpage states that Sadness has a 16 month development cycle, giving us some kind of idea when we could be seeing the game at retail.

In an interview with Nintendo of Europe, indie development house Crossbeam Studios revealed some more on their three Wii projects. While the entire interview can be found here, it is only accessible to VIP members. Instead, we'll paraphrase the pertinent information for you.

In regards to Orb, this is the company's main project, followed by the other two proposed titles of Thorn and Darkness. Orb and Thorn are classified as adventure games, where Darkness is being classified as a more fear-based experience. See, the Earth has been overrun by forces of darkness and now mankind must make their last stand against these evil forces. The game will feature many branching paths to progress the story and lots of NPC interaction.

In commenting on the whole fear-based experience, Crossbeam's Greg Nichols said:

"Basically what I want you to feel when you turn off the game is that you're too afraid to turn the lights off. Think of when you were three years old, and the fear you had of basements, or the attic, or the dark. It's not the scare of the shock that I'm aiming for, what I want is the actual fear of the things that make you look over your shoulder. When I get afraid, my eyes start to water and a small tear comes out. I want that kind of fear to come out of the game."

According to a job posting on their official site, independent development team Sensory Sweep Studios is looking for talent to aid in the development of an action title for the Wii. Looking for junior and senior game designers to help in level and character design for this title, Sensory Sweep's most recent releases include Need For Speed: Most Wanted and Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the DS.

While we can't be all that enthused about this development considering the only major titles of note from the company were on a handheld, the more support for Nintendo's newest console the better.

[Via Codename Revolution]

Following the flood of news coming from last week's E3, Retro Studios' Game Director Marc Pacini and Senior Producer Bryan Walker, along with Production Group No. 3's Kensuke Tanabe, commented on some of the features that will be in the final build of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption. In addition to discussing the ability for the player to go into Hyper Mode at any time during the game and a larger role for Samus' ship (bombing runs!), the team also took heavy inspiration from past Metroid titles such as Super Metroid in an attempt to find the perfect balance between the old and the new.