Now that Link's Crossbow Training is coming out in the region that matters (Japan), Nintendo has begun promoting it with one of their "Iwata Asks" interview series. This time, Shigeru Miyamoto is back in the hot seat -- and at the beginning of the interview, he expresses surprise that producers Takashi Tezuka and Eiji Aonuma aren't there as well.
Right away, the surprises begin. Describing his motivation for Link's Crossbow Training, which he sees as an introduction to the FPS genre, Miyamoto reveals himself to be an FPS fan: "I've always been into first person shooter (FPS) style games, 3D games in which you can walk around freely and see things from your own point of view. " He describes the perspective as "more comfortable, more natural," and then upturns the interview's tea table, saying that he originally wanted The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to be in first-person.
Since this is an interview between Iwata and Miyamoto, you know that can't be the only awesome quote. There's a bit in there about explaining Link's gun use with a Terminator-esque story. You should really just go read the whole thing.
A mysterious tipster sent a rumor in to GoNintendo that a retailer database now lists a product called Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii. GoNintendo's RawMeatCowboy speculates that this would be "Prime 1, (2), and 3 all on the Wii ... but Prime 1 and 2 with all-new Wiimote controls."
We believe that, if this is a real product, it's a lot more likely that it's the three Prime games ... in a new box! Or maybe even in the same boxes, but with those inside a new box! Not that that's a bad thing -- the Prime games are very high-quality (even if you hate first-person!), and quite reminiscent of the real Metroids. The first two are definitely among the best GameCube games, and any opportunity to get them in new Wii owners' hands would be welcome.
High Voltage Software has been hard at work with the Wii, apparently, as their tech demo above shows. The stuff they've done with the water is especially nice, we believe. But, a tech demo is just a tech demo, right? Correct, but what's interesting is that they are hoping the in-house engine that powers this tech demo will be used in their upcoming game, The Conduit.
Now, we say "hope" because The Conduit doesn't have a publisher yet, so there's no guarantee it'll release. And from the tech demo above, and the screens that IGN has (we've tucked a few past the break), we're of the mind that this game needs a publisher. We'd like more than one good FPS on the console.
Should you need a good dose of point and shoot in your games library, you might feel inclined to take advantage of Amazon's "Deal of the Day." At $32.99, you can shoot up some Nazis for pretty cheaply by getting the Wii version of Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. We think it's a pretty good game (unless you live in Australia), and it used to be Dave's favorite Wii title to play on Game Night until that Nintendo brawler came out.
Does anyone think that they'll bite on today's deal? If so, just make sure you do it before 3am EDT.
The last we heard, Capcom's on-rails homage to the Resident Evil series was nearing one million sales. Capcom made the news official today, though, reporting that Umbrella Chronicles finally reached the lofty landmark.
After being available at retail for only four months, the game has shipped one million copies worldwide. Yes, that's "shipped" and not "sold," but it's still impressive despite the technicality.
Most of us at Nintendo Wii Fanboy loved the zombie shooter (then again, we're big fans of the Resident Evil series), but we know some of you didn't like the on-rails experience. Even so, it's always good to see third parties succeeding.
This is Capcom's second game to break one million on the Wii -- the first, of course, being the company's other Biohazard game, the Resident Evil 4 port.
Valve's take on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360? They're not massivelykeen. But what about the Wii? Nintendo's console is rarely mentioned by Valve bods; indeed, it's fair to say that Valve and Nintendo may not seem like an obvious partnership, given the former's reputation as a developer of PC games (and a damn fine one, at that). Then again, marketing director Doug Lombardi seems to think the Wii might be worth investigating. Doug, we totally agree!
Chatting to videogaming247.com, Lombardi revealed that Valve would be more likely to develop for the Wii than either of its more powerful rivals, thanks to the fact that "it's growing, there's already a huge user-base, and it's fun." What's more, Lombardi reckons that getting Source (Valve's proprietary 3D game engine) running on the Wii would be realistic: "Source is really scaleable. We can do that."
Oh, man. Half-Life 2 or Portal with the Wiimote, anybody?
At least it's good to know we didn't get all angried up for nothing: the online multiplayer functionality has, as rumored last week, been removed from the Australian release of Medal of Honor 2: Heroes. This omission clearly happened late in development, as the manual continues to describe online play. EA had no explanation for the excision of online play, leading us to conjecture that the cause is very personally embarrassing. Maybe someone on staff accidentally saved over the multiplayer code with a copy of some Mr. Belvederefanfiction, for example.
IGN speculated that EA's Australian branch opted not to operate the local servers that would be necessary for online play. That sounds more plausible and less interesting than the Mr. Belvedere thing.
If you bought Heroes 2 expecting online, and are now outraged at the incompleteness of your game, you can return it to EA for a full refund.
