Konami and Hudson both spilled the beans on two major WiiWare titles, Critter Round-Up and Star Soldier R, informing us that they will be available for download on Monday. As you all know, we're dying to get our hands on Hudson's shmup and were disappointed to not see it at the WiiWare launch.
So, what about the Virtual Console? It's possible that VC fans could get the shaft again this Monday, however in Japan Nintendo has been known to release Virtual Console games alongside WiiWare games on the same day. We'll just have to wait and see, we suppose.
Who's anxious to try out Critter Round-Up and/or Star Soldier R?
Much like Madden and other sports games lost features in the transition between the last console generation and the current one, EA's skateboarding games have been downgraded rather than upgraded as technology has improved. Skate on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 offers only one option in its title (the imperative "skate") versus the two options found in their 1987 skateboard game Skate or Die. Perhaps in the next year's iteration, EA will be able to reinstitute the "dying" feature, although we're doubtful -- the latest skating game from the company, Skate It, goes so far as to tell you what to skate (it) instead of allowing you to specify the object of your skating.
Posted May 15th 2008 7:00PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
If Guitar Hero is the result of crossing Konami's original GuitarFreaks game with Frequency, Konami's newly-announced Rock Revolution is a hybrid of GuitarFreaks and Guitar Hero/Rock Band -- which looks as derivative as it would sound.
Rather than localizing Guitar Freaks, Konami and developer Zoe Mode have created a new game that combines the graphical look of Rock Band with the vertical scrolling interface of the Bemani series. The new game features drum and guitar gameplay, but the Wii version is not slated to use any peripherals. The screen above is clearly not from the Wii version, but we wouldn't expect it to look too different (just lower-res). Rock Revolution is expected to release in October.
Our sight is finally going from spending too long looking at Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo screenshots. Mother said it would happen!
Somebody broke in overnight and maliciously slathered our monitors in Vaseline.
As it stands, those are the only three explanations we can muster for these blur-o-rific Lost in Blue screens, the first English language shots to appear. They actually look a little better shrunk down (see above), but the same can't be said for the full-size versions. Are we being harsh by suggesting those smudgy textures recall the dreaded Nintendo 64 fuzz? We only criticize because we want this to be just right!
Some awesome ideas coupled with mediocre execution: that's the story of Lost in Blue so far. Hopefully the potential of the series will be realized now that Konami has shifted development from the DS to the Wii, and these scans, extracted from the pages of CoroCoro magazine, are a promising start.
If you've played any of the Lost in Blue games on the DS, much of what appears in these screens will look comfortingly familiar -- dislodging coconuts from trees, starting fires, cooking with rudimentary tools -- but there appears to be the odd new feature as well; for instance, we don't recall a dog being in any of the DS games (though feel free to correct us there). Hit the "Read" link below for the full scans.
This is a pretty weird rumor, but perhaps the same could be said of all rumors. Apparently, Konami USA's Shinji Hirano made a reference to new Castlevania games on the Wii and DS during a press conference Tuesday in Sao Paulo. The weird part is that the event in question, according to Arena Turbo, was a launch for Grand Theft Auto IV and Iron Man. Is GTA IV even out in Brazil? Xbox.com says it isn't. And why would a Konami executive even be there making statements? So sketchy. Of course we can't find any reference to this event anywhere but this post and this GameTV post.
But we've heard Wii 'Vania rumors before, and this extremely dubious one doesn't make the game any less likely. Maybe it'll get sorted out next week, as Hirano reportedly said.
An immensely pleasing sight greeted our bleary eyes when we inspected the PAL Virtual Console this morning -- the revival of last September's Hanabi Festival! What does that mean? Simple: for the next few weeks, the VC will feature games that were previously unreleased in Europe or Australia, which we suppose justifies the slightly higher price tags.
Best of all, we're promised that this will continue for the next few weeks. Wonder what else we'll get? Here are this week's trio:
Columns III: Revenge of Columns -- Mega Drive -- 900 Wii Points
Final Soldier -- TurboGrafx-16 -- 700 Wii Points
Gradius II Gofer no Yabou -- TurboGrafx-16 -- 900 Wii Points
As usual, make the jump for footage of all three.
[Update: There's much excitement here, as further inspection of Nintendo's press release reveals that Speedos-clad TurboGrafx-16 shooter Cho Aniki will be one of the future Hanabi Festival releases!]
Gamefly hinted a few months back that Lost in Blue was jumping ship to the Wii -- a rumor that has now been confirmed for Japan.
Konami announced the game by adding it to the Survival Kids list on the company's Japanese website (Survival Kids is the title of the series in Japan). Spencer Yip from Siliconera informs us that the game will have a multiplayer option and offer some sort of online component, but other than that, little is known.
We're sure this game could be a good fit for the Wii, as long as Konami doesn't go overboard with the waggle. There's a lot of survival activities that the Wiimote could work well for, though, so we're willing to wait and see how this one pans out.
So far on the Virtual Console in North America, we've got Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Super Castlevania IV. Now, these fancy-schmancy Roman numerals may confuse the issue a bit, but it looks like something just might be missing from that list. Upon checking and re-checking, only one conclusion can be reached: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is, in fact, missing.
Okay, it's understood that every classic game can't appear immediately, as that would disrupt Nintendo's releases-every-week mojo, and we're only just now getting excellent titles like River City Ransom. But it almost seems as though someone at Nintendo had all the early NA Castlevania titles pasted to a dartboard, and a few drunken tosses determined which would be released and when. Where's Castlevania III? It's a mystery! You might as well tell us the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, or answer the question of just what a man is.
