Nintendo Wii Fanboy

There's a big title releasing this week. Hopefully, it's one you're as excited about as we are. Heck, we've been drooling over the damn thing long enough now, Now it's time it actually releases to retail, so we can get our dirty hands on it and find out if all of the pining was worth it. Oh, and there's that Sonic thing releasing, too.

This week's console releases include:

• Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
• Luxor: Pharoah's Challenge
• Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Aspiring winged lawyers undertaking ridiculous cases at an equally-ridiculous law firm will have to sit patiently, as the rumored delay is a rumor no longer. Confirming our fears in a post at the Capcom forums, Senior director of strategy Sven states that the delay is intentional on Capcom's part and the title is already finished.

So, why would Capcom knowingly delay the game? Competition. Sven says "The game is and has been finished, submitted and approved, however we felt releasing the game on the same day 112 other SKUs released was not ideal for its chances. Retail buyers agreed." Sadly, Sven doesn't say when the new release date is, so keep an eye on Wii Fanboy for word as it hits but 1UP is reporting the title's new release window is January 2008.


[Via Go Nintendo; thanks to troy for the update]

It's been assumed from day one that Capcom's Harvey Birdman game would be similar in gameplay style to, you know, their other lawyer game. This gameplay video confirms that not only are the games similar in format, they're identical. Listen to witness testimony (which is preceded by a "Witness Testimony" title graphic), press and present evidence to reveal contradictions, and search static environments for clues during investigation.

The difference? So much video! Everything is played out in full voice and as much animation as an Adult Swim show typically has. It really looks exactly like the show, interstitials and all-- and bringing in the show's real cast (minus, we assume, Steven Colbert) doesn't hurt either. The other difference, of course, is that Harvey Birdman shows no trace of anime style in its presentation or humor, opting instead for the surreal, rapid-fire randomness found in the show. A new Ace Attorney game with weird humor and a more upscale presentation? GUILTY of earning our $40!

Investigate the post break for more evidence of gameplay. Uh, investigate it by clicking. The evidence is a video. Yeah, we were going for a whole thematic thing.

Gamefly is vindicated again. Wii gamers are indeed getting the Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law game, on the same day the PS2 and PSP versions are released: November 13. Unfortunately, there's a $10 penalty for wanting to play this on the Wii-- the Wii version costs $40 versus the $30 PS2 and PSP versions.

On the upside, paying ten dollars more for a game than it costs on the PS2 really gives us a taste of the next-generation experience. And on the real upside, we're getting the comedy lawyer adventure in the first place. And, if it's as basically like Phoenix Wright as it looks, and as funny as the show is, that's a big old victory for the Wii.

[Via Game|Life; the title joke references the same line used in this other Game|Life post, but it's from the show, so we don't think they have an exclusive claim on it.]

Gamefly, longtime supplier of pre-announcement reveals of new games (they also rent games, or whatever) now has a listing for a Wii version of the PS2/PSP Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law game. For those of you who outright refuse to read news about games on other platforms, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law is a Capcom-published adventure game in the same format as the Ace Attorney series, but with the cast and writers of Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman.

This needs to happen. We want to play this game anyway, being fans of both Phoenix Wright and Harvey Birdman, and we'd totally prefer using the Wiimote to navigate its menu-driven interface. Plus there's that whole liking-the-Wii thing that is, you know, the premise of this website.

[Via Siliconera]