There's a vicious rumor currently circulating on a number of message boards that the Australian version of Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is shipping without online functionality of any description. Forum users at various sites, including Aussie-Nintendo, PALGN, and NeoGAF, have all complained that the in-game menus completely lack an option to play online, while the game's box in Australia has neither the Nintendo Wi-Fi logo, or a mention of the title's much-vaunted 32-player online mode, which is available in other regions.
Just to further confuse matters, the game manual that shipped with the title in Australia reportedly does dedicate a whole page to the online mode. Frankly, we're confused, not to mention a little bit worried for our fellow Wii owners down under.
At the time of writing, EA has yet to respond to our request for clarification.
We already think Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is pretty great. The online play is a rare treat for a Wii game, and the simplified, light-gun-style Arcade Mode is an absolutely brilliant way to turn a first-person shooter into a casual, short-session game. But what it really needed to be a truly exceptional game was an excellently huge box.
Luckily, EA has addressed this deficit for the game's Japanese release. Like everyothergame designed for the Zapper, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 will come bundled with the peripheral in an enviably copious package when it's released on February 14th. This will also be released in a boring small-box edition with no Zapper. We're sure the game shop owners drowning in traded-in Zappers don't mind.
Maybe it's just IGN's embeddable player, but Brothers in Arms looks bad. It looks like a bad port of the PS2 version of the game (which, itself, was a bad port of the Xbox and PC game). So, as perplexed as we initially were at the choice to bring a 3 year old game onto the Wii, we're putting on our skeptic glasses something fierce now. Unless this game is free with some UPCs from a box of Count Chocula or something, we can't imagine wanting to buy it.
The World War II genre may be glutted (and a little played out) by now, but when a game looks this good and has as much to offer as Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, we're not going to complain too stridently. In other words, we'll take what we can get. Heroes 2 is set for this month, and EA released three more screenshots to whet our appetites while we wait, which you can find both above, and in our gallery below.
Sure, the Wii is slowly, but surely, building a library of online-compatible titles that are worth playing, but only one looks like it's going to be a title with the kind of replay value we're looking for. That game is Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (otherwise known as Matt C's game of the millenium). Well, while we aren't ready and willing to hand over our first born for the game, we will say it is looking good so far.
Now that Zack & Wiki has been released into the wild, IGN's Matt Casamassina needs something new to hype, and we're all sorts of behind this latest choice: Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. In a recent blog entry, he reports that the controls are out of this world. In fact, he says the WWII title "beats the pants offMetroid Prime 3 in the FPS control department. This is the new Wii benchmark, period." That's a bold statement, but it seems to jibe with what we've seen and heard so far about the game ... and hey, we get bonus incredible multiplayer to boot. Put us down in the excited column on this one.
In the same post, he drops possible hints of an Elebits sequel. Exciting!
Our friend and compatriot Andrew Yoon recently got his hands on the much-desired Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, and we bubble over with jealousy after reading his impressions. It looks like EA is trying very, very hard to avoid letting us down (maybe they're listening!) with this shooter; from all signs, Heroes 2 looks to be a rich, deep FPS title with enough features to please even the pickiest of gamers. You can use the Zapper or not, you can choose between a light-gun style Arcade mode and traditional campaign mode, and best of all, everything seems to control like a dream. Heroes 2 appears to be taking a page from Retro's book with Metroid Prime 3, and the controls just feel right with the Wiimote -- which is exactly what we should be able to expect from all future shooters on the console.
It's safe to say that between the above and the friend-code-free online multiplayer, we're stoked for this release. Even the negatives -- simple objectives, uncomplicated enemy AI -- can't get us down. Bring on the soldier boys!
While what we're really interested in with Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is that whole 32-player online multiplayer deal, we're happy to soak up any and all scraps on the WWII title -- and that includes these latest screenshots.
So let's count the reasons we love this next Medal of Honor. First, if it all works out, EA will be giving us a real chance at online multiplayer in a shooter. Second, the arcade mode sounds nothing short of awesome for anyone who likes on-rails shooters, and it offers a different experience than the more free-form campaign mode -- it's almost like getting two games for the price of one! And finally, even if we aren't the biggest fans of war-based games, it's nice to get something a little different every now and then, especially when it shows this much promise. Don't let us down, EA! Even dedicated Nintendo fans need a little variety. It is, after all, the spice of life.
Now that Link's Crossbow Training is coming out in the region that matters (Japan), Nintendo has begun promoting it with one of their "Iwata Asks" interview series. This time, Shigeru Miyamoto is back in the hot seat -- and at the beginning of the interview, he expresses surprise that producers Takashi Tezuka and Eiji Aonuma aren't there as well. 