Konami wrote themselves into a corner with the title of their Wii Dance Dance Revolution game. If DDR Hottest Party is really the hottest party, what will the inevitable sequel be? Will it be a different superlative -- the coolest party, or the freshest party, or the most Chex-Mix-having party? Will it be the Hottest Party For Real This Time -- Last Time Was the Hottest to Date, But This Time's Even Hotter Than That?
Well, if the title of the new game found on Gamefly's site (with a release date of September 30th) is the real title, it'll just be DDR Hottest Party 2. It worked for Final Fantasy.
Where's that latest EGM?! We need to see this one with our own eyes: rumors of new Castlevania for DS and Wii, and since the first has already been confirmed (though we're not sure about this definition of new), we'll go ahead and guess that the second, the Wii title, is likely true, particularly since another trademark has already been discovered.
The idea of a game on the system isn't particularly new, but the resurfacing of the rumor certainly has us dancing in the aisles. Could Castlevania Judgment be meant for us? We're crossing our fingers. Retail game, WiiWare, it doesn't matter -- just give us some vampire-killing, whip-cracking action.
In all our excitement over the likes of My Life as a King, Dr. Mario, and Star Soldier R, we've barely found the time to discuss cutesy animal-based puzzler Saku Saku Animal Panic. That's a shame, because a Konami press release has now confirmed that the title will be released as part of the U.S. WiiWare launch line-up on May 12th (as Critter Round-Up), and it sounds like this could be more than a fun distraction.
Critter Round-Up has players segregating animals into groups by laying down fences, but there are other factors involved, namely avoiding aggressive animals who might attack you, and preventing the animals from chomping each other (for example, you wouldn't want to create a crocodile-and-chicken pen). Successfully sorting the wildlife into like groups (within a time limit) is the key to victory, and there's 50 levels of fencin' and segregatin' to plow through.
Also in the Konami WiiWare pipeline: a sandcastle-building sim currently known as Fresco Beach. That would take this blogger back to his childhood, if much of his childhood wasn't spent in Blackpool, next to the worst beaches in the world.
According to Cubed3, the latest issue of Official Nintendo Magazine UK brings word that a new Elebits game is on the way. We're going to call it a rumor until we see either the magazine or official notice from Konami, but we feel that it's probably okay to get a little excited.
Elebits was a highlight of the early Wii lineup, one of the few games of 2006 not to have terrible motion controls. We can't wait to see what kinds of interactions a wiser Konami will be able to simulate. That house is trashed -- and also we'll find some creatures or whatever.
It was weird enough when Milon's DokiDoki Adventureshowed up on the OFLC ratings search site, and weirder still when it came out on the U.S. Virtual Console before Australia's (it has yet to be released there).
Now another fairly unknown Japanese game has been rated for release, indicating a worldwide release in the near future: Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (Bio Miracle Baby Upa) a Famicom Disk System platformer from Konami starring a baby who can inflate enemies with his magic rattle. It's best known for being rejected by Nintendo's bowtie-wearing Howard Phillips, who hates babies.
Gleylancer also appears to be traversing the globe; recently seen on Germany's ratings site, the shooter has appeared on the OFLC site as well.
If playing Contra III on the Virtual Console is too inauthentic an experience for you, then these versions of Contra would no doubt make you backflip to death. Youtube user iniche has compiled videos of Contra variants, from the official (Ocean Software's ports of Gryzor, a.k.a. Contra, for various underpowered European computers, like the Spectrum 128 version seen here) to the spectacularly unofficial (a Famicom remake of Contra III).
Especially notable is a (sort of) original fake Contra game called Super Contra 8. That's, like, four more Contra than the last official Konami Contra game -- and it's super.
Much like Madden and other sports games lost features in the transition between the last console generation and the current one, EA's skateboarding games have been downgraded rather than upgraded as technology has improved. Skate on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 offers only one option in its title (the imperative "skate") versus the two options found in their 1987 skateboard game Skate or Die. Perhaps in the next year's iteration, EA will be able to reinstitute the "dying" feature, although we're doubtful -- the latest skating game from the company, Skate It, goes so far as to tell you what to skate (it) instead of allowing you to specify the object of your skating.
An immensely pleasing sight greeted our bleary eyes when we inspected the PAL Virtual Console this morning -- the revival of last September's Hanabi Festival! What does that mean? Simple: for the next few weeks, the VC will feature games that were previously unreleased in Europe or Australia, which we suppose justifies the slightly higher price tags.
Gamefly hinted a few months back that Lost in Blue was jumping ship to the Wii -- a rumor that has now been confirmed for Japan.
So far on the Virtual Console in North America, we've got Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Super Castlevania IV. Now, these fancy-schmancy Roman numerals may confuse the issue a bit, but it looks like something just might be missing from that list. Upon checking and re-checking, only one conclusion can be reached: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is, in fact, missing. 
Where's that latest EGM?! We need to see this one with our own eyes: rumors of new Castlevania for DS and Wii, and since the first has already been confirmed (though we're not sure about this definition of new), we'll go ahead and guess that the second, the Wii title, is likely true, particularly since another trademark has already been discovered.
It was weird enough when Milon's DokiDoki Adventure showed up on the OFLC ratings search site, and weirder still when it came out on the U.S. Virtual Console before Australia's (it has yet to be released there).
