Nintendo Wii Fanboy

It looks like we should've taken those book sales as an indication of how hungry Star Wars fans were for something new. The latest game to bear the Star Wars name, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, has managed to sell a whopping 1.5 million copies in its first 5 days on shelves. The Force is strong with ... uh, yeah. Sorry.

Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts, didn't expect such high numbers, apparently. "We're blown away by the response to the game." So, how many of you picked up the game? Did it blow you away or have you found it to be sub-par?

People are kind of stoked for this The Force Unleashed thing, enough so that the book for the game has managed to score a spot on the NY Times bestseller list. Written by Sean Williams, the piece of fiction managed to top the hardcover list over the weekend, showing that this whole Star Wars thing is pretty popular. Could this be indicative of strong sales for the game that's planned to release on September 18th in North America? We'd tell you, but the Dark Side the future has clouded.

[Via Joystiq]

The homebrew community is the best. Not only have they allowed us to do things that we never thought possible on the Wii (like play GoldenEye 007 and watch our favorite movies), but now they're hard at work coming up with ways for us to enjoy classic point-and-click adventure games on the platform. While we won't be able to, say, play Sam & Max Hit the Road yet, the current release (version 0.12.0) has support for 5 games. These include:

• The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Two: Hand of Fate
• The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three: Malcolm's Revenge
• Lost in Time
• The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble
  
• Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back

Sure, it's no Secret of Monkey Island or anything, but progress is being made so that we need not rely entirely upon Telltale for our point-and-click fix. We're excited for a future where we can enjoy all of those classics on our Wii.

[Via Slashdot]

In 1987 Lucasfilm Games (now better known as Lucasarts) released a little game called Maniac Mansion. And while Maniac Mansion is a great game in its own right, the effects of its creation were considerably more significant -- it kicked off more than a decade of Lucasarts adventure games, launched the SCUMM engine that would form the framework for each adventure, and inadvertently led to the production of some of the best PC games of all time. One of those games was Sam & Max Hit the Road.

Arguably released at the height of the adventure game's popularity in 1993, Sam & Max Hit the Road is possibly the zaniest of Lucasarts's adventure titles. The titular characters were originally created for a comic book by artist/writer Steve Purcell, but they eventually found their way into Lucasarts when Purcell began working on games such as The Secret of Monkey Island. Sam, the leader of the pair, is a canine gumshoe decked out in the traditional film noir suit and tie. Max is a lagomorph, though he's often referred to as a "hyperkinetic rabbity thing" who has a penchant for violence. Together, they are the freelance police, and their original 1993 adventure outing is the perfect opportunity for the Wii to catch a classic.

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Gallery: Born for Wii: Sam & Max Hit the Road

Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Power Stone 2, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

In this edition of Point/Counterpoint, we're tackling the issue of MotionPlus and Lucasarts' upcoming Star Wars game, The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels. Sure, there's a rumor of another game in the works that will utilize the tech, but nothing is confirmed yet. Does a Star Wars game need MotionPlus? Read on for the debate, then cast your vote in our poll.

We were a little puzzled when LucasArts introduced Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels before the release of The Force Unleashed on Wii, whose major selling point was ... an exclusive lightsaber duel mode. It seemed as if we were being told to disregard that first game that wasn't out yet, because the real thing was on the way. Well, if this rumor is true, get ready to disregard the second game as well.

According to EGM's "Quartermann" gossip column, a grumbling LucasArts is returning to the drawing board for another Wii lightsaber game, this time designed for MotionPlus. This potential game is rumored to be out sometime next year. If this is real, LucasArts would be smart not to talk about it until they've sold at least one copy of the two existing lightsaber games.

There are few things more fun than watching people try to figure out how to handle a new Wii game. With traditional controllers, unless you were staring directly at peoples' hands, it was hard to see their bibbles and bobbles as they worked out how to make things go, but with the Wii, you can see all the flails and foibles in full and fantastic motion. That's the real secret of Wii's success -- why do you think multiplayer is so popular with Wii owners? -- and even people at the Games Convention aren't immune, as this footage of some dude attempting to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, unequivocally proves. Luckily, it's a pretty long video, so he's got lots of time to get used to Vadering around.

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position. Not only is it a line any self-respecting nerd will recognize instantly, it's also the basis for many a successful video game from days gone by. It all started in 1993 with Lucasarts' X-Wing, which brought Star Wars to PC gamers in a big way. For the first time, they were really in the cockpit, fighting the Empire in glorious (by 1993 standards) 3D. However, it was the 1994 follow-up, TIE Fighter, that refined the flight-sim, Rebel-hunting gameplay to a buttery smooth degree of excellence. Well over a decade later, TIE Fighter still finds itself on many "Best of" lists. On the console side of things, however, it's an entirely different series that drew inspiration from the mighty X-Wing.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on the Nintendo 64 took players outside the cockpit (at least, by default) of the beloved X-Wing, but still placed them in control of the craft, offering an experience that was more shooter and less sim than the successful PC games. However, it was the superior Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II, released in 2001 with the launch of the GameCube, that brought the spirit of the X-Wing to consoles. Developer Factor 5 and Lucasarts also collaborated on a third entry in the series, Rebel Strike, which lacked the "wow" factor Rogue Leader had in 2001, but did little to harm the good name of the trilogy. Now, nearly five years later, Factor 5 has been off doing other things, when they really should've been working on a new entry in a series that may just have been Born for Wii.

