Nintendo has released a list of eight games described as "launch window" titles ahead of WiiWare's debut in Europe on May 20th. Included are four games that the U.S. is still waiting on -- Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, Star Soldier R, Toki Tori, and Pirates: The Key of Dreams -- though it looks like Europe will be waiting a little longer for Defend Your Castle and V.I.P Casino: Blackjack. Frankly, we'll live without a blackjack game.
Once again, note that these are "launch window" games. How long is a launch window? No idea. "Launch window" is one of those infuriatingly flexible terms beloved by PR types. Anyway, the list of WiiWare games that Europe will be getting kinda near the launch is as follows:
There's currently no news on pricing, but we'd fully expect European WiiWare prices to match those of other regions, assuming Nintendo hasn't found a totally new and unique way to rip European gamers off.
In their GDC presentation, Square Enix's Fumiaki Shiraishi and Toshihiro Tsuchida described the new direction they were taking with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. They discussed how they were shaking things up at their company by making a small, low-budget game with no elaborate cutscenes. Brandon Sheffield and Jeremy Parish spoke with the game's co-creators about the advantages and challenges of trying to make a Square Enix game under strict financial and storage budgets.
Shiraishi described the limitations as an inspiring factor for the game's design, and also pats SE's artists on the back: "I don't think we would've had this game design idea if we didn't have the memory restriction to begin with. Once we had the restriction, we had... all our artists are veterans, so if you tell them the size, they'll hit it right on."
Another (very) noteworthy offhand statement comes at the end, in a discussion of Square Enix's attitude toward the Virtual Console. When the similarity in theme between ActRaiser and My Life as a King came up, Shiraishi said "I'd like to make an ActRaiser sequel. That would be kind of fun." Yes. It would.
As we anticipated, Nintendo waited until the last possible moment to reveal the details on WiiWare's U.S. launch. In a press release which describes WiiWare as the "most democratic environment in industry history," Nintendo confirmed the six titles that launched with the download service today -- and it looks like the leaked information from the weekend was spot-on:
So it's finally up -- hurray! Monday mornings haven't felt quite this optimistic in some time! Have any of you lot already downloaded yourself some WiiWare?
The North American WiiWare launch is almost upon us, and instead of the stealth releases that we thought were coming, Nintendo's press release of WiiWare games debuting this Monday (along with their point values) was recently leaked. While we can't be sure this list is 100% valid, it looks like we can expect the following:
Although we're disappointed by the lack of Dr. Mario, this looks like a pretty solid launch list to us. It'll be difficult to pick and choose exactly which titles we want, but there are definitely some that stand out more than others.
How about you? Do you plan on downloading any of the above, or are you going to wait for impressions and reviews first?
You have to download an updated My Life as a King from the Wii Shop (and delete the old one) before you can have the privilege of adding any of the new content to your game. Luckily, the interface for feeding your money to the game is nice, and doesn't force you back out into the Wii Shop again. The menu shows how many points and blocks you have available, and the cost in both Wii Points and space of each item on the list.
The only thing missing is a pop-up window that provides periodic "WHAT ARE YOU DOING" and "YOU COULD BE BUYING BONK'S ADVENTURE WITH THOSE POINTS" messages.
The three tribal buildings (which allow players to recruit other races, including Lilitie warriors, Selkie thieves, and Yuke mages) come in at 300 Wii Points apiece (though all three can be purchased as a pack for 800 Points), and there are new costumes for Chancellor Chime and Leo (100 Points each), an Extravagant House (100 Points also), and a Sacred Shrine (200 Points).
The cost of all this extra fluff? 1300 Wii Points, thanks very much -- and that's presuming you purchased all three tribal buildings at once. That's right: Square Enix has very nearly doubled the price of its game with the first wave of DLC (and more is on the way). We're still waiting to hear news about U.S. pricing, but this doesn't bode well for your wallet if (like us) you're a weak-willed, impoverished Final Fantasy fan.
We've had English-language trailers for some time now, but this is at least twice as long, and contains walloping great chunks of in-game battles, cut-scenes, and indecipherable kanji. There's plenty of footage that's new to us, as well, though sadly a lotless Moogle. You can't have it all, we suppose.