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Gallery: Born for Wii: Rogue Squadron

Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Dark Sector, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

Despite it being arguably the best thing to come from Nintendo's E3 line-up, everyone isn't happy about MotionPlus. At the top of the list of disgruntled folk is none other than LucasArts. Why? Well, according to a blurb from the latest issue of Game Informer, which was transcribed by a GAFfer (the one with the Arkham Asylum reveal), third parties weren't privy to the info before Nintendo's press conference (if they read us, they would have learned about it a day beforehand). That's old hat to us all, though.

The problem is that LucasArts specifically took the time to craft The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels specifically for the Wii. See, everyone wants a 1:1 lightsaber game and it would've been a fantastic way to market the game. We guess that ship has sailed ...



[Via CVG]

That's according to LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez. We imagine the Force Unleashed team's shoulders drooping a little in unison every time LucasArts undersells their game in favor of serving the larger Clone Wars multimedia hype machine.

This Entertainment Weekly video interview with Rodriguez, Clone Wars TV series director Dave Filoni and George Lucas, as well as members of both the DS and Wii dev teams, features a little bit of excellent-looking footage of the Wii game. According to Krome's Robert Walsh, the Wii game is designed to allow players to replay experiences from the TV show.

LucasArts' goal of a totally convergent game/show experience is cool, but it's kind of a shame that they're spreading those particular character designs across so many screens.

Those of you who've seen The Dark Knight probably still have Batman in your systems, so hopefully news on the superhero in LEGO form is enough to sate your batty cravings. Warner Bros. is certainly trying to indulge in your wants by revealing more news about the upcoming LEGO Batman video game.

Today, the company brings word of a new villain, one that Batman fans will be familiar with -- Man-Bat. Man-Bat is actually a scientist named Kirk Langstrom, who injected himself with a bat-based serum in order to gain sonar powers and aid his worsening deafness. Obviously, bad results ensue, and he turns into a bat-looking monster that attacks Gotham City. Fun!

For some Man-Bat related screens, just click on our gallery below.


[Via press release]

Never really watched The Clone Wars show, so obviously, the art style for the games is a little, uh, striking. Okay, let's be honest -- if you're not accustomed to it, it's ugly. But now that we're seeing some screens from the game, the look is starting to seem normal. Maybe even sort of okay. By next month, we'll probably be digging it. We're fickle.

There's just one thing dampening the ol' enthusiasm, though. Now that we've seen the swordplay in Wii Sports Resort with Wii MotionPlus, it's hard to get excited about a pre-accessory game like this. We want lightsaber duels, and we were told first to look to The Force Unleashed, and then to Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- Lightsaber Duels. Look, it's even in the name. And yet, now it seems somewhat diminished by a dude slicing at a block of wood in a beach-themed mini-game collection.

If nothing else, the two (or three) will make for great comparisons when they're all released. But somehow, we think we might not be alone in hoping, for once, for a delay.

The DS gets a lightsaber controller (well, stylus, but it's like a controller as you control stuff with it .. whatever) so why is the Wiimote left out in the cold, cold night without bright neon colors and thwong sounds?

Useless Wii attachments might be the butt of several chortling jokes, but Star Wars nerds (this blogger included) can't help but think this lightsaber is kinda badass. It actually plugs in to the Wiimote and emits a healthy glow, so the generic white Wii Sports thingys are immediately shamed to oblivion. Of course, the Wii currently lacks any decent Star Wars games, but the aesthetic appeal alone might drive some consumers to pick it up in high hopes that The Force Unleashed won't suck diddly-uck.

Buy, or do not buy. There is no try.

[Via Wii News; thanks, Craig!]

Yahtzee's at it again, this time turning his sights toward the latest LEGO title, LEGO Indiana Jones. While he does do his usual rant against the game's faults, Yahtzee did manage to squeeze some favorable adjectives out. As usual, head past the break to check out his NSFW ramblings and be sure to tell us what you think of LEGO Indiana Jones in the comments.

With the latest on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it sounds like the fine folks at Lucasarts have managed to do something no other developer has done: create a Wii port of a multiplatform title that actually sounds like it could be better than the other versions available. Come on, ripping off turrets and using them to fire at people with your mind while you cut down countless enemies with your lightsaber? That sounds awesome.

What do you all think? Does Star Wars: The Force Unleashed sound like fun to you? Do you think the game will be as endearing as some of the better Star Wars games of the past?