Hudson's Takahashi Meijin, the star of Adventure Island, will be a featured guest at a Wii Ware event hosted by Japanese cell phone company KDDI. The KDDI Design Studio will take place on April 1st and 2nd in Harajuku, and will feature playable versions of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King, Dr. Mario & Bacillus Extermination, and Hudson's Star Soldier R. Admission will be free. Plane tickets to Japan continue not to be. Takahashi will participate in a "talk show" as well as game demonstrations. He rose to fame with his Star Soldier shooting skills, so attendees should expect some feats of button-mashing from the Meijin on the new version.
Were you wondering how you'd be ruling your kingdom on the Wii once Squeenix's My Life As a King hits WiiWare? It looks like it won't necessarily be with the Wiimote, as the game supports four different control schemes.
Supposing you like your Wiimote just fine, you can use that alone or with a Nunchuck while playing the game. Some of you might prefer the GameCube or Classic Controller, though, which are also supported. Furthermore, widescreen TV owners will be happy to know that Square Enix's country-building RPG can be played in 16:9.
For those of you craving more details for this title, Game Watch reports that it will include a thief class. This is a nice addition to the game, although no big surprise in an RPG with a class system. The thief will have the usual skills of being able to unlock things, quick movement, and searching capabilities. If you ask us, a thief will be worth using just for the sweet dagger. This thief's got bling.
Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land
Square Enix is building excitement for their downloadable Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, with ... downloads! How appropriate. The official Japanese website for My Life as a King (The Little King and the Promised Land, over there) has begun offering a daily wallpaper download featuring art from the game, in 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions.
We couldn't be happier, because it's only a matter of time until we get a Pavlov wallpaper. Today's wallpaper features -- we think -- some of the adventurers that do the unseen dungeon crawling.
Square Enix may be trying a new approach to game design for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, but they're not deviating from their trailer design templates one bit. The game may not be able to have prerendered CG cutscenes, but it's got story sequences and dialogue. Like every other Square Enix trailer ever, this trailer keeps gameplay a total mystery in favor of (in-engine) cinematics. Oh, and moogles! We like those, especially the rotund little Crystal Chronicles variety.
It's very strange to see all the normal Final Fantasy characters -- the white mage and so forth -- appear as support characters for a protagonist who hangs out at home. But we like strange.
After Square Enix's GDC talk about the game, we are now furiously anticipating Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. Everything from the gameplay to the actual development process of the game seemed experimental, and that is just not done at Square Enix, especially with an important franchise. Plus it looked fun, especially for cheap.
The latest screens and art on Famitsu reveal a big, very Final Fantasy (but cuter) villain called the Dark Lord -- a huge dude in armor who wields what looks like an enormous hammer with a sword on the back. Practical! Also shown: the previous king, who was "naughty and rarely king-like." He looks pretty rakish, we think. The people loved him, and now the player has to fill his shoes.
Posted Feb 22nd 2008 11:15AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
While Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King may look like just a slightly strange Final Fantasy spinoff, it's actually a huge departure for Square Enix. This game is a pilot for future projects by the company that are not huge. Producer Toshiro Tsuchida and lead programmer Fushiaki Shiraishi spoke at GDC about the bold new effort of making a non-epic game on Nintendo's download service.
On Wii Ware, with limited space, there was no option to use high-quality CG, a Square Enix benchmark. So the game had to be quite different. Shiraishi discussed the small scope of the game: one town, a few villager models, and unseen combat -- all of which are integral now to the game design. The game started from a game design rather than concept art -- another new development for the company. Shiraishi indicated that if concept art had been used, there would have been more of an effort to include everything that was in the art.
As we were combing through Nintendo's GDC press kit site, we noticed something very odd about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land. You see, the game is instead listed as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. Turns out, that rumor was true.
Nothing all too new was available at the press site, save for some new screens from the game. You can check them out in our gallery below.
Square Enix has filed two new trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for the titles Sigma Harmonics and My Life as a King. We have no idea what Sigma Harmonics could be, but it certainly doesn't seem to fit with any of Square Enix's Wii games -- it's probably not Chocobo's Dungeon, for example. But My Life as a King is a pretty good subtitle for the Wii Ware game known in Japan as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Young King and the Promised Land. We wouldn't mind the change: The Young King and the Promised Land is a mouthful, and a keyboardful as well.
Speaking of ... that game, there are some new screens at Famitsu, along with some more lovely concept art.
